Red Man Down(66)

Oscar had been waiting for them in front of a strip mall that included a doughnut shop, a massage place, a wild bird store, a used bookstore and a unisex hair stylist. At the stylist, he said, he’d scored a nice chat with a beautician named Tammi.

‘You get any tips about your appearance?’ Jason had asked him. Alone among the male detectives in Homicide, Jason seemed amused by Oscar’s reputation as a devastating lover of women.

‘Tammi recommends a varsity side cut this year.’ After Oscar had expressed strong interest in the Mad Men styles she showed him, he’d asked her if she knew the mechanic working on a car in the weedy lot down the street.

‘Tammi says she’s known him for a while – his name is Juan and he’s a big favorite of the girls in the unisex shop. He’s very courteous when he comes in for haircuts. But he’s not making any moves or anything, she says. Apparently his wife doesn’t get her hair cut – she’s got about a yard of beautiful hair in a long braid. “You should see them in the store when they go shopping for groceries,” she said. “He treats her like a queen.”’

‘Well, shit, then,’ Jason had replied quickly. ‘Why don’t we just kick his door down and kidnap the wife till he gives up the skinny?’

Oscar had raised his eyebrows and looked at Sarah, who’d said, ‘Jason’s having a little trouble accepting reality today.’

Parked at the crumbling curb in front of JR’s place, they watched the mechanic raise the hood on a sunburned Dodge pickup and lean in for a look.

Jason stared through the windshield a few beats and said, ‘I’m already starting to not like this caper.’

‘We’re not going to hurt him,’ Sarah said.

‘Uh-huh. Just threaten is all.’

‘If he’s as close to the edge as this place looks, we won’t even have to do much of that.’

‘It still smells like police brutality to me if it scares him enough to make him run.’

‘You do remember we’re chasing a murderer?’

‘We haven’t even proven that yet.’

‘We will.’ She turned some of his own ammo on him. ‘Trust me.’

They agreed on a simple plan, agreeing it was subject to revision at any moment.

‘I’d like to do this as easy as we can,’ Sarah said. ‘Do you mind starting the conversation in Spanish?’

‘Not a bit,’ Oscar said. ‘Good idea.’

When they were ready they walked together across the lot and introduced themselves to Juan Rodriguez, whose eyes took on the opacity of chunks of coal as they showed him their badges.

‘The people in this neighborhood speak very highly of your skill and your honesty, Juan,’ Oscar said, in Spanish. ‘Do you speak English?’

‘Un poco,’ he said, and then in English, ‘If you go slow?’

‘Bueno.’ Oscar switched between English and Spanish and translated Juan’s answers so both sides understood the conversation. ‘We have come to ask you about a certain car, un auto particular, entiendo? We do not wish to harm your business. If we can get some information about this car, we’ll be gone.’ He gestured, and Jason showed him a picture of the Camry. He studied it briefly, and nodded. ‘You recognize it?’

‘Es possible. It looks … familiar?’

‘Juan, have you worked on this car in your shop?’

‘Perhaps. I work on many cars.’

A sudden gust picked up sand and threw it in their faces. Sarah said, ‘Could we buy you a coffee, Señor? Is there someplace nearby where we can talk comfortably out of this wind?’

‘You want to talk? Only that?’

‘Exactly.’

‘I have no one to leave here,’ he said. ‘Can we just talk in the shop?’

He had only one chair, which he offered to Sarah. The three men perched around her in the gloom on sawhorses and a workbench. Jason, Sarah saw, had already begun to temper his sympathy for Juan somewhat, because of his dread of the dust in the shop. He touched the surface of the bench he’d been offered, looked at his fingertips and leaned carefully on the edge while he put the picture of Joey’s old Toyota back in the envelope and read out the license number.

‘Momento,’ Juan said, and stepped to a row of plastic file boxes on a rickety shelf. No computers in this garage, but he kept neat records; he found it right away. ‘Yes, I know …’ He scrunched his eyes in concentration and came up with some words, ‘I have … to work … on it.’

Sarah said, ‘And is this the person who brings this car to you?’ Jason slid a mug shot of Joey out of the envelope.