Ask Not For Whom The Panther Prowls (8 page)

The article didn't explain what she was doing,
hunting in her office clothes in the Georgia mountains.

My cell rang
in the morning and woke me up. When I looked at it, I'd missed
several calls from Morrison. Last night I'd left Danny with the
Goodwins and received a cold shouldered terse and minimal thank you
from Laura. Since nothing seemed to matter any longer, I'd found
one of my old haunts, a motel near a strip of bars and drowned my
sorrows.

In between
twinges from my aching head and nauseous longings for the porcelain
throne, I blearily returned his call.

“
Will?”

“
Yes, what
is it?”

“
I need to
meet you. Where are you?”

I thought for a moment, then recalled, “The
Rainbow, it's cheap and usually bedbug free.”

“
From how
you sound, you had a rough night.”

“
More like
the mother and father of a hangover.”

“
I thought
you'd stopped hard drinking.”

“
So had
I.”

We agreed
that he would come and pick me up in an hour, which would give me
time to shower off as much of the hangover as I could.

There was a loud rapping on the door and when I
opened it, Morrison came in. He took one look at me and said, “Damn
Will, you need to take it easier. Don't knock back so many at
once.”

“
Why?”

“
Laura isn't
it?”

“
How'd you
guess. She's still shirty, even after I rescued Danny.”

He paused,
then handed me some brass cartridge casings. “The state police gave
me these. Next time you kill your boy's kidnapper, make sure you
pick up the brass afterwards.”

I looked at
them. “These aren't mine. I'm sure I didn't fire my weapon at all.”
For a private detective, using a firearm is a sign of complete
incompetence. Our ideal is to escape notice and slip away unseen
with the evidence.

“
Are you
sure?”

“
Look
they're .40 S&W. Mines a .380 auto. I'm not that good a shot
and figured the extra couple rounds was worth the lower stopping
power.”

“
Show
me.”

I found my
holster, and pulled my Ruger LCP out of it. Dropping the magazine,
I pulled back and locked the slide open to unload it completely.
Handing it to Morrison, I continued,

“
See, it
says on the slide, .380 auto. That's what I use.”

He returned
the gun to me. I reloaded it and counted the number of rounds as I
did. “Six in the magazine, and this one in the chamber. I didn't
shoot it.”

“
Not unless
you added a few rounds.”

“
True, but
my ammunition is locked away in Arthur's office.”

“
Damn. Who
shot these?” He took the casings from me. “I guess these are
evidence again.”

“
I know Tom
had his enemies. Probably someone who wanted to know where the rest
of the gold was buried.” I was still owed the money from my patent.
GSU had allowed an embezzler to siphon it off in small amounts at a
time and wasn't about to pay me my due without a court case. Never
sue an institution with a law school.

Morrison
asked, “The
rest
of the gold?”

“
McHenry was alive when I was there, you know. He told us to
run when the first visitor arrived.”

“
Really?”

“
We talked. Apparently all the funds haven't been recovered.
Since they've been written off as lost, he thought they were open
to whoever found them. He was worried about the 'big shots'. Said
they were looking for it, and for him.”

“
What?”

“
He was afraid for his life.”

“
Did he say who was threatening him?”

“
No, not directly, but he implied it had something to do
with state. He said I'd find out. I don't think it's just the
left-over gold from his embezzling. There isn't enough.”

“
Not very helpful, was it?”

“
No, but he would have come with me and Danny, turned
himself in, when someone else came.”

“
Someone with a .40?”

“
There was a fair bit of gunfire when I ran. He told me to
take Danny, to look after him and Laura.”

“
Damn Will. You pick them. Jump in without looking, don't
you.”

“
Wish I did as well with the women.”

“
Will, if
you don't mind some advice from an old married man.” He was my age,
but still married and to the same woman, so I guess that counted as
'old married'.

“
Sure,
what?”

“
Get some
flowers, go apologize to Laura.”

“
But she's
the one who started the argument.”

“
It doesn't
matter who started it. The gentleman has to end it.
Apologize.”

“
I
guess.”

Morrison continued, “Will, I'm driving you to
the florists, now. Where's Laura?”

“
I don't
know. Last saw her with her friends the Goodwins.”

“
We'll start
there. Track her down from there. You're supposed to be good at
that.”

We pulled
into the Goodwin
's
driveway. Their normally neat house looked oddly disordered. I went
to the door, flowers in hand and rang it. Mrs. Goodwin answered.
“Is Laura in?”

She started to cry. “No. Northside. Hurry.”

I ran back to Morrison. “She's at Northside. I
think -”

He didn't
wait for me to complete my sentence, but flipped on his lights.
“Buckle in Will.” We made record time. Being on good terms with the
police has its advantages. People get out of your way when you can
turn on a siren and flashing blue lights.

I ran in while Morrison found a spot for the
car. As I was standing in the elevator, tapping my foot with
impatience as it stopped at every floor and slowly, far too slowly,
chugged along, a matronly woman asked, “New baby?”

“
No, ICU. My
wife is in the ICU.”

“
Sorry, hope
she lives.”

“
So do
I.”

When I
finally reached the floor and entered the waiting area, Reggie
Goodwin and Danny were there. Danny cried “Will please!”

I stopped
and talked, there wasn't much I could do if I went further. Danny
grabbed me for comfort.

“
How is
she?”

Reggie replied, “She's alive. On a
respirator.”

“
What
happened?”

“
Laura and
Danny were in the front yard kicking the soccer ball around. She
collapsed and I called 911 when Danny ran in.”

Danny looked at me. “Will, you're a detective
aren't you?”

“
Yes.”

He held out
a small airgun dart, the kind you can buy by the thousand online,
if your local Walmart doesn't stock them.

“
What's
this?”

“
It hit
mommy, there was a car, a blue car. It came from that, then it
drove off.”

I put the dart into a small plastic bag and
handed it to Reggie. “Detective Morrison, Alvin, will be up here in
a few minutes. Make sure he gets this. Danny, will you tell him
what you told me?”

“
Yes.”

Reggie asked
me, “Will, what are you going to do?”

“
I'm going
to take a look at Laura. If they'll let me I'll leave these flowers
in her room.”

He
suggested, “Write her a note, too. If she recovers, she can read
it.”

“
I will.
Danny will you be OK for a few minutes?”

I sat in the
hall, watching her from a distance. It was as close as the staff
would let me come to her. The respirator chugged through the
evening, complemented by the ping of the heart monitor. Laura lay
there, motionless. There was so much I wanted to say, and now there
might not be a chance. It depended on whether her body could
degrade the toxin quickly enough to clear it before the damage was
more permanent.

Morrison
called me early in the morning. “Want to do it, come with us? I've
got the warrant.”

Careful
police work following up the papers and other evidence left in Li
Chen's room had uncovered the connection between him and a
professor in the ESL department. Alvin thought it would be a good
idea if I accompanied his men on the arrest.

“
Let's do
it. Meet you in Woodruff park?”

“
Starbucks.”

“
Good.”

We met in
the Starbucks by the acute corner of Woodruff park across the
street from Aderhold building. There wasn't a lot to discuss, but a
little planning would go a long way to avoiding a complete fuck up.
The ESL department was on the 12
^th
floor of 34 Peachtree street. There were two fire escapes,
both locked at the bottom and a bank of elevators. Only the three
elevators on the left stopped on the 12
^th
floor, and if Dr. Ryan evaded us, there were only
two exits to the building. It wasn't going to be a difficult pick
up. We stationed officers on the ground floor and went
in.

In the end it was even easier than we thought.
Morrison and I went to room 1220 and knocked on the door.

“
Enter.”

We opened it
and there he was. He sat calmly at his desk, and had been reading
the morning AJC.

“
I've been
expecting you to visit me ever since Li was killed. What took you
so long to find me?”

“
What?”

“
Do you
think I wanted those students killed? If I committed any crimes it
was in China and India. Neither place is well known for their
worrying too much about academic honesty.”

“
What do you
mean?”

Morrison
stopped me. “Dr. Ryan you know that whatever you say can be used in
evidence, and that you can have a lawyer? You don't need to tell us
anything.”

“
Yes, yes.
You've given me my Miranda warning. I don't care. I suppose Uncle
Sam could be worried about tax evasion on my hundred thou or so,
but I'll just pay what I missed with interest and the IRS won't
care.”

“
But?” This
was not at all what I expected.

“
Look Will,
I know that your son, Laura's son liked Jane. So did I. What did it
matter if some chink thought she was hot? I'll dance at their
wedding if it comes to it. If I'm still free invite me, or see if I
can get some leave from prison.”

Morrison
stepped forward with his cuffs. “Dr. Ryan, I'm afraid I have to
arrest you.”

“
If you
must. You don't need the cuffs, I'll come. It's a relief that this
is over.”

I stopped them, “Before we go what was it about
Li?”

“
How do you
think I arranged the virtual tunnel? I can't even reliably turn on
my PC. I was over there recruiting for GSU when we talked. He found
a channel in the dark net that was used for voice and image data.
He and his buddies in Falun Gong or some damn church or another
were using it to avoid arrest. We just hooked in and borrowed a
tiny bit of the channels extra capacity.”

“
Voice and
image?”

“
Dames,
broads, what do you want to call it? Order your Russian bride, but
take a look first, make sure she's up to spec. Wasn't just
Russians, or for that matter just brides. We just used it to tutor
a few poor sods in English.”

“
Voluntary
brides?”

“
Not
completely. Actually I doubt it was ever really voluntary. There
were a lot of Filipino or Bengali 'maids' for the mansions in
Buckhead and a few other places I don't remember. At least I assume
they were maids. Compared to them, the occasional ringer we
supplied for a TOEFL we supplied is practically
virtuous.”

“
Before we
go, what can you tell me about the dark channel.”

“
Not much,
There's a hub in Atlanta. Here.” He tossed me a USB data stick.
“That's what Li found.”

I turned to Morrison. “We need to make sure he'd
protected. I don't think we want him taken out, do we?”

“
No.”

2

I walked to
Northside from the MARTA bus stop. The ride gave me time to be
alone in my thoughts and given the usual state of Atlanta traffic
helped me stay calm. The ICU staff, by now familiar with me, let me
into her room. The respirator chugged away quietly in the
background while she lay there immobile. The heart monitor beeped
repeatedly with a steady rhythm. Over to the side of her bed was a
vase with a dried bunch of roses in it, and a note, from me. it was
still unopened.

One of the ICU nurses came over and asked me,
“You're her husband aren't you?”

“
Just
married. I hope it lasts, we had a big argument just before
-”

He gave my
shoulder a shove, “It usually does, just be patient and tell her
you love her when you can. I have some good news for
you.”

“
Good news?
She looks the same as always, yesterday, the day
before.”