After a jaw-cracking yawn, Garreth glanced down at his watch and was shocked to find it almost three o’clock. At least he would not notice the emptiness of the apartment now. He would be lucky to reach the bedroom before he collapsed.
9
Every eye in the squad room turned on Garreth as he tried to sneak in. From the middle of the meeting, Serruto said, “Nice of you to join us this morning, Inspector.”
Garreth sighed. He had already gotten the same dry comment from John Leyva as he breezed by the counter in the outer office. “Sorry. A potential witness wouldn’t stop talking. Have I missed much?”
“The overnight action. Takananda can fill you in on that later. You’ve identified the Mission Street shooter. Anything more on him yet?”
“On my way in this morning I rattled some cages close to him,” Garreth said. “We’ll see what that produces.”
“So we’re just waiting to collar him, right? How about the floater?”
Garreth let Harry answer while he tried not to yawn. Despite the hour he fell into bed, sunrise woke him as usual.
“I’ve been awake since five-thirty,” he told Harry after the meeting broke up. “So I went to work, rattling cages, like I said.” He poured himself a cup of coffee. Do your stuff, caffeine. “Are those the lab and autopsy reports?”
Harry tossed them at Garreth. In return, Garreth handed over the Adair file from his desk. “Read that. I finally remembered where I saw a bruise like Mossman’s before.”
The lab and autopsy reports told Garreth nothing new. No bloodstains on the clothes, confirming that Mossman did not have his throat cut on the street. However, soiling which analyzed as a mixture of dirt, residue of asphalt, vulcanized rubber, and motor oil suggested Mossman had gone to the bay in the trunk of a car. No surprise there. The autopsy report merely made official what Garreth saw yesterday. Analysis of the stomach contents found a high percentage of alcohol, as he expected.
He glanced at Harry, who sat frowning at the Adair file. “What do you think?”
Harry looked up. “I think we’d better get with Faye and Centrello.”
They made it a five-man meeting in Serruto’s office.
With both files in front of him, Serruto said, “I see the similarities.” He looked over at Harry and Garreth. “Do you want to pool resources with Faye and Centrello?”
Harry said, “I thought I’d give them a chance to take over the case if they want it, since the Adair thing was theirs.”
Centrello grimaced. “I don’t want it. You two play with the cult crazies for a while. I’ll be glad to give you anything I know that isn’t in the reports, and if you solve it, the glory is all yours.”
Faye looked less certain, but did not contradict his partner. Serruto frowned at the Adair file. “Are you thinking cults on the Mossman thing, too, Harry?”
“It’s worth checking out.”
“Don’t get too tied into it; it didn’t solve the Adair killing.”
“Words of wisdom,” Harry said as they left Serruto’s office.
“You know, both men had alcohol in their stomachs, so they were drinking not long before they died.” Garreth pursed his lips. “I wonder if they drank in the same place?”
Harry put on his coat. “Adair went to North Beach. When you call the cab companies, check for North Beach destinations on those trip logs.”
Garreth nodded. “Which is going to turn out to be dozens. All the visitors want to experience our night life.”
Harry grinned and slapped Garreth’s shoulder. “You’ll sort them out. That’s detective work, Mik-san. Think about me, trying to find someone who knows where Mossman went. I can’t believe he didn’t mention something to someone.”
A thought struck Garreth. He frowned at Harry. “You talked to quite a few people?”
“It seemed like hundreds.”
“And no one knew a thing. Maybe he didn’t want people to know. He’s a married man and if he had something extracurricular going…”
Harry pursed his lips. “Mossman’s only calls from his room were to Denver, nothing local. If he had a lady, she would have to be either a member of the convention or someone he met Monday. Susan Pegans fainted when we told her Mossman was dead, and that wasn’t even telling her how. Skip the cab companies for now. Let’s go chat with our saleswoman.”
10
Susan Pegans stared at the detectives with eyes flashing in outrage. “No! Absolutely not! I didn’t go anywhere with Gary. He’s a very happily married man.”
Garreth caught a note of regret as she said it. He bet she would have gone with Mossman in a moment, given an invitation.
“Alex Long and I had dinner in Chinatown with a couple of Iowa contractors and their wives. Ask Alex.”
They would, but for the moment, Garreth continued to press her. “Have you seen him spending an unusual amount of time with any single person here?”
“He spent time with everyone. Gary doesn’t — ” She broke off, eyes filling with tears. She wiped at them with the handkerchief Garreth handed her. “Gary didn’t play at conventions, not ever. He worked. Why do you think he was sales manager?”
“But you knew where he was going Monday night. Verneau said he told all three of you,” Harry said.
“Yes, so we would know who had been contacted and not duplicate efforts.”
“Yet you didn’t think it strange when he said nothing to you about Tuesday night?”
She shrugged, sighing. “I wondered, yes, but…I thought he’d tell us Wednesday. I — ” She broke off again, shaking her head.
“Pity unrequited love,” Harry murmured as they left her. “Well, do we take her at her word or start questioning some of the other ladies? You’ll have noticed how many really beautiful ones there are here.”
“Maybe we ought to think about guys, too,” Garreth said. “That would be a better reason for keeping it quiet.”
“You talk to beautiful young men, then; I’ll stick to the ladies. Just find someone who went out with him.”
Garreth found no one. He worked his way across the exhibition hall talking to personnel manning the booths and convention members visiting the booths. As far as he could determine, Mossman had said to hell with the convention on Tuesday. Checking with Harry later, he found his partner having no better luck.
“Maybe you ought to start on the cab companies,” Harry said. “I’ll keep working here.”
“Let me bounce one more idea off you. You mentioned that he may have met someone Monday evening. So let’s talk to the people he was with Monday.”
“Good idea. Verneau gave me their names.” Harry scribbled two names on a notebook page and handed it to him. “You take this pair; I’ll see the others.”
Garreth made it easy on himself. He rounded up both men and talked to them at the same time, hoping one might stimulate memory in the other. “Where did you go?” he asked them.
Misters Upton and Suarez grinned at each other. “North Beach. That’s some entertainment up there.”
He gave them a neutral smile. “It has a little of something for everyone. Do you remember the names of the clubs you visited?”
“Why do you want to know about Monday?” Suarez asked. “Wasn’t Gary Mossman robbed and killed Tuesday night? That’s what’s going around.”
“We need to know about people he met Monday. Please, try to think. I need the club names.”
They looked at each other and shrugged. “We just walked around, stopping anywhere that looked interesting,” Upton said. “We’d get a drink, watch a girl or two dance, and go on. I don’t remember any of the names.”
Neither did Suarez.
“Did you talk to anyone?”
They blinked. “What do you mean?”
Garreth gave them a man-to-man smirk. “You were five guys out on the town alone. Didn’t you meet any girls?”
The contractors grinned. “Well, sure. We kind of collected four along the way.”