Cindy held up her phone with the picture of Nicole Snaff. The young woman did a double take.
Cindy said, “You recognize her, don’t you?”
She took a moment. She was still staring at the photo. Hesitantly, she said, “I might…” After another ten seconds, she said, “She looks like a girl I see around sometimes.”
Cindy’s pulse started to race. She almost barked at the girl, “Where? Where did you see her?”
Gina crowded in on the girl and said, “Are you certain? We don’t need to be sent off on wild-goose chases because some local chick on the pier thinks it’s funny.”
Gina’s tough act definitely wasn’t helping things. The girl looked rattled.
Cindy said, “Do you work here?” She nodded toward the small restaurant.
“No, I work…” She backed away from Gina, who was scowling at her. “I don’t know that girl. I need to get going.”
The teenager bolted past them. It may not have been a run, but it was close. When Cindy started to follow, Gina put out a hand and held her.
“That girl was working a scam. Believe me, I know one when I see one. Especially a scam a teenager is trying to pull off.”
Cindy stood there, watching the girl disappear into the crowd. She glanced out over the water, where she could see Alcatraz in the distance.
She looked at Gina and said, “What was that all about?”
“Just trying to use my experience to contribute to this investigation. I’m around kids all day, every day. She didn’t know shit.”
“I thought it was a little heavy-handed.”
Gina shrugged. “Sorry. That’s just my personality.”
Cindy wasn’t sure if welcoming Gina into her investigation was going to work out.
CHAPTER64
THE DUKE STROLLEDtoward me and Alain Creasy. For their part, the men who had confronted us apologized, then hustled out to the street and out of sight. The former tech guy wasn’t a big, imposing figure. How had he called off random street thugs?
I turned to the duke and said, “Why are they afraid of you?”
“Because, unlike the drug dealers, I have friends everywhere. I don’t rely on fear or money. It just goes to show that if you treat people right, they respond. Those guys don’t want the entire population of the Tenderloin coming down on them. Either shunning them completely or maybe ratting them out to the cops.”
“Sounds like you don’t need the police as much as you think you do.”
“That’s not true, Sergeant. You know as well as I do most people don’t treat others well. If we didn’t have police roaming the streets,wewouldn’t be able to roam the streets.”
I said, “Duke, this is Alain Creasy, from Interpol.”
Alain smiled at Barry and said, “Hello. A pleasure to make your acquaintance, sir.”
The Duke of the Tenderloin smiled broadly. He nodded his head and said, “Ahhh, vous êtes français? Bonjour. Comment allez-vous?”
The duke’s easy switch into French caught me by surprise but seemed to delight Alain. After they’d chatted for a while, I had to ask Barry where he’d learned to speak such good French.
“In another life—or should I say in mypreviouslife—I had to talk to international customers quite a bit. It’s too hard to explain technology in a language you don’t understand. While sewing up the French market, I worked very hard at picking up the language.”
It made me more curious than ever about the man he used to be.
I told the duke that we had a possible ID on the body from Marshall’s Beach.
The duke bowed his head and said, “What was her name?”
