“Did you just see a guy come this way a few seconds ago? White guy with white hair. An albino. You couldn’t miss him.”
They both giggled and one mentioned something about seeing a white rabbit going down a hole.
They were useless and Stilwell knew it. He took one last look around the alley, wondering if Vachon had merely been taking precautions when he ducked through the porno house, or if he had seen Stilwell or Harwick tailing him. He knew a third possibility, that Vachon had been spooked by the shakedown and decided to disappear, was also to be considered.
Harwick stepped through the back door into the alley. Stilwell glared at him, and Harwick averted his eyes.
“Know what I heard about you, Harwick? That you’re going to night school.”
He didn’t mean it literally. It was a cop expression. Going to night school meant you wanted to be somewhere else. Not the street, not in the game. You were thinking about your next move, not the present mission.
“That’s bullshit,” Harwick said. “What was I supposed to do? You left me hanging. What if I covered the back? He could’ve walked out the front.”
The junkies laughed, amused by the angry exchange of the cops.
Stilwell started walking out of the alley, back toward Vine, where he had left the car.
“Look, don’t worry,” Harwick said. “We have the game tonight. We’ll get back on him there.”
Stilwell checked his watch. It was almost five. He called back without looking at Harwick.
“And it might be too late by then.”
At the parking gate to Dodger Stadium, the woman in the booth asked to see their tickets. Stilwell said they didn’t have tickets.
“Well, we’re not allowed to let you in without tickets. Tonight’s game is sold out and we can’t allow people to park without tickets for the game.”
Before Stilwell could react Harwick leaned over to look up at the woman.
“Sold out? The Dodgers aren’t going anywhere. What is it, beach towel night?”
“No, it’s Mark McGwire.”
Harwick leaned back over to his side.
“All right, McGwire!”
Stilwell pulled his badge out of his shirt.
“Sheriffs deputies, ma’am. We working. We need to go in.”
She reached back into the booth and got a clipboard. She asked Stilwell his name and told him to hold in place while she called the stadium security office. While they waited, cars backed up behind them and a few drivers honked their horns.
Stilwell checked his watch. It was forty minutes until game time.
“What’s the hurry?”
“BP.”
Stilwell looked over at Harwick.
“What?”
“Batting practice. They want to see McGwire hit a few fungoes out of the park before the game. You know who Mark McGwire is, don’t you?”
Stilwell turned to look at the woman in the both. It was taking a long time.
“Yes, I know who he is. I was here at the stadium in ’eighty-eight. He wasn’t so hot then.”
“The series? Did you see Gibson’s homer?”
“I was here.”
“So cool! So was I!”
Stilwell turned to look at him.
“You were here? Game one, ninth inning? You saw him hit it?”
The doubt was evident in his voice.
“I was here,” Harwick protested. “Best fucking sports moment I’ve ever seen.”
Stilwell just looked at him.
“What? I was here!”
“Sir?”
Stilwell turned back to the woman. She handed him a parking pass.
“That’s for lot seven. Park there and then go to the field level gates and ask for Mr. Houghton. He’s in charge of security and he’ll determine if you can enter. Okay?”
“Thank you.”
As the Volvo went through the gate it was hit with a volley of horns for good measure.
“So you’re a baseball fan,” Harwick said. “I didn’t know that.”
“You don’t know a lot about me.”
“Well, you went to the World Series. I think that makes you a fan.”
“I was a fan. Not anymore.”
Harwick was silent while he thought about that. Stilwell was busy looking for lot 7. They were on a road that circled the stadium with the parking lots on either side denoted by large baseballs with numbers painted on them. The numbers weren’t in an order he understood.
“What happened?” Harwick finally asked.
“What do you mean, ‘what happened?’ ”
“They say baseball is a metaphor for life. If you fall out of love with baseball you fall out of love with life.”
“Fuck that shit.”
Stilwell felt his face burning. Finally, he saw the baseball with the orange seven painted on it. A dull emptiness came into his chest as he looked at the number. An ache that he vanquished by speeding up to the lot entrance and handing the lot monitor his pass.
“Anywhere,” the monitor said. “But slow it down.”
Stilwell drove in, circled around, and took the space closest to the exit so they could get out quickly.
“If we catch up with Milky here it’s going to be a goddamn nightmare following him out,” he said as he turned the car off.
“We’ll figure it out,” Harwick said. “So what happened?”
Stilwell opened the door and was about to get out. Instead, he turned back to his partner.
“I lost my reason to love the game, okay? Let’s leave it at that.”
He was about to get out again when Harwick stopped him once more.
“What happened? Tell me. We’re partners.”
Stilwell put both hands back on the wheel and looked straight ahead.
“I used to take my kid, all right? I used to take him all the time. Five years old and I took him to a World Series game. He saw Gibson’s homer, man. We were out there, right-field bleachers, back row. Only tickets I could get. That would be a story to tell when he grew up. A lot of people in this town lie about it, say they were here, say they saw it...”
He stopped there, but Harwick made no move to get out. He waited.
“But I lost him. My son. And without him... there wasn’t a reason to come back here.”
Without another word Stilwell got out and slammed the door behind him.
At the field level gate they were met by Houghton, the skeptical security man.
“We’ve got Mark McGwire in town and everybody and their brother is coming out of the woodwork. I have to tell you guys, if this isn’t legit, I can’t let you in. Any other game, come on back and we’ll see what we can do. I’m LAPD retired and would love to—”
“That’s nice, Mr. Houghton, but let me tell you something,” Stilwell said. “We’re here to see a hitter, but his name isn’t McGwire. We’re trying to track a man who’s in town to kill somebody, not hit home runs. We don’t know where he is at the moment but we do know one thing. He’s got a ticket to this game. He might be here to make a connection and he might be here to kill somebody. We don’t know. But we’re not going to be able to find that out if we’re on the outside looking in. You understand our position now?”
Houghton nodded once under Stilwell’s intimidating stare.
“We’re going to have over fifty thousand people in here tonight,” he said. “How are you two going to—”
“Reserve level, section eleven, row K, seat one.”
“That’s his ticket?”
Stilwell nodded.
“And if you don’t mind,” Harwick said, “we’d like to get a trace on that ticket. See who bought it, if possible.”
Stilwell looked at Harwick and nodded. He hadn’t thought of that. It was a good idea.
“That will be no problem,” said Houghton, his voice taking on a tone of full cooperation now. “Now this seat location. How close do you need and want to get?”