“ Hey!”
Recognition still hadn’t dawned on him. He clutched his cell phone like a lifeline. Interestingly, there was little fear in his eyes. Just confusion.
“ Who are you?” he asked.
In southern California, perfect days are a given. In southern California, perfect days were wasted indoors. The only other person out here had their back to us and was be-bopping to their iPod. The sun shone down. A small breeze meandered. Sweat stood out on Gary Tomlinson’s upper lip.
I released his arm. He stared at me. I stared at him. My heart was beating strong and sure. The heart of the just. He still didn’t look nervous. In fact, he was now looking oddly amused.
“ Did I cut you off in traffic or something?”
“ Or something,” I said.
“ So what’s your problem?”
I said nothing. It took all my control not to lunge over the table, grab his head and start smashing it into the table…and to keep smashing it until his skull burst open.
He continued looking at me. He was a big guy, although not as big as me. He had broad shoulders, although not as broad as mine. His hair was brown and cut short. His sunglasses were sitting on top of his head. His nose was small, as were his eyes. His eyes, I thought, were dark and too close together. His lips were narrow. In fact, I was hard-pressed to see any actual lip. The skin just seemed to stop at a slit. Maybe I was sitting across from Lord Voldemort.
As he watched me, as he studied me, recognition began dawning on him. And with that recognition, the smirk on his face deepened a little. I clenched my fists.
He started nodding. “Yes, we met a month or so ago. At my father’s house.”
“ Bingo, fucker.”
“ My dad had said you were looking into your mother’s murder. He was the detective on the case.”
I couldn’t speak. My heart seemed to be pounding inside my skull, pounding between my ears. He sat back a little more. As he did so, he adjusted the drape of his shorts.
“ I’m sorry to hear about your mom,” he said, and now he really did smirk. “I’m surprised you’re still looking into it. It happened, what, twenty years ago?”
“ Good memory, asshole.”
“ Well, my dad and I talked about it after you left. I even remember the case. It troubled him deeply.”
“ I’m sure it did.”
His eyes were sky blue. So clear you could almost see his twisted thoughts. His eyes regarded me calmly, blankly, curiously. He looked at me the way a scientist might his lab rat. A scientist about to perform unspeakably horrific experiments on his subject. He continued to smile. A cold smile. An empty smile. A guilty smile.
“ You killed her,” I said.
“ Now that’s not a nice thing to say.”
He didn’t act like a man who was innocent. He didn’t even act like a man who was sane, truth be known. Anyone else would have been flabbergasted, shocked, confused and horrified to be accused of such a thing.
My left hand snaked out, hooked behind his head. In a blink, I slammed his face hard into the table. One moment he had been sitting there, smirking-the next, his head was bouncing off the table. In fact, the action was so fast that I’m pretty sure no one saw it.
“ Holy fuck,” he said, holding his nose.
All it had taken was a little pain to wipe that smirk off his face. The vision I had of me slamming his head into the table had become a reality. Except it wasn’t his head. It was his face. And it wasn’t his skull that broke open, it was his nose. Clearly the Law of Attraction at work.
He held his nose, which bled between his fingers. The hate in his eyes was pure. That he would act on his hate, I had no doubt. In fact, I was counting on it.
“ Burn in hell,” I said, and got up and left.
Chapter Forty-five
I was sitting with Sanchez in the visitors’ parking lot at UCI.
We were in the northeast lot, which abutted the faculty parking, which also happened to give me a great view of the social science building where Cindy Darwin not only taught but also had an office.
A heck of a strategic spot.
“ And you really bounced his head off the table?” said Sanchez.
“ It seemed like the thing to do,” I said. “An impromptu head slamming.”
“ So much for subtly,” he said. “Ever consider calling Detective Hansen?”
The day was bright and warm. The students that strolled along the cement paths that connected the many buildings were all wearing shorts and tee shirts.
“ And tell him what?” I said. “That I have a twenty-year-old picture of someone who had shown an interest in my mother on the day she was murdered?”
“ Someone who happens to resemble the detective’s son. A son who has a history of violent crime.”
“ And what would Hansen do with that information?” I asked.
Sanchez thought about it and sipped from his Coke. The windows were down in my Mustang, but it was still warm enough for both of us to sweat. “Probably file it away. Get to it when he has some free time. When less pressing matters have been taken care of.”
“ And when are a homicide detective’s less pressing matters ever taken care of?”
“ Almost never. But he’s a friend. He would get to it when he could.”
“ I can’t wait that long,” I said.
“ You’ve waited twenty-two years.”
“ That’s when I didn’t know who the killer was.”
“ And you do now?”
I nodded and felt the sweat trickle down through my hairline. “As sure as I can be.”
“ Sure enough to bounce someone’s head off of a table.”
“ Sometimes you gotta kick the hornet’s nest,” I said.
“ Or break its nose,” said Sanchez. “He’s got to be nervous.”
I nodded. “That’s what I’m hoping.”
“ You think he’ll make a move?”
“ We’ll see.”
“ And you think his move might be directed towards Cindy?”
“ He’s a monster,” I said. “Monsters can do anything.”
“ So what’s next?” asked Sanchez.
“ We wait.”
“ For what?”
“ The monster to reveal himself.”
“ And until then we watch Cindy?”
“ Yup. One of us. At all times. And if we’re both busy, I’ll hire someone.”
Sanchez pointed toward Cindy’s building. “Does she know we’re watching her?”
“ She knows. She doesn’t like it. But she knows.”
Sanchez shrugged. “And what if he never rears his ugly head?”
“ He will,” I said.
“ And if he doesn’t?”
“ Then I’ll keep kicking,” I said. “And keep breaking. And did you just say ‘rears his ugly head’?”
“ Me talk pretty.”
