Chapter 33: The Oracle - Lucidity

THAT MORNING FREMMER GOT A CALL FROM THE 92ND STREET EQUINOX. The same fitness manager who’d berated and fired him the week before was now begging him to come in. The instructor scheduled to teach back-to-back classes at ten and eleven had called in sick at the last minute and they needed a sub ASAP.

Fremmer liked to think they called him thanks to the barrage of requests from his regulars wanting him back on the schedule. But the more likely scenario was they couldn’t get anybody to come in on such short notice, and Fremmer lived fifteen blocks from the gym.

His first impulse was to decline the invitation—or at least play hard to get—but then he thought better of it. Double sessions were hard to come by and not only could he use the money but he needed the exercise.

In the middle of the second class he saw Detective Chu’s number come up on his iPhone. Fremmer had all his Spotify playlists set up on an iPod Touch that he connected to the studio’s audio system. He used an app on his iPhone as a timer for the interval-based sections of his programs or “courses,” as he called them. He let Chu’s call go to voicemail and called him back when he finished class, a few minutes after noon.

“You saw the news?” Chu asked.

“No, what?”

“Your client passed away early this morning.”

“Candace?”

“Yes. I’m sorry.”

“Are you kidding me? What happened?” He was asking and Googling at the same time.

And there it was: Victim of Homeless Pusher Dies.

“The report we got was from the hospital was that there were complications from surgery. We were preparing a statement, but the media beat us to it,” Chu said.

Fremmer didn’t even know she was having surgery. Why hadn’t Bernstein called him? Oh, Christ, it was Thursday. Bernstein never worked Thursdays.

Apparently Morton had just heard too because now he was calling him. “Hold on a sec,” Fremmer told Chu, “I have to take this call.

“I gotta call you back,” he said to Morton. “Sorry.”

“You heard?” Morton asked.

“Just now. I was teaching a spinning class. I’m on the phone with Chu. The detective.”

“They’re upgrading the charge to murder two,” Morton said. “I just spoke to the DA’s office.”

“Fan-fucking-tastic. I’ll call you right back.”

Fremmer got back on the phone with Chu, who told him the same thing about the DA upgrading the charges. But that wasn’t the real reason he was calling.

“It’d be good if you could stop by the station,” Chu said. “I’m not asking you to come in, but it would be good if you happened to stop by because you felt like talking to me.”

Chu was clearly speaking the way he was for a reason. Fremmer didn’t know quite what that reason was yet, but he went along with it.

“Always love to chat with you, Detective,” he said.

“You still have an appointment with Zander today?” Chu asked.

“Yeah. Assuming he doesn’t cancel. Why?”

“Well, we checked him out like you said to and well, we found some interesting shit. Dude’s pretty shady. He’s got a record.”

“Can’t say I’m shocked to hear that. How ’bout the woman? Isabelle?”

“She came back clean.”

“She’s not,” Fremmer said.

“We spoke to her. She told us some things about Zander. Did you know he works for the Lucidity Center?”

“Yeah, I think he still cleans Braden’s fish tank.”

“Apparently he also handles a lot of their bookings and manages the website. He also gets a commission for bringing people in, acquiring new customers so to speak. He’s been involved with the Center almost as long as Isabelle has.”

“Interesting,” Fremmer said.

“We’re going through the thumb drive now. We need to talk you before you go to that appointment. We also found something else.”

“What?”

“We’ve got Zander near that intersection on CPW a week before your client got hit. It looks like he said something to Ronald and took some photos of him with his phone.”

Photos? Fremmer thought. What had Ronald said back in the holding cell? Something about a guy taking a picture of him. The Oracle.

“You got him on video?” Fremmer said excitedly. “You got that?”

“Just come by, OK? I’d rather talk face-to-face,” Chu said.

“I’m at the gym. Just have to take a shower and I’ll be right over.”

Fremmer needed to pull himself together. He felt awful about Candace worrying about her daughter, feared that her death would impact his attempts to reveal her true identity, and was exhilarated by the prospect of Zander as a suspect. He was also a bit paranoid. Maybe Chu was messing with him, giving him enough information to get him to the station. But why? He needed to call Madden. Madden would have answers.

But the first thing he had to do was call Anna, the woman taking care of Mia, Candace’s daughter, and to ask how she was doing. What could he do to help?

“It’s hard to tell how she’s really taking it,” Anna reported. “Part of her thinks it’s maybe better she passed away because she’d never be the same again.”

After that conversation, Fremmer decided to decompress in the steam room for ten minutes. It was all moving too quickly. So much so that he forgot about Madden. He was a few blocks from the police station when he finally tried to reach him. Getting no answer, he sent a text.