TWENTY
Maggie and I found a Phra Kaew fish counter and took two of the four stools. I called Abdul, who was working late again, elbow deep in a fresh cadaver. I told him to come meet us when he was done-we had some DNA that needed analyzing. Maggie said she felt bad making him walk all the way down here, but we had little choice. We both knew there was no way we could set foot in KOP station, which was fine by me. I had no interest in going there ever again. The last time I was there was the day Diego Banks pulled off his coup. He had me arrested and kept me locked down while he and his coconspirators murdered Paul Chang and seized control. Then, once his takeover was complete, he took my badge and let me go. The SOB didn't even respect me enough to kill me.
Maggie and I ordered up a couple fish bowls and waited for Abdul. It didn't take long. Our fish was still frying when he came shuffling down the walk with a rickety gait that didn't seem to slow him down any. Abdul climbed up onto the stool next to mine and leaned heavily on the counter as he adjusted his shaky position until he found the right balance. I knew better than to offer any help. Abdul didn't need any, and he wasn't shy about letting you know.
“We already ordered,” I said.
“I'll have whatever they're having,” he said to the cook, who dropped another filet into the fryer.
Maggie reached around me to pass him the baggie of hair. “We need a rush job on this, Abdul.”
“No problem,” he said, and he took the baggy with his craggy hand and slid it into a shirt pocket. “I'll take care of it as soon as I get back to my office. I was glad to get your message, Juno. I've been trying to call you.”
“I had to ditch my phone.”
“They're looking for you,” he said.
“I know. Ian's not too happy with me.”
“It's not just Ian. He put out the word to all of KOP that you're wanted for questioning in a homicide.”
“Great,” I said, knowing full well that “questioning” was enforcer code for beating a confession out of somebody. “Whose homicide?”
“Gupta. Raj Gupta. That's the cadaver I was just working on.”
Maggie swore under her breath. Just then, the cook set a bowl of steamy fish and noodles in front of me, my knotted stomach rebelling at the sight of it.
Maggie asked, “What's Ian's reason for questioning Juno?”
Abdul looked at me with his spectacled eyes. “He says he has a witness who saw Juno in the area at the time of the murder.”
“How was Raj killed?”
“Knifed.”
“Was the knife recovered from the scene?”
“No.”
“Of course not.”
We all knew what that meant. Ian would still have the knife, probably on his person. He'd be carrying it around so he could plant it on me once he found me. I wished I could say I was surprised to find myself wanted for murder, but I could hardly expect Ian to sit still while Maggie and I cranked up our investigation. What really had me going was the fact that I used to run KOP. All those cops had been in my control, mine and Paul's. All those years of running the show, and all it took to get the force turned against me was for Ian to say he wanted to question me. It was like I'd never been there.
Based on the way Maggie had started shoveling through her bowl, I assumed it was good fish, yet I couldn't stomach it. I picked around the fish, pulling noodles from underneath and twirling them onto my fork. I swallowed down a mouthful, not tasting anything.
“Oh, I have something else for you,” said Abdul as he pulled out a data chip and passed it to Maggie. “Another barge murder. I though you might be interested.”
“Thanks, Abdul.”
“And I have something for you, too, Juno.”
“What?”
I didn't like the way he paused before talking, a signal that he was about to lay something heavy on me. Finally, he said, “Niki called me.”
“Christ.” I dropped my fork into my bowl.
“Hear me out.” He put his hand on my shoulder. “She's in a bad way, Juno.”
“It's none of your business, Abdul.”
“The hell it's not. She's my friend, and so are you.”
I wanted to tell him to fuck off, but seeing him looking at me with his eyes magnified to giant size under his superthick lenses, I couldn't do it. “What did she tell you?”
“She asked me to pull the plug, Juno. She said you wouldn't do it, so she asked me.”
I felt Maggie's hand on my other shoulder. I resisted the urge to yank my shoulder away. “What did you tell her?”
“I told her I'd think about it.”
“Christ.”
“I think it's the right thing, Juno.”
I didn't know what to say. I picked up my fork and started pushing my noodles around.
Abdul ignored the bowl the cook set in front of him. “She wants to die.”
“You think I don't know that?”
“I know you want to save her, but you can't. She'll just do it again. She'll never get over it.”
“Get over what?” Maggie wanted to know.
Abdul asked me, “She doesn't know?”
I shook my head.
“Can I tell her?”
I kept pushing my noodles around as I mumbled a yes.
Abdul took off his glasses, and his eyes shrank to normal size. “Niki's father was abusive, Maggie. Sexually abusive. And one day Niki must've had enough, because she killed her parents. She killed them both in their sleep.”
“I had no idea,” Maggie whispered.
“Juno covered it up for her, and I helped him.”
Now it was Maggie who had no idea what to say. In her head, she was probably replaying the conversation she and I had on the barge, when she'd referred to Adela saying, “What kind of girl kills her parents?”
The cook came in from the back and asked how our food was, clearly concerned that none of us were eating. I took a bite of fish and swallowed it down, again tasting nothing. Maggie and Abdul started picking through their bowls, and the cook went back to unpacking a crate of noodles.
Maggie asked, “Has she seen a psychiatrist?”
“Three.” I admitted.
“What did they say?”
“What does it matter? What do some shrinks know about my wife?”
“What did they say, Juno?”
I dropped my fork again, letting it clang against the bowl. “They said she wanted to be taken off of life support. And they said she was of sound mind.”
“How come they didn't do it? Don't they have to follow her wishes?”
“I talked them out of it.”
“And how did you do that?”
“I was persuasive,” I said.
“Isn't it illegal to keep her alive against her will?”
“That law doesn't make any sense,” I snapped.
The shrinks had already tried to give me their little lecture on the law. They showed me old pictures of
