“Did they let her stay upstairs?”
“No. She’s down in the cafeteria with Kim. She won’t eat, but . . .” Her voice trailed off. “Oh God, this is so awful.”
A huge man with a neck brace and a bulging bandage covering one eye was making his way past them on a walker. Madeleine watched as he lumbered on, limping and grunting. Then she turned to Gurney. “You better get to your meeting. There’s nothing you can do here. If anything changes, I’m sure word will get to Beckert as soon as it gets to us.”
Maybe sooner, he thought.
Sheridan Kline, Mark Torres, Dwayne Shucker, and Goodson Cloutz were in their seats at the conference table when Gurney arrived. He sat, as usual, next to Kline, who gave him an icy nod—which reminded him that he hadn’t returned the man’s phone call.
With the back of his hand Shucker was wiping what appeared to be powdered sugar from the corners of his mouth. There was a container of coffee and an open paper bag in front of him. The printing on the bag said DELILAH’S DONUTS.
Cloutz, in his blind man’s glasses, was running the tips of his fingers slowly along the length of his white cane, which was lying crosswise on the table, as though he were stroking a pet snake. His well-tended nails had a higher-than-usual gloss.
Torres was absorbed in some work on his laptop.
At precisely nine o’clock Beckert entered the room and took his central seat opposite Kline, his back to the broad window. The jail was a dim presence in the fog. He laid a file folder down, casually aligning its edge to the edge of the table.
He cleared his throat. “Good morning, gentlemen.”
There was a general murmuring of similar greetings around the table.
“I’m pleased to report,” Beckert began in an emotionless tone, “that our investigations into the shootings of our officers and the murder of the BDA members are on the verge of completion. Detective Torres will review where we stand on the Steele and Loomis cases, but first I want to pass along some good news from Deputy Chief Turlock. Lab analysis has confirmed an exact match between the rope we recovered from the Gort twins’ compound and the ropes used to tie up Jordan and Tooker. A warrant has been issued for their arrest. We have reason to believe they may be hiding up in one of the old quarries above the reservoir. A K9 tracking dog and handler, plus an assault team, have been dispatched to that area.”
“The reason being what?” said Gurney.
“Excuse me?”
“The reason you think they’re hiding in the quarries—what is it?”
Beckert’s expression showed nothing. “Reliable informants.”
“Whose identities you can’t share with us?”
“Correct.” He held Gurney’s gaze for a moment before continuing. “The K9 team has an impressive record of success. We hope to bring the Gorts in quickly and have Sheridan launch an aggressive prosecution—to minimize the racial leverage available to the riot inciters.”
Shucker pointed an enthusiastic forefinger at Beckert. “To what you just said about bringing them lunatics in, I would personally add
Again Beckert showed no reaction. He simply moved on to the Steele-Loomis shootings. “Mark, your turn now. My impression is that the evidence you’ve amassed against the BDA ‘third man’ is pretty conclusive. Take us through it.”
Torres reopened his computer.
Gurney cast a glance at Kline, whose anxious frown might reflect some concern with the political impact on himself of an ‘aggressive’ prosecution of the popular Gorts.
Torres began in his typically earnest manner. “These are the key discoveries we’ve made since our last meeting. First of all, the rush ballistics report on the bullet used in the Loomis shooting indicates that it was fired from the same rifle used in the Steele shooting. In addition, prints on the cartridge casing recovered at the site used for the Loomis shooting match prints on the one recovered at the Steele site. And the extractor marks indicate both cartridges came from the same rifle.”
“Were there any other fingerprints at the Poulter Street house matching the ones on the casing?” asked Gurney.
“There was a matching print on the knob of the side door.”
“Not on the back door? The door to the room? The window sash?”
“No, sir. Just on the cartridge casing and the side door.”
“Were there any other fresh fingerprints anywhere in the house?”
“None that Garrett found. There was a partial print on a pen, which I believe you discovered in the backyard. And there were footprints. Boot prints, actually. Several in the backyard, some by the side door of the house, partials on the stairs, and a couple in the room where the shot was fired.”
Torres then summarized the accounts given by Gloria Fenwick and Hollis Vitter, the neighbors on opposite sides of the Poulter Street house.
“This would be a good time to show the mapping graphic you described to me earlier,” said Beckert.
