Jennifer Government Part 12

"Good. Now get out there and trade."

Buy left the office and walked down the staircase, trying to ignore the eyes on him. He sat down and clicked for the latest ExMo price. It was even lower than he'd thought: just above thirty.

He picked up the phone handset. The dial tone hummed in his ear. His hand shook. He felt sweat on his forehead. He tried to force himself to focus on what was important. Seventeen dollars a share. Seventeen dollars a share. Seventeen dollars a share. Seventeen dollars a share.

After a while, he put the phone down. His fingers felt like ice. He could feel it in his gut: it had happened. He had burned out. Buy had lost it.

23 Jennifer

She requested an arrest warrant right away, but that was wishful thinking. She was in the car with Calvin when Elise, her boss, radioed. "What's this application? Are you trying to create paperwork?"

"No, Elise," Jennifer said. "We have reason to believe John Nike"

"Because one suspect says so? You need more than that."

"Right, but we're going to interview this Police officer and we'll get him to confirm meeting with John Nike. Then we"

"So talk to me after that. Right?"

"Right," Jennifer said, and hung up the radio. "s.h.i.+t."

"Well, it was worth a shot," Calvin said. "Hey, you know who works around here? That Mitsui stockbroker. Want to interview him?"

"Yeah. Sure."

He changed lanes. "So where do you know John Nike from?"

She blinked. "What?"

"The way you reacted in the interview room, it seemed like you knew him."

"Oh," she said. "I justyou know, I've dealt with him before."

"When?"

"Hey," she said. "Here's a question for you. Apparently someone told the hospital shrink I'm not interested in dating anymore. Any idea who that was?"

"Uh," Calvin said. "I might have said...you hadn't dated in a while..." He glanced at her. "I was just trying to help."

"I date plenty," she said.

"Okay, okay. Fine."

"I do," she said.

"I wasn't arguing."

"I've been busy, that's all."

The radio said, "Unit three-three-nine, come back."

Jennifer picked up. "Three-three-nine."

"It's Gary. We're at that apartment you wanted us to check out, Hack Nike's? There's no dead body here."

She looked at Calvin. He shrugged. "You sure?"

"You want us to start cutting up furniture?"

"No." She didn't have the budget to replace furniture. "Any sign of a struggle?"

"The bed's unmade."

"In the kitchen. kitchen. There's meant to be a dead man in the kitchen." There's meant to be a dead man in the kitchen."

"The kitchen's spotless. It's the cleanest room in the apartment."

"Okay. Thanks." She hung up the radio.

Calvin said, "You think Hack lied to us?"

"He never said he saw the body. He said his girlfriend told him it was there. This Violet."

"So either Hack's lying, or Violet's lying"

"Or John Nike cleaned up the scene."

"Hmm," Calvin said. "I'll take door number three."

"s.h.i.+t!" she said. "That a.s.shole!"

Calvin looked at her.

"What?"

"So where did you say you knew John Nike from?"

"Why does it matter?"

"I'm trying to work out why this case is so important to you. Why you won't take time off, even though"

"He killed fourteen people. Isn't that enough?"

"To explain the look you get? No."

"I don't have a look look."

"Now you're getting irritable," Calvin said, "I think you used to work with him. Before you joined the Government. And I think your mysterious source is someone you used to work with, too."

Jennifer pressed her fingers to her temples. "I've never worked for Nike. Okay? Now drop it."

"Hmm," Calvin said. "Well, you sure didn't get that tattoo in the Government."

Buy Mitsui took a long time to come down. Jennifer amused herself by reading the wall hangings. There were case studies up there, with pictures of suits shaking hands under headlines like Mitsui & Reebok: Float Debuts Up 118% Mitsui & Reebok: Float Debuts Up 118%! It reminded her of the photos they had in casinos: elderly couples in front of slot machines with improbable readouts. JACKPOT JACKPOT!

"I'm Buy," a man said, and she turned.

He was tall and good-looking, which surprised her. It had had been a while since she'd dated. "Jennifer Government. Thanks for your time." been a while since she'd dated. "Jennifer Government. Thanks for your time."

"I thought I'd been through this. At the mall. I don't see why"

Calvin said, "Somewhere we can talk?"

His shoulders dropped. "There's a room through here."

They followed him. The meeting room was big and tastefully lit, the chairs heavy and wooden. There was nothing like this in the Government. "Nice digs."

"Our business sells intangibles," Buy said. He took a seat opposite her. "Nothing you can touch. So we like to appear very..." He knocked on the table.

"Rich?"

"Solid." He smiled, but it was a strange, disconnected smile; it worried Jennifer a little. Buy Mitsui was not running on all cylinders.

Calvin flipped open his notepad. "You were at the Chadstone Wal-Mart mall last Friday?"

"Yes."

"But you didn't see anything."

"I got there too late. The girl...she..."

"Take your time," Jennifer said.

"I'm sorry. I'm not...The girl died. I couldn't help her. I tried."

"You didn't see who shot her?"

"I didn't see anything. I told the Government people this last Friday."

"Right," Calvin said, flipping some more. "You gave the girl some money? Why was that?"

"I wanted to."

"But you'd never met her before?"

"No."

Calvin paused. He was waiting for her to come in, Jennifer knew: to run a flanking formation, to squeeze from the other side. Instead, she said, "I was there that night."

Buy's eyebrows rose. "At Chadstone?"

"They peeled me off the top of a Mercedes."

His eyes widened. Then he laughed. "I'm sorry. I didn't recognize you. You are...much improved."

She looked down, a little fl.u.s.tered. "It's a pretty f.u.c.king strange coincidence, you giving Hayley money to buy the shoes she was killed for, don't you think?"

She regretted the words immediately. Buy's face fell. "I wish more than anything I had never met her."

Calvin said, "Did you see any of the a.s.sailants that night?"

"No."

"Anyone who looked suspicious? At all?"

"No."

Silence.

"So, the only suspicious thing you saw that night was yourself. Is that right?"

"I suppose so."

Calvin looked at her. She nodded. "All right," he said. "Then we're done. For now."

Jennifer stood. Buy was staring at the tabletop. On impulse, she sat again. "Hey," she said.

He looked up.

"I understand how you feel." He said nothing. She slid her card across the table to him. "If there's anything else, call me. All right?"

He nodded wordlessly, looking at the card.

She touched his hand across the table. Then they left, pa.s.sing through the lobby and exiting to bright suns.h.i.+ne. The door wheezed pneumatically behind them.

"G.o.dd.a.m.n, Jennifer Government," Calvin said finally. "There may be hope for you yet."

"Oh, shut up," she said. "Let's go talk to Pearson."