“Inspector?”
“Thanks, Jeffrey. I’m glad you called.”
“Well, there isn’t a lot I can tell you about Tuesday, because I don’t know much. Yeah, I had a limo pickup, and the boss told me it was a big deal and everything had to be perfect. No mistakes. I made sure the car was washed, bottled water, champagne, special hors d’oeuvres from some bakery, all the perks.”
“Who got in the car?” Frost asked.
“I don’t know, because I never saw them. My instructions were not to get out to open the doors. That’s pretty weird.”
“Where did you do the pickup?” Frost asked.
“That was weird, too. It was in a parking garage on Larkin. I went in and waited, and I saw the headlights of another car pulling up. A few people got out and climbed in the back, and after they did, I got a thump on the screen to tell me to go. I don’t know who they were. I’m paid not to be curious. When my boss says to be deaf, dumb, and blind, that’s what I am.”
“Where did you take them?”
“The marina. I let them out near one of the expensive yachts down there. Someone was at the dock to escort them onto the boat, but I didn’t look at any of the faces. Plus, it was dark, so I wouldn’t have been able to see much anyway.”
“Do you have any idea how many people were there?” Frost asked.
“Maybe three or four. It was a small group. I heard a couple different male voices and at least one woman. But I don’t know how many it was. I was trying not to listen, you know?”
Frost shook his head in frustration because Jeffrey had told him everything and nothing. If the people in the limo included the mayor and Martin Filko, they’d been careful. No pickup at city hall. No interaction with the driver. Their tracks were covered. He had no way of proving they’d been on the Roughing It at all.
“Did you see the person who met the limo?” he asked. “The one who took them on board the boat?”
“It was a woman. That’s all I can say for sure.”
“Then what?” Frost asked.
“Then I left. The job was done.”
“What about the pickup on the other end? Did another driver meet them when they came back from the cruise?”
Jeffrey sounded uncomfortable. “Look, Inspector, I really don’t want to get into trouble.”
“I know that, but this is important. If you know something, I need you to be honest with me.”
“Except if I tell you, then everybody knows it was me.”
Frost was on the freeway again, and the traffic went nowhere heading back into the city. “Whatever you say is just between us. I’ll leave your name out of my notes. But I need to know what happened.”
“Well,” Jeffrey said, drawing out the word. “Here’s the thing. I was supposed to get them on Wednesday morning. The pickup time was eight o’clock. I got there early because I live over in San Ramon, and I didn’t want to take any chances with the traffic. Believe me, if you’re late for a ride, you’re done. It was still dark when I arrived, like six thirty in the morning. I had a long time to wait, but I didn’t care. I figured, coffee, doughnuts, Wright brothers, know what I mean?”
“Okay.”
“Except when I arrived at the marina,” Jeffrey continued, “the boat was already there.”
“What?”
“The boat was in its slip in the harbor again. They weren’t supposed to get in for another hour and a half, but there they were. For a minute, I panicked. I thought I’d gotten the time wrong, you know? But I hadn’t. They were early.”
“Did you see anybody getting on or off?” Frost asked.
“I did, but not passengers.”
“What do you mean?”
“There were two black SUVs parked at the dock, and maybe half a dozen guys were on the boat. I could just barely make them out. They looked like a cleaning crew. They were scrubbing everything down. And I saw two guys bring out a couple boxes from the boat and put them in the back of one of the SUVs. Looked like electronic equipment. The whole thing was strange. I mean, these guys looked like serious dudes.”
“Did you see anything else?” Frost asked.
“That was all.”
“What did you do next?”
“I didn’t know what to do. I thought about leaving and coming back at eight o’clock because that’s what the itinerary said. But it looked pretty obvious to me that I wasn’t going to be picking anybody up. They were already gone. So I called my boss, and he said, what the hell was I doing there so early? He told me to stay put and wait for instructions.”
“What happened next?” Frost asked.
“About five minutes later, a woman came off the boat. She walked right up to my driver’s window and tapped on it. I rolled it down, and she told me the pickup was canceled. She said somebody else had already picked up the passengers, and she told me to get the hell out of there. And she gave me a thousand bucks in cash. She said it was a bonus. She told me to forget I was ever here, forget I’d seen anything or anybody. I told her that was easy because I didn’t see anything at all.”
Frost frowned. “Who was this woman? Did you get her name?”
“No way. I wasn’t going to ask.”
“What did she look like?”
“Blond. Hard-ass attitude, not somebody I was going to mess with. Hard to say how old. She wore big sunglasses even though it was dark out. I remember she wore a cool jacket, though. Red leather with lots of zippers.”
That was the tip-off. Frost knew who it was.
She’d been wearing the same jacket when he met her on the balcony of her condo across from the Transamerica pyramid.
Belinda Drake.
She was a direct link to Lombard. She had all the answers he needed about the cruise on Tuesday. If he could get her to talk.
32
Belinda Drake met him at the elevator inside her penthouse condominium. There was no butler this time. They had the apartment to themselves. She greeted him coolly and led him outside to the balcony where they’d talked before. It was noon, and the sun cast a maze of shadows among the skyscrapers. The wind was cold, but she didn’t seem affected by it. Drake wore a white button-down blouse untucked over skinny jeans, and black high heels. Her hair was loose, and the thirtieth-floor gales played with it like a toy. She went to the railing, where the building wall went straight down below them. He stood next to her and leaned over the edge.
“That’s the best way to go, you know,” she told him.
“What’s that?”
“Jump. You get one last exhilarating ride, and then you’re dead before you even feel the pain.”
“No, thanks,” Frost said.
“Well, that’s the plan when my time comes,” Drake told him. She turned her back on the view and stared at the city’s reflections in the mirrored windows of her condominium. “What do you want, Inspector?”
“You were at the yacht harbor on Wednesday morning,” Frost replied. “The Roughing It wasn’t due until eight in the morning, but at six thirty, the boat was already back in the marina and everyone was gone. Passengers and crew. Thanks to you.”
Strands of wheat-colored hair practically covered her eyes, but she made no attempt to brush it away. “Yes, I was at the marina. So what?”
“What happened on the boat Tuesday night?” Frost asked.
She shrugged. “I have nothing to say about that.”
“You brought a cleanup crew with you. There were two black SUVs at the marina and people carrying equipment off the boat. What were you trying to hide?”
“You’re way too fond of conspiracy theories, Inspector,” Drake replied. “Did I have people cleaning up the yacht? Of course I did. It’s SOP after every charter. You wouldn’t believe the lengths that people go to when money and fame are involved. I’m not kidding, I’ve had celebrities whose DNA showed up for sale on the dark net. You blow your nose in a hotel bathroom, and the next thing you know, some Saudi sheik is paying a couple million dollars to buy a used Kleenex and clone you. The world is a bizarre place.”