The Emerald Cat Killer Read Online Free PDF Page B

worked with Marvia, last seen her, last touched her? But he managed to ask about her as if it were a passing thought.
    Strombeck paused, then shook his head, left and right, three times, precisely. “Sorry, doesn’t ring a bell. This is a small police force, Mr. Lindsey. Everybody knows everybody. Berkeley isn’t exactly Mayberry R.F.D. but we’re small enough. Maybe Sergeant Plum is on the University of California force. They’re about as big as we are.”
    â€œI don’t think so.”
    â€œWell, maybe Oakland or Emeryville. Or Alameda County Sheriff?”
    Strombeck sounded like a man trying to be helpful or at least sound helpful when he knew he wasn’t really offering anything.
    Lindsey said, “I can see I have a lot of work to do. Thank you for your time, Sergeant Strombeck.”
    â€œAny time, sir.”
    â€œI’ll take you up on that, Sergeant.” Lindsey pushed back his chair, stood up, and turned toward the doorway.
    Strombeck said, “Remember, sir, you stick to that insurance claim. Stay out of homicide.”
    Lindsey headed down the hallway. Coming toward him, captain’s bars shining on her uniform collar, was Dorothy Yamura. Her hair was no longer the glossy sable it had been when last Lindsey had seen her. Now it was streaked with gray. But otherwise she appeared unchanged.
    Lindsey wondered if she would recognize him. He did not wonder long.
    â€œMr. Lindsey! I heard you were in the building. Is this a social call?”
    Had Strombeck alerted Yamura that Lindsey was poking around in police matters again? Or was their encounter a coincidence? Dorothy Yamura did not give any indication of which was the case.
    â€œI thought I was retired,” Lindsey told her, “but here I am back in harness after all this time.”
    â€œI hope Sergeant Strombeck was helpful.”
    â€œIt’s a start.” Lindsey paused, then asked, “Is Sergeant Plum still on the force?”
    Again a pause, but this time there was more information coming. More, but not much more. “Yes.”
    â€œI’d love to say hello.” You bet I would!
    â€œI’m afraid she’s out of the building just now.”
    â€œWhen will she be back? Tomorrow morning?”
    Yamura frowned. “Tell you what, Mr. Lindsey. I’ll get a message to her. Are you staying in Berkeley?”
    â€œEmeryville. I’ll be at the Woodfin for a while.”
    Yamura looked impressed. “Nice surroundings. I trust you’re on an expense account.” She smiled.
    Lindsey found another International Surety card, scribbled “Woodfin” on the back and handed it to Yamura.
    She escorted him to the lobby. He turned in his visitor’s badge and stepped out of the building, into brilliant late-afternoon sunlight. He’d come into Berkeley on public transit and rented a car on International Surety’s dime. The Avenger was safely garaged in a Center Street facility. Feeling stale, Lindsey headed toward Berkeley’s modest downtown on foot. There were the usual changes, businesses coming and going, pedestrians’ fashions evolving along with the rest of the world. Business-suited professionals mingled with jeans-wearing high school and college students and ragged street people.
    Berkeley had lost much of its fabled radicalism, but it was still a progressive town whose character was dominated by a huge university. Farther from police headquarters Lindsey came to fabled Telegraph Avenue. That street had changed little in the years since he’d first tackled a case there. A seemingly worthless cache of comic books had been burgled from a specialty shop, and when the owner filed a claim the local International Surety branch manager had turned pale, then bright red, then sent Hobart Lindsey to look into the matter.
    The routine insurance matter had turned into a murder investigation and Lindsey had found himself working with then Officer Marvia