Stolen Prey

right? Nice little gig. I heard you were a cop. Okay, I want to get really clear with you. A: I didn’t do it. Didn’t build a back door, didn’t take any money out. B: I don’t know who did it, but I find it hard to believe that it was one of my former associates, may their treacherous little souls burn in hell, anyway. C: I really need to light up a fatty, so if you guys are done…”
    “I understand you’ve been a little depressed, from time to time,” Lucas said.
    “No, I’ve been a lot depressed,” Kline snapped. “It’s not what you think it is. It’s not being bummed out. It’s…”
    “I know what it is,” Lucas said.
    “Ah.” Something softened in Kline’s face. “Well then, you know like Snoop says, I need my medicine.”
    They worked him for a while, recycling the same questions, looking for holes, pushing him on other suspects. “So where’re you working now?” Lucas eventually asked.
    Kline said, “Same ol’ same ol’. Hennepin National Bank, doing the same old shit.”
    “They took you after you were fired by Polaris?” Lucas asked, surprised.
    “I wasn’t fired. I resigned, with a good recommendation,” Kline said.
    “And if they hadn’t let you do that, you would have shit in their revolving door,” Del said.
    Kline smiled. “So you heard that, huh? I thought it was colorful.”
    T WENTY MINUTES later, they were back out on the street, walking past the mystery bookstore. Del said, “The guy is unhinged. But I think he might know something about the money.”
    “Yeah. He was a little too unconfused about the questions,” Lucas said. “I’m gonna get Jenkins and Shrake over here. Keep an eye on him for a few hours. Let’s just sit for a while, see if he moves.”
    They found a no-parking zone where they could watch both of the building’s exits. They were still watching, an hour and a half later, when Jenkins and Shrake pulled up behind them. Lucas got out of the Porsche and went and sat in Jenkins’s backseat.
    “We got a photo, but we can’t find a car,” Shrake said. “He must either borrow one, or get around on buses. So what are we looking for, other than time and a half?”
    Lucas told them, and gave them a thorough description to go with the photo: “Figure out where he goes, if anywhere. We need to know who he talks to, and where. You’ve got the camera?”
    “Yeah.” Jenkins held up a compact camera with a super-telephoto.
    “If he meets somebody, when they split, make sure you get the other guy’s license tag or take him home, or something. If Kline is on foot, maybe one of you can follow him on foot.”
    “We can do that,” Jenkins said. “By the way, Shaffer says he’s calling his whole crew in. They’ll be meeting in a bit. You’re invited.”
    W HEN L UCAS AND D EL got to the BCA, the meeting was over. Lucas stopped at Shaffer’s office, intending to fill him in on the morning’s developments, and was told by another cop that Shaffer had gone to Sunnie Software, where the DEA accountants were still at work, and planned to go to Polaris after that.
    Lucas walked back to his office and found Martínez sitting outside the door. Shaffer had told her that Lucas was on his way in, and she’d decided to wait. “I hoped to speak with you.”
    “Sure, but I’ve got to make a phone call. Come on in.”
    She took a visitor’s chair, and he settled behind his desk, got Shaffer’s phone number, and when Shaffer came on, filled him in. At the end, he said, “It could be a wild-goose chase, but Shrake and Jenkins weren’t doing much anyway, they’re not real churchy, so they’ll tag him around for a while.”
    “That’s fine,” Shaffer said. “And you think Kline knows something that we don’t?”
    “Yeah, I do. I don’t know what, or how much,” Lucas said. “It’s also possible that he suspects a particular person, and maybe’s gonna ask for a piece of the action. I was told that he’s too lazy to steal, so … take it for what it’s worth.”
    When he got off, Martínez said, “My superior wishes that I stay here until we can send David’s body back to Mexico, and to come to the meetings in his place so I can relay the news back home. If that is okay. I am a certified police officer.”
    “I don’t think anybody will have a problem with that,” Lucas said.
    “You have been making progress, but I understand from this morning’s meeting that Agent Shaffer has not,” she said.
    She already knew about the back