‘OK, but I’m not in favor of setting arson fires.’
‘You were Jack Gant’s girlfriend. What did he see in you? What did you have in common? I’m trying to get at how he thinks. I’m not saying he influenced you. I’m trying to better see him through you. Does that make sense?’
‘Not at all.’
The agent alongside Hosfleter chuckled and Hosfleter turned and glared at Marquez. She was looking at Marquez when she asked, ‘What would he do if he knew you were here?’
‘I don’t think I want to know.’
‘Does that mean you believe he’s capable of violence?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘I assume you know he was a Navy Seal and highly trained.’
‘He didn’t like to talk about it.’
‘But you knew?’
‘Yes.’
‘Do you know he was in the first wave that went to Afghanistan? He was part of the hunt for Bin Laden at Tora Bora. He re-upped and after that he quit. His senior officers said he became disillusioned. He didn’t believe we should have gone into Iraq. Have I said anything you don’t already know?’
‘I didn’t know any of that. The times I asked he didn’t want to talk about it. He didn’t like to talk about his past.’
‘Did he like to talk about the US government? How would you characterize his feelings toward the US government?’
‘Angry.’
‘Maria, we have information that leads us to believe he set the fire in Arizona. Did he ever talk to you about stopping developers by burning their projects?’
‘No.’
‘You need to be really sure about that. If it came out later that you knew something more, you could get charged. And I don’t mean taking part in a plot, I mean knowing of its existence and not coming forward.’
‘I’ve told you everything I know.’
Hosfleter tapped her pencil lightly on the table. She took time to choose her next words.
‘We all send conscious and unconscious signals. We do it all the time. We’re very social creatures at heart. That Jack said what he did to you about the island says to me that he felt he could confide in you. He may have communicated other plans consciously or unconsciously, and this is where I need you to really dig down and try to remember everything he said, or confided to you. But, I want to say first that I agree with you about global warming. It is our worst problem and the Arizona condominiums were very controversial because people felt they weren’t environmentally responsible. There were lawsuits and many people today may be secretly thinking it’s good that they burned. You might be thinking that. Your stepfather might. But the Arizona fire is probably sending up more gasses that cause global warming than the condos would have in a thousand years. You know, twenty per cent of the gasses contributing to global warming come from fires, clearing land, and forest fires.’
She leaned forward. She stopped lecturing and spoke as if Maria was the only other person in the room.
‘I admire you for coming forward. If all I had was an overheard conversation and an offhand comment made on a boat, I don’t know if I would put myself through this.’
She waved a self-deprecating hand at herself and the agent alongside.
‘You may also have been in love and afraid now you’re being unfair to him and blowing things out of proportion, but you’re not. He set that fire, Maria. He’s planning other operations and we’re racing the clock. I need you to help me, right now, here in this room. We don’t have a lot of time and you could save lives. Who else should we talk to? Give me some other names.’
Maria didn’t have any other names. Hosfleter thanked her, but later that night after Gant’s face showed on national news and the FBI announced a fugitive warrant naming him as wanted in connection with the fire bombing of the Wonder Rock Condominiums, Maria’s name got leaked as a former girlfriend questioned today. It sounded as if she’d been picked up and brought in. It was unfair and a decision to sweat Maria, despite Maria having come forward. Marquez listened to the TV report and then called Carol Shauf.
‘I’ll meet you there tomorrow,’ Shauf said. ‘I’ll borrow a DBEEP boat. See you around noon. Do you really think we can find this island?’
‘I don’t know, but I think we’ve got a better chance than anyone else.’
‘You might have a short comeback as a Fed if you go poking into someone else’s investigation.’
‘They’re coming after Maria.’
‘See you tomorrow. Look for a DBEEP boat.’
FORTY-FIVE
The next morning as Marquez drove toward the delta he talked to his sister. Darcey asked, ‘Do you remember when we were out of money and living in Berkeley in that trailer on that lot next to Mom’s friend’s house?’
‘Sure, on Blake Street, it’s hard to forget.’
‘Mom’s friend let us use that bathroom in the basement, only there was no shower so we had to wash in the sink or else go up to that lake in the park. What was the name of that lake?’
‘Lake Anza. Good times.’
‘Yeah, good times. It’s why I’ve never had kids. Something happened last night that made me think about that summer and helping Dad sell dope on Telegraph Avenue. Mom had that little colored tape for the baggies and you and me and Dad would go up there after dark and he’d find clients and then send us to get the money and deliver the dope because we were still minors.’
‘We were good at it.’
She laughed and said, ‘No, we were great, especially you. But remember that night that weird guy led us down the street to his van. We were carrying the baggies and he was going to pay us at his van.’
‘Durant Street toward the parking lot; there’s a building there now.’
‘We both knew that man was going to try to do something. Remember that feeling?’
‘What brings this back?’
‘Last night I started to go to my car after I locked up, and I just felt something was wrong, I don’t know what. I park my car where I can see it from my office, and we don’t have many problems like that here, but when I’m locking up late I’m more careful. I got that same feeling as that night in Berkeley, so I went back inside and sat up in the office with the lights out. I sat in my chair where I can look out the window and after awhile I fell asleep. When I woke up, I decided I was crazy. But when I looked outside, there was a man standing back behind the right rear of my car. It was like he stood up to stretch his legs. He must have been crouched down between a truck and my car.’
Her voice slowed now. She wanted him to register and remember what she was going to say next.
‘He stood for a minute or two and then crouched down again and I called the state troopers. Before they got there he took off in a Jeep Cherokee, so I called the troopers back and told them he was leaving Seward. They pulled him over in Moose and he had two guns in the car with suppressors. Turns out he’s wanted for a double murder in Georgia and the FBI agents up here think he’s a hit man.’
‘Have you got the agents’ names?’
She had their cards and read off their names and phone numbers.
‘I’ll call them. Is there somebody who wants your restaurant?’
‘You mean, like my partner hiring someone to kill me?’
‘Yes.’
‘Jesus, John, this is Seward, Alaska.’
She didn’t have the fishing boat anymore and she’d never remarried, but she had a partner in the bar/restaurant and they were doing enough business to get by and he had never heard her talk about any strife with the partner. What he was going to ask now was unfair to Darcey, but even after being sworn in only yesterday, it was possible. Unlikely, but with a leak with the Bureau, it was possible.
‘Do you have some place outside of Seward where you could stay?’
‘Who would run the restaurant and bar?’
‘Your partner.’
‘John, I’ve got my dogs.’
‘Take them with you.’
‘You say it like it’s easy. John, all I have for money is this business.’