She fought. She negotiated. The flue rebuild became yesterday’s problem. The Health and Building Departments signed off. A local advocate for handicap rights came by and measured the bathrooms. Then Bo Rutan pulled up in his old El Camino with Louisiana plates saying he had in fact trained in Rome not New Orleans. He was in chef whites making pizzas when Raveneau walked in tonight.
‘It’s really up to the bar,’ Celeste had kept saying. ‘The bar will make or break the place.’
There were twenty-five small tables and rattan chairs, a floor of reclaimed bamboo. The old beams of the ceiling were exposed, the walls white-painted and softly lit. He caught her eye now and she waved for him to come around the back. Her forehead was moist with heat from the oven, face flush, eyes lit with excitement and happiness. People looked happy and it felt right to Raveneau. She pulled him around the corner out of sight of the bar.
‘What do you think?’
‘It’s going to work.’
‘You like the bar.’
‘Yeah, it’s got a good feel.’
‘I’ll come out in a few minutes. It’s been crowded like this since we opened the doors at five thirty. Kiss me and tell me some of these people will come back.’
‘They will.’
Raveneau saw la Rosa walk in. She spotted him immediately, looked at his clothes and asked, ‘Did you even go home?’
‘Never got a chance.’
‘How did it go?’
‘It’s all set up. It’s working.’
‘How long before the media gets it?’
‘My guess is a week at the most.’
‘I’ll bet it’s out in less than three days.’
‘Let’s get you a drink and then let me introduce you to someone.’
When Raveneau touched his shoulder Ryan Candel turned from his friends. He looked drunk. He looked puzzled. He asked, ‘What are you doing here?’
‘This is my partner, Inspector Elizabeth la Rosa.’
Candel waved one of the smooth rounded glasses Celeste had searched for months to find. It held a dark rum drink.
‘Hello, Inspector Elizabeth.’
The drink slipped through his fingers, almost fell, and one of his friends said, ‘That would have sucked.’
Candel gestured with his glass toward his friends. ‘These are my drinking friends.’ He turned and pointed with the glass at Raveneau. ‘This detective here is looking for my dad. Together we’re going to prove he was a murderer. Isn’t that right, Inspector? We’re hunting the fucker down.’ He raised his glass. ‘Here’s to you, Dad. We’re coming for you.’
On his left la Rosa said, ‘The place is beautiful. Introduce me to Celeste. Let’s get away from these guys. I don’t need this tonight.’
TWENTY-TWO
Raveneau was groggy as he answered the phone. He recognized Secret Service Brooks’ voice and looked at the time, 5:30 on a dark cold morning.
‘Hope I didn’t wake you up,’ Brooks said. ‘Special Agent Coe called me.’
‘Good.’
‘But why didn’t I hear from you?’
‘Why would you?’
‘Those weapons are for targeting vehicles. They were sent here for the President’s visit.’
‘You’re good at big leaps, Nate.’
‘I wish I was. It’s just a different business, Inspector. In yours you like to have a body to work with. Then you can sit around and try to figure out who killed the victim even if it takes twenty-two years. In ours the game is keeping everybody alive so that means we have to work a little harder.’
‘Sure, that’s why you brought two other agents to the meeting with me.’
‘Are you talking about the meeting where you went out for coffee in the middle of it?’
‘It was either that or watch you read. I’m still waiting by the way for a copy of your file on Alan Krueger. Remember, you were going to messenger it over the next day’
‘I want to meet with you this morning.’
‘So you’ll bring the personnel file with you. Is that what you’re saying? In that case, let’s meet. What’s convenient for you?’
He met a different Nate Brooks at ten that morning and by then he had also cooled down. Brooks alluded to the pressure on him and Raveneau wasn’t sure about himself. He was surprised he’d gotten into it with Brooks earlier this morning. Could be that the bomb casings troubled him on a lot of levels. He knew the investigation would go full-throated at Khan’s roots. Ortega told him this morning the FBI was forming a task force and sending two teams to Pakistan.
Brooks held his hands out in front of him, palms down, fingers spread wide.
‘I can feel it coming,’ he said. ‘I can feel something is going to happen. It’s getting closer and closer and I’m not getting anywhere. The only thing I’m getting is more worried. Let’s take a drive and I’ll show you what I worry about. Come on, let’s go. We’ll get coffee and I’ll show you.’
In the car Brooks wanted to hear about yesterday. ‘What did you think when you slid the piece of plywood off and saw them?’
‘I thought about San Francisco and how small it is and how powerful they looked. I figured no one would ship something like those casings without planning to assemble and use them here.’
‘Welcome to my world.’
‘Is that your world, Nate? Have you seen a lot of bombs go off?’
‘They are what I worry about most and look at all the people who hate us. I grew up in Baltimore. I learned to watch everything and everybody. That’s how I ended up in the Secret Service. But you’ve been in homicide a long time and I want your opinion. Why kill the employees and bring the TV vans and everything that comes with it? Did they know too much?’
‘Someone saw it as a lesser risk to take them out.’
‘That’s how you see it?’
‘It’s one possibility.’
‘Was it Khan’s decision?’
‘I don’t know but the plywood delivery was to him and the window of time he was gone and the employees murdered was so narrow it’s hard to believe it was coincidence.’
‘That he just happened to be gone?’
‘Yeah.’
‘So, Raveneau, you think Khan is in on it.’
‘That’s not quite what I said.’
‘But you’re just dancing around it, and if he’s involved, he’s just one of others. Conspiracy, an organization that knows what it’s doing is my nightmare. Weapons like these can take out a motorcade without having to be perfectly placed, and they don’t have to get the President to change the country. Kill enough others and a motorcade will never be the same again. You hear that, right?’
‘If you’re about to start selling me on how you’re saving the country then drop me off at the next corner.’
‘I’m not.’
‘Why did you want to talk this morning?’
