immobilized-bound, gagged-and terrified.
Crimmins and Peake haul her out. She's a strong girl, but they control her easily.
They walk her as far as they can from the freeway. To the edge of the turnoff, everyone swallowed by darkness now.
Last words or not?
Either way: pop. A searing burst of light and pain.
What was the last thing she'd heard? A truck whizzing by? The wind? The racing of her pulse?
They let her fall. Then Crimmins gives a signal and Peake steps forward.
Blade in hand.
Summoned.
Camera. Action.
Cut.
My guts pogoed as I got in the unmarked, wanting to sort it all out, to make sense of it before I said anything to Milo. He started up the engine, sped through the morgue lot, and turned left on Mission. We roared off.
Orange Grove showed no signs of ever having hosted citrus trees. Just another L.A. street full of small, undistinguished houses.
The house we came to see was hidden behind an untrimmed ficus hedge, but the green wall didn't extend to the asphalt driveway and we had a clear view all the way to the garage. No vehicles in sight. Milo drove a hundred feet down and we returned on foot. I waited by the curb as he made his way up the asphalt, gun in hand, back to the garage, around the rear of the wood-sided bungalow. Even in the darkness I could see scars on the paint. The color was hard to make out, probably some version of beige. Between the house and the ficus barrier was a stingy square of dead lawn. Sagging front porch, no shrubbery other than the hedge.
Milo came back, gun still out, breathing hard. 'Looks empty. The back door's Mickey Mouse, I'm going in. Stay there till I tell you.'
Another five minutes, ten, twelve, as I watched his pen-light bounce around behind shaded windows. A single firefly. Finally, the front door opened and he waved me inside.
He'd gloved up. I followed as he turned a few lights on, exposing a poverty of space. First we.did an overall check of the house. Five small, shabby rooms, including a dingy lavatory. Grimy yellow walls; the window shades crazed, gray oilcloth patched in spots by duct tape.
Colorless rental furniture.
Where the space allowed. The bungalow was filled with crisp-looking cardboard boxes, most of them sealed. Printed labels on the outside. THIS SIDE UP. FRAGILE. Scores of cartons of TV's, stereos, video gear, cameras, PC's. Cassettes, compact discs, computer discs. Glassware, silverware, small appliances. Stacks of video cartridges and Fuji film. Enough film to shoot a thousand birthday parties.
In a corner of the larger bedroom, squeezed next to an unmade queen-size mattress, stood a pile of smaller boxes. The labels claimed Sony minirecorders. Just like the one Heidi had used to tape Peake.
'The movie stuff's out in the garage,' said Milo. 'Dollies, booms, spotlights, crap I couldn't identify. Tons of it, piled almost to the ceiling. Didn't see any saws, but they could be buried under all the gear. It'll take a crew to go through it.'
'She was in on it,' I said.
He'd moved into the bathroom, didn't answer. I heard drawers opening, went over to see him remove something from the cabinet beneath the sink.
Glossy white shoe box. Several more just like it stacked next to the pipes.
He lifted the lid. Rows of white plastic bottles nesting in Styrofoam beds. He extracted one. 'Phenobarbital.'
All the other bottles in that box were labeled identically. The next box yielded an assortment, and so did all the others.
Chlorpromazine, thioridazine, haloperidol, clozapine, di-azepam, alprazolam, lithium carbonate.
'Candy sampler for a junkie,' said Milo. 'Uppers, downers, all-arounders.'
He inspected the bottom of the box. 'Starkweather stamp's still on here.'
'Uncut pharmaceuticals,' I said. 'It ups the price.' Then I thought of something.
Milo was looking the other way, but I must have made a sound, because he said, 'What?'
'I should've figured it out a long time ago. The missing dog, Buddy. He was sticking in my head because I've seen him before. That day in the park, a tall man in black came by walking a Rottweiler mix. Passed right by where we were sitting with Heidi. Heidi was aware of him. She watched him.
He was her roommate. The one she'd claimed was sleeping. Their little joke. They were playing with us right from the beginning. So much for powers of observation. Lot of good it does us now.'
'Hey,' he said, recording the drug inventory in his notepad. 'I'm the so-called detective, and I never noticed the dog.'
'Crimmins stole him from Mrs. Leiber. Taking what he wanted. Because he could. For him, it's all about power.'
He stopped writing. 'No sign of any dog here,' he said. 'No food or bowl anywhere in the house.'
'Exactly.'
'Heidi,' he said, suddenly sounding tired. 'It casts a whole new light on her story,'
I said. 'Peake's prophecy. Peake's supposed prophecy.'
His hand tightened around his pen. He stared at me. 'Another scam.'
'Has to be. The only evidence we ever had was Heidi's account.'
' 'Bad eyes in a box.' 'Choo choo bang bang.' '
'The tape, too,' I said. I led him back to the larger bedroom. Pointed at the stack of Sonys. 'The tape was nothing but mumbles. Unrecognizable mumbles, could've been anyone. But we know who it was.'
'Crimmins.'
'Dubbing the soundtrack,' I said. 'George Welles Orson. Like I said, he's an auteur: produces, directs, acts.' He cursed violently.
'He murdered Claire,' I went on, 'then set Peake up as a phony oracle to spice up his story line-who knows, maybe he thought he'd be able to use it one day. Write a screenplay, sell it to Hollywood. We took it seriously-great fun, once again he's screwed the Law. Just like he did back in Florida. And Nevada. And Treadway. So when he eliminated the Beatty brothers, he did it again. Used Heidi, again. Once again, no risk; nothing he does with Peake bears any risk. No one's heard Peake talk in almost two decades-who's to say it's not his voice on the tape? The first time we met Heidi, she let us know she was going to quit the hospital. That allowed her to do you a favor by sticking around. Gave her instant credibility-personally invited by the police. From that point, no one was going to suspect anything she did with Peake.'
'Except maybe Chet.'
' 'Cherchez la femme,' ' I said. 'Maybe Chet noticed something-something off about Heidi. Maybe the way she related to Peake. Or he saw her steal dope from the nursing station. Or get a little handoff from Dollard. But once again, who'd pay attention to his ramblings? Heidi was free to continue as Crimmins's inside woman. She was there in the first place because Crimmins wanted her-she joined the staff right after he left. He gave her multiple assignments: work with Dollard to keep the drugs flowing, make sure Dollard didn't rip them off, and attach herself to Claire so she could report back what Claire was saying about Peake. Because he had to have discussed Peake with Claire. That was the basis of their relationship.'
' 'Cherchez la femme,' ' he said. 'The guy collects them' He looked around at the piles of contraband. 'Heidi traveling with him and Peake tonight probably means she was in on the escape. Her being the inside woman would smooth the escape, wouldn't it? Yesterday, the last time we ran into her, she was walking Peake right near that service elevator. Dry run for tonight.'
'Has to be. She and Crimmins needed to rehearse, because whatever the state of Peake's psyche, he'd been cooped up for sixteen years, was unpredictable. It's also possible the timetable for the escape was sped up because you were getting too close. That same day, you asked Heidi if Peake had mentioned Wark's name, and she hesitated for a second. Probably shocked that you'd gotten on to the alias, but she stayed cool. Said it was a funny name, didn't really sound like a name. Edging us away from Wark and diverting our attention to Dollard by letting us know he'd been fired for malfeasance. Because Dollard had become a liability. He'd always been the expendable
