adrenaline or a shot of straight MacNaughton's, take your pick. The other two detectives, deferring to that reaction, faded quietly into the woodwork. Suddenly it was as though there were only two of us in the room-Dana and me. I pulled my chair around in front of her and sat with our faces only inches apart. With every particle of my being, I willed her to remember.
'Who was he? I demanded.
Dana's lower lip trembled. 'Dad flew helicopters for the army. He must have loved it while he was doing it, but he got a general discharge from the service. Her voice was hardly a whisper. 'Less than honorable.
'So? I asked. 'What does that have to do with Tabone?
'It was something that went on while they were over there, in Vietnam. They were in the same outfit, platoon, or whatever. My father didn't talk about it very much, and he never told me exactly what caused all the trouble. I guess I didn't really want to know. But this Tabone guy had something to do with it. Dad always blamed him.
'Blamed who?
'My father blamed Bony, he called him, for getting him thrown out of the service.
'Was there any contact between them after that?
'Not that I know of.
'Did you ever see Tabone in person, or did your father show you any pictures?
'No.
'Would you recognize him if you saw him?
'No, she said again. 'I don't think so.
'Too bad, I said. 'I just happen to have a composite drawing of Lorenzo Tabone on my desk down at the Public Safety Building.
I turned to Reece and Forbes. 'You two are in luck. Tabone's your man. I'll have prints and a mug shot for you as soon as Federal Express delivers them to me tomorrow morning.
JoAnne Reece stood with her head cocked to one side with an incredulous look on her face. 'Come on now, Detective Beaumont. What is all this? You expect us to believe you already know who the killer is? Somebody's sending you prints and a mug shot in the morning mail, just like that?
I tried not to sound too smug or too impatient. 'We know that David Lions was in the Spokane Airport early Tuesday morning. He was there along with a man who matches the description of Lorenzo Tabone. The two of them rented a car together.
'And who exactly is Lorenzo Tabone?
'He's tied in with a Chicago Mafioso named Aldo Pappinzino. Maybe Tabone didn't kill David Lions, but if he didn't, he's one of the last people who saw him alive.
'Can I go now? Dana asked suddenly. I couldn't blame her for wanting to leave. I'm sure our conversation was pretty rough going for her.
'Where are you staying? I asked.
'I don't know. I came straight here when I drove into town. I need to find a place to stay and I should call my mother. She still doesn't know what's happened.
'Where is she, down in Kalama?
'She lives in Anchorage. My parents were divorced years ago, Detective Beaumont. I didn't want to call until I knew for sure. She stood up. 'I'll be going then.
Dana Lions seemed so small, so crushed, that I wanted to help her somehow, to take on some of the burden and carry it for her. I offered her a ride, but she declined.
'I have my own car, she said. 'I'll be all right.
She moved toward the door. I hated to see her go, but I made no effort to follow her. After all, she had told me what I needed to know. My job now was to talk to the King County detectives and exchange detailed information with them. I had to convince them I knew what the hell I was talking about and then make sure they were on the right track.
'Call my home number and leave word on my answering machine where you're staying, I said.
'Let us know too, JoAnne Reece added.
Dana Lions nodded, but she walked out of the room without saying anything more.
I turned back to the others in time to catch Hal Forbes giving JoAnne Reece a questioning look, which she returned with an exaggerated shrug. It was as though they were silently debating whether or not J.P. Beaumont was on the level or if he was actually a stark raving loony.
I wanted to squelch that discussion once and for all. 'When I first got here, you said something about physical evidence. What is it, fingerprints?
'No, JoAnne Reece replied. 'Thread.
'What kind of thread? Where from?
'Wool thread, like from a man's jacket. They found it stuck between his teeth on the left side of his mouth.
'Who found it?
'Mike Wilson. The assistant medical examiner. He happened to be here doing another autopsy when they first brought Lions in. One of the technicians who went out to pick up the body had noticed it when they were loading him up for transport.
'So how did it get there?
'Wilson said he'll have to study the thread, but he said it looked to him like there was blood on it. He already sent the thread down to the crime lab. He thinks there was a struggle and Lions must have bitten his attacker.
'Hard enough to draw blood?
'And put a hole in his jacket, JoAnne Reece replied. 'So if you're right about the Chicago Police picking up that Tabone character, if he's our man, he should have a bite mark on him somewhere. What I still don't understand, though, is what all this has to do with the case you're working on.
'Believe me, I told her. 'Neither do I.
I spent the next two hours with Detectives Forbes and Reece. By the time I left them, we were all working on the same team and pulling in the same direction. I went home and crawled into my own little bed. Onto is more like it. I fell asleep crosswise on the bed without bothering to take off my jacket or pull down the covers.
It seemed as though my eyes had barely closed when the phone rang. I was sleeping the wrong way on the bed, so it took a while to figure out where the phone was. By the time I found it and picked it up, the answering machine was already playing. I had to wait through the entire long-winded recording before I could find out who was calling.
'Who is this? I asked, vowing mentally that I'd shorten the damn message before the day was out.
'Lieutenant Grant. From Schaumburg. I wanted you to be the first to know. We've got him. Caught him coming home this morning with a girl on each arm. I don't think the evening ended quite the way any of them expected it would.
'Hot damn! Congratulations. It was good news, stunningly good news. Even on less than three hours of sleep, I didn't stay groggy. I was wide awake, ready to work. 'Did you see him?
'You'd better believe I saw him, Grant replied. 'I wouldn't have missed it for the world.
'Listen, I said. 'This is important. He doesn't happen to have a bite on his arm or his hand, does he?
Now it was Alvin Grant's turn to be stunned. 'On his wrist. How the hell did you know about that? he demanded. 'That's why he hasn't been home, that and a bruised kidney. He went to an emergency room to have the bite treated, and they put him in the hospital because he was pissing blood. I guess the bite's pretty bad, too. Did you know human bites can be really dangerous?
'With any kind of luck, I said, 'this one will be fatal.
We talked on the phone for a long time. I told Alvin Grant as much as I knew and gave him instructions on how to reach Detectives Forbes and Reece. Grant would need to work closely with them since that was the case with an obvious connection to Lorenzo Tabone, and one with a good chance at extradition.
'But what about your case? Grant asked. 'Where do you fit in?
'Beats me. As a matter of fact, if you have a chance to question that bastard, you might just ask Tabone what the hell was going on between him and Tadeo Kurobashi.
'I don't think it's very likely that he'll tell me, Lieutenant Grant said with a laugh. 'But it doesn't hurt to
