19
• • •
Starkey drank for most of the night, smoking an endless chain of cigarettes that left her home cloudy and gray. She fell asleep twice, both times dreaming of Sugar again and the day in the trailer park. The sleep was anguished, lasting only for a few minutes at a time. Once, she woke seeing the trailer with red words painted on its side: THE TRUTH HURTS. That was the end of the sleep.
She decided that she would tell Kelso first thing in the morning. There wasn’t anything else to do. The investigation had to turn back to Mr. Red, and it had to turn quickly if they were to have any chance of catching him. She thought she knew how.
At ten minutes after five that morning, she paged Warren Mueller. She was too drunk to give a damn about the time. Her phone rang twelve minutes later, a groggy voice on the other end of the line.
“Damn, Mueller, I didn’t expect you to call until later. I guess you sleep with your pager right there by your bed.”
“Starkey? Do you know what time it is?”
“Listen, I know how Tennant got the explosives that he blew himself up with. He got them from Mr. Red. Red went in there to see him.”
She could hear Mueller clearing his throat.
“How do you know that?”
“Tennant?”
“No, Warren, Mr. Red. There’s two things you need to do. First, you want to check the video record for whoever went in there to see him in the past couple of days. And here’s the other thing, and this is important. You know Tennant’s scrapbook?”
“I don’t know what in hell you’re talking about.”
“You never went to see Tennant there?”
“Why in hell would I go see him?”
“He had a scrapbook, Mueller. A collection of clippings and junk about bomb incidents. Anyone who went in there to see him had to look at that damned book. Get the book. Have it printed and run every print you find. There’s no way Red went to see him and didn’t touch that book.”
She described the book in detail, giving Mueller the rest of the facts. After that, she showered, dressed, and packed up the computer. She would need it when she explained to Kelso about Claudius. The last things she did before leaving were fill her flask and drop a fresh pack of Tagamet into her purse.
Starkey timed her arrival at Spring Street so that Kelso would be in his office. She didn’t want to get into the office first and have to make conversation with Marzik and Hooker. She wedged her car into the parking lot next to Marzik’s, gathered up the computer, and brought it with her.
Hooker was at his desk.
“Hey, Hook. Is Kelso in?”
“Yeah.”
“Where’s Beth?”
“The ladies’ room.”
Starkey loved Jorge. He was the last man in America who called it the ladies’ room.
Starkey went out to the bathroom, where she found Marzik smoking. Marzik fanned the air before she realized it was Starkey, and looked guilty.
“This is your fault.”
“Why don’t you just go in the stairwell?”
“I don’t want anyone to know. Six years I’ve been off these damned things.”
“Throw it away and come inside. I’ve got to see Kelso, and I want you and Hooker with me.”
“Jesus, I just lit the damned thing.”
“For God’s sake, Beth, please.”
Even when Starkey was loving Marzik, she hated her.
Starkey didn’t wait for Hooker and Marzik to get themselves together; she didn’t want the three of them trooping into his office like a bunch of ducks in a row. She knocked on the door, then pushed her way inside with the computer. Kelso eyed it because he knew that Starkey didn’t own a computer and knew nothing about them.
“Barry, I need to see you.”
“You and I have a meeting with Chief Morgan later. He wants to be briefed before the press conference. He also wants to congratulate you, Carol. He told me that. Everyone except you was running off half-cocked about Mr. Red, and you broke this case. I think he’s going to bump you to D-3.”
Starkey put the computer on his desk. Both Marzik and Hooker came in behind her.
“Okay, Barry, we can do that. But I have to tell you some things first, and I want Beth and Jorge to hear it, too. Buck didn’t kill himself. It wasn’t an accident. Mr. Red killed him.”
Kelso glanced at Marzik and Santos, then frowned at Starkey.
“Maybe I’m confused. Weren’t you the one who said that Mr. Red wasn’t involved here?”
“Mr. Red did not kill Charlie Riggio. That was Buck. Buck copycatted Red’s M.O. to cover the murder, just like we proved.”
“Then what in hell are you talking about?”
“Mr. Red didn’t like someone pretending to be him. He came here to find that person. He did.”
Santos said, “Carol, how do you know that?”
Starkey pointed at the computer.
“He admitted it to me on that through Claudius. Mr. Red and I have been in personal contact now for almost a week.”
Kelso’s face closed into an unreadable scowl as she told them about the entire avenue of the investigation that she had held secret, and how, through Claudius, it had led to her contact with Mr. Red. Kelso only stopped her once, when she was telling them about Jack Pell.
“How long have you known that Pell is not a representative of the ATF?”
“Since yesterday. I confronted him about it last night.”
“You are sure about this? You are positive that this man is functioning without authority?”
“Yes.”
Kelso’s jaw flexed. His nostrils flared as he drew a deep breath. When Starkey glanced at Hooker and Marzik, they both stared at the floor.
She said, “Barry, I’m sorry. I was wrong for playing it this way, and I apologize. But we still have a shot at Mr. Red. Buck had more Modex. I’m sure he had more, and I think Red took it.”
“Did Red tell you this?”
“We don’t have conversations. It’s not like we tell each other secrets; he taunts me, he teases me. We have this, I don’t know what you would call it, a relationship. That’s why Pell and I went on-line like this, to try to bring him out. I’m sure I can contact him again. We can work him, Barry. We can catch the sonofabitch.”
Kelso nodded, but he wasn’t nodding agreement. She could see that in his face. He was angry, and probably nodding to something he had thought.
Starkey took a breath.
“You don’t, Barry. I do.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, Detective. I’m going to call Morgan. I want you to wait outside. Don’t go anywhere. Don’t do anything. Marzik, Santos, that’s you, too.”
They nodded.
“Did either of you know about this?”
Starkey said, “No.”
“Goddamnit, I’m not asking you.”
Marzik said, “No, sir.”
“No, sir.”
“Wait outside.”
As Starkey was walking out, Kelso stopped her.
“One more thing. At any time during your, I don’t know what to call them, conversations? At any time when you were talking to that murderer, did you impart or reveal any, and I mean anything at all, information about this investigation?”
“No, Barry, I did not.”
“Starkey. Never call me by my first name again.”
Outside, Starkey apologized to Santos and Marzik. Santos nodded glumly, then went to his desk and lapsed into silence. Marzik was livid and didn’t try to hide it.
“If you cost me a promotion, I’m going to kick your drunken ass. I knew you were fucking that bastard.”
Starkey didn’t bother to argue. She sat at her desk and waited.
Kelso’s door remained closed for almost forty-five minutes. When it opened, Starkey, Marzik, and Santos all rose, but Kelso froze Marzik and Santos with a glance.
“Not you. Starkey, inside.”
When she went in, he closed the door. She had never seen him as angry as he was right now.
He said, “You’re finished. You are suspended immediately, and you will be brought up on professional-conduct charges, as well as charges of compromising this investigation. I have already spoken to IAG. They will contact you directly, and you will be subject to their administrative orders. If any criminal charges arise from the subsequent investigation, you will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. I would advise you to contact a lawyer today.”
Starkey went numb.
“Barry, I know I fucked up, but Mr. Red is still out there. He has more Modex. We can’t just stop; we can’t just end it like this.”
“The only thing at an end is you. You’re done. The rest of us are going to continue doing our jobs.”
“Damnit, I am the investigation. I can get to him, Barry. You want to fire me, fine, fire me after we get the sonofabitch!”
Kelso slowly crossed his arms, considering her.
“You are the investigation? That’s the most arrogant, self-centered statement I’ve ever heard from a detective on this department.”
“Barry, I didn’t mean it like that. You know I didn’t mean it like that.”
“I know you took it upon yourself to conduct an investigation independent of my office. I know—because you told me so—that you secretly set about baiting the murderer we were all supposed to be trying to find. Maybe, if you had come to me, we would have done that anyway, but we don’t know that. And now, according to you, I know that Buck Daggett is dead by that man’s hand. How does that feel, Carol, knowing that you may have cost Buck his life?”
Starkey blinked hard, trying to stop the tears that filled her eyes. The truth hurts. But there it was.
“It feels just like you think it feels. Please don’t, Barry. Please let me stay and help you catch this guy. I need to.”
Kelso took a deep breath, stood, then went behind his desk and took his seat.
“You’re dismissed.”
Starkey moved for the computer. She needed the computer to get to Mr. Red.
“That stays.”
Starkey left the computer on his desk and walked out.