I quickly scrolled through Cassandra’s most recent email, but none of the messages shed any light on who might have abducted her or what she was doing at the aquarium earlier in the day.
However, I did find a Gmail address for “SEALHunter1,” which I assumed was Hunter’s account.
Follow up on that later. Finish up here and go talk to Tessa.
Before I left, I connected my computer to Cassandra’s to copy the encrypted files I’d come across earlier. Maybe I could have someone from the FBI cybercrime division, or Terry take a look at them, pull something useful. As I hit “enter,” my cell phone rang. Ralph.
Before I could say a word, he shouted, “Did you call Dunn’s supervisor in the homicide division? Some guy named Lieutenant Graysmith?”
“You don’t sound happy.”
“Well, guess who’s golfing buddies with FBI Director P. T.
Rodale?”
“You’re kidding me.”
“An hour ago Graysmith called Rodale to complain about an FBI agent who was refusing to follow protocol and was interfering with an ongoing investigation in San Diego. Twenty minutes ago, Rodale called Margaret. And five minutes ago, guess who called me?”
“Sorry, Ralph.”
“What’s going on here, Pat?”
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out.” My computer told me it would be done copying the files in one minute. “Just call Lieutenant Aina Mendez with MAST, have her straighten things out with Lieutenant Graysmith. She requested our help for this arson investigation, and everything we’ve been following up on so far is related to the fires. I don’t know why Homicide is involved in any of this, since, as far as we know, nobody has been killed.” I finished with the files and closed up my computer.
“Well, listen. I’m supposed to call Director Rodale back before three o’clock so I need you to bring me up to speed on this thing.
I’m at the FBI field office on Aero Drive. Room 311. Come by and-”
“Ralph, I need to take care of something with Tessa first. It’s important.”
Ralph’s a dad. He understood. “All right. But remember, I gotta call him by three.”
“By the way, did they ever find your bags?”
A storm of anger clouded his one-word answer. “No.”
“I’d offer you some of my shirts, but I think they might be a little too big in the bicep area for you.”
“Oh. You’re very funny. I’m tempted to tell you how I feel about the airlines, but you know what my mom always says.”
“What’s that?”
“If you can’t think of anything nice to say, shoot something and then get back to work.”
I blinked. I’d met Ralph’s mom. I couldn’t be sure if he was joking. “No, she didn’t.”
“Well, she should have. Get your butt over here as soon as you can.”
We ended the call, then I took one more look around Cassandra’s office and returned to the main lobby to talk with my stepdaughter, the advice of Ralph’s mother disturbingly reminiscent of what had just happened in the filtration chamber.
I found Tessa waiting for me beside the barracuda tank. She drew back when she saw me approaching.
“Hey, listen.” I spoke as gently as I could. “I’m sorry I got so mad. You know that, right?”
Silence.
“It’s just that I care about you so much. You’re the most important person in the world to me. I love you. I don’t want anything to happen to you.” I thought she might argue with me, might make a snide comment, like, “Oh. Do you typically shoot the people you love?” but she didn’t.
“I was gonna do what you said.” I detected no trace of anger in her voice, just a thread of loneliness. “About not wandering off by myself, or whatever. But then these two sharks totally ate this fish, like, right in front of me, and I kind of freaked out. I went looking for you.”
She came looking for me.
She came looking.
“Listen,” I said. “There’s a lot going on with this case right now-”
“That’s all good. I understand. I know you’re probably mad and everything, but I was hoping to have some time by myself today.
Just to chill. If it’s OK.”
She wanders around the back rooms of the aquarium and now she wants me to give her more freedom? Not going to happen.
“I don’t think so, Tessa.”
She threw a question at me out of nowhere. “Did you see the jawfish?”
“The what?”
“The jawfish.” She pointed to a nearby exhibit just past the barracuda tank. “Male jawfish carry the developing eggs of their young in their mouths. Did you know that?”
“No, but I’m glad I’m not a jawfish.” She’d cut me off, switched subjects. I wondered if she’d been listening to me at all. I started to get even more annoyed.
“Other fish do it too,” she said. “Like arwana. Even after their fish hatch, the male continues to carry the young fish in his mouth, to protect them while they grow.”
Oh.
So this wasn’t a conversation about fish.
“How does he know when to let the young fish go?” I asked.
She stared at the barracudas, then at the jawfish. “When they’re big enough to make it on their own, then he lets them swim away.
I think sometimes they probably go where they’re not supposed to, but he trusts them, even though they’re not perfect.”
I felt my throat squeeze. “Do the young fish come back?”
“Maybe,” she said. “If the dad makes them feel safe.”
I sighed. “You’re good, you know that? You’re really good.”
Earlier in the day she’d convinced me to bring her with me, now she’d nearly convinced me to let her go off by herself.
She gave me a soft smile.
“So,” I said, “you want to leave my mouth and go swimming around on your own for a while.”
“I’ll come back.”
“Where will you go?”
“I don’t know. Maybe hang out downtown a little. I mean, I need to stop by the hotel first-but, is that OK?”
“Hold on. Let me think about this.” I tried to sort out my frustrations from my feelings, my trust from my hesitation, my-
“Well?”
“Quiet, I’m thinking.”
She waited maybe four seconds. “So?”
“I’m still thinking.”
“You think slow.”
“Insulting me will not help your case.”
“Sorry. Didn’t mean to. How about this: you think a lot faster than most men your age.”
“That counts as an insult.”
Make her feel safe. That’s your job. So she’ll always feel safe swimming back. “OK, Tessa. Take the afternoon. We’ll both get some space. But if I call to check up on you, don’t give me a hard time about it.”
“As long as you don’t do it, like, every five minutes.”
“I want you to know, you’re more important to me than my work. You know that, right?”
She was quiet for a moment and then, without any sarcasm or scorn, she said, “Yeah. I know that.”
“I’d do anything for you.”
“OK, I know you love me, but let’s not overdo the caring-dad bit here, all right?”
Well, back to normal.
“And we’ll have supper together,” I said. “We’ll figure out a time and a place later.”
She nodded. “That’ll work.”
We headed for the door. “So, you have to tell me. Did you have that jawfish speech prepared, or did you just make it up on the spot?”
“I’m pretty good thinking on my feet,” she said. “So, can I ride back to the hotel with Agent Jiang?”
“Agent Jiang?”
“Yeah. You told me to before. Remember? That I should ride with her to see how she drives.”
“OK. And then tonight I’ll see you for supper.” We passed the front ticket counter with its tropical fish. “By the way, have you heard of the ampullae of Lorenzini before?”
“No. What are those?”
“They’re these electrosensory organs on a shark’s head. A researcher named Lorenzini discovered them.”
“Huh,” she said. “How about that.”
As we were exiting, a man wearing a suit that cost more than I make in a week brushed past us, almost knocking into me. “Watch where you’re going,” he grunted.
Then Lien-hua met Tessa and me outside by the steps, and as they were walking away, I saw a patrol car grind to a stop in the middle of the No Parking zone.
Detective Dunn clomped out and tossed a cigarette to the pavement.
It’s never a good sign to see a homicide detective show up during a missing person investigation. I hoped that didn’t mean Cassandra’s body had been found.
I decided that before going to see Ralph, I needed to talk with Detective Dunn.