“Good. He deserves to die. I was very fond of Father Michael Joseph, even though I only knew him for a short time. He cared about all of us, didn’t matter if you were rich or poor or a basically shitty person, he still cared.”
Delion came up, shaking his head at Dane. “I had to try again. No go.”
Dane said, “Inspector Delion means that there isn’t a safe house for you. Given that I firmly believe you need to be kept out of harm’s way, I’m taking you with me, back to my hotel. You’ll stay with me until we find this guy.”
“You’re nuts,” Nick said. “I’m homeless. No hotel would even let me through the door. Look at me, for God’s sake. I look like what I am. Besides, I don’t want to stay at a hotel. I’m just fine where I am.”
Delion said, “The FBI undoubtedly has a safe house in the area.”
“Nope, I don’t want to involve them in this. Trust me, Delion, you don’t either.”
“The camel’s-nose-under-the-tent sort of thing? That’s fine by me. We don’t want Ms. Jones to end up like Valerie Striker. I’m heading to a meeting with the chief now. We’re organizing a task force, then we’ll have more than enough manpower of our own to catch this creep.”
Dane waited to say anything else until Delion was out of earshot. “You’re safe for the moment. But, Ms. Jones, when the guy who murdered my brother and three other people realizes his description is out there, you know as well as I do that he’ll try to hunt you down. You want to be in that shelter when you hear his footsteps coming up the stairs? There isn’t anyone there who could help you.”
She went nearly as white as his shirt. “I’ll leave San Francisco, go south.”
“No, going on the run isn’t the answer. If you force us to, we’ll arrest you as a material witness.”
But evidently Delion wasn’t out of earshot. He stopped, said over his shoulder, “You’ve obviously got a lot of crap going on in your life, Ms. Jones. I’d go with the big Fed if I were wearing your shoes. Let him watch out for you.” Delion fanned his hands. “You don’t have to worry about our asking you any more questions about your past, okay?”
“No,” she said. “I’m stupid for staying this long. I’ve told you what I know. I’m outta here.” She was out of her chair and heading toward the door in a flash.
Delion made a grab for her, but missed.
Dane sighed, said over his shoulder, “She moves fast.”
One of the inspectors called out, “She must have learned that in the Tenderloin.”
Dane stomped after her. He saw a flash of her red sweater as she ran past the elevator toward the stairs. He caught her just before she made it to the third-floor exit.
He didn’t know what he expected, but she fought him like her life depended on it. She kicked and punched and didn’t make a single sound while she was trying to kill him.
Why didn’t she yell at him?
He finally managed to get behind her and force her arms against her sides. He pulled her back hard against him so she couldn’t move.
“Hold still, just hold still.”
She was breathing hard, but still she struggled and tugged and heaved. She was strong, workout strong. He simply held on as tightly as he could. She couldn’t gain enough leverage to hurt him, but she tried.
A couple of cops came out onto the third-floor landing. “Hey, what’s going on here?”
“I’m Dane Carver, FBI,” Dane said. “She’s trying to escape. Go ask Delion up in Homicide.”
“You need any help?”
“No,” Dane said. “I wish you’d come about five minutes ago, though.”
“Yeah, I can see how you’d have trouble with a perp who’s fifty pounds lighter than you. You want us to get Delion? Tough guy, Delion. He can stop a perp, no matter how big.”
“Nah. I’ve finally got her pinned.”
She’d quieted, just a bit, but he’d no sooner got the words out of his mouth than she went wild again. She took him by surprise this time, twisting sharply inward, and his hold on her loosened just a bit. She drove her elbow into his belly and was off again, as the air whooshed out of him.
“Yeah, you’ve got her, all right,” one of the officers said, laughing.
Dane caught her again on the second floor just before she ducked into the women’s room. “Okay, enough.”
He pressed his back against the wall and jerked her back against him. “Let’s try this again. That was a good move, that twist. Where’d you learn that?”
She was heaving, panting. She didn’t say anything, just stood there, her head down, breathing hard. She didn’t say anything for a very long time, but Dane was patient; he’d learned to be. Finally, he said, “Are you afraid the media are going to catch up with you and there’ll be a photo or a video?”
“Another word about me, and, believe this-I’m gone. You have no right to question me, no right at all. No more, Agent Carver. No more.”
He didn’t want to drop it, but he knew he had to. They needed her. Dane sighed. “There just isn’t anything easy in this life, you know? Why couldn’t you have sold lingerie at Macy’s? Something nice and normal?”
“I was nice and normal,” she said, realized she’d let something out, and seamed her lips together.
“Oh? Maybe you were in real estate? Advertising? Maybe you were married and your old man knocked you around? All right, you got it, there won’t be another word out of me.”
“You’ve got words just waiting to spill out of you. Forget it.” She leaned down and bit his hand, hard.
Dane yelled, just couldn’t help himself. There were a good dozen folks on them then, half of them cops. She was homeless. There was no question who the good guy was. One uniformed officer grabbed her hair and yanked her head back.
The officer said, “She didn’t draw blood, but it was close. You want some help here?”
“Yeah, could I have a pair of cuffs?”
The officer handed them over without even asking for an ID and Dane knew it wasn’t because they were careless. He looked like a cop. He pulled her arms behind her and cuffed her wrists. “There,” he said. “Now my body parts are safe. Thank you, ah, Officer, ah, Gordon. I’ll leave the cuffs with Inspector Delion, up on four.”
“No problem. You gotta watch yourself with these people. You might want your hand checked out, you never know what diseases she might be carrying around.”
“Yeah, thanks, I will.”
He barely understood Nick say “bastard” she had her jaw locked so tight.
“I’m not a bastard. I’ve got a pedigree. Now, what are we going to do with you?”
“Let me leave. I’ll come back, I swear it.”
“Nope. Let it go, Ms. Jones. You’re with me now. Think of me as your own personal bodyguard. Just let it go. Can you do that?”
As he spoke he turned her around to face him. There was a line of freckles across her nose he hadn’t noticed before, quite visible since she was so pale. But what he really saw, and hated, was defeat. She looked crushed, flattened.
He clasped her upper arms and shook her slightly. “Listen to me. I won’t let anyone hurt you, I promise.”
“You look so much like him.”
“Yes, I know, but my brother and I were very different people. Very different. Well, not in all things, but in many.”
“Maybe not,” she said. “Maybe not. He promised he wouldn’t let anyone hurt me either.” She bit her lip. “But he’s dead. Please, I wasn’t responsible for his death, was I?”
She stood there, her arms pulled behind her, her wrists handcuffed, tears streaking down her cheeks.
“No,” Dane said. “You weren’t responsible. I do know one thing for certain-Michael’s murder had nothing at all to do with you. Believe it.”
“Oh shit,” Delion said, coming to a dead stop about three feet from them. “I don’t need this.”
NINE
“What size do you wear?”
“I don’t want any new clothes. Listen to me, Agent Carver, I just want to stay the way I am now. I have to, don’t you understand?”
“You’re going to be safer if you look like a reasonably dressed woman rather than a bag lady. This is a very ordinary, inexpensive store, Inspector Bates told me. She said we could get you a couple of things here that look like what everyone else is wearing. Don’t give me any more trouble, Ms. Jones. I’m so tired I could sleep leaning against that taxi sign, and I know all the way to my wing tips that I need your help. Don’t think of it as a favor to the cops. Think of it as a favor to my brother, you know, the man you really liked and admired. I need you to help me catch his killer.”