‘How many years has it been in your possession?’ Raveneau asked.
‘Since Jim brought it back.’
‘When was that?’
‘It was-’
La Rosa saw the moment it happened. She watched the change and thought a heart attack was possible. The color drained from Casey’s face faster than she had ever seen.
‘Don’t tell me AK was shot with it. Don’t tell me that.’
‘He was. We have a ballistics match. Your gun was the murder weapon.’
‘The gun went out there and killed AK?’
‘What do you mean it went out there?’
‘Jim loaned it out.’
‘Why would he loan a gun to people?’
‘You’d have to ask him.’
‘Since we can’t interview a dead man I think you had better tell us.’
‘Are you suggesting I had something to do with AK’s murder? Of course that’s what you’re suggesting.’
‘Who had the gun when he was killed?’
‘I don’t remember.’
‘Then it comes back to you, Tom.’
‘No, no, it doesn’t come back to me. It was never my gun. I would have killed myself before killing Alan.’
La Rosa had a hard time not believing he was sincere.
‘You can see where we’re at,’ Raveneau said. ‘It’s the murder weapon. You need to convince us.’
‘The gun went out on its own. Someone had a drink with Jim and then it got borrowed. It was only used to do good. But Jim loaned it out so much it got to be a running joke. If someone complained too much about a boss or a wife he’d get the gun and tell them either go take care of it or quit complaining. He didn’t like complaining. Other people borrowed it to learn to shoot and that’s what I mean when I say used for good. Like the boy learning to shoot so he’ll be ready when the time comes.’
‘When what time comes?’
‘Change is always coming, Ben. One event can trigger a historical convulsion. The Archduke Ferdinand and his wife were shot in their car on a side street in Sarajevo early on a summer afternoon on the twenty-eighth of June in 1914 by a young man with a Browning. 32 exactly the same as the one in the case behind you.’
He pointed. He wanted Raveneau to turn to look and she looked but Raveneau didn’t. Raveneau took a drink of beer.
‘You have to understand, anything he had Jim would loan out. It wasn’t about guns and as I said earlier he didn’t like to be around guns. I have to remember. I have to think back. I just can’t get my head around what you’re saying, that he was killed with the Glock. Are you sure about the ballistics test?’
‘We are and we may be taking you back with us.’
Casey reacted immediately to that. The look of pain left his eyes. A bright hardness replaced it.
‘Oh, I can guarantee that you won’t be doing that.’
‘Then you need to convince us.’
‘That’s what I’m thinking about right now. I’m considering a way to irrevocably convince you.’
La Rosa felt a prickle along her spine and as Raveneau continued to meet Casey’s gaze, she asked, ‘Are you in some way threatening us, Mr Casey?’
Casey turned to her.
‘The idea of you speculating I murdered Alan or assisted in any manner is repulsive. It fills me with disgust for the type of bureaucracy that produces your type. I couldn’t possibly explain that to you because you wouldn’t understand, but no, I’m not threatening you. I’m considering what to do. I’m debating what action to take. Do you understand that?’
Raveneau stepped back in. ‘We don’t have your breadth, Tom, and we’re forced to work with facts, so our range is more limited. According to you, the gun other than being loaned out occasionally has been here in a glass case since the day Jim Frank returned from Austria with it. You can help us by giving us the names of those it was loaned out to, starting with who had it in January 1989.’
‘We both know the boy sent you the gun. He’s angry at me.’ Casey waved at the other guns on display in the room. ‘Keeping it in the glass case was about salt and corrosion. It was an original Glock, one of the first. I’m trying to remember at what date Jim gave me the gun to hold for him. There were times when his temper got the better of him and he didn’t want it in his house. But he wanted it where he could come get it if he needed it. So we picked that case there, and frankly I can’t remember if that was before or after January 11, 1989. I think now it was after. It may have been the spring of that year. Let’s just say it was.’
‘That’s different than what you said a few minutes ago.’
‘There’s also another thing to consider. This house is never locked. We had an intruder a few years ago, a dope grower that the boy shot and killed, but even with that I haven’t started locking the doors. I’ll never lock the doors here.’
He nodded at Raveneau.
‘Your first instinct was right, Ben. Shooting that grower gave him a taste of a thing he craved. The power of life is what I would call it. Killing affirms one’s power. The boy craved that feeling. I could read it in his eyes years before we had the problem with the dope grower. I have no doubt you were right in sensing he was close to shooting you. I heard the conversation through the mike. You did the right thing to try to get away.’
He shook his head and looked down at the table.
‘I can’t get my head around this, but Jim may have been working with AK on an investigation, helping with the contract work Krueger was doing. He sometimes played a part as AK sold or bought counterfeit bills. He backed him up. He delivered money or carried it when he flew. The Secret Service may or may not have known that. They probably knew all about that. You should tell them the gun is a match, confront them with it. Demand to know what they know.’
‘We’ll be back this afternoon looking for names.’
Casey leaned forward. He looked at Raveneau and then her.
‘A month ago I sat here holding the gun to my head. I had a very large decision to make and it was necessary to consider all alternatives. My prints should be all over the gun from that night, but they aren’t because my housekeeper cleans and oils the weapons in this house. That keeps the salt from corroding them.’
He pointed at the screening keeping insects out of the lanai that was otherwise open to the air.
‘Most don’t realize they choose the mark they make on history. The first time I burned a village that wasn’t on the target list I didn’t feel a thing for any of the gooks. If they weren’t helping the Cong, they would be soon. It was that simple and that’s what I told the captain. He didn’t mind either. He used me for certain missions after that. He knew before I did. You can see it in a man’s eyes before he knows inside.
‘Now, there is something I’m remembering now. Four or five months before he was killed, Alan decided Jim was pocketing some of the bills he was ferrying. He got very angry about it. Words got exchanged and Jim didn’t like to be threatened. I can tell you that.’
La Rosa re-entered the conversation.
‘Why did you consider killing yourself?’
‘A man should only exist as long as he has the will and the stomach to do what needs to be done. Waiting has sapped me. I’m like a hunter succumbing to cold.’
‘What is it you’re waiting for?’
‘For the right moment and now it’s arriving. Most of us pass without making a difference. I’ll use the example of Inspector Benjamin Tomlinson Raveneau. His career isn’t over but it’s winding down. He’s had a good solve record on the San Francisco Homicide Detail and for many years was the best among his peers. But has he made any real difference? I have to say no. He’ll retire. He’ll get a pension. He’ll do some private work perhaps and he may even go on living in that apartment up on the roof. That’s a little isolated and his girlfriend, I’m told, is more nervous about it, particularly at night, but who wouldn’t be?