But there was just no evidence at all."
"It probably happened quickly," Lisa said. "Somebody caught him, tracked him back—it can be done; Kluge was lucky for a long time—and did him the same day."
"You don't think it was suicide?" I asked Osborne.
"No. But whoever did it is home free unless something new turns up."
"I'll tell you if it does," Lisa said.
"That's something else," Osborne said. "I can't authorize you to work over there anymore. The county's taken possession of house and contents."
"Don't worry about it," Lisa said, softly. There was a short silence as she leaned over to shake a cigarette from the pack on the coffee table. She lit it, exhaled, and leaned back beside me, giving Osborne her most inscrutable look. He sighed.
"I'd hate to play poker with you, lady," he said. "What do you mean, 'Don't worry about it'?"
"I bought the house four days ago. And its contents. If anything turns up that would help you reopen the murder investigation, I will let you know."
Osborne was too defeated to get angry. He studied her quietly for a while.
"I'd like to know how you swung that."
"I did nothing illegal. You're free to check it out. I paid good cash money for it. The house came onto the market. I got a good price at the sheriff's sale."
"How'd you like it if I put my best men on the transaction? See if they can dig up some funny money? Maybe fraud. How about I get the FBI in to look it all over?"
She gave him a cool look.
"You're welcome to. Frankly, Detective Osborne, I could have stolen that house, Griffith Park, and the Harbor Freeway and I don't think you could have caught me."
"So where does that leave me?"
"Just where you were. With a closed case, and a promise from me."
"I don't like you having all that stuff, if it can do the things you say it can do."
"I didn't expect you would. But that's not your department, is it? The county owned it for a while, through simple confiscation. They didn't know what they had, and they let it go."
"Maybe I can get the Fraud detail out here to confiscate your software. There's criminal evidence on it."
"You could try that," she agreed.
They stared at each other for a while. Lisa won. Osborne rubbed his eyes and nodded. Then he heaved himself to his feet and slumped to the door.
Lisa stubbed out her cigarette. We listened to him going down the walk.
"I'm surprised he gave up so easy," I said. "Or did he? Do you think he'll try a raid?"
"It's not likely. He knows the score."
"Maybe you could tell it to me."
"For one thing, it's not his department, and he knows it."
"Why did you buy the house?"
"You ought to ask how."
I looked at her closely. There was a gleam of amusement behind the poker face.
"Lisa. What did you do?"
"That's what Osborne asked himself. He got the right answer, because he understands Kluge's machines. And he knows how things get done. It was no accident that house going on the market, and no accident I was the only bidder. I used one of Kluge's pet councilmen."
"You bribed him?"
She laughed, and kissed me.
"I think I finally managed to shock you, Yank. That's gotta be the biggest difference between me and a native-born American. Average citizens don't spend much on bribes over here. In Saigon, everybody bribes."
"Did you bribe him?"
"Nothing so indelicate. One has to go in the back door over here. Several entirely legal campaign contributions appeared in the accounts of a state senator, who mentioned a certain situation to someone, who happened to be in the position to do legally what I happened to want done." She looked at me askance. "Of course I bribed him, Victor. You'd be amazed to know how cheaply.
Does that bother you?"
"Yes," I admitted. "I don't like bribery."
"I'm indifferent to it. It happens, like gravity. It may not be admirable, but it gets things done."
"I assume you covered yourself."
"Reasonably well. You're never entirely covered with a bribe, because of the human element. The councilman might geek if they got him in front of a grand jury. But they won't, because Osborne won't pursue it. That's the second reason he walked out of here without a fight. He knows how the world wobbles, he knows what kind of force I now possess, and he knows he can't fight it."
There was a long silence after that. I had a lot to think about, and I didn't feel good about most of it.
At one point Lisa reached for the pack of cigarettes, then changed her mind. She waited for me to work it out.
"It is a terrific force, isn't it," I finally said.
"It's frightening," she agreed. "Don't think it doesn't scare me. Don't think I haven't had fantasies of being superwoman. Power is an awful temptation, and it's not easy to reject. There's so much I could do."
"Will you?"
"I'm not talking about stealing things, or getting rich."
"I didn't think you were."
"This is political power. But I don't know how to wield it... it sounds corny, but to use it for good.
I've seen so much evil come from good intentions. I don't think I'm wise enough to do any good.
And the chances of getting torn up like Kluge did are large. But I'm not wise enough to walk away from it. I'm still a street urchin from Saigon, Yank. I'm smart enough not to use it unless I have to.
But I can't give it away, and I can't destroy it. Is that stupid?"
I didn't have a good answer for that one. But I had a bad feeling.
My doubts had another week to work on me. I didn't come to any great moral conclusions. Lisa knew of some crimes, and she wasn't reporting them to the authorities. That didn't bother me much.
She had at her fingertips the means to commit more crimes, and that bothered me a lot. Yet I really didn't think she planned to do anything. She was smart enough to use the things she had only in a defensive way—but with Lisa that could cover a lot of ground.
When she didn't show up for dinner one evening, I went over to Kluge's and found her busy in the living room. A nine-foot section of shelving had been cleared. The discs and tapes were stacked on a table. She had a big plastic garbage can and a magnet the size of a softball. I watched her wave a tape near the magnet, then toss it in the garbage can, which was almost full. She glanced up, did the same operation with a handful of discs, then took off her glasses and wiped her eyes.
"Feel any better now, Victor?" she asked.
"What do you mean? I feel fine."
"No you don't. And I haven't felt right, either. It hurts me to do it, but I have to. You want to go get the other trash can?"
I did, and helped her pull more software from the shelves.
"You're not going to wipe it all, are you?"
"No. I'm wiping records, and... something else."
"Are you going to tell me what?"
"There are things it's better not to know," she said, darkly.
I finally managed to convince her to talk over dinner. She had said little, just eating and shaking her head. But she gave in.
"Rather dreary, actually," she said. "I've been probing around some delicate places the last couple days. These are places Kluge visited at will, but they scare the hell out of me. Dirty places. Places where they know things I thought I'd like to find out."
She shivered, and seemed reluctant to go on.
"Are you talking about military computers? The CIA?"
"The CIA is where it starts. It's the easiest. I've looked around at NORAD—that's the guys who get to fight the next war. It makes me shiver to see how easy Kluge got in there. He cobbled up a way to start World War Three, just as an exercise. That's one of the things we just erased. The last two days I was nibbling around the edges of the big boys. The Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Security... something. DIA and NSA. Each of them is bigger than the CIA. Something knew I was there. Some watchdog program. As soon as I realized that I got out quick, and I've spent the last five hours being sure it didn't follow me. And now I'm sure, and I've destroyed all that, too."