Part 22 (1/2)
”That's murder.”
”Yup. Call Spinelli. Have him get forensics back here to collect what evidence they can.”
ELEVEN.
Carlos and I arrived back at the office around ten o'clock. Spinelli caught up with us shortly after. He said he called the impound lot to have the sedan towed in, but when the truck arrived at the docks, agents from Homeland Security showed up and confiscated the vehicle.
”That's bulls.h.i.+t,” Carlos complained. ”What right do they have to take our car?”
”Every right,” said Dominic. ”Homeland Security trumps NCPD every time.”
”You sure it was Homeland Security?” I asked.
He offered up a pa.s.sive shrug. ”They had guns, badges, IDs and wireless headsets. You tell me.”
”It's a shadow operation,” said Carlos. ”This case makes no sense.”
Spinelli agreed, adding, ”If Howard Snow is dead, why are these guys still s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g with us? What do they want?”
I kicked back in my chair, propping my feet up on the desk. ”Maybe Snow isn't dead.”
”He is,” said Carlos. ”We saw him get blown up in his Hummer.”
”Did you, or did someone else get blown up?”
”Who?”
”I don't know, the ex-roommate, maybe.”
”No, I don't see how.”
”You said you took video of your surveillance. Where is it?”
”Still in my camera. I'll get it.”
After Spinelli retrieved his camera, we hooked it up to my computer and uploaded segments of video from before and after the blast. One segment in particular caught my eye.
”There,” I said, pointing at the screen. ”Is that supposed to be Snow running out to his car?”
”Spinelli answered, ”Yeah, just before it blew up.”
”Looks like it was raining.”
”It was.”
I shook my head. ”That's not him.”
”Sure it is,” Carlos offered. ”He's wearing the same raincoat he wore when we talked to him.”
”Same raincoat, maybe. Not the same man. Look. Snow has fifty pounds and six inches over this guy. You should know that, Carlos. You stood right next to him. He's as tall as you are. This guy's no bigger than Dominic.”
”Tony, it all happened so fast.”
”I understand that.”
Spinelli said, ”He sent the poor b.a.s.t.a.r.d out to start his car. He must have known it was b.o.o.by trapped.”
”Is anyone checking dental records to verify the charred body in the Hummer was Snow's?”
”Negative,” said Spinelli. ”The Feds swooped in right after you left and took everything. I mean they even swept the ashes off the street and took that.”
”No. This ain't right,” I said. ”If this was a Federal case, then someone from the Bureau would have come and told us to back off. Why is it no one from the U.S. government has done that?”
”I think they have,” said Carlos. ”You didn't get the message after that helicopter guns.h.i.+p nearly blasted us off the docks?”
I got up from my desk and started across the room. Carlos called out, ”Where you going?”
”Back to Leonard Dwyer's house.”
”The roommate? What do you think you'll find there?”
”Don't know. I just want to look around some. Maybe there's something we're missing.”
”What about me?”
”You stay here with Dominic. See what you two can find on Howard Snow that we missed. Check everything this time, past known addresses, former employers, everything. Maybe somebody is helping him. And check his pa.s.sport records. If he has been out of the country lately, find out where he went, and then check flight departures to those places.”
I knew Carlos would not be a big help to Spinelli in finding more on Snow. But I wanted some alone time to think about my home situation the last few days. I know nothing in the past could ever compare to the enrichment Lilith brings to my life. Sure, I often complain to Carlos and Spinelli about her, how aggravated I get with her sometimes. I imagine they must think she makes my life miserable beyond tolerance. The reality, of course, is that nothing could be further from the truth. I love Lilith. She completes me. Life with her is a never-ending amus.e.m.e.nt ride filled with excitement. And in her weird, noncommittal way, I know she loves me, too. Yet, for the life of me, I cannot understand why these curious feelings for Ursula remain.
Carlos once suggested Ursula represents the side of Lilith I rarely see, but know is there. He explained it as the sweet and sour theory, the hot and cold, yin and yang effect. 'The dualistic cosmology completes the balance you seek in a woman,' he told me. Where he comes up with this s.h.i.+t, I will never know. But I suspect he is right. If Lilith is fire, Ursula is ice. Together they comprise a temperate ease suitable for existential harmony. I want them both, but can have just one. Something I need to accept.
As I drove down Monroe Street, I noticed a suspicious vehicle in my rearview mirror. It was not the sedan from earlier, but it did have similar tinting on the windows and displayed a conspicuous manner of evasive maneuvers designed to blend in with traffic. It looked like just the driver this time, perhaps having split with his partner to watch both Carlos and me. I imagined he probably followed me since leaving the precinct, but I was too wrapped up in thought to notice. By then it was too late to call for backup. I proceeded as if I didn't suspect a thing, pulling to the curb in front of Leonard Dwyer's home and getting out without looking at him.
He stopped at the corner, tucking the front of his car in behind a white van and leaving the back end sticking halfway out into the street. Clearly, he did not expect me to pull over, making me wonder if he even knew whose house I had stopped at.
I shoved my keys into my pocket and started up the walkway to the house. Next door, a neighbor watering her flowerbed followed me with a watchful eye. I waved to her, smiling. She turned abruptly, pretending not to notice. I stopped.
”Excuse me. Ma'am?”
She stepped away from the property line and began spraying the rose bushes along the side of the house. I tried again, this time presenting my badge.
”h.e.l.lo, ma'am. Excuse me.”
She looked over at me, squinting for the sun in her eyes. I held up my badge. ”I'm Detective Marcella from the Second Precinct downtown. Do you have a moment?”
She shook her head. ”I already told the man everything I know.”