He phoned down the hall, calling Nan Riley. Nan was a civilian employee, and Carol Topping’s office assistant.
“Hey, Nanny, it’s Ian. Are you as beautiful now as you were ten minutes ago?”
Nan laughed, as she always did. They had flirted for years.
“Only for you, baby. You want the boss?”
“Just a quick answer. You guys have an active down there—”
Ian read off the number.
“Who’s on it?”
“Hang on. Let’s see here—”
He waited while Nan typed in the number.
“That’s Detective Cowly. Joyce Cowly.”
“Thanks, babe. You’re the best.”
Ian put down his phone, and liked this even less. If Cowly was interested in Danzer, he wondered why she didn’t mention it when she came to his office. Instead, she had shoveled up some bullshit about nailing the shooters in the Pahlasian case. He mulled over what this might mean, then gathered his things and walked down the hall to Homicide Special.
Cowly was in her cubicle. She was hunched over her computer, and appeared to be on the phone.
He walked up behind her. He tried to see what she was reading, but her head blocked the screen. She spoke so quietly he couldn’t hear what she was saying.
“Detective.”
She jerked at his voice, and visibly paled when she turned. She pressed the phone to her chest, and leaned sideways to cover the screen. This wasn’t a good sign.
Ian held out the list of names.
“The names you wanted.”
She took the page.
“Thanks. I didn’t expect it so soon.”
He watched shadows move in her eyes. She was afraid. This left him wondering how much the Ishi kid had told Scott James, and how much James told Cowly.
“Happy to help. You going to be here a while?”
“Ah, yeah. Why?”
“I’ll try to come up with some others.”
Ian returned to his office, closed the door, and used his cell phone to call George Evers.
“We have a problem.”
Ian told Evers what he wanted him to do.
39.
Three hours after their earlier meeting, Cowly texted Scott that she had the information about Danzer. They agreed to meet in the Stanley Mosk parking lot, same as before. Scott thought she looked tight and compressed when she got into his car.
“I talked to a friend at Bureau Personnel about Evers and Snell, strictly on the down low. I told her I was thinking about using them on a task force, and needed top people. She understands. This woman was my first supervisor.”
“What did you find out?”
“They suck.”
Scott wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do with that.
“Snell has a rep for smart, efficient case work, but he’s sketchy. He likes to take chances and cut corners. He has no history with Ian, but Evers and Ian are hooked through the ass. Jesus, I’m already covered with fur. Look at this.”
Maggie was laid out across the back seat.
“I haven’t had time to brush. What about Evers?”
Cowly brushed uselessly at her pants, and went on with her report.
“Evers and Ian were partners for four years in Hollenbeck. Evers was the lead, but it was common knowledge Ian carried him. Evers got himself in the tall grass and made a mess of his life. He was drinking, the wife left him, all the usual blue nonsense. Ian covered for him and kept him going, but too many complaints were filed. When Ian jumped to Special, Evers was sent to West L.A.”
“What kind of charges are we talking about?”
“Deep-shit charges. You know finders keepers?”
It was cop slang officers joked about, only for bad cops it wasn’t a joke. If they found a bag of cash when they made a bust, they left enough to meet the felony statute, and took the rest for themselves. Finders keepers.
“I know. Did any of the dirt stick to the I-Man?”
“Ian came out like a rose. He propped Evers up until Evers got his shit together.”
Scott looked at Maggie, and touched her. She opened her eyes.
“It flows both ways.”
“What flows?”
“If Ian cleaned up after Evers, there were times Evers cleaned up after Ian.”
“Whatever. So now Evers is in West L.A., and his partner is Snell. They had Danzer for all of four days, then Ian sucked it up, and made them his front men. The very next day, that’s six days after the robbery, Evers obtained wiretap warrants on Dean Trent and William F. Wu.”
Scott had no idea who these people were, but Cowly rolled on like an express train.
“Two months later, Dean Trent, Maxwell Gibbons, and Kim Leon Jones were found murdered in the San Bernardino Mountains.”
Scott remembered this from Melon.
“The crew who took Danzer.”
“So it’s believed, and it’s probably true.”
Also what Melon said.
“Who’s Wu?”
“A fence in San Marino. He deals jewelry and art to rich people in China, but he’s hooked up in Europe, too. What makes this telling is Dean Trent and Wu are known to have a long relationship. If Dean Trent steals jewelry or art, you can bet he’s going to Wu.”
Scott realized where she was going.
“Evers and Snell knew Trent had the diamonds.”
“Had to. Maybe one of Ian’s informants tipped him. It was only six days after the robbery, and they knew or suspected Dean Trent’s crew took the score. So they wired up Trent and Wu, and listened to these guys for the next three weeks. The case file contains no transcripts. None. Zero.”
Scott felt numb.
“They heard Wu make the deal with Clouzot. They knew Beloit was arriving, and when and where he would pick up the diamonds. They wanted to steal the diamonds.”
Scott looked at Maggie. He touched the tip of her nose, and she play-bit his finger.
“Is this enough to make our case?”
Cowly shook her head.
“No. I wish it was, but it isn’t.”
“It sounds like enough to me. You can connect the dots from start to finish.”
“Here’s what Ian would say, we received information from three independent reliable sources Trent was attempting to move the diamonds through Mr. Wu, who we know to have an established history with Mr. Trent. Acting on this reliable information, we obtained the required judicial warrant for wiretap service, but failed in our
