Page 59 of Den of Iniquity

“I started looking into your background on Kyle’s behalf. He’s my client. I’ll be reporting my findings to him. He may or may not choose to share the information with his father, although they’re not exactly on the best of terms at the moment. So my guess is that what you tell Jeremy is in your court, right along with whether or not you contact Marisa.”

“All right,” she said. “I’ll think about it. As for Kyle? Tell him I’m sorry.”

I didn’t ask sorry for what. There were all kinds of things for her to be sorry about in this scenario, and I had no idea which of those that brief apology was meant to address.

Chapter 27

Seattle, Washington

Wednesday to Thursday, March 4–5, 2020

Once off the phone with Caroline, I called Marisa back and gave her an update. I think she sounded disappointed that I had left the ball about further contact in Caroline’s court, but I felt that was the right call. With Jeremy still in the dark about all this, any communication between them had to be done at times when Caroline was able to speak freely.

I had expected to go straight back to viewing the mini-mart footage, but Officer Harriman tapped on the door. “Time’s up,” she said. “Shutting down for the day. Will you be back tomorrow?”

“That’s the plan,” I told her.

“All right then,” she said. “You can leave all your crap in here. I’ll lock it up so no one disturbs it. That way I won’t have to have someone put it away tonight and then drag it out again in the morning.”

“Sounds good,” I said. “Thanks.”

I headed for the barn—in this case the Westin in downtown Seattle, and that was a good thing. After spending hours studying video footage and talking on the phone, my eyes were worn out and so was my butt. Chairs in evidence rooms aren’t designed for putting in a full day’s work. Not only that, driving ninety miles to get home would have been tough. While I’d been locked away in a windowless room that was smaller than Mel’s walk-in closet, the weather had taken a turn for the worse.

I checked in, went up to my room, and ordered a carafe of coffee from room service. My crosswords were calling me, but I decided it was time to give Kyle a call and let him know how things stood.

When he answered the phone, he sounded excited. “Hey, Gramps,” he said. “Did you know that Hank’s car is a freaking Shelby?”

Color me surprised. Shelbys were new when I was Kyle’s age. How the hell would an eighteen-year-old Gen Zer (If that’s what they’re called these days!) even know about Shelbys? I made the mistake of saying as much.

“How do you know about Shelbys?” I asked.

“Didn’t you see the movie?” he asked.

I was caught flat-footed. “What movie?”

Kyle sighed. “Ford v Ferrari,” he answered, sounding aggrieved.

“Never heard of it,” I said.

“It’s a terrific movie,” he told me, “and I’ve got the DVD. We should watch it together sometime once you’re back home.”

Having been pleasantly surprised byThe Martian, I went ahead and agreed with him. “Yes,” I said, “by all means, let’s. Maybe we could invite Hank to join us.”

“That would be great!” Kyle agreed enthusiastically, surprising me for the second time in less than a minute.

“On another subject,” I said, “would you like an update on your case?”

“My case?”

“I’m a private investigator. You’re the client who asked me to look into the background of one Caroline Richards, and I’m prepared to fill you in on what I’ve learned so far.”

“Please do,” he said, and so I did.

“Does my dad know about any of this?” Kyle asked when I finished.

“Not so far,” I replied, “unless Caroline clued him in after we got off the phone this afternoon.”

“So I probably shouldn’t tell him?”

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