“But Cody?”
“Pants on fire. In more ways than one. He’s got quite the rap sheet. And Jason Griffin knew it. Because Cody North is registered with a felon employment program that showed Griffinair as his employer and Jason Griffin as the contact. I was wondering if I brought the files by, would you have time to look at his rap sheet and give me your opinion on him?”
“Sure. I could do that. I just got back from the gym though. I need to shower and get cleaned up. Give me an hour?”
“All right. Have you eaten yet?”
“No. Long story.”
“Then how about dinner courtesy of the SPD?”
“Sounds good.”
“I’ll pick something up. You like pizza?”
“Definitely.”
“You want pepperoni or Italian sausage on it?”
“No meat for me, thanks.”
“You’re vegetarian?”
“Not normally. Just tonight. I’ll explain when you get here. Actually, I’ll explain after we eat.”
“Duly noted. Do you like sun-dried tomatoes and black olives?”
“Yes.”
“Goat cheese?”
“No.”
“Good. Me neither. See you in an hour.”
CHAPTER 25
By the time Maclean knocked on the door, Verraday was showered and dried off, and the endorphins from the workout had kicked in. He felt limbered up and refreshed, if still creeped out from the discovery of the dead rat.
“Nice place,” she said as she entered carrying the pizza box.
“Thanks. You haven’t seen the horrible upstairs carpeting yet though. Been meaning to rip it out since I got the place, but you know how it is.”
“I don’t have that problem. I’m back in a rental apartment since I got divorced.”
“What can I get you?” he asked. “Want some wine?”
“Yes. But officially I’m on duty, so no, thanks. I’ll just take some water.”
He prepared a glass with ice and a lemon wedge for Maclean. He was about to uncork the Sicilian wine, which he’d been craving since he got the shawarma. Then he decided against it; he didn’t feel right about enjoying it while Maclean was deprived of the pleasure. So he made a second ice water with lemon for himself.
He led Maclean to the small dining room table at the back of the main floor where he had the place settings waiting. Maclean set the pizza down on the table and Verraday noticed happily that it came from his favorite place in the University District rather than from one of the big chains. He liked Maclean’s taste.
Over dinner they reviewed Cody’s rap sheet together.
“Born twenty-six years ago in Stockton, California,” said Maclean. “Parents were only eighteen years old themselves. Both had drug addiction problems. Been in and out of rehab. Father’s done time for fraud and theft. Mother’s been busted for prostitution.”
The financial collapse of 2008 had hit Stockton hard. It became the largest city in US history to file for bankruptcy protection until Detroit eclipsed it five years later. It was a better place to leave than to be born.
“Everything about Cody North’s life is in contrast to Jason Griffin’s upbringing,” said Verraday. “No swashbuckling grandparent, nobody taking the time to teach a twelve-year-old to fly a plane and take over a family business.”
“A tale of two cities,” said Maclean. “Cody’s run-ins with the law began around the same time Jason was setting a world record for the youngest solo flight.”
“We always come back to that nature-versus-nurture argument,” replied Verraday. “It’s a conundrum that we can never settle because most of the time, it’s the people who provided the DNA who are doing the nurturing, or lack thereof. And professional ethics don’t allow us to go around splitting up twins just to see what would happen if one had all the breaks and the other one got the Manson clan as parents. But it’s something that as psychologists, we still don’t understand. I’m not sure if we ever will.”
“Right,” said Maclean. “What makes one kid get his name into the Guinness Book of World Records, while another kid gets no further than being written up in a police case book? Cody’s early arrests and convictions were for relatively minor things. A lot of it was that ‘acting out’ kind of stuff that you expect to see in unhappy kids: shoplifting, vandalism, trespassing, joyriding. Things began to get more serious in his later teens. He had arrests for breaking and entering, stripping cars, and narcotics.”
“I see that he killed a drug dealer. How old was he?”
“Nineteen. He claimed that he was attacked when a deal went bad. There were no witnesses. It was ruled justifiable homicide, so he walked.”