Sunset Express

Her jaw flexed.

Green said, 'I think we can go, Elliot. Mr Cole's had a long and fruitful day. I expect he wants to go home.'

Phillips coughed loudly from his corner of the room, but the cough soundly suspiciously like, 'Fuck you.'

I followed them out. The street at the end of the walk was jammed with media people and broadcast vans and uniformed cops trying to clear a path. Hernandez and Flutey flanked Jonathan and we crossed under the tape, and the media people surged around us, pushing their cameras and microphones at Jonathan and shouting their questions. There were so many broadcast vans that it looked as if we were in a forest of transmitters, each spindly stack pointing at the same invisible satellite 22.500 miles above in geosynchronous orbit, like so many coyotes crying at the moon. I said, 'This is nuts.'

Truly yelled in my ear so that I could hear him. 'It hasn't even begun.'

The woman with the frosted hair jammed her microphone past Hernandez and shouted, 'Jonathan, can you tell us what was found?'

'I'm sorry. That information should come from the district attorney's office.'

She yelled, 'Is it true that a plan of Teddy Martin's house was found?'

'I'm sorry.' We were working our way toward Jonathan Green's Rolls-Royce.

A short man who himself had been an attorney before becoming a broadcast journalist shouted, 'Jonathan? Is it true that evidence found in the house exculpates Theodore Martin in the murder of his wife?'

Jonathan smiled benignly. 'I've seen the evidence that Mr Cole found, and I'll be in consultation with the district attorney's office sometime in the next few days. Now, if you'll excuse me.'

More questions exploded at us from a dozen directions, and they were all about Mr Cole.

I didn't think Jonathan was going to answer, but he stopped and put his hand on my shoulder and said, 'This is Mr Elvis Cole of the Elvis Cole Detective Agency, and I believe that his discovery is going to be the breakthrough that we need. I can't tell you how proud I am of this young man, and how impressed I am with the caliber of his work.'

I said, 'Gee.'

The microphones shifted toward me as one and the questions came so fast and loud that the words blended into white noise. I was pretty sure that no one heard me say, 'Gee.' I may have said it twice.

Green said, 'All we can say at this time is that we received a tip through our hotline, and Mr Cole followed it to this conclusion.' He squeezed my shoulder again as if I were his son and I'd just made Eagle Scout. 'What we have here is the result of good, solid detective work, and I suspect that when all is said and done Mr Cole will be the hero of this little drama.'

Truly added, 'And Teddy Martin the victim.'

Jonathan slid into his Rolls-Royce, and then Truly and the two uniforms walked me to my car. The press stayed with us, jostling and shoving and keeping up with the questions. We had to push a fat guy and two women away from my car to get the door open. Flutey lost her hat. Truly said, 'Screen your calls. If anyone gets through to you, refer them to our office. Jonathan is the only one who deals with the press. Do you have a problem with that?'

'No.'

'It should die down in a few days.'

'And if it doesn't?'

Truly shrugged. 'Enjoy the idolatry. You earned it, my friend. You really came through for us.'

A tall thin guy from one of the national networks yelled, 'Hey, Sherlock Holmes! Are you really that good or did you just get lucky?'

I said, 'Some idol.'

Truly laughed and I climbed into my car and drove away. Slowly. I almost ran over a cameraman.

CHAPTER 14

I pulled into the carport at two minutes after six that evening. The TV was on, and Lucy and Ben were at the dining table, Lucy still in her business suit and Ben wearing a Songbird T-shirt. The cat was nowhere to be found, but that was probably just as well. If he'd been home, Lucy and Ben would probably need stitches.

Lucy smiled when she saw me and said, 'It's the world's greatest detective. Congratulations, Sherlock.'

Ben jumped up and clapped. 'We saw you on television!'

I said, 'How do you know it was me? Maybe it was an imposter:'

Lucy crossed her arms and considered me. 'Now that you mention it, the man on television was devastatingly handsome and darkly mysterious.'

I said, 'Oh. That was me.'

Lucy was beaming. 'We just turned on the news and there you were. You and Jonathan Green. Was it exciting?'

'Being with Jonathan?'

'No, silly! They said you made some kind of breakthrough that might turn the case around. Jonathan said that you were the finest investigator he's ever worked with.'

I tried to look blase and stifled a yawn. 'Oh, that.'

She punched me in the arm. 'Be serious.'

I gave her a kiss. 'There were so many reporters I thought I'd have to shoot my way out.' I gave her a second kiss and then a nuzzle. 'Enough about me. How was your day?'

'It was good. We'll meet again the day after tomorrow, then perhaps once more, so there's plenty of time to play.' She was surrounded by tourist brochures and tour books with Post-Its and a list of things to see and do.

I looked at her list. They wanted to see my office and visit both Disneyland and Universal Studios and take in a Dodgers game and eat a hot dog at Pink's on LaBrea in Hollywood. They wanted to ride the roller coasters at Magic Mountain and go to Malibu and spend a day at the beach. They wanted to see the Venice boardwalk and Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive. They wanted to see Griffith Observatory, where James Dean had his famous knife fight in Rebel Without a Cause, and the Hollywood sign. They wanted to see Ronald Colman's house. I said, 'Ronald Colman?'

Lucy said, 'Of course, silly. We can't miss that.' She was marking yet more things as I watched. She would finger through the tour books and refer to notes and frown as she juggled alternatives and weighed options and planned the Great L.A. Adventure. She glanced at me, then went back to the Frommer's, then came back to me again. She said, 'What are you smiling at?'

'How I Spent My Summer Vacation.'

She closed the Frommer's on a finger and looked miserable. 'There's so much.'

'Too much. You're never going to do all that in the few days that you have.'

She put down the Frommer's. 'What are your suggestions?'

'Visit more often.'

She smiled and patted my hand. 'What are your suggestions for now}'

'For now, how about dinner at Spago? For tomorrow, how about the Universal tour with lunch at the Universal City Walk, then either Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive or Malibu and dinner at the beach?'

She looked longingly at the Frommer's. 'Couldn't we squeeze in Ronald Colman?'

I leaned close and lowered my voice so that Ben couldn't hear. 'We could, but that would fill the forty-five minutes I've alloted for lovemaking.' I stepped back and spread my hands. 'Your call.'

She frowned and drummed the table. 'We didn't need forty-five minutes last time.' Everyone's a comedian.

She shrugged and frowned like it was the trade-off of the century. 'Okay. Forget Ronald Colman.'

Ben said, 'Hey! You're on TV again!'

Lucy grabbed my hand. 'Oh, look!'

I looked as the local anchor said that there had been a'surprise development today' in the Theodore Martin murder investigation that might 'derail the prosecution's case.' They cut to a clip of Elton Richards's duplex and the frosty-haired remote reporter took over. You could see me talking with Hernandez and Flutey in the background. Ben and Lucy both yelled, 'There you are!'

The reporter told us that a private investigator working for the Big Green Defense Machine had followed a tip to evidence that implicated two El Monte men in the kidnapping,'murder of Susan Martin. She referred to notes and said, 'We've learned that the two men are Stephen Pritzik and Elton Richards, both of whom have lengthy criminal records.' The image shifted to grainy mugshots of Pritzik and Richards. Pritzik looked narrow and mean; Richards looked stupid. Lucy said, 'Oh, those guys are choice.'