High Country Nocturne (David Mapstone Mystery 8)

The ventilator’s rhythm was the only reply.

I was about to continue when a nurse returned to show me out.

As I sat down in the waiting room, my phone rang.

“Are you alone?”

It was Cartwright.

“Yes.”

“There’s good news and bad news. Which do you want first?”

“Good, please.” I felt my body bracing against the institutional furniture.

“Lindsey isn’t under investigation for anything. Melton lied to you. It turns out he was partners with Horace Mann…”

“I know. Kate Vare told me they worked together.”

“Vare? The Phoenix detective?”

“She’s pissed. She doesn’t like being shut out by the feds.”

“Melton wanted you distracted. He’s obviously working with Mann. Maybe your instincts weren’t wrong.”

“Meaning?” I asked.

“Meaning Pamela Grayson went back to her hotel. She visited her father in north Scottsdale. He retired and sold his business back in Ohio. We didn’t know she had a family connection here. Her visit might not be connected to the diamond theft. Now I wonder about Horace Mann, too. He might be a suspect, after all. The man was very prompt to volunteer to take over this investigation. Back in the Army, the first thing I learned was never to volunteer.”

I asked for the bad news.

After a long pause, “Lindsey had an affair with her boss.”

And several lovers while I was letting Robin seduce me. It was our time of madness. I didn’t tell him that or that all I wanted was to have her back with me. So I said I knew. No stranger can really see the inside of a marriage.

“I’m sorry, man. Anyway, time for you to make the phone call to the guy who contacted you in Matt Pennington’s office.”

I was suddenly exhausted again.

“Go have a hotdog at Johnnie’s across the street,” he said.

“Johnnie’s is closed.”

“Go to Johnnie’s,” he said. “Knock on the back door six times and be prepared to show your identification.”

“Should I come highly armed?”

“That would be a bad idea. Remember, back door.”

I thought he was going to end the call, but I heard a sigh. “One more thing, David. Don’t contact me again. I need to lay low for this operation to work and for me to keep my cover.”

I said, “I’m going to find Peralta. And I’m going to find the woman who shot Lindsey.”

“I know.” And he was gone.

Chapter Thirty-two

Johnnie had made the best dogs in central Phoenix but now his shop was another empty storefront facing Thomas Road. The windows were covered with brown paper. Still, I did as Cartwright told me and walked around back. Puddles had gathered in the rutted asphalt.