coffee, washed down a prescription Percocet with it, and looked out through the wall of windows at the thin line of the horizon. The coffee cup shook when I tried to raise it and I needed both hands to steady it. I was still wobbling despite the sleep and the medication. My skin was dry as paper and my lips were still swollen and cracked. The hot coffee stung them but I couldn’t deny my habit. Diaz’s card lay on the counter and I picked up the phone.
“You have reached the desk of Detective Vince Diaz, if you would like to leave …”
I waited for the damned beep.
“Look, Diaz. This is Max Freeman. I’ve been able to locate your piece of electronics. If you want to pick it up, call me.” I left Billy’s cell phone number, even though I knew the detective bureau would have a caller I.D. readout and probably already had Billy’s private number. I looked at the digital clock on the stove. Diaz called back in eight minutes.
“Hey, Mr. Freeman, that’s great. I’d like to come up as soon as possible. Get moving on that particular thing, all right?”
I gave him the address and told him he could call from the lobby when he arrived.
“Yeah, you kind of surprised us leaving the hospital so soon.”
“About an hour?” I said.
“Yeah, sure, an hour.”
I punched him off and dialed again.
“Ranger Station twelve, Cleve Wilson.”
“Cleve. Max Freeman.”
“Good God, Max. Where the hell you been?”
It might have been a question, or a statement of wonder.
“I’ve been a little busy Cleve, I’ll fill you in when I get out there but I’m not sure when that will be.”
“You know those detectives were back out here with a warrant. I had to show them to your place,” he said and this time I could hear the apology in his voice. “But I went in with them, you know, just to watch if they messed things up.”
“It’s all right, Cleve. I appreciate it.”
“And boy, they do not miss anything, if you know what I mean.”
Cleve was a pro at understatement.
“Anything interest them in particular?”
“Well, they did perk up a bit when they found that nine millimeter of yours in the bottom of your duffel.”
I had forgotten about the gun and sat there in Billy’s kitchen wondering how I’d been able to let it slip far enough into the back of my mind as to finally let go of its memory, the feel and smell and sound of it echoing off the brick and glass of Thirteenth Street.
“But they didn’t take it,” Cleve said quickly, breaking the silence. “I heard one of them wondering if it was your old service issue. Then they put it back.”
“Yeah? Well, thanks, Cleve. Like I said, I’ll see you when I get back out there. I was actually calling to check on my truck.”
“It’s sitting here. The boy come back with it and since the scratch was gone and it was all shined up, I figured he was telling the truth about you letting him use it. But I’ve got the keys back in my desk.”
“Thanks, Cleve.”
I punched the phone off and finished my coffee while I watched the beginning of an afternoon rainstorm drive the sunbathers off the beach below.
I met Diaz in the lobby. I was carrying a small gym bag and a traveler’s cup of coffee. I’d taken a shower and dressed in a pair of light cotton trousers and the loosest long-sleeved shirt I had. My skin was still tight and had started to flake off my forearms, either from the salve for the mosquito bites or from the dryness of dehydration. The Percocet had taken the edge off the ache in my bruised ribs.
Diaz was waiting under the watchful presence of the tower manager to whom he’d presented his I.D. before having me called. The manager bowed slightly when I thanked him, but continued his careful vigil as we drifted to a sitting area in an anteroom off the main entrance hall.
“Nice place,” Diaz said, sitting down on the edge of a wingback chair while looking up at the vaulted ceiling.
I took a seat on the adjoining couch and put the bag between my feet on the marble tiled floor.
“That for me?” he said.
“Look. I’ll be straight with you. I don’t want any of this coming back on Billy Manchester. I’ve got this and it’s going straight to you. No one else in the middle or with knowledge,” I said. Diaz was looking