'I wanted to make sure you didn't find anything here that would hurt Paulette.'
'I'm looking for something to help you.'
'I know. Maybe we'll get lucky.'
'But maybe there's something here that will hurt Paulette.'
Pike nodded.
I took that in, and it was like taking in volumes.
'How did you break Karen Garcia's heart, Joe?'
Pike stacked the boxes until the last box was in place, and then he went to the door and looked out toward the desert as if something might be there. All I could see past him were other cinder-block buildings with other people's memories.
I said, 'Karen loved you, but you loved Paulette.'
Pike nodded.
'You dated Karen, but you were in love with your partner's wife.'
He turned back to me then, the flat lenses empty.
'Paulette was married. I kept waiting for the feelings I had
306
ROBERT CRAIS
for her to go away, but they didn't. We didn't have an affair, Elvis. Nothing physical. Woz was my friend. But I felt what I felt. I tried dating other people to feel other things, but love doesn't just come and doesn't just go. It just is.'
I stared at him, thinking about Lucy.
'What?'
I shook my head.
'You already know that Krantz thought Wozniak was involved with a burglary ring.'
'Yes.'
'It was true.'
I watched him.
'Krant/ thinks I murdered Woz for Paulette.'
'Did you?'
The corner of Pike's mouth twitched, and he tipped the glasses my way. 'You believe that?'
'You know better. Krantz also thinks you were involved with Woz in the ring. I don't believe that, either.'
Pike tipped his head the other way, and frowned. 'How do you know that?'
I spread my hands.
'Right.'
Pike drew a deep breath, then shook his head. 'I didn't have any idea. All that time in the car with Woz, and I never knew until Krantz talked to Paulette and scared her. She asked Woz about it, and he denied it, so she asked me. That's how I found out. I followed Woz and saw him with the Chihuahuas. He'd gotten some girl pregnant, and he'd set her up in an apartment in El Segundo. He was
'You tell Paulette?'
'Some of it. Not all. He was her husband, Elvis. They had the child.'
'So what happened?'
'I told him he had to resign. I gave him the choice, and I gave him the time to think about it. That way it was between me and him. That's why he died.'
L.A. REQUIEM 307
I thought that maybe Krantz had been right about many things.
'What happened in the motel, Joe?'
'He didn't want to resign, but I didn't give him any choice. I didn't want to give him to Krantz, but I couldn't let a bad officer stay on the job. If he didn't hang it up, I would've brought in Paulette, and I would've arrested the Chihuahuas.'
'The Chihuahuas would've rolled on him.'
'If he resigned I would've found another way at them, but it never got to that. We got the call about the missing girl and DeVille, and Woz got the location. When we got over there, Woz was already short, and that's when he lost it and hit DeVille with his gun. I think he was just working up his nut, because he already knew what he was going to do. It was about me, and the box he was in, and how he was going to get out of it.' Pike stopped for a time, then went on. 'He let DeVille have it, and when I pushed him away he pointed his gun at me.'
'You shot him in self-defense?'
'No. I wouldn't shoot him. I didn't draw my weapon.'
I stared at him.
'He knew I loved his wife, and he knew she loved me. His career was over, and if Krantz could make the case he would go to jail. Some men can't take the weight. Some men break, and will do anything to stop the pressure.'
'Abel Wozniak killed himself.'
Pike touched his chin. 'Pointed the gun here and pulled the trigger, up through his chin and out the top of his head.'
I aske4 but I had already guessed. 'Why take the blame?'
'It had to be explained. If I tell the truth, Krantz would be able to make the case, and if Woz goes out a felon, his pension and benefits could be withheld. Paulette and the girls would've lost everything. Maybe Parker Center might've felt sorry, and cut them slack, but how could I know? If he goes out a suicide, there's no insurance. The insurance we had then wouldn't pay if you capped yourself.'
'So you took the weight.'
'DeVille was going to wake up and say that Woz hit him. I
308 ROBERT CRAIS
just went with it. I told them that we struggled, and that's how it happened. It would fit with what DeVille was going to say, and it would explain Woz being dead.'
'Only you get marked rotten for causing your partner's death to protect a pedophile.'
'You do the best you can with what you've got.'
'Did Paulette know the truth?'
Pike stared at the cement. 'If Paulette knew, she would've told the department. Even if it meant losing the benefits.'
'Wasn't that her decision to make?'
'I made the decision for all of us.'
'So she doesn't know that her husband killed himself.'
'No.'
Pike just stood there, and I thought that this was his single lonely way of protecting the woman he loved, even if it had cost him any chance at her love, forever and always.
Pike would take that weight.
And had.
I said, 'All this time, all these cops hating you for nothing.'
Pike cocked his head, and even in the dim light of the little building the glasses seemed to glow.
'Not for nothing. For everything.'
'Okay. So now what?'
'She still gets his survivor benefits. I want to make sure that whatever leaves here doesn't affect that.'
