The Dark Room(8)

“He might not be in a position to run.”

She took his elbow.

“Come on—she’s waiting.”

When they reached the staircase, instead of leading him down the steps to the rotunda, she guided him to the left. Another patrolman was guarding the entrance to the Board of Supervisors’ chambers. He pulled back the door as they approached.

“This is our headquarters,” Nagata said. They stepped into the antechamber. “But just for tonight. Tomorrow we’re getting a conference room.”

“In City Hall?”

“In the Burton Building. The thirteenth floor.”

“We need a headquarters in the FBI office?”

They stopped before opening the second set of doors to the main room. Nagata gestured at the folder in Cain’s hand.

“We work it until it’s done,” Nagata said. “We have one priority and it’s this.”

“I’ve got other cases, things that won’t wait.”

“That’s why we brought in Grassley.”

“We don’t even know what this is,” Cain said. “My others—I’ve got bodies in the morgue. Grassley’s good, but he’s never worked a homicide on his own.”

“We’re talking about the mayor. That’s the whole discussion, right there.”

She opened the second oak door and they stepped into the main chamber. A wooden rail cut the room in half, separating the supervisors’ tables from the rows of benches in the public gallery. A woman was sitting in one of the supervisors’ seats, and otherwise, the chamber was empty. He and Nagata came down the aisle under the dim chandeliers, opened the gate, and came through it. Agent Fischer was typing something on her phone and didn’t look up until she was done. Then she stood and shook Cain’s hand.

“Karen Fischer,” she said. “I’ve heard good things about you.”

“Okay.”

She pointed at the table opposite her, and they all sat. He guessed Fischer was a year or two older than him. She had a bit of gray in her short hair, and, unlike Castelli, she wasn’t trying to hide it with dye. The checkered grip of her service weapon was visible under her suit jacket.

She looked at Nagata and then at Cain.

“You know why we’re here? You talked to Castelli?”

“Yes,” Nagata said.

Cain just nodded.

“We’re tracing the letter—”

“I never saw the envelope,” Cain said. “Castelli gave it to you?”

“Not him, but his staff—and we’re putting everything we have into tracking it. It was postmarked from North Beach, no return address.”

“You can follow it past that?”

“If the lab doesn’t find prints or DNA, we have—let’s just say, other resources. And by lunch tomorrow we’ll have backgrounds on the names we get from Castelli’s staff. The enemy lists.”

“Lieutenant Nagata says I’m supposed to look for the woman.”

“Finding her—we see that as more of a local law enforcement issue.”

“You don’t know she’s local.”

“You don’t know she’s not,” Fischer said. “And it’s moot, anyway.”

“How’s that?”

“The mayor,” Lieutenant Nagata said. “He wanted you. He insisted.”

“He wanted his police to have a part,” Fischer said.

“It took him five minutes before he told me how to do my job,” Cain said. “If you think he brought me in to look over your shoulder—”

“I don’t, Inspector Cain,” Fischer said. “We’ll work just fine together. You and I will, anyway.”

“All right.”

“We don’t know if the woman’s local or not,” Fischer said. “We don’t know if she’s a coconspirator, an actress hired to play a role, or something else.”

“A victim.”

“It’s a possibility,” Fischer said. “One you’ll have to check.”

“I’m doing this on my own?”

“On your own. We’ll meet twice a day,” Fischer said. “At noon and at seven p.m. If I find anything that could help you, I’ll give it to you. Nothing held back. I expect the same from you.”

“You can count on it,” Nagata said.

“You have the letter and the photographs,” Fischer said to Cain. “You’ll need to show them to people. I know that. But try to be discreet. You’re looking for the woman—that’s all.”

Cain nodded.

“We’ll want to keep this as quiet as we can. We don’t want to telegraph every move we make, or he might move up his timetable. Whoever did this, he’ll be watching for anything out of the ordinary.”

“Like a police helicopter landing on Civic Center Plaza at two in the morning?”

“Things like that,” Fischer said. She looked at Nagata. “Starting now, we’ll want to avoid things like that.”

“That was the mayor’s call.”

“But he’s not running this investigation, is he?” Fischer said to Nagata. Then she turned to Cain. “Our next meeting’s in nine hours. Hopefully you’ll have something by then.”