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Boo showed up that night, climbing Raymond’s live oak and slipping in through the window I leave open for just that purpose. He meowed to let me know he had arrived, and I watched him trot across the room and into the bathroom.
“What?” he said when he came back out in human form, pulling a t-shirt over his head.
“What what?”
“You were looking at me funny.”
“Well, I was just wondering – if someone shaved off all your fur while you were in Cat form, would your head be shaved when you switched back to human?”
“What the hell? Seriously?”
I shrugged. “Sometimes I think weird thoughts.”
“Ain’t that the truth. Well, to answer your ridiculous question, I don’t know, and we are not going to find out.”
“You’re no fun,” I pouted and he leaned over the back of the sofa to kiss me.
“I’m fun. I just don’t want to be bald – in either form. How was your day?”
“Like you don’t know.”
“Well... I know where you had lunch, if that’s what you mean. And who you had lunch with.”
“You gonna give me grief?”
“As much as I would love to, no.”
“It was really good. We should go there for dinner sometime. But Trejo is gross.”
“Yes to both those things.”
“Trejo was, like, smarmy and gave Tom his business card with his personal cell number on the back. And there were double entendres. So gross.” I shuddered to make my point.
“Yeah, I get it. But I’ve had all of Trejo I can stomach for one day, so moving on?”
“Right. So, after – uh, when it was just the three of us again, we just had lunch. I was people-watching, of course. I think Helen’s daughters must work there – there were a couple of girls behind the counter that looked like they could have been her daughters.”
“Nieces. Her two nieces work front of the house. She has a son and a cousin who work in the kitchen. It’s a real family business.”
“Okay, so if she has a son, what about his dad? Is she widowed or divorced or what?”
“Or what. We ran background, of course, and as far as we can tell she’s never been married. The boy’s father died before he was born.”
“Is that significant?”
Petreski shrugged and headed into the kitchen. “Maybe. His name was Peter Hoang, and he was killed in a single car accident on the Galveston Seawall. It was ruled a suicide, but his parents insisted there was foul play involved.”
“What do you think?”
“It happened over twenty years ago,” Petreski answered from the kitchen. I could hear his rummaging in the fridge before he came back out with a container of yogurt. “It’s not related to this case so it doesn’t matter what I think.”
“You can’t tell me you didn’t look at the file. I know you and you’re too curious to just let it go.”
“Fine. You got me. Yeah, something was kind of weird. Not necessarily about the accident itself, but about after. Hoang’s family, parents, a sister, a couple of uncles and their families, they’re all still in the area, but there’s no contact with the kid as far as I can tell. I mean, if your only son was dead, and he’d left behind a child, wouldn’t you want some kind of contact?”
“Well, I would. But maybe there was bad blood between the families? Or maybe they’re super conservative or religious and didn’t approve because Helen and Peter weren’t married? Or maybe... do they even know about the kid? There’s a lot of stuff that wouldn’t be in a case file, you know?”
“True. But something about it rubs me the wrong way. It’s probably a waste of time, but I’m going to have Hastings do a deep dive on Helen Nguyen and Peter Hoang. It’ll be good practice for Don.”
“What about Belzir? Any news there?”
“Okay, well Trejo is good for something I suppose. He was able to determine that Belzir did leave Haiti. His last recorded movement was when he cleared customs at Fort Lauderdale a little over two weeks ago. From there, who knows? He could be anywhere now.”
“But... I don’t know, but is it weird that he came to the U.S. using his own name, on what I’m guessing was a regular commercial flight? If he was here to hunt down Samuel or check up on his drug business, wouldn’t he be using an assumed name or sneaking in by boat or on a private plane using a private airfield?”
“You’d think. Or maybe he wants to be seen as no threat. Just a normal guy enjoying his freedom. And who knows? Maybe that’s exactly what he is? Or he could be using himself as a decoy while he has others doing his dirty work for him. I’m not ruling out anything, or anyone, at this point.”
“Oh – she recognized me, by the way.”
“Who?”
“Helen Nguyen, at the restaurant today. I didn’t see her at first, and then she came out of the office and made the rounds. She stopped at our table and recognized me. She started to ask about the case, and then changed her mind. I told her that if anything happened she’d probably know before I would, because of being engaged to Samuel. She would, though, right? I mean, if something happened, would the police let her know?”
“If it was safe for her to know, and pertinent to her, then yes. But right now, direct communication with Samuel is limited for their protection. We’ve got increased uniformed presence near her home, and the restaurant has been under surveillance ever since the connection between Phanor and Fortunat was discovered.”
“Did he agree to help with the drug case?”
“He did. He’s been away from things for so long he doesn’t have much pertinent intel, but he’s been sharing a lot about how Belzir ran his operation, how he hid his money, that kind of thing. It’s good insight and could help them figure out how he’s doing things now – technology has changed, but his habits probably haven’t. You know what they say – follow the money. They just have to find one thread and pull.”
He sighed, leaning back into the sofa cushions and putting his feet up on the coffee table. “Enough. Tell me about school, or Raymond, or anything that has nothing to do with this case or crime in general.”
“Oh my god – I totally forgot to tell you! About Raymond and my dad!”
“Raymond and your dad?”
“Yeah. So that morning when you saw my dad acting weird in Miss Nancy’s backyard? It was both more and less weird than it looked.”
“I remember – it looked like he was talking to the tree.”
“It was Raymond. When I got over there, Raymond and my dad were having an argument. Dad said that Raymond called him a thief.”
“Called him a thief? Those were his words?”
“Yes! I calmed Raymond down and he left, but when I asked Dad about it he clammed up. Acted like he didn’t know what I was talking about. I don’t know if he was deliberately avoiding the subject, or he’d had just enough whiskey to be fuzzy.”
“So you’re thinking, what? That maybe your dad has some kind of gift, or ability, too?”
“Yeah, maybe? Don said maybe Miss Nancy gave my mom some kind of mystical-magical tea before I was born, but I think it makes more sense that it runs in the family somehow.”
“And your dad didn’t want to talk about it?”
“Not at the time, no. I didn’t ask later, because there wasn’t an opportunity. I called Grandma Rosemary but she hasn’t called me back yet.”
“What did Miss Nancy say?”
“I haven’t had a chance to talk to her about it yet. What with school starting and things being busy – I drove by her place yesterday, but she was with a client so I didn’t stop. I’ll try again in a day or two.”
