“You do. You do, indeed.”
“Then leave me alone!” she screamed. “Everyone leave me alone!” She lay down on the bed, curled up, scrunched her face, and began pounding the mattress.
Milo gave me a helpless look.
I said, “Let’s go.”
*
We stopped at a place on Colorado Boulevard for coffee and theory.
“Protais Bumaya existed,” he said. “You saw him, I saw him. But no one’s got any record of him entering or leaving the country, and those names he gave us—his supposed friends? Bogus. I never bothered to check. Guy snookered me good.”
“He probably tagged along on some kind of diplomatic mission.”
He aimed an index finger at me. “Another ka-ching. Matter of fact, last month a trade delegation from Rwanda toured the country. Bumaya’s name wasn’t on the roster, but what the hell does that mean? Meanwhile, Mr. McKenzie, the erstwhile Rwandan consul in S.F., is charming but not very helpful.”
I covered my eyes, then my ears and mouth.
“The techs went over that backyard on Spalding. Owners had been out of town for a month, the gates were locked, but it was easy enough to hop over. Perfect view of the park bench and easy hiding behind a big thatch of banana plants. Wet soil, you’d think there’d be a footprint, but nada. Not a single indentation, no shell casings, no cigarette butts.”
“Jerry’s a pro,” I said. “Freelancing for foreign governments. Perfect civilian transition for a restless old Special Forces guy.”
“I got B.H. techs to go through his house. They found gunpowder residue and some iron filings in a locker in the garage but no weapons. Big locker, though, enough for a sizable stash. Rifles, scopes, all the good stuff.”
“Bumaya hired Quick to avenge the murdered boys,” I said, “and maybe some other people, too. Quick kept a close watch on Larsen, learned about the scam, bided his time. Maybe he was trying to figure out a way to get hold of Larsen’s scam money. Like an abduction, where he could force Larsen to give up PIN numbers or foreign account access. He connected Larsen to Mary Lou and Mary Lou to Koppel. Became Sonny’s tenant as a way to get closer. Then Gavin had his accident and provided him with another opportunity: He knew Mary Lou was involved in the scam, but he had no beef with her. He chatted up Sonny, got Sonny to refer him to Mary Lou. Sending his kid for therapy would make his presence at the building easy to explain. Mary Lou punted to Gull, but that was no big deal for Jerry. Remember how Gull told us that it was Jerry, not Sheila who brought Gavin in for his first appointment.”
“Concerned father,” he said. “Special Forces–trained pro, and he doesn’t pay his rent on time.”
“Everyone’s got their vulnerabilities,” I said. “Money was his. Supporting a Beverly Hills lifestyle with intermittent freelance hits could’ve been a strain. So was feigning respectability and keeping a mistress on the side. A big-bucks payoff would’ve allowed him some squeeze room. That’s why he kept his eye fixed on the scam. Then Gavin messed things up by playing his own little spy game. Copying down license numbers and including his father’s. That night, maybe Jerry followed Gavin. Or he was doing his own surveillance and had no idea Gavin had spotted him. Maybe Gavin even told him about it, and Jerry explained it away, warned Gavin off. But Gavin was obsessive. He persisted and got killed and Jerry knew why, and now he had another reason to get rid of Larsen. And a second target: Degussa. He cleaned out Gavin’s room, to see exactly what Gavin knew, as well as to destroy any link to him. Then he went into hiding.”
“Larsen and Degussa. And I led him right to them.”
“That bother you?”
“Not one damn bit. You really think Gavin confronted the old man?”
“It’s hard to say how much they communicated outside of Jerry trying to get Gavin laid. The first time we met Jerry, he told us he and Gavin were close, but I remember thinking that didn’t feel right. He seemed out of touch. The fact that Kelly didn’t fly out immediately was also odd. This family’s finally come apart, but it was long in the making. Gavin’s accident couldn’t have been easy for any of them, Jerry included.”