I shrugged.
He looked over at the Lexus convertible. “Who’s that with you?”
“My girlfriend.” The last thing Sharon needed was more harassment from the FBI.
He snorted. “Does Lindsey know about that?”
“She’s open-minded.”
“Considering that vehicle is registered to Sharon Peralta, I’d guess that’s who is in the car. Is she your girlfriend?”
“Why don’t you give her a break? She was interrogated for hours. She doesn’t know anything.”
“But she came up here with you.”
“That’s because she was afraid her husband was dead in that truck.”
He slipped a hand into his suit jacket and held out an evidence envelope. It contained a small rectangular piece of paper.
“Recognize this?”
He flipped on the dome light. Inside the plastic wrapper was my business card:
Peralta & Mapstone P.C.
David Mapstone
Private Investigator
I asked him where he got it.
“That was sitting on the dashboard of the truck, Dave, right in front of the steering wheel.”
I reached for the bag and he pulled it back. Let’s play keepaway. I didn’t want to play.
“Why would that card be in the truck?”
“Why would I know that, Horace?”
His mouth tightened. He didn’t like the familiarity, either.
“What about this?” He turned the bag so I could read handwriting on the back of the card.
MAPSTONE HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS.
TELL HIM NOT TO TRY TO FIND ME.
“Is that your buddy’s handwriting?”
It was. Peralta wrote in an old-school draftsman’s capital letters. I had received countless notes and memos in that same script, when he was Maricopa County Sheriff and later, when he lost the election and we set up our private detective business.
Mann folded the evidence envelope, slipped it back in his coat, and breathed out a sigh. “We are going to find him. He’s only been on the run for less than twenty-four hours. And sooner than you think, you are going to be charged
as an accessory. Don’t think that writing on the card lets you off. If I were you, I’d get a lawyer.”
Peralta’s pickup left the lot hooked to the tow truck, headed back to the Interstate. A deputy took down the yellow tape.
I faced Mann.