Boldt And Matthews: No Witnesses Part 43

LaMoia said, "Hey, Sarge, get this: Tonight you and I came out of the closet."

THIRTY-EIGHT.

At Owen Adler's recommendation they met at Place Pigalle because it was small and intimate and offered a stunning water view. Boldt noticed Daphne's new ring immediately, but he said nothing because he was not sure Liz had seen it yet. But of course, she had. Liz did not miss much when it came to Daphne Matthews. The ring was both handsome and elegant, though not showy, and Boldt admired Adler for that.

Boldt had accepted the invitation reluctantly, not wanting to leave his home for any reason, not comfortable with the idea of socializing with the two of them, but he had never been good at denying Daphne much of anything. She had gotten him into this investigation, and now, in her own way, she was letting him out.

Boldt asked, "How do you interpret Fowler's statement?"

In a plea bargain to lessen the charges, Kenny Fowler had agreed to cooperate by giving a written statement. One of Daphne's jobs was to a.n.a.lyze the psychology behind it. "From the day he left SPD he told all of us he was going to have his own agency. Working for Owen, he spent as much money as he made-actually more most of the time; he lived beyond his means. He felt inferior-Howard Taplin's go-and-fetch-it. He claims that the Caulfield case brought all those feelings home. That he suddenly saw a way to make enough money to strike out on his own. He knew the look of the faxes, the language, and the tone-he could imitate the killer and extort money. If people kept dying, he could use this to apply more pressure."

"But he withheld information," Boldt reminded.

"He lied to all of us," Adler snapped. "If it was a matter of money-" but he cut himself off, clearly too upset to discuss it.

Daphne continued hesitantly, "The statement says nothing about the original New Leaf cover-up, or framing Caulfield on the drug charges. I suspect that his intention all along was to find Caulfield himself, before we did, and to take him out. That way he could continue the extortion while the New Leaf connection to the killings remained unproven, probably hoping it would fade away." She looked out at the view. "He exploited everything and everyone around him." She clearly included herself in this. Liz poked her husband in the leg, her actions hidden beneath the table. Boldt asked no more questions.

Liz changed the subject, asking questions about Corky, and Adler brightened and told a series of amusing stories.

He ordered champagne, and Liz changed hers to a San Pellegrino because of the child growing inside her. This announcement won several toasts and more talk of Corky, and naturally led into Adler's blushing, tongue-tied inability to speak, and Daphne's finally announcing their engagement. She confessed, "It may be the only engagement in history to be consummated not by a kiss, but a handshake."

Boldt and Daphne met eyes briefly, and he saw in hers a terrified joy that he had longed to see there. Far out on the water the ferries came and went, their lights blurred in reflection. Daphne drank nervously and started telling stories on Boldt, reminding him of things that he pretended to have forgotten.

Adler drank to Liz for the time-trap software, and to Boldt for everything he had done, and to his fiancee "for finding the truth." No one mentioned Harry Caulfield by name. Howard Taplin was cooperating with authorities, but he received no toasts that night. Boldt said a silent toast for Danielson and Striker-one recovering, the other facing a difficult trial and a messy divorce.

In all, it was an awkward evening for Boldt. He fought Adler for the check and lost, and this seemed significant to him. He drove home in silence with his wife napping in her seat, and when they pulled up to the garage, her eyes still closed, Liz said, "She'll always be your friend. It won't change that. You'll see."

He had no way to follow that. He got the door for her and they held hands on the way to the kitchen. After checking in on Miles, Liz paid the baby-sitter while Boldt tended to the day's mail piled by the kitchen phone. Among the letters was a brown package, and like a good cop, Boldt treated it suspiciously, chastising himself once he read the return address.

"I wondered what that was," Liz said, as her husband opened it carefully. "But I didn't touch it," she added. Boldt hated the precautions, he resented so much of his public service. The package was incredibly light and was marked FRAGILE, with a series of bright red stickers.

The note was on personalized stationery and read simply, For your boy. I forget his name. Did you tell me it? I don't remember. It seemed a shame to let it go to waste. I know he's too young. But perhaps someday he can finish this.-Betty Inside, he found the partially completed model of the s.p.a.ce Shuttle.

THIRTY-NINE.

Howard Taplin took the stand for the third time in as many days. He had turned state's witness, and the convictions were piling up in a case that drew both Court TV and CNN updates. The succession of trials was nearly as exhausting as the investigation for the lead detective. It was in that horrible time of year for Boldt-between Thanksgiving and Christmas, when the sky was gray, the air cold, and there was canned Christmas music playing from fuzzy speakers on every street.

Kenny Fowler went down in flames, receiving three thirty-year sentences to be served consecutively. Amazingly to Boldt, Cornelia Uli was acquitted after the prosecution proved without a shadow of a doubt that she had served as Fowler's accomplice, had opened the phony bank account, and had made over twelve thousand dollars in withdrawals. Television reporters called it a sympathy vote, for Uli had been arrested seven years earlier by Fowler during a gang raid and had been forced to serve as his s.e.xual partner ever since. The jury apparently bought the defense's position that she had been brainwashed. LaMoia had summed it up as far as Boldt was concerned: "That's the law for you. Go figure."

Boldt still owed his wife that champagne dinner, but he had not forgotten, despite what she thought. He was in fact saving up to make it dinner in Rome, though that required another few months of happy hour at the Big Joke. Miles was in the terrible twos, and this, Boldt thought, was the only redeeming value of the endless series of trials.

He sneaked out of the courtroom the minute he was handed the note by the guard, and he knew what to expect despite its vagueness. Reporters' eyes followed him. These days, where Boldt went, the press followed. He was sick and tired of it. He wanted his life back. But they could not follow him down into County Detention where he was headed; the guards stopped them.

He walked and walked, down into the bowels of a system that failed at every turn. This was but one more example. He felt his gun at the first station, and he flinched when the bars shut behind him, because he always flinched when he heard that sound. His shoes squeaked on the clean cement floor, though he avoided the center drain.

The guard was making excuses, but Boldt hardly heard them. He had argued; he had warned. He had heard the words of Dr. Richard Clements as he had seen him off at the airport: "You keep your eye on him. He's one determined fellow."

This was no place for Caulfield. He had been inside before, and the five years he had served for a trumped-up drug charge had helped to buy him a life sentence rather than death row. That was when Boldt had pressed for a suicide watch and had lost. The arguments had centered around transporting him back and forth for the trial, overcrowding, and expense.

They stopped in front of the cell. He hoped the guard was finished making excuses, but the man added, "I guess if you're crazy, you're just crazy."

Harry Caulfield had vomited, much as his victims had vomited. He was lying in the bed, his head c.o.c.ked to one side, eyes shut. Perhaps it had been a peaceful death.

"You suppose he complained about the rats just so we'd put out the poison? I mean what kind of idiot would do such a thing? What the h.e.l.l are we going to say?"

"That he got what he wanted." The morning paper open on the floor meant nothing to the guard. But Boldt saw it was open to the business pages. He knew the article: ADLER FOODS FILES CHAPTER ELEVEN. Besieged by lawsuits, Adler had folded his shop, though according to Daphne he vowed to return. Adler was not one to stay down long.

"Crazy b.a.s.t.a.r.d," the guard said.

Boldt turned and headed back for the entrance, pa.s.sing cell after cell of human beings behind bars. They stood with their hands on the bars, staring out at him, envying his freedom to leave this place.

As he pa.s.sed the front desk, the guard held out Boldt's weapon. He stopped, stared at it. The man wiggled it. It grew heavy for him.

Boldt accepted it. Snapped it into the holster.

He flinched as the cell door closed loudly behind him.

About the Author.

Ridley Pearson is a New York Times bestselling author of crime fiction (Probable Cause, Middle of Nowhere); suspense/horror (The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer); and children's chapter books (coauthor of Peter and the Starcatchers). His forty-plus novels include Undercurrents, Chain of Evidence, and The Body of David Hayes. In 1991 he became the first American to be awarded the Raymond Chandler/Fulbright Fellowship in detective fiction at Oxford University. Ridley, his wife, Marcelle, and their two daughters currently divide their time between the Midwest and the Northern Rockies.

www.ridleypearson.com.

Also by Ridley Pearson.

The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer: My Life at Rose Red.

(writing as Joyce Reardon).

Peter and the Starcatchers.

(co-written with Dave Barry).

Cut and Run.

The Body of David Hayes*

The Art of Deception*

Parallel Lies Middle of Nowhere*

The First Victim*

The Pied Piper*

Beyond Recognition*

Chain of Evidence No Witnesses*

The Angel Maker*

Hard Fall Probable Cause Undercurrents*

Hidden Charges.

Blood of the Albatross Never Look Back *features Lou Boldt / Daphne Matthews.

WRITING AS WENDELL MCCALL.

Dead Aim.

Aim for the Heart.

Concerto in Dead Flat.

SHORT STORIES.

"All Over but the Dying" in Diagnosis Terminal, edited by F. Paul Wilson.

"Close Shave" in Murder Is My Racquet, edited by Otto Penzler.

COLLECTIONS.

The Putt at the End of the World, a serial novel.

TELEVISION.

The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer (Movie, ABC TV, May 2003).

Investigative Reports: Inside AA (A&E Network, June 2000).

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