LA Requiem

so silent, she was afraid that he wouldn 't respond in kind. He was so contained that she couldn 't be sure.

Karen watched them talk, and felt the flush of jealousy when Paulette Wozniak touched him, but Joe was as unreadable with Paulette as he was with her. 'You 're being silly,'she thought. 'He is like that with everyone.'

Paulette Wozniak touched Joe's arm again, then walked across the field toward her husband, and Karen knew then that she was wrong.

A sour wash of fear jolted through her as she watched Joe staring after Paulette Wozniak. Everything she saw in Joe 'sface and stance told her that his heart belonged to someone else.

16

On the morning that Karen Garcia was buried, I stood naked on my deck, stretching in the darkness. The sun had not yet risen, and, for a time, I watched the few stars brilliant enough to burn their way through the halo of light that floated above the City of Angels, wondering if, somewhere out there, a killer was watching them, too. I thought not. Psycho killers probably slept in.

Little by little, the stiffness of sleep faded as my body warmed, and I eased from the stillness of hatha yoga to the dynamic tension of tae kwon do katas, starting slowly at first, then moving faster until the movements became explosive and fierce. I finished the katas wet with sweat as the canyon below my house lightened with the first purple glimmers of sunrise. I let the sweat cool, then gathered my things and went inside. Once, I stayed out too long, and the woman who lives in the next house saw me and made a wolf whistle. Her husband came out onto their deck, and he made a wolf whistle, too. Life in L.A.

I was standing in my kitchen, drinking orange juice and watching eggs boil, when the phone rang. I grabbed it on the first ring so it wouldn't wake Lucy.

Samantha Dolan said, 'I've got two guys who'll be at Forest Lawn with me.'

'Two. Wow, Dolan. There won't be room for the mourners.' I was still pissed off about Krantz.

'Save the attitude and keep your eyes open. You and Pike make five of us.'

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160 ROBERT CRAIS

'Pike will be with Frank.'

'He can still see, can't he? We're looking for a white male between twenty and forty. He may linger after, and he may approach the grave. Sometimes they leave something, or they'll take a souvenir.'

'Krantz's buddy at the Feebs tell you that?' It was typical behavior for a serial killer.

'The burial's scheduled for ten. I'll be there at nine-thirty. And, Cole?'

'What?'

'Try not to be such an ass.'

Forest Lawn Memorial Park is four hundred acres of rolling green lawns at the foot of the Hollywood Hills in Glendale. With immaculate grounds, re-creations of famous churches, and burial areas with names like Slumberland, Vale of Memory, and Whispering Pines, I have always thought of it as a kind of Disneyland of the Dead.

Since Dolan was going to get there at nine-thirty, I wanted to get there earlier. But when I turned into the grounds and found Karen Garcia's burial site, Dolan was already there, and so were a hundred other people. She was parked with an easy eyes-forward view of the crowd on the slope. A long-lens Konica camera rested in her lap. She would use it to take pictures of the crowd for later identification.

I slipped into the passenger side of her Beemer, and took a breath. 'Dolan, I know you're doing what you can. I was a jerk this morning. I apologize.'

'You were, but I accept. Forget it.'

'Just wanted to get that out. Makes me feel small.'

'That's your girlfriend's problem.'

I looked over at her, but she was staring out the window. Ouch.

'You know where Krantz is this morning?'

'OnDersh?'

'A surveillance team is on Dersh. Krantz and Bishop are going to the service. Mills is going, too. They want to sit where Councilman Maldenado can see them.'

L.A. REQUIEM 161

I couldn't do what she did. I couldn't work with guys like Krantz and Bishop. Maybe that was why I'm on my own.

'I thought you said you were coming at nine-thirty.'

'I figured you'd try to beat me, so I came earlier.'

I looked over at her, and she was smiling.

'You're something, Samantha.'

'Guess we're cats of the same stripe, World's Greatest.'

I smiled back. 'Okay. So it's me, you, and two other guys. How do you want to play it?'

She glanced up the hill toward a marble mausoleum. 'Got a guy up at that mausoleum, and another guy down below. They see anyone who looks suspicious, they'll get the license numbers.' The high man was sitting on the grass outside the mausoleum above us. A little road ran in front of it, identical to the road where we were parked. If the killer wanted to come and watch, he could park up there. People were scattered throughout the slope below us, the low man invisible among them. 'I figure you can work in close with the crowd since you know some of these people. I'll stay here snapping shots of the procession, then I'll come up.'

'Okay.'

'Right now, why don't you walk the perimeter.'

It wasn't a question.

She looked at me. 'Well?'

'Yes, ma'am.' If you're on free time, I guess you can tell everyone what to do.

As I slid out of the Beemer, she said, 'By the way, that was the first time you called me Samantha.'

'I guess so.'

'Don't let it happen again.'

But she was smiling, and I grinned as I walked away.

I spent the next few minutes drifting along the perimeter of the crowd, counting sixteen Anglo men between twenty and forty. When I glanced down at Dolan, she was pointing the camera at me. I guess she was bored.

A blue Nissan Sentra came up the hill a few minutes before ten, parked where the other cars had parked, and Eugene Dersh climbed out.

162 ROBERT CRAIS

I said, 'Oh, man.'

Dersh was conservatively dressed in a beige sport coat and slacks. He locked his car, and was walking up the hill when two unmarked detective rides turned in and idled by the front gate, unsure what to do. Williams was driving the second car. The first car was the same guys who had followed me.

The cop by the mausoleum stood and stared at them. He hadn't seen Dersh, but he recognized the RHD cars.