“Hello?”
“Jessica, it’s Jon.”
“Jon, where are you?”
“I’m here, in town. I need your help.”
“You need to-”
“You tipped me off because you believe me. If you believe me then you have to trust me. I need your help and I can prove I didn’t kill Francisco.”
“Where are you calling from?”
“Payphone at the 7-11 down the block.”
“Okay. Come up. I’ll leave the door unlocked.”
It was only a few minutes later before Stanton walked in to her apartment and announced his presence. She was getting dressed and said she would be out in a minute. He sat down on her couch and leaned his head back, staring at the ceiling. Before long she stepped out of the bedroom in pin-striped suit pants and a red sleeveless blouse. She wore her holster and firearm and put on a women’s jacket. He knew the firearm display was for him. Just in case.
“I found this,” Stanton said, laying the paper on the coffee table. She picked it up and read it.
“What does it mean?”
“I don’t know. I googled the two address terms. There’s only one place in the state where streets named Montego and Aberdeen intersect. It’s near the Salton Sea. But what I need from you is to check with Eddie in forensics and see if he checked the vent in the bathroom at Francisco Hernandez’s apartment.”
Jessica instantly knew where he was going.
“You think it was placed there after the scene was processed?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “It would be incredibly incompetent for Eddie not to look in the vent and I wouldn’t describe Eddie as incompetent.”
“Okay. Hang on.”
She pulled out her cell phone and dialed the police switchboard. She asked for Eddie Bowler and was put on hold for two minutes before a gruff voice answered.
“Yeah?”
“Eddie, this is Jessica Turner, in Cold Case.”
“Yeah, what’dya need?”
“You were the one that processed the Francisco Hernandez scene, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you remember checking the vent in the bathroom for any foreign material? Specifically a small sheet of paper.”
“I’m sure I did.”
“Would you mind checking?” There was a brief silence. “I know it’s a pain in the ass and I’m sorry. But this is really important to the Chief and he’s on me about it.”
“Yeah, all right. Sit tight.”
Jessica heard keys being punched on a keyboard and the loud exhalations of an annoyed Eddie Bowler. She thought she heard music in the background; Jimi Hendrix.
“Ok,” he mumbled to himself, “Hernandez, Hernandez … hey that was the detective that was iced. The one undercover.”
“That’s him.”
“Huh. Okay, hang on … all right, we did a grid search and … yes, I checked the vent for over twenty inches and didn’t find anything. It tilted at an angle and no one could’ve gotten anything in farther than that.”
“That’s all I needed to know. Thanks, Eddie.”
“Yup.”
She hung up the phone and sat down in a large wicker chair with a blue seat cushion. “Checked the vent for twenty inches and didn’t find anything. So I guess that means it was put there after we left. How would they know you would come back?”
“I don’t know. If they knew that they had to have known I wouldn’t be the one assigned to the case. So they would just somehow have to guess that I would come back and search the bathroom. We were thinking Francisco was killed and then dragged into the living room, but maybe someone came in after and dragged him there and left the note for me.”
“You thinking another cop?”
“Maybe. Honestly I don’t know what to think. I’m feeling burned out.”
“Jon, I do believe you. But I don’t want to lose my career by helping you.”
“I understand. I wasn’t suggesting that I stay here. I just need to go somewhere and sleep for awhile.” He rose to leave. “I’m going to the Salton Sea. I’ll call you afterward. Take the note in to latent prints and have them run it.”
“Do you need me to do anything else?”
“I don’t think there is anything you can do. But thanks. You can’t imagine how nice it is to have someone on your side when everyone else is against you.”
“Yeah, I can.”
38
Chief Harlow was not used to waiting. He sat now on a metal bench at the Pelican Bay State Prison and checked his watch. They had kept him waiting over an hour and a half. It was punishment, he knew, from the warden. The chief had scheduled a visit by his own calendar rather than the prison’s and two extra guards had to be pulled away and stuck in the visiting corridor.
He strove that, no matter what, he would always be honest with himself. It was difficult enough to be honest with others but to look at oneself without judgment and without filtering was nearly impossible. It was something you had to work on for years and do constantly, from sun up to sun down. He felt he had a grasp of himself now. Of what he felt and why he felt it. It helped calm him in difficult situations.
But for some reason he was fuming. He couldn’t think about anything but running up to the warden’s office and chewing him out. But he knew he had no authority here. At best, the warden would yell back. At worst, he would have him arrested and escorted off the property or stuck in a cell for a few hours. Wardens and judges were the last forms of tyranny left in America.
The door opened and a guard led Noah Sherman in. He placed him down on the metal stool in front of Harlow and he picked up the phone as Harlow did the same.
“I heard they got you as temporary chief now.”
“Position turned permanent.”
“Oh yeah? What happened to Rufino Ortiz? I thought he was next in line.”
“He retired based on some problems he was having.”
“Problems?” Sherman said with a chuckle. “Jesus, you are a politician. I heard he got busted with coke. I knew Rufino. Really well. Never once saw him with coke in all the years I knew him.”
“Yeah, well I guess we don’t really know people.”
“No, guess not. So first Jon and now you. You guys miss me down there or something?”
“I have a proposition for you.”
“And what’s that?”
“Tami Jacobs. Twenty-three, blond, found in her-”
“I remember the case. What about it?”
“I need your help on it.”
“You took me off that case and gave it to a couple of ass-kissers that just came up from the Gang Unit.”
“I know, I remember. But you got farther than anyone.”
“Then why’d you take me off?”
“I have my reasons.”
He was quiet a moment and then said, “You know what, Mike? I never trusted you. From the first fucking second I saw you I thought you were a snake that would kill his own mother if it made him a few bucks.”
“Fuck you, Noah. Don’t forget which one of us is on this side of the glass.”
“Yeah, I know. In a perfect world you’d be back here with me.”
“In a perfect world Jon’s bullet would have been a few more inches to the right and you’d be in a grave instead of a cell.” He leaned forward on his elbows. “And let me ask you something: why the fuck would you try and kill your partner? He would’ve worked something out with you.”
“He would have arrested me and testified against me at my trial. There’s no gray area for him. Now cut the shit. What do you want?”
“I want that case solved. As quickly as possible. You think you can handle it?”
Sherman’s eyes lit up and a smile came over his lips. He leaned back and spread his legs, allowing himself to slouch comfortably. “What makes you think I haven’t already?”
“You would’ve told me.”
“Would I? You fucked me and gave the biggest case of my career to two dumbasses who’d never worked a homicide. You really think I’d hand over everything I had to them?”
“No,” Harlow admitted, “you wouldn’t.”
“You know what’s interesting about you, Mike? Do you know why you just said that?”