Free One Through the Heart by Kirk Russell

will record what he sees and that’s why I agreed to meet you.’
    ‘So now we’re meeting,’ Raveneau said. ‘We’re talking. We’re having a drink and I’m going to ask, do you know who made the threat?’
    ‘If I said yes, you’d have to detain me and take me down to a police station. The answer is no.’
    ‘That’s a different answer than a straight no.’
    ‘Of course, and again, that’s why we’re meeting.’
    ‘Are you using me to communicate with the San Francisco Police Department?’
    ‘Here.’ Attis pulled his wallet out and handed Raveneau his driver’s license. He told Ike and John to do the same, but said nothing to Lindsley. ‘You have your phone, Inspector. You can take photos of us, but what you can’t do is stop the flow of history.’
    ‘OK, then let’s just get some photos.’ Raveneau turned his phone on John the Baptist first. ‘How about a big smile, John?’
    Ike smiled. Attis stared. Raveneau wrote down driver’s license numbers, addresses, phone numbers, and emails.
    ‘What am I going to witness?’
    ‘Inspector, can I give you anything more than I already have? Do you want to follow us out and get the license plates of the car we came here in?’
    ‘Sure, I’ll do that.’
    ‘Then walk out with us. Brandon will stay with the table.’
    ‘I will walk out with you, but before we do that how are you and I going to communicate after tonight?’
    ‘With the email address I just gave you.’
    He walked out with them. The car was a 2010 Malibu. Its burned out shell was found two days later out at Hunter’s Point.

FOURTEEN
    B randon Lindsley was still at the table and had ordered himself another drink while Raveneau was out front with Attis and the other two. It was close to midnight and the bar was getting busier. The bar door was open. People spilled out into the courtyard and a techno beat vibrated into the night. Raveneau wanted more from Lindsley before they left here, but it was harder to talk now.
    ‘He called you two-faced. How do you feel about that?’
    ‘Really mad. I guess I’ll beat him up after school.’ Lindsley adjusted his glasses, offered a wry smile. ‘I don’t know, Inspector. How should I feel? I don’t feel much of anything right now and it’s not the first time someone has claimed I’m not who I say I am. The police did that when I was sixteen.’
    ‘Let’s talk about that.’
    ‘No, we’re not up to that part of the script yet and I’m ready to call it a night.’
    ‘You sat here. You listened to him. You know him. Explain it to me. He all but said he doesn’t trust you, but you’re part of the group.’
    That got to Lindsley. For the first time he stirred. ‘I’m not part of them, and if Attis included me in their group I’d be looking in a mirror wondering what was wrong with me.’
    ‘John jumped up when Attis told him to go get drinks. You sat and took what he said. He had an arm around Ike. He’s talking like he knows more about the threat we’re investigating than I do. What am I supposed to do with that?’
    ‘I don’t hang with these people. I talk to them online and we talk about Coryell. You wanted to meet people who chat online about Coryell. You want to get into that community. I set you up. This other stuff Attis was talking about I don’t know what you do with that. I heard him too. It was weird. Maybe you should bring him down to the police station and interview him. You’re the expert. I’m the guy who wants to write books like Professor Lash wrote. That’s my whole deal, following in Professor Lash’s footsteps.’
    ‘You’ve told me.’
    ‘I’m just saying I’ve got a goal that’s apart from anything to do with these guys.’
    ‘Is your inheritance from your parents?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘When did they die?’
    ‘When I was sixteen.’
    When he didn’t volunteer more Raveneau moved the conversation to Ike Latkos.
    ‘This is what Attis told me,’ Lindsley said. ‘She’s a hacker and some pretty