Choi reached over and put a reassuring hand on Lana’s forearm. “If that’s the case, ma’am, I’d say they failed miserably.”
Lana straightened up. “When will you know who did this?”
“Arson investigations take time. It might be a few weeks before we have anything concrete.”
“A few weeks? Do you need my car for all that time?”
“No, ma’am.” Choi put a xeroxed flyer on the table. “You can retrieve your car anytime at the impound lot in Santa Cruz. Call this number. They can give you the specifics.”
“That’s fifteen miles from here. How am I supposed to—”
Ramirez stepped forward. “Ms. Rubicon, I’ll take you there.”
Lana craned her neck around. “Couldn’t Detective Choi drive me?”
“He’s busy,” Ramirez said flatly.
Lana made a point of taking her time getting up from the table, shaking Choi’s hand, and putting on her jacket. She left a note on the counter before following Ramirez out the door.
Ramirez opened the passenger door of the Buick and gestured to Lana.
“You don’t want me in back?” Lana asked.
“Would you prefer that?” Ramirez’s politeness sounded strained. Lana decided not to push it.
They drove the first few miles in silence, Lana squirming in the sunken seat. She could feel the broken springs poking the bruise on her right hip. She pushed herself forward and touched a finger to a colorful, lumpy string of beads hanging from the rearview mirror.
“Rosary?” Lana said. “I always wished Jewish women had a wearable accessory. Smart of the Catholics to think of the whole necklace thing.”
Ramirez kept her eyes forward. “It’s an art project,” she said. “My niece made it at preschool.”
They drove in silence for another minute, Lana idly fingering the lumpy beads, Ramirez watching the traffic. Then the detective erupted.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
Lana pulled her hand back from the beads. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to—”
“What are you doing sniffing around my case?”
Lana straightened up in the seat as best she could. “I’m just trying to protect my family,” she said.
“By inserting yourself? Getting trapped in a burning building? Do you have some kind of death wish?”
Lana wondered for a moment how much her daughter had told Ramirez about her medical condition. “I’m just curious. And persistent. Traits I’d imagine someone like you might appreciate.”
“Someone like me?”
“A detective.”
“Right.” Ramirez’s hands were clenched tight around the steering wheel. “I’m the detective here. The first woman, the first Latina, to work a murder in Monterey County. It’s hard enough for me to get taken seriously by my colleagues. I don’t need someone’s grandma getting in my way.”
Heat rushed to the bruise under Lana’s stitches on her cheek. She could feel it throb, as if all her frustration, her hot, congealing blood, was trapped in there.
“In my experience,” Lana said, articulating each word with precision, “women who blame other women for their problems have their own deficiencies to deal with.”
It was a risk, saying this in a moving vehicle. But Ramirez just shook her head.
“That’s what you think this is? You think I’m threatened by you? More like exasperated by you. Worried about you. That I’m going to be on the brink of cracking this case and I’ll have to come rescue you from some hole you’ve dug yourself into.”
“You don’t have to worry about me.”
“I do have to worry about you. I went to bat for your granddaughter, and this is how you repay me? Sneaking behind my back to meddle in my case?”
“Please. You sat there while your partner practically called Jack a whore.”
“Not every battle is fought in the open,” Ramirez said as she pulled into the impound lot. Her voice came in low and fast. “You’re a smart woman. You know that. If it weren’t for me, Nicoletti would still be breathing down Jacqueline’s neck.”
Lana locked her eyes on the front windshield. “Are you telling me I can’t look into this case anymore?”
“You have a right as a private citizen to do whatever you want, Ms. Rubicon. I just wish you’d do it farther away from me.”
Ramirez walked up to the entry kiosk at the impound lot on her own. Lana sat in the Buick like a surly teenager while the detective talked to an officer with a clipboard and a lollipop sticking out from under his mustache.