The Forgotten Man - Robert Crais Page 0,48
manufactured the appliances. You can read it here in front of us, and make notes, but you can't make copies. That's the way it is."
I was anxious to read, but Diaz touched the reports before I could begin.
"Hang on. You said you had a vehicle description. Let's get started with that."
Pardy made notes on a yellow pad as I repeated Thomas's description.
"They get the plate?"
Diaz cut off his question as if he was stupid.
"He would have told you if he had the plate. Keep going, Cole-did you get anything else?"
"They prayed."
Diaz and Pardy waited the way I waited when Margaret Keyes first told me.
"Reinnike didn't have sex with them. He paid them to pray for him."
Partly laughed.
"That's bullshit. Are you making that up?"
"All three women told me the same thing. They prayed for his forgiveness."
Diaz's dark eyes colored like smoke on the horizon.
"Why did he need forgiveness?"
"He didn't tell them."
Pardy frowned at Diaz.
"I'm telling you, this sounds like bullshit. Golden probably tells all these whores to say that to beat the sex bust."
Diaz continued to stare at me with the cloudy eyes, then frowned at Pardy like he was spastic.
"You saw the crosses he had all over himself? It's not a stretch to imagine he's some kind of religious freak, is it?"
Pardy grunted, but still looked unconvinced.
"When we're done here, have Cole go over everything each girl told him. When you talk to them, see if you get the same answers. Maybe you'll catch one of them in a lie. Right now, you should put out a BOLO on the car. That's a good description. Some traffic cop might pick it up while we're here dicking around."
Pardy left to file the BOLO, and Diaz watched him go.
"You gotta tell him every goddamned thing, one slow-motion step at a time. And they say Mexicans work slow."
"That what they say about you, Diaz?"
Diaz laughed, then took the medical examiner's reports from me and flipped through the pages.
"You don't have to read all this, Cole. Here's what you need-"
The pages she handed back were the faxed correspondence from the Penzler Surgical Orthopaedics Company of East Lansing, Michigan, to Beckett.
Dear Mr. Beckett,
Per our conversation regarding #s HSO-5227/HSO-5228.
Units are matched (bilateral reversed) femoral support appliances manufct on 16 Oct 46 by this company. (See attch descript.) Our records indicate the following assignments:
Units assgnd: Andrew Watts Children's Hospital
1800 Mission Boulevard
San Diego, California
Surg assgnmt: Dr. Randy Sherman
Andrew Watts Children's Hospital
1 800 Mission Boulevard
San Diego, California
Pat assgnmt: George Llewelyn Reinnike
15612 L Street, NW
Anson, California
Pat cond: Legg-Calve-Perthes
minor m, func. +, adv.
surg. 6/20/47/AWCH/Sher
(see attch)
This is the extent of company records. Please do not hesitate to call if I can be of further assistance.
Sincerely,
Edith Stone, M.D.
V.P. Sales
I copied Reinnike's address, as well as the names of the doctor and hospital. A second page gave a brief explanation of Legg-Calve-Perthes Disease that read like a company brochure. LCP was a degenerative ball-joint disease that caused the femur to weaken in young children. Appliances were screwed into the femur to support the bone and maintain the integrity of the joint.
Diaz let me read the M.E.'s report while we waited for Pardy. The cause of death was a single gunshot wound to the left chest that resulted in two broken ribs, a cracked vertebra, and two ruptured arteries. George Llewelyn Reinnike had drowned in his own blood. The bullet was a copper-jacket.380, and had fragmented upon impact with the vertebra. The M.E. had found no traces of semen in the urethra, colon, or stomach, and no semen or vaginal residue present on the penis, indicating the victim had not had a recent sexual encounter. Blood-screen results were to follow, but the M.E. noted no overt evidence of drug use other than a moderate cirrhosis of the liver, indicating the victim had been a drinker. Reinnike hadn't gone into the alley to buy drugs or sex. He had gotten a phone call, cut short his prayers, and almost certainly gone downtown to meet someone. I felt certain whatever happened in the alley was not a chance encounter.
Pardy returned as I finished reading, and perched on the edge of the desk.
I said, "One other thing. The girl who was with Reinnike on the night he was murdered said he got a call when she was with him, and he cut short her visit. He got the call on a cell phone. Did you guys find a cell with the body?"
Pardy and Diaz looked at each other, and Diaz shook her head. Pardy shrugged.
"Maybe he left it