21st Birthday, James Patterson [best mystery novels of all time TXT] 📗

Had an efficient haircut, no makeup, but her great big eyes made up for it. She wore Dockers and a man-tailored shirt, serious cross-trainers, a necklace with a little charm: horseshoe, presumably for good luck. No other jewelry that he could see. His impression was of a good-looking girl in a tough job with no interest in drawing attention to herself.

Conklin said, “So, Vice, right, Alvarez? Was this sudden? Or you’ve been planning to make a change?”

“Sudden, yah. Chief Clapper calls me Monday and makes me an offer. I mean, took me a couple of days to process, but it’s time to switch things up. I’ve been living in Vegas most of my life. My cousin is putting me up for a while. You like it here?”

“San Francisco? Or SFPD?”

“How about both?”

“God, yeah on both.”

Alvarez said, “Anything you think I should know?”

“I mean, it’s hard and we’ve been stretched for a while, but it’s a clean operation.”

Christ. What was he supposed to tell her? He didn’t know what Clapper had in mind for him. Brady, either. He glimpsed Brady through the glass wall as he strode up the center aisle and came through the open door.

“You two have met. Good.”

Brady closed the door, introduced himself to Alvarez. They shook hands and he told her to sit back down and he’d take her through a four-minute orientation. After that, Conklin would bring her into the loop.

Alvarez sat erect in her chair as Brady gave her a shorthand introduction to the Homicide squad, the new organization, and the case she would be working on as part of the Burke investigation task force.

“Conklin will give you the case details.”

He drew boxes on a yellow pad with a red grease pencil, connected the boxes with lines. An organization chart. He turned the pad to Alvarez.

Conklin noticed that the box around Alvarez’s name was drawn with a dotted line. He gave her a quick look and she returned it.

Brady saw the looks and fielded them.

He said, “When I came here from Miami PD I was in rotation until it all came together. I worked with Conklin as a matter of fact, worked with his partner Sergeant Boxer, and also with the lieutenant, Jacobi. So, it’s a two-way street, Alvarez, up to a point. We’ll try to make a good fit, but most important, right now is to find Tara Burke, wherever she is.”

Conklin knew that he and Boxer were ideal partners. They picked up on each other’s verbal and visual cues, knew when to step forward, stand back, draw their guns.

This was just too sudden.

He heard Brady ask him to take Alvarez back to his desk and summarize the case of the missing wife and child, the discovery of Lorrie Burke, and the interview with Lucas Burke, now on the sixth floor in holding.

Alvarez said, “Thanks for the opportunity, sir.”

When his phone rang, Brady took the call.

“Okay, Brenda. I’ll tell them.”

He hung up and said, “Young lady by the name of Johanna Weber is wanting to talk to us. She says she’s Tara Burke’s bestie. Welcome to Homicide, Alvarez.”

Chapter 26

Before entering Interview 2 with Conklin, Alvarez said, “What do we know about Tara Burke?”

“Very little, but I’ll take the lead and feel our way.”

“Okay, but I reserve the right to jump in anytime.”

She grinned, but she meant it.

“No problem,” he said.

Conklin opened the door and saw Johanna Weber, Tara Burke’s self-described best friend, sitting at the table. She was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, had blue-streaked hair, and was tapping on her phone, fingers flying.

She looked up and Conklin made the introductions. When he and Alvarez were seated, he said, “Ms. Weber, you have something to tell us about Tara Burke?”

“I hope,” she said. “Anything I can tell you to help find her, I will. She was like my sister and we shared everything.”

Conklin said, “You mind if I ask you some questions, get them out of the way?”

“No, go ahead.”

“Do you know where Tara is?”

“I wish I did. I’m very, very worried. I haven’t heard from her since the weekend. Her mailbox is full.”

Alvarez said, “Okay to call you Johanna?”

The young woman nodded.

“What can you tell us about Tara?”

“We’ve been friends since the sixth grade. Like, close. We used to double date, and I was her bridesmaid—”

“What’s her marriage like, Johanna?” Alvarez asked. “Do you have any idea?”

“They definitely have problems. Lucas is like, what, twenty years older than us? To be honest, I think she may have been hooking up with someone on the side. And no, she never told me who. She was teasing me, with like ‘Ooooooh, someone likes me.’ So, why was she saying that? I don’t know. I really don’t know.”

Conklin watched as Johanna pulled her hair back from her face and twisted it and then kept talking. “I really think Lucas loves her and Tara tortures him. She just thinks faster, like, runs circles around him and whatever. And Tara told me that she thinks Lucas has a girlfriend, so like that’s not cool, either.”

Alvarez said, “I’m new to this case, Johanna, so tell me more about Tara. Why would she have a boyfriend when she’s only been married for a short time? Three years?”

“Three years and two months. She might do it to get Lucas mad. That’s the kind of thing she might do, like the way she never locks the doors on their house. And she showed me a bruise on her wrist once. I don’t know if Lucas did it, but I asked her. Listen, she’s very cute. You’ve seen her picture? Then, you know. Guys were always hitting on her.”

Conklin said, “I just want your opinion, Johanna. Do you think Lucas would hurt Tara?”

She shook her head no, vigorously. Johanna said, “If anything, he loved her too much.”

“You know that the baby was found today. Lorrie’s dead.”

Johanna Weber’s eyes filled with tears. Her mouth quavered. Alvarez said, “Okay, okay,” while Conklin found a package of tissues on the shelf under the mirror.

Alvarez