beside me.
'If it's about me, I would've gone.'
'Your chances are better when it's dark.'
'My chances are what I make them.'
292 ROBERT CRAIS
He moved to the table, pulling the chair and sitting so quietly that I heard no sound. Maybe I was listening for other things. The cat reappeared and jumped onto the table to be with him.
I went back into the kitchen, and looked in the bag she'd brought. Salmon steaks, broccoli, and a package of new potatoes. Dinner for two.
Joe spoke from the dining room. 'Ever since I've known you, I've looked to you for wisdom.'
Pike was a shape in the shadows, my cat head bumping his hands.
'What in hell does that mean?'
'You're my family. I love you, but sometimes you're a dope.'
I put the food away, and went to the couch. 'If you want something, get it yourself.'
Two hours later it was fully dark. During that time, we decided what we would do, and then Joe let himself out the kitchen door, and slipped away into darkness.
Then I was truly alone.
31
I sat on the couch in my empty house, feeling a tight queasiness as if I'd lost something precious, and thinking that maybe I had. After a while, I called Lucy, and got her machine.
'It's me. Are you there?'
If she was there, she didn't pick up.
'Luce, we need to talk about this. Would you please pickup?'
L.A. REQUIEM 293
When she still didn't pick up, I put down the phone and went back to the couch. I sat there some more, then opened the big glass doors to let in the night sounds. Somewhere outside the police were watching, but what did I care? They were the closest thing to company that I had.
I poached one of the salmon steaks in beer, made a sandwich with it, and ate standing in the kitchen near the phone.
Lucy Chenier had been out here for less than a month. She had changed her life to come here, and now everything had gone to hell. It scared me. We weren't mad because we liked different movies, or I had been rude to her friends. We were mad because she had given me a choice between herself and Joe, and she felt I'd chosen Joe. I guess she was right, but I didn't know what to do about that. If she gave me the same choice again, I would decide the same way, and I wasn't sure what that said about me, or us.
Someone pounded hard on the front door. I thought it was the cops, and in a way it was.
Samantha Dolan swayed in the doorway with her hands on her hips, four sheets to the wind.
'You got any of that tequila left?'
'Now isn't a good time, Samantha.'
She started to step in past me just like she'd done before, but this time I didn't move.
'What, you got a hot date with the little woman?'
I didn't move. I could smell the tequila on her. The smell was so heavy it could have been leaking from her pores.
Dolan stared at me in the hard way she has, but then her eyes softened. She shook her head, and all the arrogance was gone. 'It isn't a good time for me, either, World's Greatest. Bishop fired me. He's transferring me out of Robbery-Homicide.'
I stepped out of the door and let her in. I felt awkward and small, and guilty for what happened to her, which stacked nicely atop the guilt I felt about Lucy.
I took out the bottle of Cuervo 1800 and poured a couple of fingers into a glass.
'More.'
I gave her more.
294
ROBERT CRAIS
'You're not going to have one with me?'
'I've got some beer.'
Dolan sipped the tequila, then took a deep breath and let it out.
'Christ, that's good.'
'How much have you had?'
'Not nearly enough.' She raised her eyebrows at me. 'Had a little tiff with your friend?'
'Who?'
'I'm not talking about your cat, stupid. The little woman.' Dolan tipped her glass toward the kitchen. 'A purse is sitting on your counter. You aren't the only detective in the house.' She realized what she'd said, and had more of the drink. 'Well. Maybe you are.'
Lucy's purse was by the refrigerator, put there when she 'd set down the bags. She 'd taken her clothes, but forgotten the purse.
Dolan had more of the tequila, then leaned against the counter. 'Pike wasn't smart, playing it this way. You talk to him, you should get him to turn himself in.'
'He won't do that.'
'This doesn't help him look innocent.'
'I guess he figures that if the police aren't going to try to clear him, he should do it himself.'
'Maybe we shouldn't talk about this.'
'Maybe not.'
'It just looks bad, is what I'm saying.'
'Let's not talk about it.'
The two of us stood there. It's always a laugh a minute at Chez Cole. I asked her if she wanted to sit, and she did, so we moved into the living room. The tequila followed us.
'I'm sorry about Bishop.'
Dolan shook her head, thoughtful.
She said, 'Pike would've been in uniform just before I came on. You know what areas he worked?'
'Did a year in Hollenbeck before moving to Rampart.'
'I started in West L.A. There weren't as many women on the force then as now, and what few of us there were got every shit job that came along.'
L.A. REQUIEM 295
She seemed as if she wanted to talk, so I let her talk. I was happy with the beer.
'My first day on the job, right out of the Academy, we go to this house and find two feet sticking up out of the ground.'
'Human feet?'
'Yeah. These two human feet are sticking straight up out of the ground.'
'Bare feet?'
'Yeah, Cole, just lemme tell my story, okay? There's these two bare feet sticking up out of the ground behind this house. So we call it in, and our supervisor comes out, and says, 'Yeah, that's a couple of feet, all right.' Only we don't know if there's a body attached. I mean, maybe there's a body down there, but maybe it's just a couple of feet somebody planted.'
