'Lee Farrell.'
Lee nodded at him.
Vinnie said, 'I know he ain't a Chink, but he's wearing a gun.'
'He's a cop,' I said.
Vinnie shrugged, and went back and sat down. Hawk locked the door again and leaned on the wall. Lee looked around.
'You expecting trouble?'
'Just because the door's locked and I've got a couple guys with me.'
'Guys? I know Hawk, and I've heard of Vinnie Morris.'
I grinned.
'When you care enough to get the very best,' I said.
'Yeah,' Lee said.
He took a donut out of the box on my desk and ate some.
'I'm on my way to work,' he said.
'I ran Craig Sampson's name through Triple I, and he's not there. So I queried the FBI and they have him.'
'Why wasn't it in the Triple I index?'
'Nobody's perfect,' Lee said.
'Is it his prints from the army? Or something else?'
'I don't know. I requested his file.'
'And?'
'Their computer's backed up, they'll get to it.'
'How soon?'
'FBI is a federal agency,' Farrell said.
'How soon would you figure?'
'Not soon,' I said.
'That's about when I figure. You got a fax?'
'Of course not,' I said.
'I just got an answering machine.'
'Yeah, silly question. I'll drop it off when it gets here. You taken up firearms yet, or do you still carry a pike?'
'I like a pike,' I said.
'But it screws the line of my sport coat.'
Lee stood. He looked at Hawk and at Vinnie.
'You seem in pretty good shape,' he said.
'But, you need some extra backup, give me a shout.'
'Thanks,' I said.
CHAPTER 26
I'd caught a large corporation in a big insurance scam last year and been awarded ten percent by the insurance company. I'd put most of it into the house in Concord, and the rest of it into a Mustang convertible, because I thought it would be dandy to solve crimes with the wind blowing through my hair. It was red and had a white roof, and when Susan was with me, I had to keep the top up because it messed her hair. And when Pearl was with me I had to keep the top up because she was inclined to jump out every time she saw a cat. And when I took it to Port City I had to keep the top up because it was always raining. The wipers worked good though, and I didn't seem to be solving crimes, anyway.
I went off the highway at Hill Street and wound down toward the waterfront, descending as I went lower into the Port City social strata. Hawk sat in the front seat beside me and Vinnie Morris was in back.
'Got a plan for today, Cap'n?' Hawk said.
'When all else fails,' I said, 'investigate.'
'You mean clues and shit?' Vinnie said.
'Yeah. I need to look at Sampson's apartment, and show his picture to people, and go to bars, and stores, and movie theaters, and restaurants and ask people if they ever saw him, and if they did, who was he with.'
'How come you didn't do that right off?' Vinnie said.
'Hawk?' I said.
