LA Requiem

I followed Holly back out to the reception area to the front door. The reporters were still out there, clumped in the street. A fourth van had joined the others.

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184

ROBERT CRAIS

I said, 'He seems like a nice man.'

'Oh, Riley's a peach.'

'Can't blame him for being nervous, I guess.'

Holly held the door for me, fighting a tiny smile. 'Well, he's had to answer a lot of delicate questions.'

I looked at her. 'What do you mean, delicate?'

'Riley and Gene are very close friends.'

She looked at me.

'Very close.'

I stepped out onto the porch, but she stayed inside.

I said, 'Closer than hiking buddies?'

She nodded.

'We're talking really close?'

She stepped out with me, closing the door behind her. 'Riley doesn't think we know, but how can you hide it? Gene went head over heels for Riley the first time he came into the office, and chased him shamelessly.'

'How long has this been going on?'

'Not long. Riley takes these walks with Gene three times a week, but we know.' She raised her eyebrows when she said it, then leaned back inside and glanced over her shoulder to make sure that no one could hear. 'I wish some good-looking guy would chase me like that.'

I gave her my very best smile. 'I think some guy is going to knock himself out for you, Holly.'

She fluttered the big eyes at me. 'Do you think?'

'Got a girlfriend, Holly. Sorry.'

'Well, if you ever decide to trade up.' She let it hang, gave me her nicest smile yet, and started back inside.

'Holly?'

She smiled at me.

'Don't tell anyone else what you just told me, okay?'

'It's just between us.' Then she shut the door and was gone.

I stepped off the porch of the pretty little Craftsman house, and crossed the street to my car, the reporters and camera people watching me. The surfer guy looked pissed. He called, 'Hey, did Ward talk to you?'

'Nope. They let me use their bathroom.'

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The reporters let out a collective sigh and relaxed. Feeling better about things.

I sat in my car, but did not start the engine. Working a case is like living a life. You could be going along with your head down, pulling the plow as best you can, but then something happens and the world isn't what you thought it was anymore. Suddenly, the way you see everything is different, as if the world has changed color, hiding things that were there before and revealing things you otherwise would not have seen.

I once was close to a man, a police officer with sixteen years on the job, who was and is a good and decent man, who had been married and faithful to his wife for all of those years, had three children with her and a cabin in Big Bear and a fine and happy life, until the day he left her and married another woman. When he told me the news, I said that I hadn't known he and his wife were having problems, and he said that he hadn't known, either. His wife was devastated, and my friend was horribly guilty. I asked him, the way friends will, what happened. His answer was both simple and terrible. He said, 'I fell in love.' He had met a woman while in line at their bank and in the course of a single conversation his world turned upside down and would never be the same. Blindsided by love.

I thought about Riley Ward, and the woman and two children in the pictures in his office. I thought that maybe he had been blindsided, too, and suddenly the inconsistencies in his and Dersh's version of events at the lake, and why Riley Ward seemed evasive and defensive in his interview, made all the sense in the world, and none of it mattered a damn with the theories of cops and private operators with too much time on their hands.

Dersh and Ward had left the trail in thick cover to be hidden from other hikers. They had not wanted to see; they had wanted to be unseen.

They went down to the water's edge because of its impassable nature, never guessing that Karen Garcia's body was waiting in a manner that would force them to cook up a story to explain how they had come to be in such an unlikely place.

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186 ROBERT CRAIS

They had lied to protect the worlds each had built, but now a greater lie had come to feed on their fear.

I sat in my car, feeling bad for Riley Ward with his wife and two kids and secret gay lover, and then I left to call Samantha Dolan.

The office was filled with a golden light when Dolan returned my call. I didn't mind. I was on my second can of Fal- staff, and already thinking about the third. I had spent most of the day answering mail, paying bills, and talking to the Pinoc-chio clock. It hadn't answered yet, but maybe with another few beers.

Dolan said, 'She sounds like Scarlett O'Hara, for Christ's sake. How can you stand it?'

'I went to see Ward this morning. You were right. They were lying.'

I finished the rest of the can and eyed the little fridge. Should've gotten the third before we started.

'I'm listening.'

'Ward and Dersh left the trail because they're lovers.'

Dolan didn't say anything.

'Dolan?'

'I'm here. Ward said that? He told you that's why they left the trail?'

'No, Dolan, Ward did not say that. Ward's got a wife and two kids, and I would think he'd do damned near anything to keep them from knowing.'

'Take it easy.'

'I picked it up from someone who works in his office. It's all the talk, Dolan, and it took me about twenty minutes to find out. I guess you people didn't exactly break your asses doing the background work.'

'Take it easy, I said.'

I listened to her breathe. I guess she listened to me.

She said, 'You okay?'

'I'm pissed off about Dersh. I'm pissed off that all of this is going to come out and hurt Ward's family.'

'You want to go have a drink?'

L.A. REQUIEM 187

'Dolan, I'm doing okay on my own.'

She didn't say any more for a while. I thought about getting the next beer, but didn't. Pinocchio was watching me.

She said, 'I was going to call you.'