Trial By Fury

CHAPTER 16

I put Joa

As she started the Mustang, I motioned for her to roll down the window. "Don't forget to put your phone back on the hook," I told her. She gave me a half-hearted wave and drove away.

I started the Porsche and rammed it into gear. My first instinct was to find Maxwell Cole, beat the crap out of him, and find out who the big mouth was, either in the crime lab or in Seattle P.D. Somebody had leaked the information.

I drove straight to the Post-Intelligencer's new digs down on Elliott, overlooking Puget Sound. Eight o'clock found me standing in front of a needle-nosed receptionist who told me Maxwell Cole wasn't expected in before ten. I should have known a slug like Cole wouldn't be up at the crack of dawn.

Rather than hang around the newspaper and cool my heels, I went down to the Public Safety Building. I stopped at the second floor and stormed into the crime lab.

Don Yamamoto, head of the Washington State Patrol's crime lab, is a criminalist of the first water. He's one of those second-generation Japanese who, as a kid, was incarcerated along with his parents in a relocation camp during World War II. He spent all his spare time during the years they were locked up reading the only book available to him-a Webster's unabridged dictionary-and he came out of the camp with a far better education than he probably would have gotten otherwise.

He's a smart guy, smart and personable both, well respected by those who work for and with him. The receptionist waved me past without bothering to give me an official escort. As usual, the door to Yamamoto's office stood open. I knocked on the frame.

"Hey, Beau, how's it going?" he asked, looking up from a stack of paperwork on his desk.

"Not well," I answered. "We've got troubles." I laid it on the line to him. He listened without comment. When I finished, he sat back in his chair, folding his arms behind his head.

"I think you're wrong, Beau. That story didn't come from this office. None of my people go ru

He got up and led the way to the evidence room. He stopped at the doorway long enough to examine the log. "Only two people actually handled that photograph," he said. "One was Janice Morraine, and the other is Tom Welch. Either of those sound like people who'd be messing around with the likes of Maxwell Cole?"

I shook my head. I knew them both fairly well. I had to agree with their chief's assessment.

"So how did Max get the story?"

"Why don't you go straight to the horse's mouth and ask him that question?" Don suggested.

"I tried that. He wasn't in."

"So try again."

I turned on my heels and walked out of his office. Standing in the elevator lobby waiting for the door to open, I was surprised when the door behind me opened. Don Yamamoto followed me into the corridor. "But you'll let me know if you find out something I need to know, right?" he asked.

Don Yamamoto trusted his people implicitly. Up to a point.

I chuckled. "Yes," I answered. "I'll let you know."

It was eight-forty when I reached Peters' and my cubicle on the fifth floor. Peters glanced meaningfully at his watch. Having a partner can be worse than having to punch a time clock. Time clocks don't expect explanations.

"Get off it," I told him before he had a chance to open his mouth. "I got back from Portland at three this morning, and I've been up working since six, so don't give me any shit."

"My, my, we are touchy this morning," Peters said with a grin. "So tell me what you learned in Portland."

I did. All of it. By the time I finished telling him about the cheerleading squad's nasty little rite of passage, he wasn't nearly as cheerful as he had been. In fact, he was probably wondering about the advisability of having daughters.

"I talked to all those girls," he said. "They seemed like nice, straight, clean-cut kids."

"You can't tell a book by its cover, remember?"

"Right, so what do we do? Tackle Wheeler-Dealer? Go have a heart-to-heart talk with Molly Blackburn? Read the writing in the locker?"

I got up and glanced over the top of the cubicle walls to the clock at the end of the room. It was five to ten. "All of the above," I told him, "but not necessarily in that order. We're starting with Maxwell Cole, bless his pointed little head."

We dropped the Porsche off at my place and took a departmental crate to the P.I. It turned out Maxwell Cole's pointed head was nowhere within striking distance. The same scrawny receptionist gave me an icy smile and told me Mr. Cole was out on an assignment. She had no idea when he'd be back. Lucky for him.

We left there and drove to Mercer Island, figuring we'd make a brief visit to Wheeler-Dealer Barker's home on our way to his dealership in Bellevue. The address jotted in Peters' notebook led us to a stately white colonial on a lot that seemed to be several sizes too small. A multinote chime playing "The Yellow Rose of Texas" a

Her mousy blonde hair was still damp from a shower, and her face was devoid of makeup. Her nose was shiny, her eyes red-rimmed. This was a lady who had been having a good cry in the privacy of her own home. She looked up at us anxiously.

"Are you Mrs. Barker?" I asked. " Mrs. Tex Barker?" I held out my identification so she could read it.

"I'm Madeline Barker," she returned.

"May we come in?"

She stepped away from the door uncertainly before finally motioning us inside. We entered a large, well-appointed vestibule, complete with a huge bouquet of fragrant spring flowers.

"What is it?" she asked.

I think I had expected Mrs. Wheeler-Dealer Barker to speak with a thick southern drawl. I would have thought she'd offer us coffee with chicory and maybe a mess of grits or black-eyed peas. I was dismayed to discover that all trace of her origins had been eradicated from Madeline's ma

"It's about your husband," I told her. "Your husband and your daughter."

I said nothing more. A mixture of distress and confusion washed over Madeline Barker's face. Reflexively, she clenched her fists tightly and shoved them deep into the pockets of her robe.

"What about them?" she asked, her voice cracking as she struggled to maintain an outward show of calm.

"Would you mind telling us exactly what went on here Friday afternoon?"

She turned her back on us then and walked as far as the doorway into the next room. Stopping abruptly, she leaned against the wall for support, her breath coming in short panicky gasps.

Peters moved toward her. He spoke in a gently reassuring ma

Madeline Barker suddenly found her voice and swung around to face us. "You don't think…Bambi couldn't have done it. She was here, in her room, all night. She never went out."

"We're aware of that. You see, we've already talked to your daughter."

"Oh," she said. "Then what are you doing here? Why are you still asking questions?"

"Was your husband here all night, too?" I asked.

She paled suddenly and retreated farther into the living room, instantly creating a larger physical buffer zone between my question and her.

"What do you mean?" she demanded. "You think Tex had something to do with it?"

"If you'd just answer the question, Mrs. Barker. Was your husband here in the house with you all night or was he gone part of the time?"

Madeline Barker pulled herself stiffly erect. "I won't answer that," she said. "I don't have to."