Free Blood Ties by Nicholas Guild Page B

card, which included a small photograph, then at Roland again.
    â€œSo sit down. Name’s Hempel. What can I do for you?”
    Roland accepted the invitation, removing his hat and smiling his best all-American-boy smile. “I’m almost embarrassed to mention it,” he said. “You have an Officer Ridley on your shift, an Ellen Ridley?”
    â€œYeah, sure. So what’s the problem?”
    Lieutenant Hempel’s face, which was narrow to begin with, seemed to close even tighter at the suggestion that the Shore Patrol might have the gall to come into his jurisdiction and claim to be embarrassed about one of his officers. The tips of his long fingers went up to run caressingly along his jawline as he considered the affront.
    â€œI wonder if you could tell me what cases she’s currently working on.”
    â€œI might, if I knew why you want to know.”
    Apparently Hempel had played these games before. Roland stopped smiling—it wasn’t working anyway—and drew himself up straight in his chair. It was his way of acknowledging defeat.
    â€œIt’s really not a jurisdictional thing,” he began. “Within the city limits, criminal investigations that don’t involve service personnel are, as a rule, strictly none of our business, and we like to keep it that way. There are, however, a few civilians living in San Francisco in whom, for security reasons, we take an interest. These people are assets to the Navy, and we like to keep them out of harm’s way, if we can. If you like, we’re babysitters.”
    â€œAnd Inspector Ridley has stumbled over one of your babies?”
    â€œYes. He tells me she accessed his DMV records yesterday morning, and then last night she followed him. We need to know why.”
    For a long moment Lieutenant Hempel appeared not to be listening, and then, very slowly, his gaze swung around to Roland and his eyebrows went up about two millimeters.
    â€œShe accessed his DMV records? How the hell would he know that? Did she tell him?”
    â€œNo. There was no contact. But he knows. I haven’t a clue how, but take my word for it. He knows. By now he probably knows Inspector Ridley’s high school grade average. There are no secrets from this man.”
    â€œWho is he? Houdini?”
    â€œIn reverse, yes. He doesn’t break out—he breaks in. He’s a computer security specialist and a cryptographer. That’s what he does for the Navy.”
    â€œThen maybe Ridley’s on to something.” The lieutenant smiled faintly. “He must be keeping a pretty careful watch if he knows that Ridley looked up his driver’s license.”
    â€œNot necessarily. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s got all his records flagged. If anybody anywhere does a search on him, he gets a readout on his screen.”
    â€œHe can do that?”
    â€œHe can do that. The Navy’s working assumption is that he can do just about anything he wants. That’s why I’m here. Anything that touches him is automatically a security issue.”
    Roland allowed himself a few beats of silence, just to let it all sink in, and then he leaned forward a little in his chair, his face a mask of polite insistence.
    â€œNow, can you tell me what Officer Ridley’s interest might be?”
    â€œWhat’s his name?”
    â€œStephen Tregear.”
    Hempel wrote it down on a notepad on his desk. It wasn’t really something he needed to remember. He was stalling, taking those few seconds to make up his mind about something.
    â€œYou familiar with the Sally Wilkes case? Ridley’s working that.”
    â€œWas that the woman they found sliced up by the Coast Road?”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œTregear is a suspect?”
    â€œNot that she’s mentioned to me.”
    â€œIt’s fantastic.” Roland actually laughed, although he couldn’t have said why. “I know this man. He’s not the