Krantz nodded. 'Maybe not.'

'You don't get it. He's not coming here, or my place, or Lucy's. It's a diversion.'

Now Krantz frowned, and Lucy looked over, both hands draped on Ben's shoulders.

'Think about it, Krantz. He wants to kill the people he blames for DeVille, and he's doing that, but then he realized we're onto him. His game's over, and he knows it, right?'

Krantz was still frowning.

'He knows that it's only a matter of days before we link the vies, and when we do we'll have a suspect pool, and he's in the pool.'

Krantz said, 'Yeah, that's why he decides to take you out of the play.'

'But to what end? He can't go on working at Parker, killing another couple of dozen people. If he believes we're on to him, he's going to cut to the chase. If he's thinking that his play is over, then he's going to want to kill the people he blames the most. He can't get to Pike, Krakauer's dead, so that leaves Wozniak.'

L.A. REQUIEM 345

'Wozniak's dead, too.'

'Krakauer was a bachelor. Wozniak had a wife and a child, and they're in Palm Springs. That's where I got Wozniak's daybook. That's where we should be.'

Lucy's hands tightened around Ben, as if her newfound security was falling away. 'But why would he take Ben's picture? Why would he have our address? '

'Maybe he put those things together to distract us. We're here with you now; we're not with Wozniak's widow, and that's where he's going.'

'But you're just guessing. Did you see her address there? Were there pictures of her and her daughter?'

'No.'

'We know he had our address. We know he's a killer.' She gripped my arm then, as hard as Frank Garcia had gripped me when he had begged me to find his child. 'I need you right now.'

I looked at Rrantz. 'Krantz, he's going to Palm Springs.'

Krantz didn't like it, but he was seeing it. 'You got her name and address?'

'Her name is Paulette Renfro. I don't remember the address, but I can tell you how to get there.'

Krantz was already dialing his phone. 'The States can get the address. They can get a car there before us.'

Krantz frowned as he made the call, and I knew what he was seeing in his head, a couple of sheriff's deps snapping the cuffs on Sobek, the two deputies getting the headlines and being interviewed by Katie Couric.

I looked back at Lucy, and gave her my best reassuring smile, but she wasn't at home to receive it.

'That's where he's going, Luce. I can't go back with you now, but just stay here until I get back. I'll take you home when I get back.'

Lucy's eyes were distant and cold, and hurt.

'I don't need you to take me home.'

Krantz went for the door even as he worked the phone, calling to Williams. 'Jerry, let's mount up. We're going over there.'

346

ROBERT CRAIS

When we left the cafeteria, I glanced back at Lucy, but she wasn't looking at me. I didn't need to see her to know what was in her eyes:

I had chosen someone else once again.

37

Sobek has not moved for the better part of an hour. The desert sun has driven the temperature inside his Jeep to almost 130 degrees, and his sweatshirt is soaked, but he imagines himself a predatory lizard, motionless in the brutal heat as he waits for prey. He is armored by muscle and resolve, and his mission commitment is without peer. He will wait for the rest of the day, if necessary, and the night, and for all the days to come.

It does not take that long.

A car eases up the residential streets below and pulls into the vic's drive. Sobek fingers the .357 when the car turns in, thinking it's her, but it isn't. A man gets out and stands looking at the house in the brilliant desert light, the man wearing jeans, an outrageous beachcomber shirt with the tail out, and sunglasses.

Sobek leans forward until his chest touches the steering wheel.

It is Joe Pike.

Pike goes to the front door, rings the bell, then goes around to the back of the house. Sobek can't see him back there, and thinks Pike must be sitting on the little veranda, or that he's found a way inside.

Sobek waits, but Pike does not return.

His heart pounds as he clutches the .357 with both hands.

L.A. REQUIEM 347

The gun is nestled between his legs where he can feel the weight of it on his penis. It feels good there.

He allows himself to smile, the first expression of emotion he's had in days. Pike has come to him.

Control.

Sobek settles back and waits for Paulette Wozniak and her daughter to return.

Paulette picked up her daughter Evelyn earlier that morning from Banning, where Evelyn had dropped her car for service. Evelyn's Volkswagen Beetle had gone kaput, and now Evelyn was without a car. First the boyfriend, then the apartment, now the car. Paulette had taken Evelyn to her job at Starbucks, then picked her up again, and was bringing her home to wait until her car was ready at the end of the day. Evelyn, of course, wasn't happy about it. Paulette never expected to find a strange car in her drive.

Evelyn was sulky and angry, and glowering in the passenger seat like she was fit to choke a dog. The only thing she'd said that morning was to ask if Paulette had heard from Mr. Cole again. Paulette hadn't, and thought it odd that Evelyn would ask.

Paulette Renfro turned onto her street thinking the old cliche was true: When it rains, it pours. What could be next?

Evelyn glared at the strange car. 'Who's that?'

'I don't know.'

A neat, clean sedan was parked to the side of her drive, leaving her plenty of room to get into her garage. She did not recognize it, and wondered if one of her friends had gotten a new car without telling her. It was so hot out that they were probably in back, waiting under the veranda, though she couldn't imagine why anyone would be waiting for her unannounced.

Paulette pressed the garage opener, eased her car inside, then let Evelyn and herself into the house through the laundry room.

She went directly to the back glass doors in the family room, and that's where she saw him, standing tanned and lean and tall in the shade on the veranda. He was waiting for her to

348

ROBERT CRAIS

see him. He wore a flowered shirt that looked a size too big and dark glasses, and her first thought, the very first thought that came to her after all these years was, 'He hasn 't aged a day and I must look like hell.'

Evelyn said, 'There's a man outside.'

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