“It is.”
“I notice there’s this other psychologist doing a lot of speechifying to the media. Fellow with a beard.”
“Lance Dobbs. So far he’s limited his involvement to talk.”
“You mean he hasn’t actually been here?” Indignation, mock or otherwise.
“No, he hasn’t, Gordon. One of his assistants came by but I convinced Dr. Dobbs that too many cooks would spoil the broth and she hasn’t been back since.”
“I see,” he said. “That’s certainly true- too many cooks. True in lots of other regards.”
I didn’t respond.
He said, “So. You feel you have it worked out. With Dr. Dobbs.”
“So far so good.”
“Excellent. Good for you.” He paused, touched his harmonica pocket. “Well, good luck and more power to you.”
The old two-handed grip and a nod at Ahlward. The redheaded man moved away from the door and smoothed his lapels. From inside the classroom came shouts and laughter, the young teacher’s voice, tight with frustration, trying to be heard over the tumult.
Latch turned his back on me. The two of them began walking away.
I said, “Planning on coming back, Gordon?”
He stopped, and lowered his eyebrows, as if pondering a question of cosmic proportions. “You’ve given me food for thought, Alex. I really heard you. About doing it right. Coordinating. So let me bounce it around, check my calendar, and get back to you.”
I waited until the corridor was empty, then followed at a discreet distance, made it to the door, and watched them crossing the yard, ignoring the children playing there. They then left the grounds, got into a black Chrysler New Yorker, Ahlward driving, and rode away. No other vehicles pulled out behind them. No retinue of young scrubs, no sign of the media. So perhaps the in-the-neighborhood story was genuine. But I had trouble buying it. Latch’s eager response to my question about Massengil, his questions about Dobbs, convinced me his agenda had been other than altruistic.
And the timing was too cute, coming so soon after my summons to Massengil’s office. Not that yesterday’s visit had been public knowledge. But Latch had already displayed access to Massengil’s itinerary- the day of the sniping. Ready to do battle on camera.
Now the two of them were would-be heroes. A couple of sharks, vying for a tooth-hold in the underbelly of tragedy. I wondered how long it would go on.
Politics as usual, I supposed. It reminded me of why I’d dropped out of academic medicine.
I left the school and tried to put all thoughts of politics out of my mind long enough to get some dinner down. Driving quasi-randomly, I ended up on Santa Monica Boulevard and stopped at the first place I spotted that offered easy parking, a coffee shop near Twenty-fourth Street. Someone had begun holiday decorations- plastic poinsettia on each table; windows frosted and painted with mistletoe; spavined, bucktoothed reindeer; and a few baby-blue menorahs. The good cheer hadn’t spread to the food and I left most of my roast beef sandwich on the plate, paid, and left.
It was dark. I got into the Seville and pulled out of the lot. Traffic was too heavy for a left turn, so I headed west. Another car’s headlights filled my rearview mirror. I didn’t think much of it until a few blocks later, when I turned right again and the lights stayed with me.
I drove to Sunset.
Still the headlights. I could tell, because the left one flickered.
Narrowly spaced beams. Small car. Compact car. Too dark to determine the color or make.
I joined the eastbound flow on the boulevard. Each time I looked into the mirror, the headlights stared back at me like a pair of yellow, pupilless eyes.
I caught a red light at Bundy. The headlights edged up closer. A filling station was at the nearest corner, the pre-embargo type- expansive lot, full-serve pumps, pay phone.
I rolled forward. The headlights followed suit. When the amber light flashed for the north-south traffic, I rolled for two seconds, then made a sharp turn up the driveway, kept going until I reached the pay phone.
The car with the flickering headlight started up and drove across the intersection. I followed it, taking in as many details as I could. Brown Toyota. Two people in front. Female passenger, I thought. I couldn’t see the driver. The passenger’s head turned, facing the driver. Talking to each other. Not even a glance in my direction.
I scolded myself for being paranoid, got back on Sunset, and drove home. The operator at my service gave me an earful of messages- one from Milo, the rest all business. I put in return calls, reaching one late-working attorney, a bunch of answering machines, and the desk sergeant at Robbery-Homicide, who told me Detective Sturgis was out, and no, he had no idea what the call had been about. I took the mail in, changed into shorts, running shoes, and a T-shirt, and went for a night jog. The Santa Anas had returned, gentler; I ran with the wind, felt airborne.
I came back an hour later and sat by the fishpond, unable to make out the koi as anything more than bubbles on the black surface of the water. But hearing them, hearing the song of the waterfall, my mind started to clear.
I stayed there a while longer, then went back up to the house, ready for the present tense. I thought of phoning Linda, tried to convince myself my motives were purely professional, then realized I didn’t have her home number. Neither did Information. I viewed it as an omen, settled in for another night alone.
Nine o’clock. Evening news on the local station; I was becoming a tragedy junkie. I cracked a Grolsch, settled back, and clicked the remote.
The broadcast began with a regurgitation of the usual international mess, followed by a machine-gun spatter of local crime stories: an armored-van robbery at a savings and loan in Van Nuys, one guard killed, the other in critical condition. A Pacoima crack-smoker who’d gone berserk and stabbed his eight-year-old son to death with a butcher knife. A five-year-old girl snatched out of her front yard up in Santa Cruz.
Tough competition; nothing on the Hale sniping.
I sat through ten minutes of the feathery stuff that passes for human interest journalism in L.A. Tonight’s main feature was a millionaire Newport Beach urologist who’d won the lottery and vowed his life-style wouldn’t change. Next came shots of the new Rose Queen opening a shopping mall in Altadena.
Happy talk between the anchors.
Weather and sports.
The doorbell rang. Probably Milo, here to tell me, in person, what he’d called about.
I opened the door, directing my eyes upward toward Milo’s six-foot-three level. But the eyes that stared back were a good nine inches lower. Bloodshot gray-blue eyes behind eyeglasses in clear plastic frames. Bloodshot but so bright and focused, they seemed to pierce the glass, dominating a smallish, triangular face. Pasty complexion rendered sallow by the bug-light over the door. Mouth tightly set. Small, thin nose with narrow nostrils flanking an incongruous bulb-tip. Wispy brown-gray hair blowing in the night wind. A nondescript face above a tan windbreaker zipped to the neck.
My gaze fell to his hands. Pale and long-fingered, wringing each other.
“Dr. Delaware. I presume.” Nasal voice. Not a trace of levity. The hackneyed line rehearsed… No, more contrived than that. Programmed.
I looked over his shoulder. Down in the carport was a silver-gray Honda with blackened windows.
I was suddenly certain he’d been standing out there for a while. My neck hairs prickled and I put one hand on the door and took a step backward.
“Who are you and what do you want?”
“My name is Burden,” he said, making it sound like an apology. “My daughter’s… There’s been some… trouble with her. She… I’m sure you know.”
“Yes, I do, Mr. Burden.”
He extended both hands in front of him, knitted together, as if containing something precious or lethal. “What I… I’d like to talk to you, Dr. Delaware, if you could spare the time.”
I stepped back and let him in.