Goodbye California - Alistair [38]
‘I don’t want your help.’
She made a moue.
‘Sorry.’ He took her hand in apology. ‘That wasn’t nice. If I need you, I’ll ask. I just don’t want to involve you in what may be a messy business.’
She smiled. ‘Thank you.’ Both of them knew that he would never ask.
‘Chief of Police Donahure. He has a rather special house, Spanish-Moroccan, swimming pool, wet bars everywhere, expensive furniture in awful taste, no mortgage. Mexican couple. Late model Lincoln, full payment on delivery. Twenty thousand dollars on bank deposit. Living high off the hog, you might say, but then Donahure doesn’t have a wife to spend all his money for him – understandably, he’s a bachelor. An acceptable life-style – he doesn’t get paid in pennies. What’s not so acceptable is that in seven different banks under seven different names he has just over half a million dollars salted away. He might have some difficulty in accounting for that.’
‘Nothing that goes on or is said in this house is going to surprise me any more.’ Jablonsky nevertheless managed to look surprised. ‘Proof?’
‘Sure he’s got proof,’ Jeff said. As Ryder didn’t seem disposed to deny this, he carried on: ‘I didn’t know until this evening. My father has a dossier on him, complete with signed affidavits, which would make very interesting reading in Sacramento.’
Jablonsky said: ‘This true?’
‘You don’t have to believe it,’ Ryder said.
‘I’m sorry. But why don’t you lower the boom on him? Repercussions wouldn’t matter a damn to you.’
‘They wouldn’t. But they’d matter to others. Nearly half of our friend’s ill-gotten gains come from blackmail. Three prominent citizens of this town, basically as clean and innocent as most of us are, which doesn’t say a great deal, have been badly compromised. They could also be badly hurt. I’ll use this document if my hand is forced, of course.’
‘And what would it take to force your hand?’
‘State secrets, Doc’ Parker smiled as he said it and rose to his feet.
‘So State secrets.’ Jablonsky rose also, then nodded towards the file he’d brought. ‘Hope that’s of some use to you.’
‘Thank you. Thank you both very much.’
Jablonsky and Parker walked together to their cars. Jablonsky said: ‘You know him better than I do, Sergeant. Ryder really cares about his family? He doesn’t seem terribly upset to me.’
‘He cares. Not much of a man for the emotional scene. He’ll probably be just as relaxed when he kills the man who took Susan.’
‘He would do that?’ Jablonsky seemed unhappy.
‘Sure. Wouldn’t be the first time. Not in cold blood, of course – he’d have to have a reason. No reason, he’ll just leave a nice challenging case for the plastic surgeon. And either of those two things could happen to anyone who gets in his way when he’s trying to get next to Morro, or whatever his name is. I’m afraid the kidnappers made a big mistake – they kidnapped the wrong person.’
‘What do you think he’s going to do?’
‘Don’t know. I’m just guessing when I say I know what I’m going to do, something I never thought I would. I’m going right home and say a prayer for the health of our Chief of Police.’
Jeff nodded towards the file Jablonsky had brought. ‘How about your homework? I always had to do it first thing when I came home.’
‘Uninterrupted thought for that one.’
‘I suppose he thinks that’s a gentle hint. Come on, Marge, I’ll take you home. See you when I see you.’
‘Half an hour.’
‘Ha!’ Jeff looked pleased. ‘So you’re not going to sit there all night and do nothing?’
‘No. I’m not going to sit here all night and do nothing.’
For some time after they had left it seemed as if he intended to do just that. After some minutes he put his photograph back in the frame, rose and placed it between two others on the upright piano. The one to the left was that of his wife: the other, that of Peggy, his daughter, a sophomore in arts at San Diego. She was a laughing girl with dancing eyes who had inherited her father’s colouring in eyes and hair but, fortunately, neither his features nor build, both of which belonged