The Nightmare Thief

by Meg Gardiner

  “Psychodrama.”

  Which Reiniger wanted to kill, dead. “Maybe you could have one of your game runners dress like him.”

  Autumn came into the living room, chattering to her boyfriend.

  Coates nodded to Reiniger. “Leave it to me,” he said, and headed outside.

  Dustin Cameron, smooth and overeager, held out his hand. “Sir.”

  “Autumn’s told you?” Reiniger said.

  She looked giddy and calculating. “A crime spree weekend. And I’m going to play the queen of the underworld.” She grabbed Dustin around the waist. “You be the DEA agent who’s after me.”

  “I want a big gun,” Dustin said.

  Dustin lifted weights and tucked his expensive sunglasses in the open collar of his polo shirt. His aspirations were ill defined. But Dustin’s father was a Washington lobbyist. The boy came from a family with power and swagger. He would do well.

  And he could take Autumn places. Reiniger hoped she wouldn’t tire of him. Dustin needed to emerge from the crime spree weekend a hero. He would ask Coates to ensure it.

  Autumn squeezed the young man. “The game’s going to be badass. Absolutely goddamned badass.”

  “Autumn,” Reiniger said.

  She laughed. “I’m getting into character. One you designed.”

  Reiniger’s phone rang. He stepped away to take the call.

  “Dad—”

  He put up a hand to forestall her. “The Asian markets are opening soon.”

  He answered the call. After a moment Autumn pulled Dustin out the French doors onto the terrace. She looked stung. Reiniger walked from the room and closed the door behind him.

  In a copse of trees down the hill, Dane Haugen adjusted the focus on his Leica binoculars. The laser rangefinder gave the distance to Reiniger’s terrace as 122 meters. Through the hazy sunlight, Autumn Reiniger looked as bright and unaware as a piece of glass.

  “Photos,” Haugen said.

  Sabine Jurgens raised her Nikon and snapped a dozen shots of Autumn and the young man who was groping her.

  “My, my,” Sabine said. “Mr. Cameron is testosterone personified.”

  “What are they saying?”

  Beside Haugen, Von Nordlinger aimed a parabolic microphone at the terrace. He put a hand to his earphones. “They’re talking about the game. She just got the invitation.”

  “Record the conversation,” Haugen said.

  Von pressed a button and listened, his slab of a face thick with concentration. The earphones stretched over his pumpkin-size head.

  Haugen watched Autumn. “Does her description of the scenario match the specs Sabine pulled off the Edge database?”

  Von nodded. “Prison break . . . speedboat . . . six in the party. Autumn’s talking about who to invite.”

  Sabine snapped more photos. Her face was severe, her red hair cut boyishly short. Though she lacked any hint of softness, she moved with cold fluidity. Haugen found her stunning, in the way of an electric eel: smooth and cunning and purposeful.

  Her intrusion into the Edge computer system had found OUTLAW SCENARIO—Autumn Reiniger booked for mid-October. But that hack was now twenty-four hours old.

  “Get back into the Edge system tonight,” Haugen said. “I want details—the scenario’s starting point, the timing, the equipment Edge is bringing.”

  She lowered the Nikon. “Not all Coates’s notes go on the computer system.”

  Von said, “I can search their office.”

  Haugen turned, removed his sunglasses, and stared at Von without blinking. Von scratched his nose and shrank back.

  Haugen continued to glare. “We leave no footprints. We do nothing that could tip Edge to our existence.”

  Von looked at the ground. “Forget I mentioned it.”

  “Hardly,” Haugen said.

  But Sabine was correct: Terry Coates sometimes modified scenarios on the fly. That was why Haugen had shadowed the Edge team on today’s kidnap scenario—to see whether they stuck to the script. And, crucially, to see whether the police stuck to the script when challenged.

  Thanks to Sabine’s hack, he had known where and when Edge would grab Reiniger’s corporate team. When Terry Coates pulled up, precisely at noon, Haugen was watching from a coffee shop across the street. He had already phoned the police.

  SFPD response time to a 9-1-1 call reporting an abduction at gunpoint: three minutes, forty-two seconds.

  Time required for Coates to convince the SFPD it was a game: four minutes dead. Once the uniforms confirmed that Edge was running a team-building exercise, and that the department had been informed of this in advance, they drove away.

  Excellent.

  Haugen swept the binoculars and saw, on the driveway, Reiniger Capital’s crew celebrating their escapade. He saw Terry Coates, buff and slick and unctuous. Peter Reiniger stepped outside and was swarmed by his acolytes. Accepting kudos, undoubtedly.

  Haugen lowered the binoculars. “Do you understand who Peter Reiniger is?”

  “Richer than God,” Von said.

  “He’s a pivot point. He’s the fulcrum that will provide the leverage we need. And, thanks to his daughter, he is going to be”—Haugen savored the word—“pliant.”

  “So we’re going to grab her,” Von said.

  The air was sharp with salt, and with promise. Haugen raised the binoculars and took another look at Autumn. “Happy birthday, princess. Surprise, surprise.”

  2

  Wednesday, October 10

  “Stop kidding. It costs how much?”

  The guy in the attendant’s booth didn’t look up. “Twenty-four bucks for the first hour, twelve-fifty each hour after that.”

  Evan Delaney blinked. For parking? Maybe she should ram the exit barrier and escape the garage, instead of forking out. Then, because street parking in San Francisco meant a fight to the death, she could drive her Mustang straight downhill, launch it into the bay, and swim to her meeting.

  The car in line behind her honked.

  “Fine,” she said. “You want me to open my wallet, or a vein?”

  Talking to Jo Beckett had better be worth it.

  The story Evan was investigating was big, strange, and wormy with holes. Trying to get the full picture was maddening—but that was typical of freelance journalism. That wasn’t why she was going to talk to a forensic psychiatrist. No, Jo Beckett had called her. Because Beckett was also investigating the death of Phelps Wylie, attorney-at-law.

  Phelps Wylie had collected antiques and bought his suits at Hugo Boss. He was short, bald, and toad-mouthed, with limpid eyes. Whenever Evan saw his photo, she heard “Froggy Went A’ Courtin’.”

  He had been found dead in an abandoned gold mine in the Sierras.

  Wylie had disappeared from San Francisco one Saturday morning the previous April. Months later and two hundred miles away, his remains were found pinned beneath rubble in the mine, so badly decomposed that no cause of death could be determined.

  The local sheriff’s department thought he got caught in a flash flood while hiking and was swept to his death. That, or he got drunk during a walkabout in the high country, stumbled on the mine, and fell into the shaft while exploring. Or he threw himself down the shaft deliberately. Basically, he took a midnight header to oblivion, and nobody knew how or why.

  It was the biggest backcountry hiking death to hit the State Bar since the defense attorney’s from the Manson Family murder trial, and Evan was writing a feature story about it for California Lawyer magazine.

  But the story stubbornly refused to come together. She’d felt like she was poking roadkill with a stick, coaxing it to dance. Until, out of the blue, Jo Beckett, MD, phoned and asked to meet.

  That was the reason Evan parked and hiked to a coffeehouse near Fisherman’s Wharf.

  Java Jones was steamy and felt lived in. The young barista had a silver nose ring, Tiggerish energy, and curls the color of the coffee she was brewing. Her name tag said TINA. Bad Dogs and Bullets wa
s playing on the stereo.

  Evan approached the counter. “This sounds like a honky-tonk requiem.”

  “You want something tall and strong to go with the song?”

  “And hot. Make sure he can skin a bear, and looks good on a horse.”

  Tina smiled. “Americano, large?”

  With a gust of wind the door opened and a woman came in: early thirties, café Americano curls, subdued athleticism beneath boho-chic clothes. She waved at the young barista and scanned the place.

  She couldn’t be called elfin—she was too sober. Her gaze seemed warm but guarded. Or maybe she was just analyzing the clientele.

  Had to be the shrink.

  “Jo?”

  “Evan.” The woman extended her hand. “Thanks for coming.”

  Evan nodded at the barista. “You’re sisters?”

  Jo smiled. “Yeah, but drink this coffee for a month and you’ll look just like us.”

  She ordered an espresso containing so many shots that the mug vibrated. Evan glanced her over. So. This was the deadshrinker.

  Jo looked the compleat Californian: Doc Martens and a Mickey Mouse watch, the hint of East Asian heritage a few generations back. She wore a Coptic cross on a chain around her neck. The light in her brown eyes looked both engaging and shrewd.

  Evan bet that 90 percent of people who heard the words forensic psychiatrist got tongue-tied and skittish, worried that Jo was sizing them up for tics and compulsions. Because she was one of them.

  Jo led her to a table by the windows. “I’m performing a psychological autopsy on Phelps Wylie. His law firm has asked me to investigate his mental state and try to determine the manner of his death.”

  “And how’s that going?”

  “It’s frustrating.” She sat down. “Wylie’s life contradicts every assumption the sheriffs drew about his death. He didn’t hike. Didn’t like the mountains. He did like gold, but in the form of bullion traded by his corporate clients. And he liked booze, but when it was poured into champagne flutes at the opera house.”

  “Bear Grylls he wasn’t,” Evan said.

  “Not by a New York mile. You know how a psychological autopsy works?”

  “You examine a victim’s psychological life to figure out how he died.”

  “Yes—when a death is equivocal. That is, when the police and medical examiner can’t tell whether it was natural, accidental, suicide, or homicide. When they hit a dead end, they call me to evaluate the victim’s mental state,” she said. “I’m their last resort.”

  “And I’m yours.”

  Jo’s expression turned piquant. “I’m aware of the irony.”

  Evan paused. Her skittishness was abating, because she saw on Jo’s face the same drive and foreboding she felt herself.

  “This investigation is getting to you, isn’t it?” she said.

  “It’s under my skin like a tick. Tell me about Wylie. I need background, insight, some clue to Wylie’s personality and motivations, any evidence that will help me build a timeline of his final twenty-four hours.”

  “Did he have a psych history?” Evan said.

  “None.”

  “Think his death was from natural causes?”

  “What, he dropped dead picking wildflowers, in a flood channel, and got washed into that mine by a convenient downpour?”

  Jo’s tone was caustic. Evan liked that. She batted down a smirk.

  “Do you think Wylie was murdered?” she said.

  “Possibly. Do you?”

  “I’d lay money on it. He was a baby barracuda, angling to reach the top of the legal food chain. He made enemies. And his friends say that before his disappearance he seemed preoccupied and brooding. The word edgy has come up more than once.”

  Jo nodded. “And then there’s the car.”

  Shortly after Wylie disappeared, his Mercedes turned up near the Mexican border, stripped, abandoned, and wiped clean of fingerprints.

  “The gold mine is in a remote part of the Stanislaus National Forest. So maybe the car thief stumbled across the empty Merc on an isolated logging road and decided to take a five-hundred-mile joyride. But color me skeptical.”

  Evan nodded. “If you determine Wylie’s state of mind, will that prove how he died?”

  “Not necessarily. I don’t have a Magic Eight Ball that says murder or accident. Clients who think I can dowse for death end up disappointed.”

  “Your psychological autopsy broke open the Tasia McFarland case.”

  Jo’s gaze sharpened. “That case ended with the man I love shot and wounded, and the media crawling over me like scorpions. So be aware that I tread carefully when dealing with the press.”

  Evan’s eyes widened. “Tread carefully? You fought a battle royale against the Creature from the Channel of the Blondes. And you took her down, live on national television. For which, by the way, I should throw confetti over you.”

  Jo laughed.

  “And if you’re so wary of the press, how come you called me?”

  “You have a background as a lawyer yourself. You’ve been looking at the case from angles I probably haven’t. And I’m told you’re a straight shooter.”

  A shadow passed behind Jo’s eyes. It seemed to say, And I know how you got into trouble, Ms. Delaney. Did Jo know why this case pulled so hard on her? Her own father had gone missing. And though Evan had found him, in the aftermath the certainties in her life had boiled away in a cauldron of grief.

  She went still. “Who gave you my name?”

  “It’s no secret you’re doing this story,” Jo said.

  A tickle began at the base of her skull. “Still—who pointed you in my direction?”

  “My sources are confidential. As are yours. Right?”

  “As acid rain.”

  Jo looked at her calmly.

  Cool down. Evan drummed her fingernails on the tabletop. “Very well.”

  They gauged each other for a moment longer. Then, simultaneously, they got out notepads, pens, and digital audio recorders.

  Jo said, “Have you seen the police reports?”

  “Tuolumne’s. Not the SFPD’s.”

  “Okay. The day before Wylie disappeared, he worked a full day. His e-mail and phone records show nothing out of the ordinary. His last call was to a client at six P.M. He mentioned no plans to go hiking in the Sierras. Saturday morning, he pulled his Mercedes out of the driveway. He phoned his mother from the car and said he was headed to the office. That’s the last anybody heard from him.”

  Something about the timing scratched at Evan, but she couldn’t pin it down. “Have you spoken to his clients?”

  Jo’s expression became studiously neutral.

  “That’s confidential?” Evan said.

  “Absolutely. However, Wylie’s client list isn’t. Nothing stops you from interviewing them.”

  “Got a copy?”

  Jo handed her a file folder.

  Evan smiled. “Okay, I’ll trade.”

  From her backpack she took maps and photos of the rugged country near the abandoned gold mine. She handed Jo an eight-by-ten.

  Jo looked surprised. “Satellite photos?”

  “Orbital image taken two days before Wylie’s disappearance.”

  “The resolution’s amazing.”

  Evan handed her another. “Same patch of terrain, snapped from the same satellite, but this month.”

  Jo stilled. “How did you get these?”

  “Relatives with the right passwords. See what I see?”

  Jo pored over the photos. “The flood channel. It’s much deeper on the recent image.”

  Evan unrolled a U.S. Geological Survey map. “Have you been up there?”

  Jo’s dispassion turned to disquiet. “I’ve carved out some time to drive up next week.” She examined the map. “I know that part of the Sierras. The terrain’s brutal. Look at the topo lines.” She traced a series of closely convergent changes in elevation. “Forest, granite crags, sheer drop-offs, and when heavy rain falls
, flash flooding is a real problem. If Wylie was hiking, he could plausibly have gotten caught in a washout. I mean, I know native Californians who think they’re safe camping by the Russian River after a downpour.”

  “I’m from the Mojave Desert. I know people who thought they were safe driving across eighteen inches of rushing water on a highway,” Evan said. “What are you thinking?”

  “The sheriffs’ photos didn’t fully depict the severity of the terrain. Or . . .”

  Evan raised an eyebrow. “The timing?”

  Jo straightened. “I need to get up there ASAP. Because your satellite photos suggest that the flash flood occurred after Wylie disappeared.”

  “Precisely.”

  Noise swirled around them, the clatter of coffee cups and silverware. The intensity on Jo’s face mirrored Evan’s own feelings. She felt a weight, heard a deep-background snarl. It was menace, looming.

  Jo said, “The question is, what drove Wylie to that mine? Or who?”

  The scratchy feeling, Evan’s sense that she’d missed something, intensified. “You said that the day before Wylie disappeared, his last phone call was from the office.”

  “Right.”

  “What about the dog walker?”

  The evening before he disappeared, while checking his mail, Wylie had run into his next-door neighbor. The two spoke briefly.

  Jo said, “I talked to him. He didn’t mention a phone call with Wylie.”

  “No. He overheard Wylie take a call. When did you speak to him?”

  “Two weeks ago.”

  Evan felt a frisson. “I spoke to him yesterday. He said they chatted for a minute before Wylie’s phone rang. Wylie excused himself and answered it.”

  Jo looked consternated. “What time was that?”

  “Eight P.M.”

  “Wylie got an incoming call on his cell phone.”

  “Yes,” Evan said.

  Jo’s gaze sharpened. “Wylie’s cell phone records show no calls after five thirty.”

  They both tensed.

  “He had a second cell phone,” Jo said.

  “He damned well did.”

  “Whoa.” Jo looked both irked and excited. “Did the neighbor overhear Wylie’s conversation?”

  “A few words. He said Wylie mentioned something about running, and a concert. A rock concert, he thought.”