Backfire

Eve said, “Did she say why she did it?”

Savich said, “Lieutenant Clark in the San Francisco Sheriff’s Custody Division spoke to her while the EMTs were transporting Cindy Cahill to the hospital. He said her voice sounded like she was drugged or in shock, that she couldn’t seem to speak above a whisper. She told Clark a man who looked American told her in fluent Mandarin in the calmest voice she’d ever heard that he would slit her son’s throat if she didn’t stab Cindy Cahill to death. He handed her a photo of her son shooting baskets in a friend’s driveway. He even told her where she would find a blade to stab her with tonight—in a drain next to the women’s shower. She said she didn’t have a doubt he’d do exactly what he said if she didn’t kill Cindy.”

Sherlock said, “It seems so unlikely, but we know now that Xu looks American. No one who’s seen him thought he looked Asian, but he was always wearing glasses before. So it means he’s Chinese American, with Causasian features.”

Eve said, “So Xu visited this woman in prison?”

Savich shook his head. “Clark told me that Lin Mei had been out on bail until yesterday. Then she showed up after missing her court date, on purpose, it looks like, told by her court-appointed lawyer, who told her she’d see a judge in the next couple of days and be rebonded. Xu approached her while she was working at her job at the bakery at Whole Foods. He waited patiently until she was on break and stepped in front of her.”

Savich shook his head. “Do you know she was arrested for kiting a check for her brother to get him out of trouble with a Chinese gang because she didn’t have any money? Now she’ll be up for murder.”

Eve said, “Hopefully attempted murder with mitigating circumstances. Didn’t she think about what would happen to her and her son if she got caught?”

Cheney said, “Caught? She never tried to hide that she’d stabbed Cindy. She was paralyzed by what she’d done, that she’d just tried to kill another human being. Lieutenant Clark said after she described what she’d done and why, her eyes rolled back in her head and she fainted. When she woke up she didn’t say another word. He said he asked her over and over why she hadn’t come and spoken to one of the guards, but she only looked at him with great sadness. He had her brought here to the emergency room.”

Eve looked up to see her boss, Marshal Carney Maynard, standing in the doorway. He looked tired, she thought, and unhappy, and she couldn’t blame him at all. Maynard said, “There aren’t any nurses around who know anything about Cindy Cahill. Is she still alive?”

“She’s still in surgery and hanging in,” Eve said. “That was all the OR nurse could tell us. She said when the surgery’s done, the surgeon will come out and speak to us. It’s nearly one a.m., sir, you didn’t have to come.” Of course he had to come, you idiot. He’s here because of you.

Maynard said, “I did have to come, Eve. Cindy Cahill is here because my people screwed up.”

Nice way of putting it. “No, sir, your people didn’t screw up. I screwed up, and I’m singular,” Eve said, and looked him straight in the eye. “Let’s do this in front of everyone, I deserve it.”

Marshal Carney Maynard eyed her back and frowned. “How do you figure you suddenly rule the world, Deputy Barbieri?”

“Sir, the truth is I only glanced at the transfer papers. I should have studied them as carefully as I would if they had been papers bringing Qaddafi’s body to the U.S., but I didn’t.”

Maynard waved a hand to cut her off. He was more frazzled than tired, and here was Barbieri desperately trying to shoulder all the blame. It’d be easier if he could heap it all on her head, but he couldn’t. He said, “Since the proverbial buck stops with me, Deputy Barbieri, I’m the one responsible. I knew the importance of this transfer, but I was watching the Monday-night football game. This was the classic definition of a snafu. I’d hoped never to have one with such disastrous results under my watch, but it’s happened, and now we all have to deal with it.

“So dial it down, Eve.” He laughed. “We’ve given our FBI contingent a fine show. Here’s what happened. Turns out we had a new deputy driving the prisoner van. His partner didn’t look closely at the paperwork, and so they did the run they normally do. They drove Clive and Cindy Cahill straight back from one of our holding cells to the San Francisco jail. That simple. No, Deputy. You did your job. I didn’t do mine.”

Sherlock said, “No one wins in a blame game, Marshal Maynard. Not even the FBI contingent.”