Deluski gave me a questioning look. I grinned on a surge of hope. Yeah, that could be him. “We need a name.”
“I really have no idea. But we do sign-in sheets for our tours.”
My ass was planted on a bench in the Old Town Square. Street vendors with woks and grills filled the air with an oily reek. Pedestrians wandered about, children with balloons tied to their wrists, young couples holding hands.
Deluski sat next to me busily scanning the names on the sign-in sheets into his newest anonymous phone. I watched the fountain, a circular pool surrounding a statue of four intertwined iguanas climbing for the sky. Even the natives wanted to escape this world.
Mota hung heavy in my thoughts. I knew I was going to have to kill him. Panama too. I reasoned it every which way, but there was no getting around the fact that it was them or me. The moment I first stepped into Chicho’s office, I put us on a collision course. Them or me.
I had to do them right. Not like when I went out to his house. Couldn’t let my nerves get the best of me. I had to be a pro.
The tricky part was getting away with it. But there was always a way.
Deluski elbowed me. “Got a hit.”
“What?”
“One of the names showed up in Wu and Froelich’s case files.”
“Who?”
“His name is Bronson Carew, age nineteen. He went to the police with a rape complaint.”
Rape. Interesting.
“His complaint was taken by Inspector Jeljili, but the case got passed to Wu and Froelich.”
“How could that be? Wu and Froelich worked Homicide, not Sex Crimes.”
“It doesn’t say.”
“When did this happen?”
“The day after the break-in at the Samusakas’.”
The timing nailed it. Too big a coincidence for him not to be Lizard-man. Your day of reckoning is coming, Bronson Carew. “Call Jeljili.”
He gave me a dark stare. “I just bought this phone.”
“It was compromised as soon as you logged into KOP. Mota could be tracking us already. We call Jeljili then dump it and go.”
“You’re buying the next one. Do you know Jeljili?”
“Yeah. I’ll talk.”
I waited while Deluski rang him up, my thoughts centered on the man who stole my hand. A rape victim. I didn’t feel sorry for him. I didn’t care how hurt he’d been. He could’ve been raped a thousand times, and I wouldn’t care. He didn’t have to kill Wu’s girls. He had to be punished.
Mota. Panama. Dr. Tranny. They all had to be punished.
Inspector Blake Jeljili’s holo appeared before the fountain, tailored suit hanging on a trim frame, young eyes and a thick shrub of hair. I almost laughed at how comically ancient this holo was. Must’ve been scanned twenty years ago, long before that shrub of hair lost most of its leaves. Before Jeljili’s waist tripled and his chin had twins.
Deluski passed me the phone.
“Jelly, this is Juno.”
“Juno? It’s been a while. Hey, I heard about your wife. Tough break.”
“Yeah.”
“What the hell did you do to piss off Mota? From what I hear, that queen’s got a tiara up his ass over you.”
“Anybody buying his BS?”
“Nobody I’ve talked to. The hommy boys are fed up with him meddling in their case. Rumor has it Froelich and he were lovers. You know anything about that?”
“Yeah, that one’s true.”
“Damn. Didn’t know Froelich swung that way.”
“I need some info.”
“Can’t help you.”
“Just some simple questions about an old case.”
“Listen, Juno, you know I always respected you and the chief. I really did, but these are different times.”
“I just-”
“I can’t help you. Shit, if anybody found out I was talking to you…”
“Just some sim-”
“I can’t take any chances until you get cleared.”
I raised my voice. “I have been cleared. I was questioned and cleared by Rusedski himself.”
“People are dying all around you, my boy. You heard Kripsen and Lumbela got killed?”
“No.” Seeing wasn’t the same as hearing.
“They got necktied. Word is you and that Deluski kid were chummy with them.”
I looked over at Deluski. He had his head in his hands, probably wondering if he’d ever be able to shake these questions. Wondering if he’d ever be able to erase the stain of sins.
The kid needed to chill. This was just a negotiation. He was mistaking Jeljili’s questions for accusations. Everything in this city was negotiable. Everything. I spoke into the receiver. “I don’t make the kind of scratch I used to.”
“Don’t gimme that. I know you, Juno, you always got something going. Am I right?”
Deluski gave me a bewildered stare while we haggled over price.
The money settled, I asked my question: Bronson Carew. Rape complaint. I want the whole story.
“Yeah, I remember that kid. He was one scary freak. He came in with this vid, said it proved he was raped.”
“You watched it.”
“I watched the whole thing. Hours and hours of it. Must’ve been shot over several days. It looked like they were living in an abandoned house, just a crappy old mattress on the floor.”
The party house where he’d staged Franz’s body. And later Froelich’s and Wu’s.
Jeljili rolled on. “I couldn’t help the kid. He wasn’t raped. He never objected, never said no. He didn’t cry or call for help.”
I already knew the answer but asked anyway. “Who was the alleged assailant?”
“Franz Samusaka. A rich kid. Father’s an oil tycoon.”
I clicked the new facts into place. “I know who he is. Did you question him?”
“Absolutely. Found out his house was broken into the day before Carew came into KOP. Didn’t take a genius to know Carew was the burglar.”
I processed the new info, incorporated it into the building narrative.
Jeljili continued, “Franz Samusaka denied the rape. Said it was consensual, which it was. This freak was digging for gold. Scored some high-class ass and now he wanted to get something for it.”
“Did Carew say he wanted money?”
“No. But it’s obvious, isn’t it? The Samusaka kid wanted me to return his stolen property, but I couldn’t do that.”
“Of course not.”
“This was evidence in a potential rape.” I could practically hear him smile, he was so pleased with himself. Translation: he wanted to get paid. “That was when Franz called in Froelich and Wu. He knew them somehow.”
“And?”
“And they brokered an arrangement.”
“The vid?”
“I heard it got lost.”
Of course it did. “That it?”
“That’s it.”
I tossed the phone into the fountain. “Let’s move.”
I took a chair next to the wall so I could look down on the Square.
Deluski went to the bar to pick up drinks, and came back saying, “I don’t get it. I thought Ang Samusaka staged the break-in in order to cover for the fact that he trashed his father’s study.”
I sipped my ice water, eyes tracking a panama hat that had just entered the Square. Its owner walked with a second man. It was too dark and too far to see faces, but I knew who they were. They walked toward the fountain.
Deluski was still waiting for an answer. “Well?”
I’d already reasoned it through. “Ang found the mess in his brother’s room after Carew broke in to steal the alleged rape vid. Then Ang took the opportunity to ransack his father’s study before reporting the break-in to the police. Whatever Ang found, he’s been using it to blackmail his father ever since.”
“But that doesn’t explain how Carew could’ve broken in without leaving any jimmied doors or broken windows.”
“True.”
Panama circled the fountain. Mota climbed onto a park bench so he could get a better view of the crowd. I aimed my left index finger in their direction, cocked my thumb like it was an antique-style gun. Bang.
“So how did Carew get inside?”
“Somebody must’ve let him in.”