‘ Inspector, did I catch you at a bad time? If so, I’m sorry. I don’t always think about mainland time.’
‘I planned to call you anyway.’
‘Then I’m glad I beat you to it.’ Casey coughed heavily. As he recovered he said, ‘I’ve caught some damn cold. I apologize how things ended. I read too much into you going out to the air base after leaving here. I figured you’d call him. I didn’t mean to focus any suspicion on my friend and he was upset you followed him. He told me you trailed him all the way to the restaurant.’
‘I called ahead and he was fine to meet at the base, but not when I got there and I’m like you, I’m getting more ornery as I get older.’
Casey chuckled, coughed because of it.
‘That’s because I told him you’d gone into Jim’s house without permission. I let him know that I wasn’t sure about you. But now that I’ve had some people check up on you I feel better. You’ve got a reputation for getting the job done. Anyway, as we got to talking I suggested he come into town and told him I’d buy him dinner. Blue Dragon is where we usually meet, so that’s what we did. It was a chance to catch up with Victor. Life hasn’t been fair or easy for him. He had some bad luck early.
‘When you showed up at the Blue Dragon I thought, well, he’s flown all the way here and now he’s trying to make something happen, trying to connect dots that don’t connect. I know that’s not what you’re doing, and really I’m impressed that San Francisco still cares about what happened to Alan to spend time and money on trying to solve the murder. So I’m calling to see what I can do to help. Were those photos any value and did you give the boy his?’
‘I did.’
‘Did it mean anything to him?’
‘Much more than I would have thought.’
‘That means something to me.’
Raveneau thought it might. He wasn’t quite sure why Casey was calling though. But he was fine with talking to him.
‘You know Alan’s boyfriend had more problems than I mentioned. Thames did eighteen months in prison in Florida for ripping off twenty-two cotton tops who thought they were buying their sunny retirement homes. He owed the IRS about one hundred and ten thousand as Howard Wright and they were looking for him. The Marlin Thames social security number he bought in Los Angeles.’
The first part Raveneau knew about, but not the rest. He couldn’t help but wonder how much Alan Krueger knew.
‘One agent there figured him out and went after him, and I know you and I already talked about that. But I remembered his last name. It’s Pagen and he was probably the best friend AK had there. If he’s still around, he’ll remember what happened. I heard about him for years and met him at the service for Alan. He’s someone you should talk to.’
‘I just talked to him.’
‘See, there you’re ahead of me. Maybe we’re on the same wave length. I’m also calling about someone else I remember and please don’t think worse of me for not remembering this name until you flew home. There was a young Hawaiian woman Jim lived with for several years. She was from the other end of the island down near the volcanoes. Her family is probably still there. She was half Japanese and around when AK was coming through on his Hong Kong runs. She was an artist, beautiful water color artist, very detailed drawings. Beautiful body, too, graceful, gentle, a bright young woman, and I’m surprised I can’t remember her name. But I will soon and I’ll call you. She would have heard a lot of the conversation in that period of time. She might remember something that helps you. Are you making any progress?’
‘Some progress and thank you for calling about this woman whose name you can’t remember.’
‘You’re worse than me, you know that.’
‘No, I appreciate the call but let’s talk more about Victor Shay. What did you mean about his bad luck?’
‘He wasn’t always a gunnery officer. He was once a young hotshot pilot. He started having vision problems and they found a brain tumor. When they operated it turned out to be benign but the operation caused swelling that they didn’t know how to deal with as well as they do now. He was bright and then he wasn’t so bright. Still smart enough, but not quite the same. I saw guys get ruined by war but this was sadder in a lot of ways. Eventually he got restored to active duty but the tumor clocked his flying career. That’s why he’s a forty-five year old with a low rank. That’s probably why I jumped you so hard. I’m protective of him.’
He coughed again.
‘I’ll remember her name and I’ll call you.’
‘Before you go, let me ask you something.’
‘It wouldn’t be a complete conversation with you without it ending with a question. Go ahead.’
‘When was the last time you were in San Francisco?’
‘It’s been awhile.’
‘What about Matt?’
‘He travels with his coffee business. You’ll have to ask him.’
‘You don’t know.’
‘I got in trouble for speaking for Shay so I’ll let Matt speak for himself. He’s got a mind of his own. I guarantee you that. He took that gun of his up there to Jim’s house to confront you and I don’t like that. I told him not to.’
‘Whose idea was wearing the mike?’
‘Mine. But that comes from using walkie-talkies around here and because we did have a problem with squatters for a little while. It was a safety thing and maybe you don’t believe that, but it’s true.’
‘It’s hard to believe.’
‘It probably is but then I don’t give a damn whether you believe it or not. My only interest in you is that you solve AK’s murder. I’ll let you get back to it.’
‘Call me when you remember her name.’
Casey didn’t hear him. He’d already hung up.