'For computer hacking.'
'For hacking and for bombing.'
'I haven't found the bombing to be true.'
'Yeah, look again. I wouldn't put it past Ricky.'
'Ricky is Darrell, Erin.'
'I know,' the teen answered. 'But they've been two separate people for so long, it's hard to think like that. Darrell... he's an alien, but he's brilliant.'
'So I've heard.'
'Why should you doubt it? Most pervs are brilliant.'
'No, Erin, that's not true. There are many stupid perverted people.'
'Not the ones I know.'
'That may be. But I'll tell you something. The smart ones are often the most dangerous, because they are able to plan their crimes. These murders didn't happen at random. They were planned, and we both know who planned them.'
Water pooled in her orbs. She didn't answer him.
Decker said, 'I need you to tell me where Darrell is.'
'I don't know—'
'Yes, you do know!'
But she denied it with a fierce stare and a shake of the head. 'No, I don't know! Darrell's a survivalist, in case you forgot. He was in Old Man Baldwin's camp when he was sixteen or seventeen. He hated it, but he did learn how to survive in the wilds. What he didn't pick up from camp, he learned later from Hank Tarpin after Darrell joined PEL Darrell's been going in and out of the woods for years as Ricky Moke. He claims he's got all these little campsites all over the state. He could hide out forever. You'll never find him. The FBI hasn't.'
'Can you give me a guess?'
'Nope. And if he called the apartment to say where he was going, I didn't get the message. Soon as I heard about Ernesto and the doctor getting whacked, I took off.'
'The unit number you gave us was bogus. Where were you living?'
'With Darrell.'
'And it didn't bother you that Darrell hadn't come home that night?'
'Nah. Lots of times he was out all night.'
'Doing what?'
'How should I know?'
'Guess.'
'Maybe with Ruby.'
'And where does Ruby live?'
'Beats me.'
Decker thought a moment. Something was off. At the time of the synagogue vandalism, Ruby was living at home. Then she moved back up north. Wanda had given him the former listing. But then she disappeared and presumably came back down to L.A. So where did she reside?
Alice Ranger swore that she hadn't seen her daughter in months. The empty room seemed to bear that out. And Wanda had yet to find a temporary address for Ruby. She had checked with the DMV, the DWP, the gas company, local credit-card companies, Ruby's former bank... No new address had popped up. So now Decker was beginning to think that maybe Ruby had a Ricky Moke-type alias as well. Both of them - Darrell and Ruby - knew how to manipulate the Internet. They could enter any world from thousands of miles away under hundreds of different aliases. It made for a vast arena for potential crime that was staggering.
Erin was talking.
'... stuffed all my shit into a paper bag and came here. I never did tell Darrell my real last name. But I know he could have found out if he wanted to.' She bit a nonexistent nail, her fingertips being raw and red. 'Do you think he'll come here?'
'The thought has crossed my mind.'
'This place is patrolled, you know. But the guys don't look too scary. I could probably take 'em down if I had the weapons.'
Decker's eyes went to Erin's young face. The steely way she had spoken those words had sent a chill down his spine. 'I'll put in a call to West L.A. police for protection. They'll send over
some cruisers to keep watch until we can sort this out.'
"That's good. I wouldn't want anything bad to happen to my aunt. She's the only person in the world who has ever been nice to me.'
Stated so plaintively. She was a broken soul, but that didn't mean she was harmless. Street junkies - especially young ones who have experienced so much rough trade in so few years -were notoriously unpredictable.
'So even when Darrell was living with you, he stayed out all night?'
'Sometimes.'
'Ever tell you about it?'
'Nope. I just assumed he was with Ruby, doing their thing.'
'And you didn't care what Darrell was doing?'
'You mean, was I jealous?' She laughed. 'I didn't care as long as he was nice to me.'
Nice, as in supplying her habit. He said, 'I was thinking more like the illegal things. Weren't you worried about the police catching up with you?'
'A little. Still, it was worth the free junk.' She rubbed her nose. 'Think I should get tested?'
'For AIDS?'
'Yeah. When I started living with Darrell, he made me get tested. I was negative. I've only done it with, like, three other guys since then. Think I should get tested again?'
'It's a good idea.'
'Yeah. I thought so.' She sniffed. 'You're gonna take me into, like, custody, right?'
'Right.'
'I gotta get a lawyer, right?'
'Right,' Decker said. 'If you can't afford one, we'll get you one.'
'My parents are flush. They'll hire me out someone.' She looked at him. 'What about my jones? I'm not going cold.'
Barking orders as if she had a choice. But why rile her up? It would just make it harder to get her in. 'If you cooperate, I'll try
to get you into a hospital under a doctor's supervision.'
'You mean like methadone?'
'If you cooperate,' Decker stressed. 'A couple more questions, Erin. Did you ever meet Ernesto Golding?'
She didn't have to think about the answer. 'Long time ago. Ruby brought him over to PEI a couple of times. Right before he trashed the synagogue.'
'Did you know that Ernesto was going to trash the synagogue?'
'You mean like before he did it?'
'Yes, that's what I mean.'
'No, I didn't know before... just afterward. Because it was all over the news.'
'Erin, I think Ernesto had help in that crime. What do you think?'
'I dunno.'
'Help like in Darrell Holt help.' He looked at her. 'It'll help you to tell the truth, Erin. Help you inside your heart, and help you with the law.'
'Far as I know, Darrell wasn't part of the synagogue mess.'
Decker smoothed his mustache. 'How about Darrell as Ricky Moke?'
'Nah, not him either.'
Decker studied her. 'You honestly think that Ernesto vandalized the synagogue all by himself?'
'I dunno. All I'm saying is Darrell didn't do it. Or Ricky. Or me.'
'What about Ruby Ranger?'
She shrugged. 'Nah, Ruby would never do it. Might break a nail or something. The girl never got her hands dirty. But I could see her manipulating Ernesto by using sex as a reward. That's what they both liked to do... manipulate people.'
She looked down, her face reddening. Decker asked her what was on her mind. After more prodding, she finally spoke. 'I was just surprised about Ernesto's murder. It was... a shock.'
'You had no idea?'
'No! It freaked me out, man.' She sounded genuine. 'I thought he was—' She stopped herself.
'Part of the Baldwin scam?' Decker filled in. 'I was gonna say "I thought he was one of us," ' Erin answered. 'I don't know if he was popped on purpose or he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.' 'What do you think?'
'I know that Darrell was real mad about the temple thing. But then after Ernesto confessed, I thought it was... over.'
'Why was Darrell mad about the vandalism?' Decker asked. 'I would think it would fit into his grandiose image of himself.'
'It brought the heat to PEI,' Erin stated. 'The last thing Darrell wanted was to be noticed, because he had this thing with Dee Baldwin... the test thing.' 'Tell me about that.' 'I don't know about it.'
Decker glared at her. 'We could keep talking here... or I could take you down to the stationhouse—' 'You're gonna do that anyway.'
'True. B
ut down there I won't be the only one who'll be talking to you.'
'What is it? A torture chamber or something? I've had worse.' 'Suit yourself—' 'What did you ask me about?' 'What do you know about the Baldwins?' 'This is just... guessing kind of, okay?' 'Okay.'
'Okay.' She sat up. 'From what I could figure out, I think the old lady was paying Ricky Moke money to hack into the test center to get advance copies or questions of all the college tests or something like that. He had this whole network thing because you can't get the stuff just by hacking, 'cause they have protection things like firewalls... which isn't a problem for Ricky. But apparently the testing center has its own computer that isn't connected to anything on-line. But Ricky had this whole thing of people he knew. I think someone was bought off.'
'How did Hank Tarpin fit in?'
'He was with PEL'
'He was also employed by the Baldwins.'
'Yeah, he was the head guy at the nature camp.'
'Was he involved in the hacking scheme?'
'I dunno. Why don't you ask him?'
Was she serious? Decker said, 'I would except he's dead, Erin.'
The girl blanched like boiled cauliflower. 'Oh!' She stuck the raw fingertip into her mouth. 'Oh God! When?'
'We found him about six hours ago. It's been on the news—'
'Who the hell has been watching the news!' Abruptly, she jumped up and started to pace while nibbling on her thumb. 'Man, he's covering all bases, isn't he?'
'Let me ask you again. Was Tarpin part of the computer hacking—'
'Are you kidding?' she broke in. 'Tarpin was a dweeb. He was paranoid about anything that had to do with the twentieth century!'
She stomped back and forth in front of the picture window. One wrong move and she'd be free-falling several hundred feet.
'Sit down, Erin,' Decker ordered.
The teen didn't seem to hear him. 'Hank was pure PEI -things should go back to the good old days when the white man was the strong, all-powerful but benevolent father.'
Decker got up and grabbed her arm. Instinctively, Erin flailed in his grip. He said, 'I'm worried that you're going to have an accident. You're awfully close to the window.'
She looked around, realizing she was inches from the glass wall. 'Oh... okay' She sat back down. 'It's tempting, you know. Just take the plunge.'
His mind flashed to his own daughter hurling over the mountainside. Instantly, his heart was hammering.
She's fine, he told himself. Doing her thing over at Hollywood and doing it well. As a matter of fact, she's way more fine than you are. 'There are people you can talk to after we clear up this mess.'
'Yeah, shrinks. No thanks!' She let out a bitter laugh. 'Look
what happened to the Baldwins.'
'And you don't think Tarpin had anything to do with the hacking scheme?'
'No. The Tarpin I knew had this weird code of honor - like it was okay to hate as long as you were honest about it. Maybe it was something he learned in the Marines.' She looked at Decker. 'Hank was in the Marines.'
Decker knew. But Maryam had seen Holt and Tarpin go into Dee Baldwin's office about six months ago. If Tarpin wasn't a part of it, what had that meeting been all about?
'Tarpin...' She took in a deep breath and let it out. 'He had some kind of argument with Darrell around the time of the vandalism. When was that? About six months ago?'
'About.'
'I just caught the tail end of it.'
'What was it about?'
'Something having to do with the direction of PEL' She tapped her foot. 'You know, it was Tarpin who introduced Darrell to Dee like three, four years ago.'
'No, I didn't know that,' Decker said.
Erin became animated. 'PEI was going under, and Darrell needed money to keep it going. So Darrell went to Hank, and Hank convinced Dee to give Darrell a job. She brought him on to do computer work because she didn't know shit about computers. Darrell told me that at first she gave him just secretarial stuff. Then Darrell and Dee got to know each other... pretty well, in fact.' Her smile became a leer. 'One thing led to another with work and with play.'
'Who suggested breaking into the testing center?'
'Probably Darrell. But I don't know that. All I know is that Hank was upset with Darrell. He was saying things about Darrell compromising PEI's integrity and hurting the Baldwins. Darrell kept saying that it was Dee's idea, so he should just shut up.'
'So Tarpin liked the Baldwins?'
She rubbed her nose. 'Tarpin liked the boys... not to fuck them, but he liked doing the camp thing. He liked to play Mr
Marine. I don't think he'd hurt any of the boys, including Ernesto. And I can't see him whacking the Baldwins.'
Decker formulated ideas. Had Tarpin threatened to expose the hacking scheme? Was that why he was murdered? If so, it had taken Darrell six months to do it. And then there was Ernesto. How'd he fit in? Decker asked Erin for her opinion.
She looked down at her lap. 'Once... when Darrell thought I was sleeping, I overheard Ruby telling Darrell things... that Ernesto was a problem.'
'A problem...' Decker waited until he could make eye contact with the girl. A hard stare. 'What did he say to that?'
'Maybe he said something like "Take care of him." '
Take care of him.
'And what did that sound like to you, Erin?'
The teenager didn't answer.
The little psychopath! She knew all along. Decker said, 'Didn't you just tell me that Ernesto's death came as a shock to you?'
'It did!'
'Then I'll repeat my question. What did "Take care of him" mean to you?'
She began to cry. 'I didn't know Ernesto was going to dieV
'But you knew it wasn't going to be good—'
'I thought Darrell was just... being cool or something.'
'To whack someone is to be cool?'
'You're putting words into my mouth!' She was sobbing by then. Decker let her go for a while. Then he said, 'So Ruby set Ernesto up?'
'How was I supposed to know? I'm just this dumb junkie living from fix to fix!'
A dumb, psycho, lying junkie, Decker wanted to add. He shut off the recorder, leaned forward, and grabbed the girl's shoulders, his eyes staring into her blank pupils. 'Erin, where can I find Darrell?'
'I don't know,' she whimpered. 'I swear.'
Decker let go of her arms and backed away, giving her some breathing room. His eyes continued to bore into hers. 'Give me
an idea, little girl! Something! AnyihingP
'He's probably hiding in the hills somewhere between Santa Barbara and Orange County. I don't think he's left Southern California—'
'Narrow it down!' Decker ordered.
'Stop yelling at meP she screamed.
'What's going on down there?' a disembodied voice yelled down. Doreen to the rescue. 'I'm coming down right now!'
Decker glared at Erin. 'You're in trouble—'
'I don't know where he is!' she bleated. 'Go lean on Ruby Ranger, why don't you? She's known Darrell a lot longer than I have.'
Doreen appeared. 'The questioning is over!'. 'Fair enough. I'm taking her in—'
'What?' Doreen was outraged. 'You can't—'
'I can and I will. You can come along. As a matter of fact, it would be good if you came along.'
'I have kids here!'
'So don't come.'
'So you're just going to arrest her?' Doreen asked.
'Take her in for questioning,' Decker corrected. 'Actually, I'm not going to take her in. I'm going to contact a female juvenile officer from Detectives to bring her in. It'll take about an hour.' To Erin he said, 'You have time to change and wash up if you want.' Give yourself a final fix was the nonspoken message. 'But you can't lock the door to the bathroom. If you do, I'll break it down.'
'Why?' Doreen asked.
'Policy,' Decker said. 'I need to keep an eye on her.'
'I cooperated with you,' Erin said sulkily.
Decker sn
apped back. 'That's why I'm letting you go to the bathroom, Erin.'
Faye Kellerman - Decker 13 - The Forgotten Page 35
