LA Requiem

blazer. 'Yeah, well, I have days like that, too. You never fixed the tiles.'

'I don't want to be rude, but what are you doing here?'

'You worried the little woman's going to get jealous?'

'Do me a favor and don't call her the little woman. It's pissing me off.'

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'Whatever. You think I could have some juice or water? I'm a little dry.'

I brought her into the kitchen and poured two glasses of mango juice. When I handed the glass to her, she took offher sunglasses. Her eyes were bloodshot, and I caught a whiff of tequila. 'Jesus, it's eight in the morning, Dolan. You hit it this early?'

The bloodshot eyes flashed angrily. 'Is it any of your business when I'hit it'?'

I raised my hands.

Dolan put the sunglasses back on.

'I was thinking about what you said last night. That maybe the killer is connected to Pike through Garcia. Maybe you've got something there, but I sure as hell couldn't call you from the office to talk about it.'

'That mean you'll help?'

'It means I want to talk about it.'

The cat nosed through his cat door. He got halfway inside, and stopped, staring at her.

Dolan scowled at him. 'What in hell are you looking at?'

The cat cocked his head, still staring.

'What's wrong with this cat?'

'I think he's confused. The only other person in the world he likes is Joe Pike. Maybe it's the glasses.'

Dolan scowled deeper. 'How nice for me. Mistaken for a two-hundred-pound bruiser with a butch cut and no tits.'

Dolan took off the glasses and bugged her eyes at him.

'Better?'

The cat cocked his head the other way.

'Why does he hold his head that way?'

'Someone shot him.'

Dolan squatted and held out her hand.

I said, 'Don't do that, Dolan. He bites.'

'Samantha.'

'Samantha.'

The cat sniffed. He eased toward her and sniffed again.

'He doesn't seem so mean to me.'

She scratched his head, then finished her juice.

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'He's just a damned cat.'

I stared at him, then her. I had seen that cat claw a hundred people over the years, and I had never seen him let anyone other than me and Joe touch him.

'What?'

I shook nay head again. 'Nothing.'

She took a hard pack of Marlboros from her pocket. 'You mind if I smoke?'

'Yeah, I do. If you gotta have one, we can go out on the deck.'

We went out. Yesterday's gray haze still hung in the air, but it had thinned. Dolan went to the rail and peered down into the canyon. 'This is nice. You got your chairs out here. You got your Weber.'

She fired up a Marlboro and blew a great fog of smoke to add to the haze. Inviting.

I said, 'So what were you thinking last night?'

'I wasn't on the job when that happened with Wozniak and Pike, but Stan Watts was. I asked him about it. Do you know what happened?'

'I know.'

A little girl named Ramona Ann Escobar had been seen leaving a park with a man the police believed to be a known pedophile and child pornographer named Leonard DeVille. Pike and Wozniak learned that DeVille had been sighted entering the Islander Palms Motel, and had driven there to investigate. When they entered the room, Ramona was not present. Pike had never spoken to me of these things, but I recalled from the newspaper coverage that Wozniak, the father of a young daughter, had apparently been fearful that DeVille had harmed the girl. He drew his weapon, and struck DeVille. Pike, feeling that Wozniak might endanger the suspect, intervened. A struggle followed, during which Wozniak's weapon discharged, killing Wozniak. Internal Affairs conducted an investigation, but brought no charges against Pike. What the articles I'd read didn't say is that even though IAG didn't bring charges, damn near every officer on the job at that time

242 ROBERT CRAIS

blamed Pike for Wozniak's death, hating him all the more because Pike had killed Wozniak defending an asshole like Leonard DeVille. A child molester.

Dolan said, 'So if you're looking for people with a grudge, you're gonna have to start with a couple of thousand cops.'

'I don't believe that.'

'I'm talking hate, buddy. They got cops still around who hate Pike for what happened to Wozniak.'

'Think about what you're saying, Dolan. You believe some random cop has been carrying a grudge so big he's willing to kill an innocent man like Dersh just to set up Pike?'

'You say innocent, and this is your theory, not mine. If one of these cowboys thinks Dersh is a serial killer, maybe he figures it's a no-brainer sacrifice. And if it isn't a cop, you're probably talking about one of the two or three hundred assholes that Pike arrested. That's still a pretty big suspect pool.'

I spread my hands. 'I can't go there, Dolan. There are so many variables here that if I try to deal with all of them I'll just sit home and wait for Krantz to crack the case.'

'Guess that wouldn't work for you.'

'Does it work for you?'

She smiled. 'No. Christ, that sun is hot.'

Dolan took off the blazer and draped it over one of the deck chairs. Her Sig was in a clip holster on the right hip of her jeans, and her tanned arms looked strong. The white shirt was so bright it made me squint.

I said, 'I've got to stay with what's in front of me, and that's Wozniak and Karen Garcia, and how they all came to meet. I need to find out everything I can about Wozniak and DeVille, and what happened in that room. I want the shooting team report, the incident report, and whatever Internal Affairs had.'

She was shaking her head before I finished. 'I can tell you right now you can forget the IAG documents. They're under seal. You'd need a court order.'

'I need Wozniak's personnel file and DeVille's case file. I'm going to talk to Joe and see what he says.'

'Man, you don't want too much, do you?'

'What else can I do?'

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She took another deep pull on the cigarette. 'Nothing, I guess. I'll make some calls for you. It might take a while.'