'Oh, sure. I just wish I could help you.'
'You know anyone else who might've been up there on Saturday?'
'Uh-uh.'
'Mr. Ward wasn't with you on Saturday, was he?' If Ward was there, I could ask him, too.
'No. Riley came with me on Sunday. He'd never been up to the lake before. Can you believe that? Here's Riley, a native for chrissake. He lives, what, two miles from the lake, and he's never been there.'
'I know people who've never been to Disneyland.'
Dersh nodded. 'Amazing.'
I stood, and thanked him for his time.
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'That's all you wanted?'
'Told you it wouldn't take long.'
'Don't forget. Channel 4.'
'I'll watch.'
Dersh brought his mug of Kenyan coffee to the door. 'Detective Cole? Are you going to be, ah, seeing the girl's family?'
'I will be. Yes.'
'Would you tell them how sorry I am? And give them my condolences?'
'Sure.'
'I thought I might drop around sometime, since I was the one who discovered her body. Me and Riley.' . 'I'll tell her father.'
Dersh sipped at his coffee, frowning. 'If I remember anything else, I'll be sure to call. I want to help you. I really want to help catch the person who did this.'
'If you remember anything, give Stan Watts a call. Okay?'
'Stan, and not you?'
'It'd be better if you called Stan.'
I thanked him again, then went out to my car. I hadn't really expected that Dersh would have seen the SUV, but, like I told him, you hear something, you have to run it down. Especially when the cops won't.
I said, 'What was so hard about that, Krantz? It took fifteen minutes.' The detective, talking to himself.
I worked my way out of the foothills south to Franklin, then east toward Hollywood. Traffic was terrible, but I was feeling better about things, even though I hadn't learned much. Doing is better than watching, and now I felt like a doer, even though I wasn't supposed to be. I thought that I might phone Dolan and tell her that Krantz needn't go back to Dersh about the car. I could probably sound pretty smug when I said it, but Dolan probably wouldn't be impressed. Also, they would find out I'd gone to see Dersh sooner or later. I thought my telling them would make Krantz a little less apoplectic, but you never know. I was hoping it would make him worse.
I left Franklin trying to get away from the traffic, but the
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roads stayed bad. Another sinkhole had appeared in Hollywood like an acne crater brought on by the subway construction, and Cal Trans had several streets blocked. I turned down Western to pick up Hollywood Boulevard, found the traffic even worse, then cut onto one of the little side streets there, hoping to work my way around the worst of it. That's when the same dark blue sedan that I'd been seeing in my rearview since I'd left the hills turned in behind me.
At first I thought it was nothing. Other cars were turning to get away from the traffic, too, but those cars hadn't been floating behind me since Franklin.
Cars were moving a little better on Hollywood. I passed under the freeway, then turned north and pulled to the curb in front of a flower kiosk with huge signs printed in Spanish.
The sedan pulled past, two men in the front, both with sunglasses and both yucking it up and doing their best to pretend that they weren't interested in me. Of course, maybe they weren't. Maybe all of this was a coincidence.
I copied their tag number, then bought a dozen red roses for Lucy. Serendipity should not be ignored.
I waited for a short Salvadoran man to finish with the pay phone outside the flower stand, then called my friend at the Department of Motor Vehicles. I asked her to run the tag, and waited some more.
She came back in a few seconds. 'You sure about this?'
'Yeah. Why?'
'It came back 'No ID.'You want me to run it again?'
'No, thanks. That's fine.'
I hung up, took the roses to my car, and sat there.
'No ID' is what you get when the car is registered to the Los Angeles Police Department.
10
The sun was settling over the city like a deflated balloon when I got to Lucy's apartment. I had stopped for groceries after the flower stand, and then a liquor store, all the while watching my rearview. The blue sedan didn't return, and if anyone else was following me, I didn't spot them. Just the kind of paranoid experience you want before a romantic evening.
When Lucy saw the roses, she said, 'Oh, they're lovely.'
'Do you see their tears?'
She smiled, but looked confused. 'What tears?'
'They're sad. Now that they've seen you, they know they're not the prettiest things on earth.'
She touched the flowers, then sighed playfully. 'They'll just have to get used to it, I guess.'
Lucy brought a small overnight bag as we went down to my car.
'Ben get off to camp okay?'
'Once he met a couple of the other kids he was fine. I set my call-forwarding to ring at your place. I hope you don't mind.'
'Of course not. You sure you don't want to take your own car?'
'This is more romantic. My lover is spiriting me away for a night of passion at his love nest in the mountains. I can come back for my car tomorrow.'
I had never thought of my house as a love nest, but there you go.
'What's in the bag?'
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She smiled at me from the corner of her eye. 'Something you'll like. A surprise.'
Maybe having a love nest wasn't so bad.
It felt good to be with her, and good to be with her alone. We had been together a lot since Lucy moved to L.A., but always with Ben or other people, and usually with the major part of our time spent in the necessary tasks of moving them into their new apartment. Tonight was just for us. I wanted that, and knowing that she wanted it, too, made it all the more special. We drove in silence, rarely speaking, though smiling at each other in that way lovers do. She held the roses in her lap, occasionally lifting one to touch her nose.
When we got to the love nest, Joe's Jeep was parked in front.
Lucy smiled at me. Prettily. 'Is Joe staying over, too?'
Ha-ha. That Lucy. What a kidder, huh?
We brought the groceries and the roses in through the kitchen. Pike was standing in my living room. Anyone else would've been sitting, but there he was, holding the cat. When the cat saw Lucy, it squirmed out of Joe's arms, ran
