Faulks placed his cup down, and it rattled emptily. This time his anxiety had forced him to drain his cup in one long gulp. ‘Only one person I can think of.’ He looked over at Parnell, as though seeking permission to go on. They must have been talking about the very subject before we arrived, and had yet to come to a decision what to tell us. Perhaps they’d decided to feel us out first, see how we planned to use the information before they specified anyone. Parnell only frowned. Faulks said, ‘It has to be Peterson’s son. Nicolas.’
Both Rink and I had wondered about the boy. When Peterson had been snatched from his trailer he’d been shacked up with his third wife, Michaela. Yukiko had mentioned that there was a boy-child living with them, and that they’d timed the grab for when the mother and toddler were out of the way. The theory Yukiko held was that they probably did his wife and child a huge favour getting rid of the abusive man, but who knew? A child as young as Nicolas was at the time could have a different viewpoint concerning his absent father.
‘The boy would be full-grown now, probably in his early forties. That would fit with the description of the man I saw at Takumi’s house, and also later on the road.’ I shook my head. ‘How would he know what happened to his father? More pertinently, how could he have learned who was responsible for killing him?’
‘Who else could it be?’ Parnell said.
I hadn’t a clue. But Rink was a better detective than I was. ‘I’ll get Harvey on to it. I’ll have him check out the son, see where he is, what he’s up to these days. It’ll be simple enough to dismiss him as a suspect once we have all the facts.’
‘What about us?’ Faulks asked. ‘What are we supposed to do in the meantime: just sit here and wait for the bastard to show up?’
Rink looked around the apartment, taking in the windows, the thin walls. The only good thing it had going for it was its elevated position, but it was about as defensive as a shoebox. ‘Maybe you should both think about moving.’ Before either man could object, he added, ‘I’m only talking about going to a hotel for a few days, somewhere outside the city. I’ve a couple guys I can bring in. They’ll keep an eye on you while we get on with stopping the killer.’
On the drive over we’d talked about our plan, and Rink had put things in motion by way of a couple of telephone calls. Velasquez and McTeer were employees of Rink, ex-cops, and good guys to have around. They’d helped us during previous dangerous episodes and had proven trustworthy and capable. Also we’d pulled on our mutual friend, Harvey Lucas. Harvey had been conspicuous by his absence at Andrew’s funeral, but he was currently neck deep in a job of his own and could not get away. He had promised that he would hook up with us at first opportunity, in order to correctly pay his respects. When he heard what was happening here he said he’d drop everything, but we’d put him off. He was best placed — being an inhabitant of Little Rock — to look into the situation at his end, despite his offer to hop on the first flight out here. If anyone could track down the current whereabouts of Nicolas Peterson it would be him.
‘When will your friends arrive?’
I looked at Faulks; the poor man was terrified. ‘Don’t worry; we’re not going to leave you alone. Rink’s going to fetch Yukiko and place you in the same hotel. We’ll be there with you the whole time until McTeer and Velasquez arrive. They’re on the way here now and should be with us some time this evening. Hopefully by then our other friend will have found something for us to work on.’
‘We’ll get our things together.’ Parnell stood up slowly, leaning on the arm of his chair for support. It struck me then how fragile and vulnerable these old guys were. Whatever they did forty years ago wasn’t an issue now. They had been acting in good faith, punishing a man who’d escaped justice for his terrible crimes, and didn’t deserve to go through any of this. I realised that my purpose had just altered. First I’d come as an emotional support for my best friend, then changed to a would-be vigilante avenger. Now it seemed I was back to doing something I preferred: I was a protector. The term was more desirable than ‘vigilante’, considering the actions of the killer. In his mind he was serving vigilante justice and more than anything I wanted nothing to do with his type.
Chapter 21
Rink’s cellphone began ringing.
We were on our way out of Parnell’s apartment, ready to flank the old guys as we ushered them to the car. Ordinarily Rink would ignore the call, but he was conscious of having left his mom behind, and from the way he snatched it out his pocket and juggled it to his ear he was fearful something had happened to her. Before he hit the answer button he glanced at the screen. He paused. ‘Unrecognised number,’ he said.
I held back Parnell and Faulks. ‘Give us a minute, OK,’ I said, sending them back into the apartment.
Rink was about to discard the call, but I saw him frown. For all he knew it was one of his mom’s friends calling from their place. He didn’t have either woman’s name stored in his contacts. He hit the green button.
‘Hello.’ That was all he’d offer. I watched his eyes pinch, and he looked at me, shaking his head. ‘No, sorry, I’ve no idea where he is right now. Maybe he’s back at my parents’ house. Last I heard he was going to shower and change after pulling an old man from a house fire.’
Rink listened. He rolled his eyes my way, said, ‘I’m not at home; I’m at a friend’s place. Why do you need to know that? Right. Well, if you’ve already been by my parents’ house you’ll know he isn’t there when he didn’t answer the door. I’m sorry I can’t help you.’ He listened again. A mock joviality came over him. ‘Yeah, sure I will. As soon as I hear from him I’ll tell him to come and find you, Detective Jones.’
Rink held the phone away from his ear and I could hear a raised voice at the other end. I couldn’t make out everything but I think I heard the term ‘bullshit’ repeated more than once — but then again I could have just been filling in the gaps.
Putting away his cell, Rink said, ‘That was your favourite homicide detective looking for you.’
‘What the hell does he want now?’
‘With Takumi dying the investigation has been stepped up. He says you’re a material witness to the crime and requires you to go in and give a statement.’
‘Did he mention the crash I was involved in?’
‘No. The chances are he hasn’t pieced that together yet. Detective radios are usually on a different waveband to the regular patrol cops’ ones. Unless the dispatcher or any of the cops on the scene decided to inform him personally he won’t have heard about the crash. What are the chances they would bother? A traffic collision isn’t in a homicide detective’s remit.’
‘I didn’t tell him or Tyler about the man I saw running from the scene, only that I’d found Takumi and he’d apparently overdosed on insulin and accidentally started the fire.’
‘They’ve probably had a preliminary report from the hospital. You told me that the killer jabbed him in the neck with a syringe; one look at that and the doctors would have suspected foul play. I don’t like the sound of this, Joe. I’d hate to think the cops are trying to set you up for Takumi’s murder. If that happens we’re going to have to come clean.’
‘No way,’ I said. ‘We do that and your mom and those two old guys in there will be arrested. I’m not going to let that happen.’ I made a decision. ‘Fuck Gar Jones! I’m not going in. He can wait until this is over with.’
‘That could cause us more trouble than it’s worth. We’re gonna be hard put staying under the radar while we deal with the killer. It’ll be nigh-on impossible if you’re named as a murder suspect and every cop in San Francisco is looking for you.’