wooden desk. Walls lined with bookshelves more full of books than knickknacks. Ng sits at the desk chair and motions for Jack to sit down in a big leather chair by the window.
'Anyone else home?' Jack asks.
'Wife's at work,' Ng says. 'Kids are at school. What do you want?'
'You know what I want.'
Ng nods. He reaches under the green blotter on the desk. Pulls out a small stack of Polaroid pictures and hands them to Jack.
Two Asian kids walking out of a playground. A boy and a girl. Each in their little soccer uniforms. You don't need an Ident-A-Kid packet to know that they're Ng's children.
Jack hands the pictures back.
'He killed his wife,' he says.
'Probably.'
'And he's going to get away with it.'
'Probably.'
And he's going to make $50 million doing it.
Jack stands up and says, 'Okay.'
Ng nods.
Back in his car Jack knows that road is closed. Knows that the blood and tissue samples are already parked at a hazardous waste disposal somewhere.
It isn't just money, because if money wants to intimidate a coroner, money sues the coroner, or calls his boss or otherwise leans on him. Money doesn't threaten to hurt his kids.
No, that's a gangster thing.
Jack goes back to Cal Fire and Life, does the whole computer and phone run again and it's the same story.
Nicky's accounts are solid.
Credit card payments up to date.
Money in the business accounts.
And I am one dumb claims dog, Jack thinks.
Nicky set me up. Left evidence out there, waited for me to deny the claim and then jerked the evidence.
Set me and California Fire and Life up for a gigantic bad faith suit.
And he knew every move I was going to make.
82
Jack pushes in the door marked NO ADMITTANCE.
He blows right past the sign that says AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY and one of the SIU guys lays a hand on Jack's shoulder to stop him. Jack brushes him aside and shoves open the door to Sandra Hansen's office.
She's sitting behind her desk.
Jack leans over it.
'You been reading my file, Sandra?'
Most of the SIU guys are ex-cops and this one — a slab of meat named Cooper — asks her, 'You want me to take him out of here, Sandra?'
Jack doesn't turn around as he says, 'Yeah, why don't you take me out of here?'
'It's all right,' Sandra says.
She gestures for Cooper to leave.
And shuts the door behind him.
She says, 'I told you that we were going to monitor this file.'
'You didn't tell me that you were going to tip Vale off to every move I was going to make.'
'You're paranoid, Jack.'
Yeah, Jack thinks, I'm paranoid.
Fucking A, I'm paranoid.
He says, 'Vale knew every move I made.'
'Then you'd better get some new moves.'
'He wants $50 million now.'
'You should have settled it before.'
She goes back to shuffling papers.
'He's mobbed up, isn't he?' Jack asks.
'What makes you say that?'
Jack says, 'He intimidated three witnesses and did a magic act with his money. He set me up, and you guys helped him, and I want to know why.'
'You had your chance to play,' Hansen says. 'Too late now.'
Jack slams his hand on her desk. 'I'm not playing!'
'That's my point.'
Jack sighs. 'Okay, what do you want?'
'I don't want anything now,' Hansen says. 'You can't give me anything now. Before, I wanted you to back off. You wouldn't. Now they're going to make you back off, so you have nothing to trade.'
'Give me what you got on him, Sandra,' Jack says. 'I'm dying.'
Hansen shrugs.
Says, 'We didn't give Vale any information. And we don't have any information on Vale to give you.'
'He killed his wife.'
'That's what you say.'
'And burned the house down.'
'That's your version,' Hansen says. 'Another version is that you've got an ancient hard-on for the sister and that she sold you a bill of goods along with the chucha. And you are going to back off now, Jack. You're going to lie down like a good dog and die.'
'You gonna make me, Sandra?'
'That's right.' She pulls some papers from her drawer and lays them on the desk. 'A sworn statement from a restoration contractor claiming that he paid you to recommend him to policyholders. Here's another from a homeowner admitting that he gave you a kickback to look the other way on an overcharge. The DA will give them both immunity. It's up to you, Jack: I can stick them back in my desk or I can send them up to Mahogany Row.'
'Why don't you stick them in your ass and then take them up to Mahogany Row?'
'Same old Jack,' she says. 'You know what they're going to put on your tombstone, Jack? 'He Never Learned.''
'So how much is Nicky paying you, Sandra?'
'As usual, you're a hundred and eighty degrees wrong.'
'I hope it's enough to retire on,' Jack says, 'because I'll never quit on this.'
'Quitting is the last of your worries,' Sandra says. 'Is there anything else I can help you with, Jack, or can you just haul your dumb ass out of here now?'
Jack hauls his dumb ass out of there. Pauses just long enough to exchange a bad look with Cooper, then heads back to his cubicle.
Now knowing two things for sure.
One, Nicky Vale is mobbed up.
Two, Sandra Hansen's on the take.
One more thing, Jack thinks.
Unless I take a dive on the Vale file -
— I'm finished at California Fire and Life.
