The Tower

The parents were very much in control. They were not accustomed to expressing emotion, particularly to strangers, and the strength of their suppression was visible in their tightly drawn mouths. They were not the type of people to fall apart, even over the loss of a son.

The interview progressed routinely until Travers asked what Steve was doing at Sutro Heights. "Did he like to hike? Do you think he went there on a walk?" she asked.

Mary and Len looked at each other blankly. "No," Len said. "Steve wasn't the hiking type. Liked more thrills than that. Pole-vaulting maybe, but no hiking." He laughed.

The back door banged and a boy about fourteen came in. He looked a lot like Steve, at least judging by the crime-scene photograph.

"Hi Mom, Dad," he said.

He caught Jade's eye and walked over. "Frank Francis," he said, offering his hand. Travers smiled at his confident swagger, trying not to laugh out loud. "Jade Marlow, right?" he asked.

"Right," Jade said, feeling ridiculous for shaking a boy's hand with such severity.

"I want to be in the FBI when I grow up," Frank said. "Just like you were. Then I want to quit and work special cases." He pursed his lips seriously. "Probably homicide."

Jade nodded wearily. "That's great, kid," he said. "Good luck." He turned back to the parents. "So you have no idea why Steve was over in that area?"

"Not the foggiest," Len said.

"Hey," Frank pulled on Jade's sleeve. "Want to check out Steve's room?"

Jade pulled his arm away, yanking his sleeve from Frank's hand. Frank grabbed it again. "Hey," he said loudly.

Jade glared at him and started to speak. But he reminded himself that Frank had just lost a brother, so he held his tongue. Then he noticed that the boy was winking at him.

"Why don't you let me show you Steve's room?" he said again.

The interview with the parents didn't seem to be offering any leads, so Jade figured he'd find out what the kid wanted to tell him. He stood and followed Frank down the hall.

Once the door closed to Steve's room, Frank whirled around and addressed Jade in a deep whisper. "I know why Steve was at Sutro Heights. He went there to parachute."

"To parachute?"

"Yeah," Frank said. "Free-fall jumping off cliffs. He was crazy about it-did it all the time. It's illegal, so I didn't want to tell Mom and Dad. Might upset them, you know?" He nodded maturely, cueing Jade to agree.

"Are you sure you're not fucking around here, kid? This is an important investigation."

Frank got on his hands and knees and crawled partially under the bed. He pulled out what appeared to be a parachute pack. "See?" he said. "I'm not fucking around." He really emphasized the words "fucking around." Jade could see just how much he enjoyed using them.

"If he was there to jump, then why's his parachute at home?"

Frank waved him off. "He was a fanatic. Had like four 'chutes."

"Did he usually parachute alone?"

"Sometimes, I guess, but mostly with a buddy."

Jade turned the pack over in his hands. "Well, thanks for the info, kid."

"No worries. Just don't tell Mom and Dad. They're sort of having a hard time, you know?"

Jade nodded dumbly and turned to leave. When he got to the door, he looked back at Frank. "How are you doing?" he asked.

"About Steve?"

"Yeah."

Frank shrugged. "Okay. He was kind of an asshole."

Jade bit his lip. "Fair enough."

Travers fingered a bullet hole in the side of the passenger door, then climbed in the car. Jade flipped through the radio stations.

"What a weird kid," she said.

Jade laughed. "Yeah, you could say that. He thought his brother was in Sutro parachuting."

"Parachuting?"

"Like jumping-off-cliffs parachuting. Don't ask me, I just work here."

"That's interesting," Travers said. "They didn't find a parachute with the body."

"Obviously, if it was moved. But now we can cautiously assume he was killed somewhere in the hills."

Travers laughed. "Let's do that. Let's cautiously assume, shall we?"

Jade threw the car into drive. "The kid said his brother didn't usually jump solo, so we might have a missing body."

"I'll get a list of males from eighteen to, say, twenty-five who've disappeared in the past couple of days. It might be slow because we've got the forty-eight-hour window for reporting missing persons."

Jade nodded, watching the blur of pavement ahead of the car. Ever since he'd found out about Steve Francis, Jade had been telling himself that there was a good chance it wasn't his gun. There were a lot of. 40s out there, and even if forensics discovered that it was a Glock, there was no shortage of those either. But now that the parachute was a potential lead, he found himself hoping that his gun had killed Steve Francis.

That's how these things progress, he thought. Through bodies.

He pulled out from the curb, and though she tried not to, Travers grabbed the seat to steady herself. "We're thinking about going door-to-door," she said. "Within the neighborhoods you circled."