Chapter 16

  I WAS AT MY DESK in the squad¹ room the next day when Rich came in after lunch smelling of garbage.

  “Tough morning in Jackson?”

  “Yeah, but I think the sheriff’s digging for his fifteen minutes of fame before the Feds take over the search. He’s got it under control.”

  I pinched my nose as Rich pulled out his chair, folded his long legs under his side of the desk, and opened his container of coffee.

  “Phone records show that yes, Junie did call Malcolm at 11:21 on the night Michael went missing. And she called him every night at about that time.”

  “Girl stays in touch with her boyfriend.”

  “And Clapper called,” I told my partner. “The prints on the knife are Malcolm’s.”

  “Yeah? That’s excellent!”

  “But the blood is bovine,” I said.

  “It’s a steak knife. He ate a steak.”

  “Yep. It gets worse.”

  “Hang on.” Rich dumped a couple of sugars into his coffee, stirred, slugged it down. “Okay. Hit me.”

  “There’s no blood or tissue in the bathtub, and the hair we sent out came back with no match. Furthermore, there’s no sign that anyone tried to cover up the blood. No bleach².”

  “Great,” my partner said, scowling³. “What is this? The perfect crime?”

  “There’s more and worse. There’s no trace of blood in or on Malcolm’s vehicle, no hairs consistent with Michael’s.”

  “So I was wrong about the truck. You should have bet me, Lindsay. We’d be having dinner tonight - on me.”

  I grinned and said, “You would have showered first, I suppose.”

  But my mood could hardly be lower. I was going to have to call the Campions and tell them that we still had no physical evidence, and that Junie Moon had recanted her confession⁴ and we’d had to kick Ricky Malcolm.

  “You want to call Malcolm and tell him he can have his truck back?”

  Rich picked up his phone, called Malcolm, got no answer.

  We took a drive out to the crime lab at Hunter’s Point Naval⁵ Yard, opened all the car windows on the way, and let the wind air out my partner’s clothes. At the lab, I signed a release for the truck, and after three more unanswered calls to Ricky Malcolm, we drove to his apartment.

  Rich yelled, “Police,” and knocked loudly on Malcolm’s door until a small Chinese man came out from the restaurant downstairs.

  He shouted up to us, “Mr. Malcolm gone. He paid his rent and leave on motorcycle. You want to see mess upstairs?”

  “We’ve seen it, thanks.”

  “He’s gone, all right,” I muttered to Conklin as we got into the squad car. “Ricky Malcolm. Sleaze. Slob. Easy rider. Criminal freakin’ mastermind. Coming soon to a town near you.”

1 squad   

n.班，小队，小团体；vt.把…编成班或小组

参考例句：

• The squad leader ordered the men to mark time.班长命令战士们原地踏步。
• A squad is the smallest unit in an army.班是军队的最小构成单位。

2 bleach   

vt.使漂白；vi.变白；n.漂白剂

参考例句：

• These products don't bleach the hair.这些产品不会使头发变白。
• Did you bleach this tablecloth?你把这块桌布漂白了吗？

3 scowling   

怒视，生气地皱眉( scowl的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• There she was, grey-suited, sweet-faced, demure, but scowling. 她就在那里，穿着灰色的衣服，漂亮的脸上显得严肃而忧郁。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
• Scowling, Chueh-hui bit his lips. 他马上把眉毛竖起来。 来自汉英文学 - 家（1-26） - 家（1-26）

4 confession   

n.自白，供认，承认

参考例句：

• Her confession was simply tantamount to a casual explanation.她的自白简直等于一篇即席说明。
• The police used torture to extort a confession from him.警察对他用刑逼供。

5 naval   

adj.海军的，军舰的，船的

参考例句：

• He took part in a great naval battle.他参加了一次大海战。
• The harbour is an important naval base.该港是一个重要的海军基地。