“Darko.”
“I think so. This is the last outgoing call, which is the pager number programmed to Darko’s name.”
Cole showed him a number with a 323 area code, then scrolled back through the outgoing call log.
“The second to last outgoing call went to the same number, which is the call we saw Grebner make before he threw the phone.”
“That’s why I think it was Darko. Grebner paged him, so he was probably answering the page.”
“Uh-huh, so check it out. This particular phone only retains the most recent twenty incoming calls and outgoing calls-”
Cole turned the tablet so Pike could see. Cole had listed the call numbers in two columns, along with the times and dates the calls were made or received. Cole had drawn an X next to almost half of the incoming numbers, indicating the calls were received from blocked numbers. Cole had drawn lines connecting three of the outgoing calls with three incoming calls. He pointed out the outgoing calls.
“Here’s Grebner paging Darko. See the times?”
“Yeah.”
Cole pointed out the corresponding incoming calls.
“Okay, over here he receives an incoming call within twenty minutes of making the page. One of the callbacks was from a restricted number, but two come from the same number as the call you answered up at the house.”
“Different locations?”
“That’s what I’m thinking. But why use a listed number? Twice?”
“No cell service. Nothing else available.”
Cole stared at the call lists for a moment, then picked up his phone.
“Let’s see what we get.”
Cole dialed the number, then listened. He listened for a very long time before he ended the call.
“No answer. I counted twenty rings, but nada. That usually means a phone is unplugged.”
Pike said, “Can you get an address?”
Two calls and twelve minutes later, Cole had an address. The phone number was listed to something called Diamond Reclamations in Lake View Terrace, up in the San Fernando Valley. When Cole lowered his phone, he nodded at Pike.
“It fits. Lake View is in the foothills up by Angeles Crest. Mountains mean bad cell service, so landlines are the way to go.”
Pike said, “Good start. How about I check out Lake View, and you see what you can get from the rest of this?”
Cole pushed the papers back into the grocery bag.
“How about I try to find Rina and Yanni? There are way too many conflicting stories here-”
Cole was still talking when they heard the outside gate, and Pike went to the door. Rina stopped when she saw him, shielding the sun from her eyes with a hand. She was wearing a black T-shirt over the same jeans, the big purse slung over one shoulder, her bag slung over the opposite shoulder.
She said, “What you find?”
“Where’s Yanni?”
She scowled at him for not answering her question, then pushed past him into the guesthouse. She glanced at Cole as she put her bag on the table.
“He work for a living. They don’t give him time off to help find stolen children.”
Cole said, “Where were you?”
She upended her bag, dumping out freshly washed clothes.
“I went to wash. My clothes, they smelled like feet.”
Pike said, “You know Emile Grebner?”
“Of course, I know. He has fucked me many times.”
She said it as matter-of-factly as if she had told them her eyes were blue or her hair black, and refolded her laundry without pausing, as if this statement had no meaning. Pike thought maybe, for her, it had none.
Cole said, “How do you know him?”
“He have the big house in the hills, and would have girls for the parties. This was before Michael, when I was first here, fifteen, sixteen years old, I think. He like only Serbian girls, not American or Russian. He trust the Serb girls, and we speak like back home. That is where Michael first see me, up there. Why you want to know?”
“So you know he’s one of Darko’s authority men-a close associate?”
“I just tell you I know him. Are you not listening?”
Pike said, “Grebner told us the baby’s father is Milos Jakovich, not Darko.”
Pike watched her carefully to read her reaction. A deep frown cut lines between her eyebrows as if she was struggling with the language problem. She glanced at Cole, who was watching her just as carefully, then turned back to Pike.
“You are making this up?”
Cole said, “We’re not making it up. Are you?”
“Fuck you. You and the dog you walked in on.”
She turned back to Pike.
“This is bullshit. I know who the father is and Michael know, too. Grebner, he lies. Why he say this? Where you see him?”
Pike said, “Grebner believes it. Darko and Jakovich are at war over some illegal arms. Rifles. Do you know anything about that?”
“Michael hate the old man, this I know, but I don’t know nothing about this other thing. Why he say Michael not father?”
“Probably because this is what Michael told him. Is Jakovich the f ather?”
“No.”
“Could he think he’s the father?”
She drew herself up and gazed at Cole as if he was the scum of the earth.
“His dick has never been in me.”
Cole turned red, but Rina looked back at Pike, and Pike thought her eyes were growing wet.
“This is what Michael is telling his men, that he is not the father?”
“Yes.”
“This makes no sense. Michael tells me he will take Petar back to Serbia, and will not take me. Michael is father, not this old man I have never seen. I am mother. Petar is mine.”
Cole frowned at Pike.
“This is making my head hurt.”
Rina ignored him.
“He say Michael say this terrible thing?”
“Yes.”
Her face folded as she thought about it, and she looked forlorn.
“I don’t know. Maybe he tell them this to hide his shame.”
Cole crossed his arms, and leaned back, his eyes growing distant and cool.
“That the boy’s mother is a whore?”
“Why else? All men are weak. You would do the same.”
“No. I wouldn’t.”
“Big talk. So maybe you make me pregnant, then we’ll see how big you talk, here is the mother, she is a whore.”
Cole simply stared at her, and Rina turned back to Pike.
“Does Grebner say where is my boy?”
“No.”
“Men are so weak. Take me to him. I make him say.”
“He doesn’t know, but we might have a lead on Darko. Have you heard of Diamond Reclamations?”
Her face scrunched as she thought, but then she shook her head.
“No. This is a jewelry store?”
Pike said, “We’re going to find out.”
Rina shoved her clothes aside, and started for the door.
“Good. Let’s find out.”
Pike stopped her.
“Not you. Me.”
Rina launched into a stream of Serbian, and kept it up as they left.
Outside, Cole said, “What do you think she’s saying?”
“No idea.”
“We probably wouldn’t like it.”
“No. Probably not.”
Pike left Cole at his car, and headed for the Valley.
34
Elvis Cole
COLE THOUGHT ABOUT YANNI as he left the guesthouse.
Janic “Yanni” Pevich had come back clean. When Cole checked the plate Pike gave him from Yanni’s F-150 pickup truck, he had learned the vehicle was registered to a Janic Pevich. The leasing office at Yanni’s building confirmed the apartment was being leased to a Janic Pevich, and reported that Mr. Pevich had been an excellent tenant. Cole had then checked with a friend at LAPD’s Hollywood Station, who reported that Pevich had no criminal record. Cole had related all this to Joe Pike, and let it go, but after leaving Grebner, he had begun to have second thoughts.
They now had two divergent and different stories, which meant one of the principals was lying.
Cole worked his way up Coldwater Canyon to Studio City, and returned to Yanni’s apartment. Rina had said he was at work, but Cole didn’t know if he was working, or care. The F-150 was missing. Cole parked in the visitors’ parking lot and made his way back to Yanni’s apartment.