your side of the woods where I think I need some help.”
The waiter came and took orders, and as we sipped iced tea, I told Richards about Billy’s theory about the insurance scam and murder. I gave her what sketchy information I could about the women’s locations and similarities, and about the insurance investigator who, for lack of a better word, was working with me.
She listened, nodding and only interjecting with the proper street names and neighborhood tides. When the fish came, sizzling off the grill and surrounded by dirty rice, we both went quiet.
She finally broke the silence. “Even that many naturals, in that section of the city, wouldn’t necessarily raise any flags. And even if Billy alerted us to it, I doubt it would push anyone off the dime to take a closer look.”
I looked up from my plate.
“It’s a high crime zone, Freeman. You know the drill. Keep the lid on. Try to make insider friends, keep the politics in check and don’t sweat the small stuff. They’ve got bigger problems over there.”
It was my turn to raise eyebrows, first at the small stuff comment and then as an unspoken question about the bigger problems. She took a few forkfuls of rice, pulled a loose strand of hair back behind her ears and began again.
She told me about a string of rapes in the same area over the past several years that had also passed across someone’s desk. Some were reported, some were just street talk. The women involved were street girls, prostitutes and addicts feeding their habits and not too particular about what they traded for an eight-ball of crack or a dose of heroin.
“They only got reported when the guy got too rough and the women were found hurt. I answered one while I was still on patrol. Girl had marks around her throat like a thick rope had been wrapped around it. She said it was the guy’s hands.”
That case, like the others, had never been solved. The witnesses were too high to give good descriptions. The crime scenes were either forgotten or so contaminated that they were useless for processing.
She saw me looking at her eyes, watching the way they kept jumping away from mine.
“Goddammit, Freeman. I worked it as much as I could. I was only patrol. I handed it up to the detective bureau.”
“I didn’t say a word,” I said, holding up my palms in defense. She went quiet.
The waiter came back. I ordered coffee and stared up into the canopy of the banyan, following the branches down into the thick mass of tangled roots that formed the trunk.
“So what has changed?” I asked.
“They started turning up dead.”
“The rape victims?”
“The users, the hookers, then just women in the neighborhood.”
“But not older women?”
“No.”
The coffee came and she knew enough about my habit to wait until I’d taken two long swallows.
“So that’s their more serious problem? They might have a serial guy out there?” I said.
“We’re working the possibility.”
Richards declined dessert.
“So when can I get an inside tour?” I asked, taking a chance.
“You’re awfully pushy for an ex-cop who’s left the job behind him, Max.”
“Consider it a favor for Billy.”
She looked into my face again. A grin pulled at the corners of her mouth.
“OK. I’ll consider it as such. I’ll have to get a waiver for a ride along, but your name is not exactly unknown. You do remember Chief Hammonds?”
Hammonds had been in charge of the abduction case. We did not hold a mutual trust.
“I would never hold either of you responsible if something should happen,” I said.
A long moment passed. “Tonight then,” she said, catching me off guard. “Meet me at ten in front of the office.”
She got up, bent to kiss me on the cheek and walked away before the bill came.
“Thanks for lunch.”
I watched her from our back table vantage point, heels clicking on the flagstone, never looking back so I could see if there was a smile on her face.
9
I called Billy’s office. He listened to my description of the meeting with Mary Greenwood and then my lunch with Richards.
“What’s with you two? Maybe we should get out for a sail again, heh?”
“No.”
I refused to let his silence lead me to say more. I waited him out.
“She have anything to add?”
I told him about the rapes and murders in the area where his dead women lived.
“She’s going to give me a tour of the zone late tonight. All right if I wait it out at your place?”
“I’ll call