why you freaked out when I told you I was FBI.”
“It was just a surprise, that’s all. Your brother is a priest. You’re at the other end of the spectrum.”
She’d had time to come up with an answer, not a bad one either.
“That’s true. What’s your real name, Nick?”
“My name is Nick Jones. Just look in the phone book, you’ll see there are tons of Joneses. Lots more Joneses than Carvers, that’s for sure.”
“How long have you been in San Francisco?”
“Not all that long.”
“Two, three weeks?”
“Something like that. Two and a half weeks.”
“Where did you come from?”
She just shrugged. “Here and there. I like to travel a lot. But it’s winter, so it’s best to stay in cities that don’t get all that cold.”
“How old are you?”
“Twenty-eight.”
“Where’d you go to school?”
She didn’t say a thing, just looked down at her hands, chapped and dry, and her ragged fingernails. Dane sat back in the side chair, crossed his arms over his chest. Finally, she said, “We had a deal here. No questions about me. You got that, Agent Carver? No questions or I’m out of here. I figure you need me, so leave it alone. All right?”
“It’s too bad you feel that way,” Dane said. “I have the FBI behind me, and you knew my brother. If you’re in trouble, I can help you.”
Her head came up with that. She seemed stiff all over, but it was hard to tell with all those layers she was wearing. She said, “It’s your choice, Agent Carver.”
“All right.”
“What you need to do is find this man who killed Father Michael Joseph. Is there a death penalty in California?”
“Yes.”
“Good. He deserves to die. I was very fond of Father Michael Joseph, even though I only knew him for a short time. He cared about all of us, didn’t matter if you were rich or poor or a basically shitty person, he still cared.”
Delion came up, shaking his head at Dane. “I had to try again. No go.”
Dane said, “Inspector Delion means that there isn’t a safe house for you. Given that I firmly believe you need to be kept out of harm’s way, I’m taking you with me, back to my hotel. You’ll stay with me until we find this guy.”
“You’re nuts,” Nick said. “I’m homeless. No hotel would even let me through the door. Look at me, for God’s sake. I look like what I am. Besides, I don’t want to stay at a hotel. I’m just fine where I am.”
Delion said, “The FBI undoubtedly has a safe house in the area.”
“Nope, I don’t want to involve them in this. Trust me, Delion, you don’t either.”
“The camel’s-nose-under-the-tent sort of thing? That’s fine by me. We don’t want Ms. Jones to end up like Valerie Striker. I’m heading to a meeting with the chief now. We’re organizing a task force, then we’ll have more than enough manpower of our own to catch this creep.”
Dane waited to say anything else until Delion was out of earshot. “You’re safe for the moment. But, Ms. Jones, when the guy who murdered my brother and three other people realizes his description is out there, you know as well as I do that he’ll try to hunt you down. You want to be in that shelter when you hear his footsteps coming up the stairs? There isn’t anyone there who could help you.”
She went nearly as white as his shirt. “I’ll leave San Francisco, go south.”
“No, going on the run isn’t the answer. If you force us to, we’ll arrest you as a material witness.”
But evidently Delion wasn’t out of earshot. He stopped, said over his shoulder, “You’ve obviously got a lot of crap going on in your life, Ms. Jones. I’d go with the big Fed if I were wearing your shoes. Let him watch out for you.” Delion fanned his hands. “You don’t have to worry about our asking you any more questions about your past, okay?”
“No,” she said. “I’m stupid for staying this long. I’ve told you what I know. I’m outta here.” She was out of her chair and heading toward the door in a flash.
Delion made a grab for her, but missed.
Dane sighed, said over his shoulder, “She moves fast.”
One of the inspectors called out, “She must have learned that in the Tenderloin.”
Dane stomped after her. He saw a flash of her red sweater as she ran past the elevator toward the stairs. He caught her just before she made it to the third-floor exit.
He didn’t know what he expected, but she fought him like her life depended on it. She kicked and punched and didn’t make a single sound while she was trying to kill him.
Why didn’t she yell at him?
He finally managed to get behind her and force her arms against her sides. He pulled her back hard against him so she couldn’t move.
“Hold still, just hold still.”
She was breathing hard, but still she struggled and tugged and heaved. She was strong, workout strong. He simply held on as tightly as he could. She couldn’t gain enough leverage to hurt him, but she tried.
A couple of cops came out onto the third-floor landing. “Hey, what’s going on here?”
“I’m Dane Carver, FBI,” Dane said. “She’s trying to escape. Go ask Delion up in Homicide.”
“You need any help?”
“No,” Dane said. “I wish you’d come about five minutes ago, though.”
“Yeah, I can see how you’d have trouble with a perp who’s fifty pounds lighter than you. You want us to get Delion? Tough guy, Delion. He can stop a perp, no matter how big.”
“Nah. I’ve finally got her pinned.”
She’d quieted, just a bit, but he’d no sooner got the words out of his mouth than she went wild again. She took him by surprise this time, twisting sharply inward, and his hold on her loosened just a bit. She drove her elbow into his belly and was off again, as the air whooshed out of him.
“Yeah, you’ve got her, all right,” one of the officers said, laughing.
Dane caught her again on the second floor just before she ducked into the women’s room. “Okay, enough.”
He pressed his back against the wall and jerked her back against him. “Let’s try this again. That was a good move, that twist. Where’d you learn that?”
She was heaving, panting. She didn’t say anything, just stood there, her head down, breathing hard. She didn’t say anything for a very long time, but Dane was patient; he’d learned to be. Finally, he said, “Are you afraid the media are going to catch up with you and there’ll be a photo or a video?”
“Another word about me, and, believe this-I’m gone. You have no right to question me, no right at all. No more, Agent Carver. No more.”
He didn’t want to drop it, but he knew he had to. They needed her. Dane sighed. “There just isn’t anything easy in this life, you know? Why couldn’t you have sold lingerie at Macy’s? Something nice and normal?”
“I was nice and normal,” she said, realized she’d let something out, and seamed her lips together.
“Oh? Maybe you were in real estate? Advertising? Maybe you were married and your old man knocked you around? All right, you got it, there won’t be another word out of me.”
“You’ve got words just waiting to spill out of you. Forget it.” She leaned down and bit his hand, hard.
Dane yelled, just couldn’t help himself. There were a good dozen folks on them then, half of them cops. She was homeless. There was no question who the good guy was. One uniformed officer grabbed her hair and yanked her head back.
The officer said, “She didn’t draw blood, but it was close. You want some help here?”
“Yeah, could I have a pair of cuffs?”
The officer handed them over without even asking for an ID and Dane knew it wasn’t because they were careless. He looked like a cop. He pulled her arms behind her and cuffed her wrists. “There,” he said. “Now my body
