“Who was on the boat on Tuesday night?” Frost asked. “Who were you trying to protect?”
She hesitated, as if she were rehearsing the lines in her head. “His name was Diego Casal. The cruise was some kind of party for him and a few of his associates. Based on the news, I think the police already know this, so I’m not sure what you hope to accomplish by talking to me.”
Frost shook his head. He should have seen it coming. “Diego Casal?”
“That’s right.”
“Do you routinely take on drug dealers as clients?”
“Casal knew Denny, not me. My only involvement was when Denny called to arrange for an early pickup and cleanup at the harbor.”
“Didn’t you find that suspicious?”
“I didn’t ask questions. Denny and the Roughing It were both assets of mine. If there was a problem, it would affect my business. So I agreed to help.”
“Did the cleanup suggest what happened on the boat?”
“Like what?”
“Did you find any blood?”
“No, nothing like that. There was no evidence of violence.”
“What about the equipment you removed? Do you still have it? Do you have an inventory of what you took?”
“Anything we removed was destroyed. That’s how it works.”
“And you didn’t bother mentioning any of this to me when we first talked?” Frost asked. “After Denny was murdered?”
“Pointing the finger at drug dealers isn’t a recipe for a long life,” Drake replied, “but with Mr. Casal dead, you can put your conspiracy theories to rest.”
Frost looked over the edge of the balcony again. Not even a hundred yards away, the Transamerica building tapered to a point in the sky. He was silent for a while. There were holes in her story, but she had the upper hand, and they both knew it. No one in the police department wanted him to poke and prod to get to the truth, and even if he did, he would never be able to prove it. The case was already closed.
“So Denny had a problem, and you fixed it?” he asked.
“That’s what I do.”
“Well, you’re very good at it. For a minute, it made me wonder if you were Lombard. Everyone says he’s a problem solver, too. But the first time I mentioned Lombard, you were afraid of the name. You couldn’t hide that. You take orders like all the others. Right? You’re just a pawn.”
Her face was frozen. “Don’t talk to me like that.”
“Why not? That’s what you are. He controls you.”
“You don’t know anything about me,” she snapped at him. “Now, I want you to leave and not contact me again.”
Frost didn’t move. “What’s your identification? Sansome? Fillmore? You all use a different San Francisco street name, right? Just like your boss. Look, Belinda, let’s not play games. The Diego Casal story is a lie. I know who was on that boat last Tuesday. The mayor of San Francisco and Martin Filko of Zelyx. You set it all up for them, and then something happened that they needed to cover up. So you called Lombard.”
Drake hissed under her breath. “Do you have a death wish?”
“Maybe I do, but if I go down, so do you. If I leave without you telling me the truth, my next call is to Martin Filko. I’m going to make sure he knows that you gave me his name. I’m going to tell him you’re cooperating with the police. What do you think happens then, Ms. Drake?”
“You wouldn’t dare do that.”
“Try me,” Frost said.
“Do you think I’m a fool? I know who you are, Frost Easton. You’re a Boy Scout. You’d never lie. You’d never compromise yourself or anyone else. This is a game of poker and nothing more. Well, you’re holding a pair of deuces, so why don’t you fold and go on home?”
“Are you willing to take that risk? I don’t want to do it, but you’re not giving me any choice. I want to know what happened on that boat. If you hold out on me, I’ll make sure no one in Lombard’s world ever trusts you again. And I think we both know what happens to people he can’t trust.”
Even in the cool outside air atop the building, he could smell her sweat and fear. He came closer to her, and he spoke softly.
“Belinda, I don’t believe you’re a willing participant in any of this. That’s why you warned me last time. Lombard has you under his thumb, and I think you’d like to get out. So help me take him down.”
“You’ll never do it.”
“If I fail, that’s on me. But I need information. No one will ever know we talked.”
She bit her lip. Her breaths came faster.
“I must be crazy,” she murmured.
She took him by the hand and led him back inside the condominium. As they walked through the glass doors, she put her finger over her lips for silence, and then she pointed to her ears. He understood. People were listening. The place was bugged. She went to the private elevator and pushed the call button, which sounded with a distinctive bell.
“I don’t know what else to tell you, Inspector,” she said, as if the previous five minutes of their conversation had been erased. “Whatever happened between Denny and Diego Casal was between the two of them. I’m just glad that the man who killed Denny has paid a price for it.”
Frost frowned in confusion. “Yes, it looks that way.”
“I hate to rush you off, but I have a lunch to go to, and I have to get in the shower.”
“Of course.”
The elevator bell sounded again as the door opened.
“Good-bye, Inspector,” Drake said, but she put a hand in front of his chest to prevent him from getting into the elevator car. The doors closed, and the empty elevator descended. She put a finger over her lips again and guided him silently down the condominium hallway to the oversized master bathroom, which was like a spa. The air was perfumed, the walls and floor were tiled in pink ceramic, and the huge walk-in shower had dual heads and body sprays. Drake turned on the shower and stood just outside the cascading water, where the noise was loudest. She crooked a finger and beckoned him closer. He walked up to her, and she took him by the collar of his shirt with both hands and pulled him until they were face-to-face just inches apart.
She began to unbutton her blouse. He didn’t understand what she was doing, because this didn’t feel like a seduction. Her brightly colored nails glistened as she undid every button, and then she separated the silken flaps, revealing her bare torso underneath. Where her breasts rose in half-moons above the lace cups of her bra, he saw dozens of tiny, circular scars, mottled in gray against her peach skin. They continued down to her stomach like insect bites.
“Cigarette burns,” she whispered. The pound of the water drowned her voice. “That’s what Lombard does to people who resist.”
“You resisted?”
“Initially. He knew things about my clients and my deals. He was willing to expose them to destroy my business. I didn’t care. I told him I wouldn’t help him, that I wanted nothing to do with him. So he decided to have his people use other methods to get what he wanted. That’s when I became his pawn.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It wasn’t just the pain. It was a symbol. Lombard was branding me. Making me his.” She slipped her right breast out of its cup. It wasn’t a sensual act; she was just revealing her truth. Next to her rose-colored nipple, a garish red snake had been tattooed across the full curve of her flesh.