Eric listened for a moment, then put away the phone. He pulled Ben toward the doors.
'I'm gonna open the doors, but we're not getting out, so don't go nuts.'
'You said I was going home.'
Eric's grip tightened.
'You are, but first we're gonna do this. When I open the doors, you're gonna see a couple of cars. Mike's here with another guy. Don't start screaming or trying to get out, 'cause I'll fuckin' knock you out. The other guy just wants to see you're okay. If you're cool, we'll give you to
him and he'll take you home. You good with that?' 'Yes! I wanna go home!' 'Okay, here we go.'
Eric pushed open the door.
Ben squinted at the suddenly bright light, but he stayed quiet and didn't move. Mikc was with a large
thick man that Ben didn't know in front of two parked cars less than ten feet away. The man looked into Ben's eyes, and nodded, the nod saying, you're going to be okay. Mike was talking to someone else on his phone. Mike said, 'Okay, here he is.' Mike held the phone to the other man's ear so that the other man could talk while Mike still held the phone. The other man said, 'I see him. He's upright and alert. He looks okay.' Mike took back the phone. 'You heard that?' Mike listened, then spoke into the phone again. 'Now I want you to hear something else.' Mike moved so quickly that Ben didn't understand what was happening even as Mike put a gun to the big man's head and fired one time. Ben jumped at the unexpected explosion. The big man crumpled sideways onto the car, then tumbled off. Mike held the phone near the gun and shot him a second time. Ben moaned from a terrible pressure in his chest, and Eric held him close. Mike spoke into the phone again. 'You hear that, too? That was me killing the asshole you sent. No negotiations, no second chances--the clock is running.' Mike turned off his phone and slipped it into his pocket. He came to the van. Ben tried to twist away, but Eric held tight. 'He cool?' 'He's cool. Fuck, dude, that was harsh. You mean business.' 'They understand that now.' Mike stroked Ben's head with an unexpected kindness. Ben stared at the body as it sank in a growing red pool. Mike said, 'You're okay, son.'
Mike pulled off Ben's left shoe. Eric carried Ben out of the van past the body and put him into Mike's backseat. Eric got in with him. Mazi was already behind the wheel. They drove away, leaving Mike with the body.
Part T3ree
RUN THROUGH THE JUNGLE
CHAPTER 16
time missing: 44 hours, 57 minutes
We got our second break when we took Mrs. Luna back to her catering truck. Though Ram6n Sanchez was unable to add to what she had already told us, her grill cook, a teenager named Hector Delarossa, remembered the make and model of the van. 'Oh, yeah, it was a sixty-seven Ford four-door factory panel Econoline with the original trim. Crack in the left front windshield and spot rust on the lamps, no caps.' No hubcaps. I asked him to describe the two men, but he didn't remember either. I said, 'You saw the van had rust spots around the headlights, but you can't describe the men?' 'It's a classic, yo? Me and my bro, J4sus, we're Econoheads, yo? We're rebuilding a sixty- six. We even got a website, yo? You should check it out.' Starkey called in the make and model to be included in the BOLO, and then I followed her to Glendale. Chen had gone ahead of us. The Los Angeles Police Department's Scientific Investigations Division shares its space with LAPD's Bomb Squad in a sprawling facility north of the freeway. The low-slung buildings and spacious parking lot made me think of a high school in the 'burbs, only high- school parking lots don't usually sport Bomb Squad Suburbans and cops in black fatigues. Not usually.
We parked beside each other in the parking lot, then Starkey led me to the white building that belonged to SID. Chen's van was outside, side by side with several others. Starkey waved our way past the reception desk, then brought me to a laboratory where four or five workstations were grouped together but separated by glass walls. Criminalists and lab techs were perched on stools or swivel chairs, one in each glass space. Something sharp in the air stung my eyes like ammonia.
Starkey swaggered in like she owned the place. 'Homie in the house! Look what the bomb blew in!' The techs smiled and called back when they saw her. Starkey gibed with them like a long-lost sorority sister working the home crowd, and seemed more relaxed and comfortable than any time since I had met her.
Chen had put on a white lab coat and vinyl gloves, and was working near a large glass chamber. He hunched when he saw us as if he were trying to hide inside the coat, and waved at Starkey to keep it down.
'Jesus, paint a target on me with all that noise! Everybody's going to know we're back.'
'The walls are glass, John; they already know. Let's see what you have.'
Chen had split the wrapper along its length and pinned it flat to a white sheet of paper. Jars of colored powder lined the back of his bench, along with eye droppers and vials, rolls of clear tape, and three of the fluffy brushes that women use to apply makeup. One end of the wrapper was smudged with white powder and little brown stains. The outline of a fingerprint was obvious, but the architecture of the pattern was blurred and indistinct. It looked pretty good to me, but Starkey made a face when she saw it.
:o7
'This looks like shit. Are you working here, John, or are you too busy hiding inside your jacket?'
Chen hunched even lower. If he hunched any more he would be under the bench.
'I've only been at it fifteen minutes. I wanted to see if I could get anything with the powder or ninhydrin.'
The white smear was aluminum powder. The brown stains were a chemical called ninhydrin, which react with the amino acids left whenever you touch something.
Starkey bent for a closer inspection, then frowned at Chert as if he was stupid.
'This thing's been in the sun for days. It's too old to pick up latents with powder.'
'It's also the fastest way to get an image into the system. I figured it was worth the shot.'
Starkey grunted. She was okay with whatever might be faster.
'The nin doesn't look much better.'
