“Incident?”
“She was fine. Her children and Ernest were fine. Then-she stopped returning our calls.”
Then, thought Hood-I almost got her murdered at a motel up in Torrance and I can’t figure out why she hit the wind.
“I’m sorry,” said the woman. “I just don’t know where she would go. We work together at L.A. Unified. But she lives way down in San Diego and I rarely talk to her during the summer. I wish I could help.”
Hood got an idea but he was afraid it was a bad one. At least that’s how it struck him at first but he decided to air it anyway. Maybe it was the beer, but Hood figured if Lenny Overbrook could tell a difficult truth then he, Hood, could ask a difficult question. Something in this woman’s voice made him believe he should try.
“Are you close to a TV set?” he asked.
“Why?”
“I’m asking for your help. Turn on Channel Four.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yes.”
There was a pause. Hood could hear the phone hit something solid like a table or counter. A moment later she was back.
“Allison Murrieta,” she said. “She robbed a place over in Long Beach last night. I kind of like her but I’m afraid she’ll kill somebody someday. What’s this got to do with Suzanne?”
“Do they look alike?” asked Hood.
“You’re kidding, right?”
“I’m not.”
“Well, no. They don’t look much alike. Suzanne is tall and athletically proportioned. This robber is thicker. Look at her. She’s not tall, and she’s full. Allison has black hair but Suzanne’s is light brown. Of course the mask hides the important features, so there’s no resemblance to be seen.”
On-screen Allison was finishing up her KFC heist of Tuesday night, hamming it up with a burly workman who was down on his knees in front of her.
To Hood the guy looked big, even on his knees-thick thighs and heavy arms and a head the size of a Dutch oven-which could make someone standing beside him look shorter. And Allison Murrieta’s loose-fitting black leather vest and roomy, run-for-it trousers-they widened her, suggested a few pounds that might not really be there.
“What if that’s a wig?” Hood asked.
“Possible, but I doubt it. You can almost always tell.”
“What about the face?”
“Same basic face type, maybe, but it’s not her. Suzanne doesn’t carry herself that way. I know how she walks and moves.”
She gave Hood her name, Julie Ensley, and Hood gave her his cell number and asked her to call if she learned anything. Hood said that he would have Suzanne call her when he found her.
“You’re right,” he lied. “Suzanne and Allison don’t look that much alike to me. It was a false hunch.”
“Women notice women more than men do sometimes.”
He got another beer and dialed another Los Angeles number.
Sid Welch, Suzanne’s principal, had not spoken with her since the last day of school back in June. He had no idea where his teachers went for summer break. Suzanne had a way of showing up at pretty much the last minute. Welch’s words were slightly slurred and his attitude was jocular, but Hood didn’t ask him to turn on a TV.
He dialed a Temecula number and got the recording for Oscar’s Septic Service. And another recording for Quality Motors in Alpine.
Then he tried an Anza Valley number.
“Growers West,” said the voice.
And Hood pictured the dour blonde and thought: There it is-a connection between Barry Cohen and Suzanne Jones.
The message was interrupted by a female voice.
“Ronette West.”
Hood reintroduced himself, told Ronette the Suzanne Jones story, offered his shield number.
“Sorry, Deputy. I don’t know any Suzanne Jones. Where’d you get my number, anyhow?”
“From Suzanne’s phone bill.”
“Then you have a problem, dude.”
“What do you grow?”
“The most beautiful flowers on Earth. Nice talking with you. Good-bye.”
Hood stood up and went outside to his deck. From Barry to Melissa to Octavia to Derek to Fred to Ronette to… Suzanne Jones?
He felt flush with luck. Back inside he cracked another beer and called information and wrote down the address of Growers West down in Anza Valley, Riverside County. Meth country, thought Hood, Tweak City.
He blew into his hand as if it held dice, then dialed a Bakersfield number and got a woman with a dusky voice but few words.
She listened to his intro, and he could hear her writing down his badge number and the HQ number that would confirm his identity, rank and assignment.
She asked him to call back in ten minutes, which Hood did. Her name was Madeline Jones and she was Suzanne’s mother. She agreed to talk to him in her home at eight the next morning. She gave him her address and hoped that he would be on time.
22
Hood came up the driveway five minutes early. The desert air was cool and the sky was tinged orange with sunlight and dust. The highways north from L.A. had been a trance of darkness and headlights followed by an ordinary desert sunrise of inordinate beauty. He’d seen an LASD recruiting billboard: “Every Community Needs a Hero. Will It Be You?” In the new light he’d watched the yuccas passing outside the windows of his Camaro, put on some Merle and let the music and the flat, dry land take him back to his days as a boy.
Madeline’s home was a walled adobe alone on a crest of hill northwest of the city. It looked secure, but in Anbar province Hood had learned that all appearances are just appearances, and he was alive now because of that. So as he came up the drive, he thought again of Lupercio and the address book missing from Suzanne’s computer room and slid his.38 Colt from the glove box into his coat pocket. Hood had cleared this visit with Bakersfield PD through Marlon and Wyte, and Bakersfield had agreed to let the LASD investigation proceed so long as Hood behaved himself. He had a number to call if things got hot.
He parked at the adobe wall, between two large clay planters with saguaro cactus reaching up. The weathered wooden gate was open and he stood there looking at the courtyard inside. The floor was decomposed granite sand, clean and raked. The roof was a crosshatch of heavy lumber that filtered the early morning sunlight into a slanting forest of beam and shadow. The fountain was large but made only a soft trickling sound. The rock fireplace was blackened from use. A large black kettle sat in the pit, but Hood saw that it contained not food but an explosion of red canna lilies. There were four heavy wooden chairs held together by black iron studs and upholstered in red horsehair, from one of which a large black cat fixed its yellow eyes on Hood.
“I am Madeline Jones.”
She had materialized without Hood’s knowing.
“A pleasure to meet you,” he said.
She looked midfifties, on the tall side, built with a strength and femininity in which Hood saw her daughter. Her face was an older version of her daughter’s, too-dark eyes and high cheekbones and a general expression of capability and doubt. Her hair was honey-colored and worn loose almost to her shoulders.
“Come in.”
Hood followed her through the courtyard and into the house. It was dim inside, with few windows and the lamps turned low. They passed through a living room and a kitchen. Adjacent to the kitchen was a breakfast alcove with windows looking out on the courtyard. There at a small table sat an older and smaller replica of Madeline-her mother or an aunt, Hood thought. She was reading what looked like a Bible, making notes directly on the pages with a pen. Same distinctive face, same skeptical calm as she looked up from her reading, quietly closed the book and watched him walk by.
Then they passed an entertainment room with east-facing windows and better light. Hood noted the couches tossed with colorful blankets, a big TV and framed posters from a Mexican soap opera featuring a very beautiful woman who looked like Madeline might have looked thirty years ago, or like Suzanne looked now.