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He rose and left. In his wake she was sure she detected a waft of patchouli aftershave or cologne.

Far out …

A few minutes later Dance happened to be looking into the doorway as Michael O’Neil appeared. He was in a dark plaid sports coat, navy blue shirt and jeans. Dance believed his clothes were better pressed now that he was divorced than when he’d been married to Anne, who was not known as the queen of domesticity. Though this might be her imagination, she allowed.

‘Saw TJ. He was saying nothing turned up on the canvass?’

‘No. We’ve talked to probably seven-eighths of the people who were at the club. No one spotted any potential perps.’ She told him TJ had looked into jealous musicians too.

‘Good call.’

‘But nothing.’ She asked him, ‘Anything more on the theater?’

‘Nope. Full canvass, security-video review. No vehicle. Nothing further. What was that about? Releasing the descrip of our boy? Overby?’

She puffed air from her lips. ‘Came from Steve Foster. He’s with us – CBI – in Sacramento. He’s claiming it was an accident. Blaming, quote, “somebody” in his office. But he let it leak. Power play, I’m sure.’

‘Brother.’

‘It’s not his case. He doesn’t care.’

‘You think our boy’s rabbited?’

‘I’d be gone,’ she said. ‘But then I didn’t set up a stampede and kill three people. I don’t know what makes him tick. He might be in Missouri or Washington State by now. He might be planning to attack the aquarium.’

Nodding, O’Neil extracted from his briefcase a thin manila folder with a metal fixture on top. Inside were a dozen sheets of paper. ‘Crime Scene. Had them working non-stop. No surprise – our unsub’s good. He wore cloth gloves.’

Latex gloves prevent a transfer of the perp’s fingerprints to what he touches at a scene but nothing prevents a transfer of prints to the inside of those latex gloves. Careless perps often discard them, without considering that. Cloth gloves, however, neither transfer nor retain prints.

He continued, ‘Prints on the Peterbilt truck key fob but none identifiable except the manager’s and the driver’s. The drop-box was negative too. No footprints. Nothing in the oil drum, with the fire, that’s any use forensically.’

Dance said, ‘I was thinking. It’s got to be hard to drive a truck that big. Can we use that to narrow the field? Find anybody who’s taken courses lately?’

‘I thought the same thing. But checked it out online. Would take about a half-hour to learn to drive one, even if you had no experience. Probably couldn’t back up or drive with a full load without practice but he basically just had to drive straight down the hill to the roadhouse.’

The Internet … Where you could learn everything from making a fertilizer bomb to baking a cherry pie to celebrate after you’d blown up your designated target.

O’Neil consulted his file. ‘No video cameras in the area. Solitude Creek’s too shallow for serious boating but in any case I didn’t get any hits in canvassing for fishermen. And no stolen kayaks or canoes.’ He’d had the same idea as she.

Her phone dinged: a text from TJ. The Serrano case. She typed, ‘KK.’ That was the new text message acknowledging ‘understood and agreed’. A single K wasn’t enough. She’d learned it from her son, Wes. She mentioned this to O’Neil. He nodded. ‘My kids are saying “amen”, a lot too. You notice?’

‘I get “church”. As in: “It’s true.” And also “It’s a thing.”’

‘“Thing”?’

Dance was going to tell him that she’d first heard the expression when Maggie was talking to her friend Bethany on the phone and she’d said, ‘Yeah, Mom and Jon, it’s like a thing.’ She instead told the detective: ‘Means, I think, it’s a phenomenon. More than what it seems. Significant.’

She wondered if he sensed the stumble and the overexplanation.

O’Neil said, ‘“Thing”. Better than “phenomenon”. I’d worry that crept into my kids’ vocabulary.’

Dance laughed.

Michael O’Neil wasn’t a chatterer. This was, for him, rambling.

Dance glanced down to the crime-scene file. She said, ‘Oh, wanted to mention: Sorry we had to cancel the fishing.’

O’Neil lived for his boat, which he’d pilot out into Monterey Bay once a week at least. He often took his own children and Dance’s. She herself had been a few times but her inner ear and waves were bad co-conspirators. If the Dramamine and patch didn’t kick in, she’d end up hanging over the side, unpleasant for all involved. And the trip would be cut short. They’d talked about having a day on the water last weekend but before plans had been firmed up she and Boling had decided to take the children to San Francisco. Dance had not told O’Neil the reason they’d canceled. She suspected he’d guessed. But he didn’t ask.

They talked for a few minutes about their children, plans for spring break. Dance mentioned Maggie’s forthcoming talent show at school.

‘She playing violin?’

Maggie’s instrument. She was far more musical than her mother, who was comfortable with a guitar but didn’t have the ear for a fretless fingerboard. Dance told him, ‘No, she’s singing.’

O’Neil said, ‘She’s got a great voice. Remember, I took them to The Lego Movie. That song? “Everything Is Awesome”? She sang it all the way home. I know it by heart, by the way. I’ll sing it for you some time.’

‘She’s doing that song from Frozen.’

‘“Let It Go”. I know that one too.’ Being a single parent with custody could take the edge off the hardest major-crimes detective. Then O’Neil, studying her: ‘What’s wrong?’

Dance realized she’d been frowning. ‘She’s uneasy about the talent show. Usually you can’t keep her offstage but, for this, she’s reluctant.’

‘She ever sung before in public?’

‘Yep. A dozen times. And her voice’s never been better. I was going to start her in lessons but all of a sudden she decided she didn’t want to. It’s funny. They whipsaw, you know, their moods. For a while Wes was depressed and Maggie was flitting around like Bella. Happy as could be. Now it’s the other way round.’ She explained that it might be a post-traumatic reaction to her husband’s death.

He said softly, ‘I know Bill died around this time of year.’

O’Neil had known Bill Swenson well; they’d worked together occasionally.

‘I’ve thought of that. But when kids want to stonewall …’

O’Neil, whose children were close in age to Maggie, said, ‘Don’t I know. But – persistence.’

Dance nodded. ‘So, Sunday, at seven? You and the kids want to come?’ She dug through her purse. ‘Hm. Have a hundred flyers in the car for her show. Thought I had one with me.’ She snapped the Coach bag shut.

‘Can I let you know? We might have plans. Bring a friend?’

‘Of course.’

Had he been dating? she wondered. It had been a while since they’d talked socially. Well, personally. Why shouldn’t he be going out with somebody? He’d been divorced for a while now. He was good-looking, in great shape, with a fine job. He was funny, kind … and had two adorable children whom his ex, in San Francisco, had little interest in.

Dance’s mother called him ‘the Catch’, because he liked to fish … and because he was.

She glanced at the Timex. ‘I’ve got to get into the field.’

‘Our case?’

‘No. The other thing.’

He sighed, glanced at her hip, where her weapon would otherwise have resided. ‘I’ll go with you.’

‘Not for this. It’s all right. I’ll have backup. I have to handle it a particular way. This one’s tricky.’ She almost said, ‘It’s a thing,’ but from O’Neil’s concerned expression she knew he wouldn’t have appreciated the levity.

CHAPTER 22

Charles Overby tapped a roll of fat above his belt. He wasn’t alarmed but he knew he’d have to rein in the snacks that went down a little too easy at the Nineteenth Hole. Maybe go to red wine. He believed it had fewer calories than white.

No, a spritzer. After the martini, of course. And no artichoke dip. It was the devil.

On his desk were ordered stacks of documents – the sign of a sane mind and a productive body, he often said. The one that troubled him most was the pile that was topped with a sheet that read: ‘Incident Report: Joaquin Serrano’. The other words that jumped out from the grayish boxes were ‘Kathryn Dance’. He noted too: ‘Disciplinary recommendations’.

His phone hummed with a text, which he read, and shaking his head for no one’s benefit, he rose. He debated a jacket but decided no.

Down the hall, aware of the peculiar smell of a cleanser the staff had switched to recently. Why was he aware of that? he wondered. Because of the case. Small distractions dulled the concerns.

Serrano …

In the Guzman Connection task-force conference room, Carol Allerton sat alone, squeezing the life from a chamomile teabag. She leaned starboard, to make sure any spatter wouldn’t hit the dozens of papers in front of her. She, too, was well ordered when it came to the stacks of documents in her cases.

‘Charles.’

‘Where is everybody?’

‘The two Steves’re in Salinas. FBI had somebody in town from one of their Oakland task forces. They’re picking his brain.’

‘Meetings, meetings, meetings,’ Overby said, with the boredom of truth in his voice, though no contempt. ‘Jimmy?’

‘He said he had another case lead, something he was working on before we put Guzman together.’

‘Well, we caught a lead in Serrano.’ He held up his phone, on which he’d just gotten the text. She glanced at it, perhaps wondering why the show-and-tell. ‘We have to move fast.’

‘You’ve got Serrano’s location?’

‘Not that lucky. But TJ found this guy knows Serrano.’

‘Who?’

‘Wasn’t more specific, except to say he wasn’t a banger. Worked with Serrano or his brother or somebody. A painter, house painter. May know where Serrano’s hiding out.’

‘Really?’ The woman’s voice was throaty and sensual. Overby, married to the same woman for ever, noted her tone objectively. ‘You should move on it. I’m going to call Sacramento and I’d love to be able to tell them that we’re closer to nailing Serrano.’

She’d be thinking: Because CBI West Central was the outfit that let him slip away in the first place.

‘Where is this guy?’

‘Seaside. Works nights, TJ says. Name of Tomas Allende.’

‘Not traditionally Mexican.’ Allerton was speaking absently.

‘I don’t know. What would that be?’

‘What? Oh, Spanish.’

‘Well. Here’s the address. Take Al Stemple with you. No reason to think it’s hostile, but no reason to think it isn’t. I’ll call him.’ Overby punched buttons.

Allerton rose and tugged down her close-fitting gray skirt. She, too, had a bit of fat over the belt. Other circumstances, he might’ve talked to her about how hard it was to lose those last twelve pounds. She pulled her jacket over her broad shoulders.

His phone clicked. ‘Yeah?’

‘Albert, ’s Charles. Need you to go with Agent Allerton, follow up on a lead to Serrano … That’s right … I don’t know, parking lot?’ He lifted an eyebrow to Allerton. She nodded. ‘Good. Now.’ He disconnected. ‘Good luck,’ Overby said and retreated to his office.

CHAPTER 23

Albert Stemple had been told he grunted a lot, though he didn’t think that was the case. He never said much, didn’t find it necessary most of the time, so he would respond to people with an Ah or Oh.

Maybe people thought words like that were grunts. I look like a guy who grunts, so people hear grunts.

The massive man, head free of hair and shaped like an egg, though shinier, stood with his arms crossed outside the rear door of CBI, looking over the parking lot. Since Stemple was the closest thing CBI had to a SWAT team, he’d been in more firefights and had more collars than any other agent in the division, which meant he had a price on that glossy head of his.

Stemple tended to check vistas and shadows regularly.

CBI’s back door opened and Carol Allerton stepped outside, nodding to Stemple, taking in his jeans, black T-shirt and impressive Beretta .45, the only caliber a man should carry. He supposed the bump on her hip through her gray jacket was a teeny Glock. A 26, he guessed. Not bad. If you liked peashooters.

When she looked at his face with a bit of hesitation, Stemple knew she’d been considering the scars. You should see the other guys.

He nodded.

‘Hi,’ Allerton said.

‘We’re going to Seaside. A Serrano lead.’

‘Right.’

‘Hm.’ Maybe grunt-like. ‘I’ll drive,’ he told her.

‘Hey,’ came a woman’s voice behind them.

Kathryn Dance walked up from the side of the building, where her car was parked, the gray Pathfinder. Nose art from her dogs decorated the back windows. Stemple liked her dogs; he knew them pretty well, being a regular visitor to the Deck. He was after Dance to let him borrow the flat-coated retriever, take her hunting and bring back a dressed duck or two for the family. He’d made the mistake of mentioning that in front of Dance’s kids; the look in her eyes, the response, was a hard one to describe. It meant no in a lot of different ways.

Allerton was eyeing Dance neutrally as the CBI agent walked up. She looked around, then moved closer yet. ‘Al.’

A nod.

‘Carol, there’s something I want to talk to you about. Both of you, really.’

‘Sure, Kathryn.’

Stemple gave a second nod. Maybe a grunt.

‘I heard you had a lead to Serrano.’

The DEA agent hesitated.

Dance said, ‘Well, I know you do. TJ told me. He’s my inside man. You’re going to talk to this lead now?’

Allerton held her gaze. ‘We are.’

Dance said, ‘I want to interview him.’

‘Well …’

‘I know the turf, Carol. I don’t know this particular subject but I know the crowd he’d hang with. That gives me a huge leg up.’

‘But Charles,’ Allerton said. ‘He suspended you.’

Stemple watched Dance’s lips tighten. ‘All right. The other thing?’ She glanced at Stemple, then decided, it seemed, to plunge ahead. ‘You don’t know Charles as well as I do. If I were a man and what happened with Serrano happened? He wouldn’t’ve busted me. Hate to say it but …’ Dance shook her head. ‘You’ve been through this too, Carol. You know how it is.’

Her expression said: Women in law enforcement. Yes, I do.

Dance added, ‘I’ll give you full credit for everything I find out. And that’ll go all the way to Washington. I’ll disappear.’

‘No, that’s not necessary.’

‘Actually, yeah, it is. Charles can’t know anything, that I’m involved. All I want is to nail Serrano.’

‘Sure,’ Allerton said, nodding. ‘I get it. Completely sub-rosa.’

Whatever that meant. Though Stemple hammered out a definition.

Now another glance his way.

Dance said, ‘I may already be under the bus—’

‘Charles’d do that to you?’ Now Stemple couldn’t control the grunt.

‘—already under the bus, but we get Serrano back, Sacramento won’t be clamoring for my head quite so loud. It’s the only chance I’ve got to pull something out of the fire here.’

Allerton was scanning the parking lot, thoughtful, not looking for acquiring targets, though, as Stemple was doing. ‘The fact is, Kathryn, I could use your help. I’m not the best interviewer in the world.’