Serpent's Tooth (23 page)

“Bourbon Street.” Webster paused. “She’s from Louisiana?”

Kelly nodded.

“But Sean’s from Texas.”

Kelly faced him. “How’d you know that?”

Shit
, Webster thought. Sometimes a little learning is indeed a dangerous thing. Smoothly, he said, “I recognized the accent.”

“You think Sean has an
accent
?”

“To my Southern ear, it screams Dallas, Texas.”

“Ah.” Kelly smiled. “Guess it takes one to know one. Accents, I mean. Are you
really
from the South?”

“Biloxi, Mississippi, if you please. Home of the Dixie Mafia.”

“But you’re college educated, aren’t you.”

“Tulane University.” Webster smiled. “Ever thought of a career as a detective?”

Again Kelly smiled. Then she checked her watch. “I really gotta go.”

“Out of curiosity,” Webster said, “who’s Sean dating now?”

Kelly shrugged. “Don’t know. Why?”

Again, Webster was forced to ad-lib. “If she’s young enough, might be helpful to warn her about Sean’s temper.”

“Oh.” Kelly nodded. “That’s nice of you.” She thought a moment. “Could be he’s seeing someone from Greenvale. He’s there all the time practicing his backhand. He’s on the school’s varsity tennis team.”

“Ever see him there with anyone specific?”

Kelly shook her head no. “Just his tennis partner, Ms. Garrison.”

“Garrison…” Webster paused. “Why does that name…” He stared at Kelly. “Now that wouldn’t be
Jeanine
Garrison, would it?”

Kelly nodded. “Her parents were murdered at Estelle’s.”

Webster said, “And she and Sean are
tennis
partners?”

Kelly nodded.

“Maybe that’s why Sean’s so freaked out about Harlan. That this monster killed his partner’s parents.”

Kelly looked at Webster. “Good observation.”

“Thanks.” Webster appeared to be thinking. “Jeanine Garrison. She’s a bit older than Sean.”

“She’s in her late twenties, I think. Why?”

“Any chance that maybe she and Sean are…”

“
What?
”

Webster backtracked. “Just a thought.”

Kelly laughed. “Sean may be hot stuff for high school. But Ms. Garrison is like…God, she’s
beautiful
! And she always has like a ton of men hanging around her. Sean is
way
out of her league.”

“I see. Thanks for talking to me, Kelly. Can I ask you a favor? Keep what we talked about confidential? It would make my life easier.”

Kelly smiled sadly. “I’ve kept a zillion secrets in my life. One more ain’t no big deal.”

“Hassle minors,” Decker
repeated.

“Yes,” Webster said.

“You’re sure Sean used the word
minor
.”

“I’m sure. And then he said that my superior would hear about it. ‘It’ meaning the conversation I was having with the kids.”

“Hostile little bugger,” Oliver said. “Probably thinks that a good defense is an offense.”

“Reckon that about sums it up.”

Decker sat back in his chair. “Jeanine prepped him.”

“My take on the situation,” Webster said.

Marge said, “You know, she might have messed herself up. By Sean making a case of his being a minor…if she and he are screwing…well, then she can’t plead ignorance of his age.”

Oliver said, “She can always claim he told her he was eighteen.”

“But the onus is on her.” Martinez turned to Webster. “You think he’s spouting idle threats?”

“Maybe.”

Decker sipped cold coffee. “My opinion? We’re going to hear about it. Probably first thing Sean did when he got home was give Garrison a ring.”

“She’s calling the shots,” Webster said.

Oliver said, “Probably told Seanny boy to call the police and make a stink.”

“Not call the
police
,” Decker said. “Call the
school
. Have them make the stink.” He looked at Webster. “Where were you when you talked to the kids? I mean physically. Where were you standing?”

Webster thought a moment. “’Bout fifty yards from the front entrance of Westbridge.”

“On school property?”

“On the sidewalk.”

“Public domain,” Marge said.

Decker said. “But you were still standing in front of school buildings, correct?”

“Yes.”

Without preamble, Strapp walked into Decker’s office.

“We’ve been expecting you,” Oliver said. “Get a call from a kid named Sean Amos, Captain?”

“Westbridge Prep.” Strapp’s eyes locked on to Webster’s face. “You were out there today, Tom?”

“Yes, sir.”

Decker said, “Captain, we agreed to interview the kids about Harlan Manz—”

“Not on school property, Pete.”

Webster said, “I wasn’t on school property. I was on the sidewalk.”

“You didn’t enter the school?” Strapp asked.

“No.” Webster grew tense. “And last I heard interviewing kids politely didn’t constitute police harassment.”

Strapp said, “Tell me what happened.”

Webster recapped his conversations with the teens for the second time in twenty minutes. Strapp listened carefully.

Afterward, Decker said, “When did the call from Westbridge come through, Captain?”

“About five minutes ago.”

Decker said, “And when did you leave the school, Tom?”

“Around five-fifteen.”

Decker’s eyes swept over the wall clock. Six-thirty. “Okay. Sean waited before he called the school to register
the complaint. First, he called Jeanine, asked her what to do—”

“Got their stories straight,” Oliver said.

“So what do we do?” Marge asked. “Look for outgoing calls from Sean’s number to Jeanine’s. Or if he’s involved, would Sean be stupid enough to use his own phone number?”

“People do stupid things when they panic,” Oliver said.

“I say we look for incoming calls to Jeanine,” Martinez said.

Decker looked at Strapp. “What would it hurt?”

“Go ahead.”

Decker picked up the receiver, dialed the phone company, gave out his badge number, and waited.

Martinez said, “You know, it doesn’t say much even if he did call her. They
are
tennis partners.”

Marge said, “It’s the timing, Bert. Sean hassles Tom, goes home, then
waits
to call the school. First, he calls Jeanine. You’re telling me he’s more interested in a tennis date than in registering a complaint?”

Strapp said, “It proves nothing, Dunn.”

“Yes, I’m still here.” Decker picked up a pen, wrote down the telephone number. “Thank you.”

He hung up, held the slip in the air. “West Valley prefix.”

Martinez said, “I’ll look it up.”

Decker said, “If it isn’t in the backward directory, Bert, call up the phone company.”

Martinez took the slip with the phone number and left to work at his desk.

“Even if Sean did call Jeanine,” Strapp said, “just what exactly are you trying to establish?”

Oliver said, “That Sean’s involved as the number two shooter—”

“If there even
is
a number two shooter,” Strapp interrupted.

“If Sean was involved in Estelle’s,” Webster said, “I don’t picture him as the number two shooter. Kelly Putnam summed him up as all bluff and no bite, and I agree. Sean’s
hotheaded, but a coward. Backed off immediately when I came on strong.”

“He called the school on us,” Oliver said.

“A phone call avoids direct confrontation.”

“Tommy, if he’s a red-blooded teenager, he’d do anything for pussy.”

Webster said, “I don’t think the little snot has the balls to pull a trigger.”

Martinez came back into the office. “Phone call was made from a pay phone about a half mile from the Amos house.”

Marge said, “We should send someone out right now. Dust it for prints.”

Strapp said, “Since when is it against the law for Sean Amos to use a pay phone?”

“C’mon, Captain,” Decker said. “A kid like that is bound to have either a cellular phone or a car phone or both. Why would he bother with a pay phone unless he’s trying to hide something?”

Strapp said, “If Tom doesn’t believe that Sean was involved in the shooting, why are we
hassling
him?”

“Sir, I think he was involved in the shooting,” Webster said. “Just not as the triggerman.”

“So how was he involved if he didn’t shoot?” Martinez asked. “Orchestrated the thing? Brokered it out?”

“Maybe both.”

Strapp threw up his hands. “I don’t like this at all. You’re chasing ghosts. Go back to standard investigating procedures.”

Marge said, “So let me go out to the phone booth and dust for prints, Captain. That’s standard detective procedure from the get-go.”

“I’m putting myself on the line here,” Strapp said, “allocating detective time without a decent reason. You know you’re going to find Sean’s prints on the phone. So what?”

“Sir, we connect Sean to Jeanine,” Oliver said. “Then, twenty minutes later, the school calls us on a harassment charge—”

“That’s reverse police harassment,” Marge said. “You
know, we should check incoming calls to the school. Find out if any of them match Sean’s number.”

Strapp said, “This is really skirting the law.”

Oliver said, “He’s a suspect—”

“Suspect in
what
, Scott? You don’t have an atom of proof of Sean’s involvement.”

“That’s what we’re trying to establish, Captain,” Webster said.

“But first you need reasonable cause, Tom! Right now, you don’t have shit!”

“How about this, Captain?” Decker spoke calmly. “Sean roughed up his sister.”

“He grabbed her arm—”

“According to the law, it’s assault,” Decker said. “True or false?”

“Go on.” Strapp was irritated.

“According to Kelly, Sean has a history of roughing up girls. Now after Tom spoke to him, he was angry…hotheaded. Maybe we should put a tail on him. Just to
make sure
he doesn’t do anything to his sister or Kelly or anybody else.”

Webster grinned. “The Loo has a point, sir. Sean’s a bully. I think he bears watching. What do you think?”

Strapp said, “You’re stretching longer than a hippo’s condom.”

Decker said, “Of course we’re stretching. We’re doing everything back door—”

“
Why
do you really want to tail him?” Strapp was annoyed.

Decker said, “Because Tom thinks he’s immature and impulsive. And Bert made a good point. Maybe Sean is the broker for the hit. The middle man. The kid’s already registered a complaint against us—”

“Westbridge never said it was Sean,” Strapp said.

“Sir, we could check that out,” Martinez said. “All it would take is a quick call to the phone company.”

Marge said, “Hate to be a broken record, but I’d still like to go dust the pay phone for prints.”

Strapp scowled.

Webster said, “What would it hurt to see where Sean’ll take this?”

Marge said, “Scare him bad enough, maybe he’ll lead us to a candidate for number two shooter.”

“Or to Jeanine,” Martinez said.

“And maybe he’ll sit tight,” Strapp said. “If Jeanine Garrison has half the cunning we think she has, that’s exactly what she told him to do. Sit tight. Don’t do anything because they have no proof. And she’s right.”

Marge said, “All the more reason to scare him.”

“And how do you propose to do that without making contact with the boy, Detective Dunn?”

“I agree,” Decker said. “No contact with Sean because he’s a minor. But it’s easy to shake him up, sir. Just make the tail obvious.”

Oliver smiled widely. “Two-car tail. First for show. Second for real.”

“What do you say, Captain?” Decker said. “Do we run an investigation or do we run?”

“That’s not fair.”

Decker was quiet.

Strapp swore under his breath. “All right. Go for it.”

Gaynor threw up his hands. “Sorry, Loo. I checked through six months of receipts. I couldn’t find any large sums of money debited from any of Jeanine’s accounts.”

Decker rubbed his eyes, looked at his wall clock. Seven-thirty. He had hoped to make it home a half hour ago…take Rina out for dinner and a movie. If he hustled, they could still make a movie…maybe have ice cream afterward. He said, “What are your criteria for large sums of money, Farrell?”

“Any lump sum over twenty-five hundred,” Gaynor said. “During the past week, she has made several withdrawals of around a thousand each. But I’ve traced them to deposits—for a caterer and for the arena for her upcoming wheelchair tennis tournament.”

“Don’t talk to me about that!” Decker picked up an eraser, threw it across the room. “If she hired a hit man
for Estelle’s, she had to pay him somehow!”

“Hidden cash,” Gaynor said. “Withdraw a couple of hundred one week, a couple of hundred the next…pretty soon she’d have a tidy sum.”

“A couple of hundred a week?” Decker looked at Farrell. “Take her a while to save up enough to pay off two hit men.”

“Two hit men?”

“I’m counting Harlan Manz as a hit man.”

“So maybe she didn’t pay out in money,” Gaynor said. “Maybe she paid in sex.”

“If Sean Amos hired a second shooter, she couldn’t have paid
him
with sex. Money had to have been exchanged somehow.”

“So maybe Sean paid and she paid Sean back.” Gaynor frowned. “No, that wouldn’t work. There’d still be cash out from her accounts.” He paused. “She could have a secret account somewhere. I couldn’t tap into everything.”

Decker ran his hands through his hair. Marge walked into his office, her nose and cheeks blackened with print dust. “The good news is I have solid whorls. The bad news is Sean Amos doesn’t have anything resembling a record. So I have nothing to match them against.”

Decker said, “Label them and put them under Jeanine Garrison’s file for the time being…until I figure out what to do with them.”

Marge said, “Are both Scott and Tom watching Sean?”

“Just Oliver right now. Because the kid hasn’t moved. Holed up in his manse.” Decker blew out air. “Strapp’s right. The kid’s gonna sit. Whole thing’s a bloody waste of time.”

Suddenly, he stood and put on his jacket.

“It’s been a long day for me. I’m packing it in.”

Gaynor said, “Save my wife a trip if you took me home, sir.”

“Be glad to.”

“I’ll take you home, Farrell,” Marge offered. “If you don’t mind waiting until I’ve finished some paperwork.”

“Nah, I don’t mind.”

“Nonsense,” Decker said. “I’ll take you home now, Farrell.”

“It won’t take me long, Pete.”

“It’s not a problem for me, Marge.”

“This is nice,” Gaynor said.

Decker stopped talking. “What’s nice, Farrell?”

“Being fought over.” The old man smiled. “Been a long time since I’ve felt wanted.”