“Chukkas,” she whispered. “The boots are called chukkas.”
“Chukkas. You drove Kurt to the airport.”
“No.”
“No?”
“I don’t really think he’s in Hawaii,” she confided.
“Where do you think he is?”
As if a dam had broken, her eyes filled with tears. She shook her head wildly until her ponytail seemed to fly under its own power and soft strands drifted free around her face. Her resemblance to a songbird caught in the clutches of a hawk was startling.
“Kaylee, tell me. I need to know.” I spoke slowly, as if talking to a child. “Where is Kurt?”
“I don’t know,” she wailed. “I. Don’t. Know. He made me promise I wouldn’t even tell anyone he was gone. You can’t arrest me for not knowing!”
Clyde’s ears came up at Kaylee’s distress. I kept my own voice soft. “But maybe you have some ideas. A friend he might stay with. Or a favorite town where he likes to vacation.”
“I don’t think he’s on vacation. I think . . .” She hugged herself and leaned across the desk toward me. “I think he’s, like, hiding out.”
“Why would he want to hide?”
“Drugs, maybe?”
“Drugs. As in dealing? Or as in he’s off somewhere on a bender?”
“I don’t know! He just said—” She stopped. Started again. “He just said that I was to tell anyone who asked that he was in Hawaii.”
“It’s okay, Kaylee. Take a deep breath.” Another lesson from Interviewing 101. Be friendly. Sympathetic when appropriate. Use the subject’s name often. “When was this?”
“A few days ago.”
Right around the time Noah was trapped somewhere, being tortured.
She said, “He said I wasn’t to tell anyone anything. Then he got in his van and just—”
“What van?”
She looked at me like I’d lost my mind. “His work van.”
“Let me guess. A dark-blue cargo van.”
“Sure.”
I shot off a text to Bandoni. DARK-HAIRED MAN IN S. G. PHOTO IS KURT INGER, MANAGER AT TOP-A CLEANING. HE DRIVES A DARK-BLUE CARGO VAN. MARKEY ALSO ONE OF THE SUPERIOR GENTLEMEN.
A few seconds later Bandoni texted back. I HAVE SOMEONE ON KURT. CHATTING NOW WITH RIVERO. FIGURES RE MARKEY. WE CAN’T FIND HIM.
Which meant every member of the Superior Gentlemen was either dead or missing.
I returned my attention to Kaylee. “Go on. Kurt got in his van . . .”
“And drove away. And that man!” Kaylee stabbed a wild finger at the photo. “He came looking for Kurt.”
My heart leapt.
“Which man, Kaylee?”
“The man in the jeans.” She pointed.
Craze.
“He was very nice,” Kaylee babbled. “Brought me flowers, even. I was in the parking lot, getting ready to head home, when he walked up and just handed me the flowers. For being beautiful, he said. He’d stopped by to see his old buddy, told me he and Kurt went way back.”
“He tell you his name?”
“Just said I should call him Craze. That everybody called him that.”
“Did Craze come by before or after you and I talked?”
“After. He came by yesterday.”
“And he was on foot? No car?”
“I didn’t see one.”
“What about how he looked?”
“He was dressed kind of like he was in the picture. Beat-up jeans and a T-shirt. And an old leather jacket.”
“Any accent?”
“No.”
“What about tattoos or jewelry? A watch maybe? Anything stand out to you, Kaylee?”
“No.” More tears. “I wasn’t really looking at him. It was dinnertime. I needed to eat.”
A world regulated by Kaylee’s dietary needs. I kept the frustration out of my voice. “What did you tell him about Kurt?”
“Well, like I said, he seemed like a nice guy. I almost told him the truth. That Kurt wanted people to think he was in Hawaii, but he really wasn’t. But that’s when I saw it.”
I felt like I’d kept walking after Kaylee had stopped. “Saw Kurt?”
“No-o. This dog. Just trotting down the street, sniffing things.”
I was completely at sea. “And?”
“He had a knife.”
“The dog?”
Kaylee gave me a cops-are-so-stupid look. “Hel-lo? Craze.”
I stopped trying to row and just went with it. “Craze had a knife.”
“And he called the dog over. Whistled and held out his hand like he had a treat. And the dog—the dog—” She shuddered. “It came over, and Craze scratched it behind its ears and it was happy. And I thought maybe the knife was just, like, for show. You know, weird, but sometimes guys are weird. But then all of a sudden, Craze—he grabbed the dog, and he cut off its tail. The dog thought Craze was his friend. But Craze cut off its tail.”
I hadn’t thought I could think less of our mysterious Craze. I was wrong. “What happened next?”
“He kept holding the dog. It was whimpering, and Craze was smiling. He told me that dog could be me.”
“Meaning he’d hurt you.”
“Uh-huh. He tilted his head to one side like he was studying me. Like I wasn’t, you know, human. I thought he’d hurt me. So I told him Kurt wasn’t really in Hawaii.”
“What did he do?”
“Just kept looking at me. Then he said to let Kurt know he was looking for him. He let go of the dog, and the dog ran away. Then he left.”
“Are there cameras outside?”
“Yeah. But just for show. We never connected them.”
“Did you see where he went?”
Another wild headshake. “I got in my car and drove away. I was terrified. I almost didn’t come to work today. But of course I had to give the women their assignments for the day. Helen and Erica and Lupita. And then I remembered that we become what we think about. So I didn’t think about him. Other than to lock the door this morning. Which I guess I didn’t . . .”
I had to squeeze my eyes shut. Just for a moment.
Then I said, “Kaylee, I need you to get out of here. And not come back until I say it’s safe for you to be here.”
“I can’t, I—”
“But first, I need you to go to police headquarters and make a statement. I’ll get someone to escort you there.”
“What? No. I’ll lose my job! He was just some weirdo. Kurt will clear everything up when he gets
