'But you think they all knew each other?'
'Probably.'
'What are you going to do about it?' Ames asked.
'Nothing. Not a goddamned thing. From now on, it's hands off as far as I'm concerned.'
Ames smiled. 'I'm glad you're being sensible for a change, Beau. From what he said on the phone, I'm afraid Sergeant Watkins will insist on it.'
That turned out to be something of an understatement.
CHAPTER 15
I didn't go to the department the next day. I didn't have to. The mountain came to Mohammed. Sergeant Watkins turned up on the security phone downstairs at ten after eight. Once Watty was inside my apartment, Ralph Ames stayed around only long enough to say a polite hello and then made himself scarce while the sergeant and I retreated into the den.
'Coffee?' I asked.
Watty shook his head. 'It's not a social visit. Just what the hell do you think you're pulling, Beau? Since when do homicide detectives go out and investigate any damn case they please? Since when did I stop making the assignments?'
'I didn't do it on purpose. It just happened. You know how that Tyree case started. He floated up right under my nose while I was working on the movie set. I know I wasn't assigned, but I was involved. I couldn't help it.'
'That's bullshit, Beau, and you know it. ‘I couldn't help it' is an excuse a little kid uses on his mother after he wets his pants. You didn't try to help it. You got a wild hair up your ass that Kramer and Manny had it all wrong, and you set out hell-bent for leather to prove it.'
'Maybe,' I said.
'Maybe nothing! What's going on between you and Kramer anyway? He's been in my office twice this week complaining that you were messing around in his case. Bird-dogging him. I told him he was full of it, that you were working on the movie and later that you were on vacation. Obviously I was wrong. The shit is really going to hit the fan when he finds out about what happened yesterday.'
'I think he already has. He called here last night before I got home.'
'But you didn't talk to him?'
I shook my head. 'Not yet.'
'If I were you, Beau, I'd do some pretty serious thinking before I called him. He's pissed as hell, and he has every right to be. So's Manny. The homicide squad's based on teamwork, remember? We're supposed to work together, all of us. I don't need some loose cannon rolling around on deck screwing up the works for everybody.'
There wasn't a damn thing I could say, because I knew Watty was right, and he was only warming up.
'We've worked together for a long time, Beau, been through the wars together, but you left me with my ass hanging out on this one. I spent all day yesterday dodging bullets in every direction. Calls from upstairs, calls from the press, and yes, goddamnit, calls from some of my own squad. All of 'em asking the same thing. All of 'em wanting to know what the hell was going on and how the hell you ended up in that woman's basement without any clothes on.'
'Shorts,' I put in lamely. 'I still had my shorts on.'
'Big fucking deal. Tell me about it. What happened?'
I took a deep breath. 'I was convinced that Logan Tyree's death wasn't an accident.'
'That's no answer,' Watty interrupted. 'Harbor Patrol disagrees with you. So does the Coast Guard. And the same goes for Manny Davis and Paul Kramer. Logan Tyree's their baby, and don't you forget it.'
'But you asked me how it happened and I'm telling you. I was interested, so I talked to people-his friends, his ex-wife, people he worked with. They all said the same thing, that Tyree was careful, exceptionally careful, that he wouldn't have been out in a boat without the fume sensors and the blower working properly.'
'That's it?' Watty demanded. 'That's all you had?'
'Then there was the fight with his girlfriend. One of the neighbors said they had a serious quarrel and that they broke up a week or so before it happened.'
'Breaking up with his girlfriend days before he died doesn't tell me Logan Tyree was murdered.'
'There was something else as well. Tyree told his neighbor that he had to take some kind of action. I forget the words exactly, but something about a man doing what a man has to do.'
'And this neighbor…'
'His name's Corbett, Red Corbett.'
'What else did he tell you?'
'He gave me Linda Decker's name. Told me how to get in touch with her.'
'How come, Beau? Why'd this Red Corbett character spill his guts to you and not to Manny and Paul? I've got their reports. I remember seeing Corbett's name. He told them some of this, but not all.'
'Can I help it if Paul Kramer's an asshole?'
'Leave personalities out of this, Beau.'
I went on. 'Corbett offered to give Manny and Kramer Linda's name, but they said they didn't need it. That since the death was an accident, the ex-wife's name was enough.'
Watty was shaking his head before I finished. 'So they made a mistake. Kramer's new to homicide. He's entitled to some mistakes, but by the time they decided they did need to talk to her, Linda Decker was already gone. Not even her mother knew where she was. How'd you manage to find her when they couldn't?'
'I talked to her brother.'
'The retard? The one who's in the hospital?'
'Is that what Kramer told you about Jimmy Rising, that he's a retard?'
'Developmentally disabled. You like that better?'
'Look, Watty, whatever's wrong with him, Jimmy Rising is one hell of a nice guy. He would have told Kramer and Manny just what he told me if they had bothered to listen. They ran right over him, ignored him, treated him like shit.'
'And you didn't?'
'That's right.'
Watty leaned back on the couch and looked at me, his arms folded over his chest. I had worked with Sergeant Watkins for a long time, but I had never seen him so thoroughly steamed.
'You're out to lunch on this one, Beau. This case, accident or not, is none of your goddamned business.'
'So I'll leave it alone,' I said.
'You'd by God better!'
'What about the woman who fell off the building?'
'What about her?'
'Is that classified as an accident, too?'
'Are you saying the two deaths are related?'
'Can you prove they're not?'
After this exchange we sat there for several long moments with neither one of us speaking. Finally, abruptly, Watty stood up to go.
'I came over here to tell you to mind your own business, Beau. It's not an official warning. Kramer hasn't filed a grievance yet. If he does, then it will have to be official, go across desks, through channels, and end up in your file. But just because it isn't official yet, don't get the idea that you're home free. You're not.
'I've known you for years, Beau. This isn't like you. I know you're a good cop. I can't believe you'd pull such a dumb-ass trick. With you down there by yourself, if that crazy broad in Pe Ell had blown you away, it wouldn't have done anybody a damn bit of good.
'I don't usually pay much attention to departmental gossip. Neither do you, but I think it's time you did. This
