Кроха - Dedication

“I’d know them to see them. I’d know their pictures, of course. But I’m not sure I can remember all their names—in most cases, just a first name.

“But I’ll try,” she told Max. “I’ll start a list, write down descriptions and the names that I can remember. Maybe the full names will come to me. After the accident, it took me a while to realize what . . . what had really happened—that it wasn’t an accident. When I read about that waiter, Jimmie Delgado, going home from work after midnight, his bicycle hit, Delgado killed . . . he was on the jury. It was then I began to put it together and got scared.”

“I’d like you to come down to the station,” Max said gently. “Tomorrow morning if you can. See if you can identify the murder victims? I can have someone pick you up, if you like. If I’m not there, one of the detectives will work with you, show you the pictures.”

Bonnie nodded. “I read something in the paper about James Allen, saw the paper some time after he was killed. I remembered him, maybe because it’s such a simple name, and because he was in a walker. An older man, nearly bald, gray fringe of hair around his ears. He complained, said he was too old to be on jury duty. But I guess the attorneys didn’t think so.”

Max said, “We may need to get a release of the names of the jurors, that may still be sequestered. A list would help you put names and faces together.” He was quiet, then, “You’re sure you didn’t know the boy who followed you?”

Bonnie shook her head. “All bundled up. A boy? A small man? I’d say a boy, though. A good runner. But the couple you mentioned, in red sweatshirts? A rather portly pair. I recognized them, but they weren’t on the jury, I never knew their names. I saw them in the visitors’ gallery several times. And during the verdict and sentencing? She was crying, both days. He had his arm around her, hugging her. I couldn’t tell whether she was crying from grief or was happy. It was that kind of crying,” she said, looking across at Max.

Max nodded. He picked up some newspaper clippings from the arm of his chair. “May I make copies of these, return them when you come in?”

“Yes, of course.”

Joe glimpsed the headlines for only an instant as Max folded the articles into his notebook and slipped it in his briefcase.

. . . dies when car goes over cliff north of . . .

. . . on a rainy street south of . . .

Bonnie said, “Would first thing in the morning suit you? Say, eight o’clock?”

“That’s change of watch,” Max said. “I’m tied up until, say, nine?”

She smiled. “Nine’s fine. That will give Celeste and me a chance to have breakfast out, splurge a little.”

When Max rose, the tomcat backed deeper into the petunias. Though the evening was growing dark, his white paws and white nose were always a problem, too bright in the gathering dusk, even among the tangled leaves. Watching Max head for his pickup, Joe wanted to leap in the truck, ride home with him unseen, slip into the Harper house, paw through Max’s briefcase and read the clippings. What trial was this? What was the offense? Who was the plaintiff? If someone was out to kill the jurors . . . a friend or relative of the plaintiff . . . then he must have received the ultimate sentence . . . life in prison or the death penalty. Joe wished he had run faster over the rooftops, that he hadn’t missed half the conversation, missed the telling facts.

But now, as much as he wanted to know the rest of Bonnie’s story, he decided not to hitch a ride, not chance getting caught snooping up at the Harper ranch. He’d see the clippings in the morning, once he hit the station. Though even that wait annoyed him, he was wired with curiosity. He watched the chief cross the yard, step into his pickup and back out—and Joe Grey hit the rooftops, his paw-beats thudding across the shingles of the neighborhood cottages as he headed not for the Harper ranch, that long haul up the hills, but for Ben’s place.

Maybe Juana had missed nothing at all—and maybe not. Either way, she was sure to have cleared the scene by now.

Maybe, in the process of removing crime tape, she had aired the apartment of cat-box smell, had opened the windows and, if luck were with him, she had not relocked them all. Not likely, knowing Detective Davis, but he meant to find some way inside.

Up across the roofs and oak branches, racing above the dropping canyon until he saw the tall old house ahead, Ben’s small basement apartment at the back. The outdoor security lights were on, but no interior lights at all, even in the big house. He came down two gardens away.

There was no sound from within as he crossed the darkening yards onto the brightly lit lawn. Juana had removed the crime tape, and luck was with him. She, or maybe the landlord, had left the apartment wide open, to air. Strange, he thought, to leave it unlocked at night. Maybe that’s why the security lights were on, shining brightly into the tiny room, brighter than Joe wanted. His nose twitched at the lingering stink as he leaped to the sill of an open window.

The screen was old-fashioned with just the kind of latch he liked. With careful claws he ripped a small hole in the bottom. Reaching through, he flipped the hook, pulled the screen open, ducked under, and dropped down inside.

The room was just as it had been except for the empty space before the windows where the two big cages had stood. Dent marks from their stands marked the carpet. He scanned the room looking for a hiding place that Juana could somehow have missed. Though still he found it strange that Ben would have left notebook and phone at home that morning. There was a better chance the killer already had them. Joe couldn’t get it out of his head that Ben had secretly taken pictures that he felt might lead to perpetrator of the street crimes—pictures that Ben didn’t know might lead to his own killer?

In this little square room, could there be some hiding place so small and out of the way that even Juana had overlooked it? She had surely gone over the carpet feeling for lumps underneath. Beside the narrow bed was a little writing desk that served as a night table, cluttered with cough drops, a battery-operated travel clock, a couple of paperback mysteries. Marks in the thin coating of dust described the shape of a laptop and what could be the feet of a small printer. Maybe one of those giveaway color jobs where the company made most of its profit selling cartridge replacements. In the far corner of the room a tiny refrigerator stood beneath a small counter with a bar-sized sink. On the counter were a dozen cans of cat food, a few clean mugs and plates, and a microwave. And now, even with the windows open to air out the lingering stink of cat kennels, another scent touched Joe. He could smell, when he took a good whiff, the whisker-licking aroma of young mice.

Having missed supper, he spared a few moments to stalk the trail, hoping to assuage the hollowness in his belly. Slipping across the room following the mousy enticement, he had doubled back where it was stronger—when a swift small shadow fled past his nose. Damned mouse exploded right past him! Enraged to have missed it, he leaped where the shadow paused for an instant. He missed again, the tip of its tail vanishing beneath the bed. Well, hell!

Bellying under the bed among inert dust mice, he found where the little beast had disappeared. Where the molding was warped, concealing a sizable hole behind the wooden trim.

Crouching to peer in he saw a tangle of chewed-up paper, and the smell of mouse was strong. He was staring at the edge of a mouse nest: torn papers deep and cozy. He tensed when something small stirred within. Hungrily he flashed his paw in, fast as lightning he grabbed—and drew back faster, hissing, pain shooting through his paw.