LA Requiem

Abel cursed the coals again, shouted that he needed the goddamned water, then covered the grill and came over to sit next to Joe. Abel had a beer of his own. He 'd had several.

Joe said, 'You deal with it yet? '

'Fuck off. You don't know what you 're talking about.'Abel stared at the smoke pouring out of the barbecue's vents.

'I followed you, Woz. I saw you with the Chihuahua Brothers. I saw you with that girl. I know what you 're doing.'

Wozniak took a Salem from the pack on the ground next to his chair and lit up. Wozniaksaid, 'Why the hell are you doing this?'

'lean't let it go on.'

'I 'm your goddamned partner, for chrissakes.'

Joe finished his beer and placed the empty bottle on the lawn. Paulette and Karen came out, Karen with a huge bowl of potato salad, and Paulette the spray bottle and a tray of forks and knives and napkins. Abel went over, used the water on his coals, then came back. The women stayed busy with the table.

Wozniak muttered, 'Fuckin 'chicken looks like shit.'

'I mean it, Woz. I won 'tride with this forever.'

Woz flicked at his cigarette. Nervous. 'I got responsibilities.'

'That's why I'm giving you the choice.'

Wozniak leaned toward him so far that the chair tipped. 'You think I like this? You think I want it to be this way? Man, I feel like I'm caught in a goddamned vise.'

Karen flashed a great brilliant smile at Joe, and Joe waved. Paulette smiled, and waved, too. They couldn 't hear what the men were saying.

'I know it's a vise, Woz. I'm trying to help you with it.'

'Bullshit.'

'You don't have a choice.'

L.A. REQUIEM 251

Wozniak watched the two women, then considered Joe. 'Don't think I don't know how you feel about her.'

Pike stared at him.

Wozniak nodded. 'I've seen you looking at Paulette. A great kid like Karen, and you 're looking at my wife.'

Pike stood and looked down at his partner.

'You 're going to resign, Woz. And it's going to be soon.'

'I'm warning you, you sonofabitch. If you don't back off, one of us is going to die.'

Paulette and Karen had gone to the grill and were frowning at the chicken. Paulette called, 'Abel! I think this chicken is dead!'

Abel Wozniak stared at Joe for a moment longer, and then he stalked back to the grill.

Pike watched Abel and Paulette and Karen, but soon he saw only Paulette. It was as if everything else had grown more and more faint until only she remained.

He had not felt such emptiness since he was a child.

27

When I left Parker Center even more smokers were outside, watching the news vans arrive. From the number of cops on the sidewalk, there probably weren't many left inside, but you never know. Samantha Dolan wasn't among them, and neither was Stan Watts. Half the dicks on the walk were probably from IAG, and most of them weren't smoking. They were probably taking names of those who were.

I walked down to the covered level looking for Dolan's Beemer, found it, then walked back to the lobby pay phone, and called her. She answered on the second ring.

252 ROBERT CRAIS

'Dolan.'

'It's me.'

'Listen, I'm busy right now. I don't want to talk.' .

'I'm downstairs, and I want to talk to you. I need those files.'

She lowered her voice. 'I'm feeling just a little bit humiliated right now, can you understand that? I don't usually ... I don't do what I did this morning.'

'Yeah. I get that. I'm feeling pretty awkward myself.'

'You weren't the one rejected,'

'I'm with somebody else, Samantha. I told you that.' I felt defensive, like I had to justify myself.

'The little woman.'

'Don't call her that. Lucy's tough, too, and she might kick your ass.'

Dolan didn't say anything.

'That was a joke, Dolan.'

'I know. I didn't say anything because I'm smiling.'

'Oh.'

'Maybe I'll call her out and see who's left standing.'

'Did you find out about the files I wanted?'

'It's really hard to talk right now. You know about this new vie?'

'I was with Pike when Krantz and Branford came down. Will you come down to your car? I really need your help right now, but I don't want whatever it is you feel about me to get confused with that.'

When she answered, it was frosty and cool. 'I think I can manage not to get confused. Five minutes.'

'Samantha.'

But she'd already hung up.

Dolan was standing at the mouth of the garage, watching the news vans. She wasn't smoking, but a crushed butt was by her toe. Guess I'd caught her between puffs. She also wasn't carrying the files.

She said, 'They're going to go crazy with this.'

'Yeah. How are you doing?'

L.A. REQUIEM

253

The cool eyes came to me. 'You mean, has my ego survived your rejection, or am I grieving the loss of my self- esteem?'

'They don't come any tougher than you, do they?'

She turned back into the garage, and I followed her to the Beemer.

'Okay. Here's what I found out: Wozniak died so long ago that Rampart won't have his file anymore. They would've sent it down to the file morgue by Union Station.'

'None of this is on computer?'

'This is the LAPD, World's Greatest. We got shit for computers.'

I nodded.

'Internal Affairs has their own separate storage facility, with their own procedures for getting into their records. Forget it. But the file morgue is different. We've got a shot at that.'

'Okay.'

'I talked to a detective I know over at Rampart. He said it's pretty much the same story with DeVille. Since he died in prison, the Rampart sex crimes detectives who worked that case would've boxed the file and sent it to storage. We could order it from the district attorney's case file morgue, but we won't have to do that.'