The Hunt Club (22 page)

Juhle's home looked like all the other houses on the block—two-story stucco with four steps up to the front stoop, the built-in one-car garage taking up a third of the footprint. In the daylight, the house's fresh, bright green trim distinguished it somewhat from its neighbors, and at this time every spring, the flower boxes in the windowsills bloomed with daffodils, impatiens, and angel's hair. But by now it was a few minutes after nine, none of these amenities were visible, and it was just another shivering house squatting out in the fogbelt of the Sunset.

After the clear and cloudless day, the fog was in and now obscured most of the rest of the street. But he could see lights on inside at Juhle's. They'd gotten home.

As he mounted the front stoop, Hunt found himself fighting his nerves. Constant action since he'd finished his deposition work at McClelland's in the late afternoon had insulated him somewhat from his growing visceral worry—by now nearly a physical sickness—about what had happened to Parisi. With every minute, the odds that she was alive grew longer. And yet he couldn't accept her possible death, if only because he wanted to believe that life wouldn't do this to him again—give him hope, even a deluded, perhaps foolish hope, only to steal it away.

All he knew was that he needed to find her. To find out, if nothing else, where it all could go with her. And without Juhle's help and even active cooperation, he didn't think it was going to happen.

He pushed the doorbell, heard the chimes within, and waited in the fog.

Connie met him
at the door with a kiss on the cheek. “You've got guts, Wyatt, I'll give you that.”

But then she led him back to the rest of the family. Juhle, his arm in his sling and his other hand in a bucket of ice, looked through him. The kids—Eric, Brendan, and Alexa—all jumped up from the kitchen table, where they were eating their pizza. Uncle Wyatt was a favorite. He often arrived laden with coins, candy, other treats for them, and tonight was no exception. For some reason, their parents tolerated these gifts from Hunt but from no one else, and it set a tone of acceptance. That, plus the fact that their father usually seemed looser when Hunt was around. Juhle would play games with them that he otherwise didn't have all that much time for—Foosball and Ping-Pong out in the garage, football or baseball catch out in the street, hoops on the driveway. Occasionally, the two men would play guitar together or listen to new CDs. Wyatt was cool.

Tonight after they'd pilfered his pockets for Necco wafers, the kids went back to their places. Hunt moved around behind them and pulled a quarter, one at a time, out of each child's ear. Eric was still in his Hornets uniform. “How'd you guys do tonight?” he asked him.

“We killed 'em, nine to two,” the older boy replied. “Dad was coach. He let me pitch.”

“How'd he get to be coach? He looks like he's hurting right now.”

“He's okay,” Alexa said. At seven years old, she was the queen of fatherly protection. “Nothing like Coach Doug.”

“Are we talking about Mr. Malinoff?”

“Yep,” Brendan said.

“What happened to him?”

Finally, Juhle relaxed the frown he'd been cultivating. “Pickle,” he said.

“Malinoff played pickle?”

“In spikes,” Eric said. “On the grass.”

“You know pickle, right, Uncle Wyatt?”

“Sure, Brendan. In fact, I invented it. Run back and forth between bases, slide under the tag, right?”

Alexa caught him with a suspicious glare, turned to her father. “Did Uncle Wyatt really invent pickle?”

“If he says so,” Juhle said, then added with some edge, “I know he wouldn't lie.”

Hunt turned to Connie. “So what happened to Malinoff?”

“He challenged the kids. Said he'd give five bucks to anybody who could beat him.”

“Daddy told him not to,” Alexa said, “but Coach just called him a wimp. I heard him.”

“He was kidding, honey,” Connie said. “Just teasing. He knows your father's not a wimp. It was kind of an adult joke about how he hurt his arm, that's all.”

“It wasn't funny.” Alexa was in full pout. “I didn't like it.”

“God didn't like it, either,” Juhle said, “which is why he punished him.”

“What did God do?” Hunt asked.

Connie was having trouble keeping a straight face. “He broke Coach's leg,” she said.

“Ow!”

“That's what Doug said, too.”

“Not exactly, Dad,” Eric said.

“No, I know. And I bet Uncle Wyatt can imagine what he really said, too. But we don't use that kind of language, do we? It's bad sportsmanship. Right?”

To a chorus of “Rights,” Juhle stood up, took the dish towel Connie held out for him, and wrapped it around his catching hand. “Okay, you guys, finish your pizza, and I hear there's still homework to be done. And no Neccos tonight, either. Con?”

“No Neccos,” she repeated, “'til tomorrow after school.”

“Where are you and Uncle Wyatt going, Dad?” Brendan asked.

“Out to the living room,” Juhle said, “for some private adult conversation.”

“Dev, listen,”
Hunt was saying. “When you told me about it last night, maybe you don't remember, but you were all over the wife. Parisi wasn't any part of it, and even if I had thought about it and mentioned it to you, you would have said no way, that she was ancient history. If there was anything between Parisi and Palmer, they broke up six months ago. She is not jealous of Staci Rosalier all of a sudden now. The wife had the better immediate motive. Why else get 'em both to her house? Plus, you must admit, this isn't exactly something we've dealt with every day, you and me, withholding information. I didn't know it was information. Next time, I tell you everything before I think it. Promise. You'll be telling me to shut up before I've opened my mouth.”

Juhle still didn't like it. His face hadn't softened except for the instant after the door to the kitchen had closed behind his family when he'd been referring to Malinoff and said, “It was a beautiful moment, I tell you. You should have seen it. The ambulance and everything.” But after that, the fun was over.

Now he reclined—head back, feet up, eyes closed—in his big, brown leather lounger. His features looked drawn with fatigue, pain, and irritation. Connie's footfalls came from the back of the house, and in a moment, she appeared with a glass of water and some pills. She looked at her husband first, then over to Hunt, who was sitting forward on one of the other chairs, elbows on his knees, jaw set, eyes bright, tightly wound.

“Excuse me,” she said, “time for medication.” She dropped the pills into Juhle's hand, waited while he threw them into his mouth, then handed him the water. Then she turned to Hunt. “These usually make him sleepy,” she said, and walked out.

When the two men were alone again, Hunt said, “I'd hate to have her mad at me.”

Juhle opened his eyes. “Don't fuck with your friends, their wives won't be mad at you.”

“How many times you want me to apologize?” No answer. “Dev, I need your help.”

“What? Finding Parisi? You're dreaming, Wyatt.”

Suddenly remembering Hardy's advice, Hunt said, “Listen to me. I can help you, too.”

Juhle let out a short, aborted chuckle. “Sure you can. And you're motivated, right? You find Parisi, you'll give her to me. No, if you find her, you'll hide her from me. Or she'll hide herself, keep herself hid is more like it.”

“That won't happen. I'm giving you my word it won't happen. If she's findable, I can help you,” he repeated.

With a sigh, Juhle brought his lounger back to a sitting position. He still looked weary, but there was a hint of interest. “Why are you going to do that, Wyatt? And first, I've got to believe that you
will
do that.”

“I just gave you my word, Dev.”

Finally, Juhle nodded. “All right. That leaves how.”

Hunt let out a breath. “You know what I do for a living about half the time in my job: I find people. And right now I've got people talking to everybody she knew, everybody we can find, personally, firm, family, you name it. If she's dead, she's dead, and she'll probably turn up someday. But last I saw her, I guarantee you she wasn't going into hiding on this murder rap. Somebody picked her up, and I'm just praying right now that they didn't kill her right away. That's where I'm coming from. Have you heard anything about a ransom note? Did you track any credit card use yet? Any sign that she's on the run?”

“All that's classified.”

“Okay, so do we have a deal, or what? I'm telling you, I'll give you everything I get, the minute I get it. But I need to know what you've got about Parisi, every little thing. If I'm missing something. Someplace I could be looking.”

“And what would that be?”

“If I knew, I'd know, wouldn't I? But give me that and I could take Parisi off your plate entirely and leave you free for everybody else. Mrs. Palmer, whoever. But that's the other thing I can give you that you don't have and I really believe you need.”

“What's that?”

“A partner.”

Juhle narrowed his eyes, his mouth tight. “I've got a partner.”

“Right. I've met him. He helping you much?”

“He's a cop.”

“Yes, he is.”

“I don't go behind his back.”

“Of course not. Go in front of him. See if he notices. Meanwhile, you and me, we do what you and Shane used to do—try to figure this stuff out.”

Juhle looked down at his swollen hand, closed it and opened it again a couple of times. Finally, he gave it up with a sigh. “No. No note. No credit cards. No cell phone. No nothing. And why do you think,” he asked, “we haven't gotten any kind of line on Staci Rosalier's family?”

“So I've got
Wes talking to Fairchild and Tombo about what she might have been doing Monday night, which could eliminate her from your equation all by itself. Meanwhile, Amy Wu's with Carla—” Hunt said.

“Parisi's secretary Carla? We talked to her today,” Juhle said.

“She give you anything?”

“Pretty much the same timetable you've already got. Not much else.”

“Okay, but speaking of the timetable, I've got Mickey Dade going to find out where the Manions live so I can get to Carol, the wife.”

“You don't have to bother,” Juhle said. “Shiu and I already talked to her today. She lives out in Seacliff. Incredible spread. We waltzed in like we own the place.”

“How'd you do that?”

“It doesn't get talked about much out in the world, but all her security guards are off-duty San Francisco homicide inspectors.”

“Even Shiu?”

“Only the best for the Manions, Wyatt. I'm probably the only cop in the detail she doesn't call by his first name. Shiu called on her security number, and we got the red carpet.”

“See.” They'd been talking the case for ten minutes or so and by now the friction had bled out of the room. Hunt was all the way back in his chair, legs crossed. “This is why we need to communicate on this. So what did Mrs. Manion know?”

“Basically nothing. She never saw her. Parisi never showed. That's a dead end.”

“She tell you what they were supposed to be talking about?”

Juhle stared up at the ceiling, dredging it back. “She's a bigwig on some committee—the Friends of the Public Library? Something like that—Shiu's got it in his book, I'm sure. Anyway, they've got a fund-raiser later on in the summer, and they wanted Parisi to be, like, the local celebrity master of ceremonies, so she wanted to feel her out on it. I guess they liked her work on TV, the new face and all.”

Hunt let out a breath, finally shook his head. “So she leaves her house, gets in her car, and vanishes?”

“Right. That's what we've got.”

“You get her phone records?”

“Working on them, Wyatt. She just became a live suspect today. We should have something by tomorrow, Monday the latest.”

This wasn't nearly soon enough for Hunt, but he had no say on it. “And you've talked to Palmer's office, too?”

By now, Juhle's pills and weariness were slowing him down. He took a couple of seconds to respond. “Yep. He was probably thinking about moving on the union, although Gary Piersall says it was a bluff.”

“So where would Andrea play there?”

“I've been trying to work that connection all day. It's a dry well.”

“How about if she thought she knew or had discovered who'd put the hit on Palmer? She goes to…what's his name, the union chief?”

“Jim Pine.”

“Right. She goes to Pine—or not to Pine directly. Maybe even to one of her colleagues at Piersall, maybe talks about her suspicions. She's going to blow the whistle, and somebody decides they've got to stop her—”