What She Found (Tracy Crosswhite #9)(22)

Tracy and Faz sat at a table on the west side of the tower and looked down on Elliott Bay’s sparkling water and the wakes created by crossing ferries and speedboats. On the horizon lingered an orange haze, which had never existed when Tracy first moved back to Seattle some twenty years ago. Hopefully, the next wind would blow it out to sea.

Faz ordered a Manhattan and munched on cashews from a bowl. Tracy ordered a cosmopolitan.

After more small talk, Faz said, “So, again, to what do I owe this great pleasure, or did you just miss my company?”

“I miss your company,” Tracy said. Faz was like a big brother.

He teased her, but he cared for her. “And I miss Del and Kins as well.”

“Don’t you get lonely working those files on your own? It would drive me bonkers. I got to talk to people, reason things out.”

“I do sometimes,” she said. “But for now, Cold Cases has its advantages, mainly that I get home at a decent hour to spend family time.”

Faz pointed at her. “That’s important. Don’t give that up. I see Antonio and I can’t believe he’s a grown man. It goes by quick.”

“Any new wedding plans?” They’d called off the wedding for now and were waiting until they could actually celebrate.

“Not that he’s telling me or his mother. And trust me, Vera could get a Cold War spy to sing. She’s chomping at the bit to become a nonna. Me, not so much.”

“Why not?”

“Gonna make me feel older than I already feel, being a grandfather. I’ll settle for godfather for now.”

The cocktail waitress brought their drinks and more cashews.

They declined food or menus.

“Salute.” Faz raised his glass.

Tracy returned the gesture. “Salute.” The cosmopolitan was strong with a touch of bitters. “I need to ask you about something.”

Faz grabbed another handful of cashews. “Shoot.”

“I’m working a cold case, Lisa Childress.”

“The newspaper reporter.”

“You got a good memory.”

“Not that good. Del mentioned you were working it.”

“When?”

“Yesterday or today. Said the daughter got ahold of you.”

“How’d that come up?”

“Just shooting the shit. Maybe he said you asked him about Moss Gunderson.”

“I did. What was your impression of Moss?”

“A blowhard.”

“You worked with him on the Angel of Death Task Force.”

Faz paused his chewing midcashew. “Angel of Death?”

“The Route 99 Killer.”

“I know what you meant. I was wondering how you know the name ‘Angel of Death.’ We kept that within the task force.”

It confirmed what Tracy had reasoned. The task force didn’t release the information. “Childress had the name in her notes.”

“I’m not following, Tracy. How the hell would a reporter know that?”

“That’s what I’m wondering.” She told Faz about the investigative files Childress had been working at the time she disappeared. “It seems she had a source.”

“It does,” Faz agreed.

“Any idea who might have been her source?”

“Wasn’t me. I was a young pup back then, just doing what I was told and trying not to get in any trouble.”

“Anyone you can think of?”

“I don’t even remember all the task force team members, Tracy.

Moss liked to run his mouth, as you already know, but I don’t see him leaking task force information. What is he going to get out of it?”

“Maybe he just wanted to look like the center of attention, a big shot with all the answers.”

Faz made a face and shook his head. “Seems like a stretch.”

“Why the pause?”

“Moss changed when he got divorced.”

“What do you mean?”

“His wife left him for a younger man with a lot of money. He became bitter and not a lot of fun to be around. It’s understandable.”

“When was this?”

“When he and Del worked together. Then he found himself a young wife, evened the score, I suppose, and went back to being the obnoxious Moss we all knew.”

“What about Nolasco?” Tracy said. “He likes the limelight, especially if it increases his chances of getting in a reporter’s pants.”

She was thinking specifically of Maria Vanpelt, the Channel 8

reporter with whom Nolasco had a relationship, though well after the Angel of Death Task Force.

“Possible, and I can see what he might get out of the relationship, but would he have been that reckless?”

“How’d he become the task force lead?” Tracy asked.

“He caught the first couple of killings and pieced them together,”

Faz said. “You know how it is, ‘No solved crime goes unpunished,’”

he said, repeating another Faz mantra. He ate another cashew, then he added, “Del said you were also asking about the Last Line.”

Again, Tracy wondered why Del would bring up the subject with Faz. “Childress was investigating the possibility they were skimming money from drug busts.”