“What case?” the captain asked. “There isn’t any case. Maybe Santa Fe has one, but we don’t.”
“But Baxter is back in L.A., Captain,” Rivera said, “and if he continues with this, it will certainly be our problem. I’d rather deal with it before it’s a homicide, instead of afterward.”
“Carlos has a point, Captain,” Goodwin said. “While, strictly speaking, my unit isn’t in the homicide prevention business, we would be obliged to act if we heard someone was planning a murder. But right now, we’re pursuing four active homicide cases, and we’re stretched pretty thin. If you want to assign Carlos to this, I have no objection.”
The captain regarded Rivera with interest. “Your unit, Carlos, or just you?”
“Me and a partner,” Rivera said. “We don’t usually work in teams in vehicle theft, but I’d like Joe Rossi on this.”
“How big a case backlog do you have right now, Carlos?” the captain asked.
“We’re all caught up, Captain. It seems that more Angelinos are buying their cars at the moment, instead of stealing them.”
“All right, Carlos, take a few days, say a week, and check out Mr. Baxter’s homicidal tendencies, but I don’t want to see anything in the media about this. If it looks like it’s going that way, you come back to me and I’ll assign somebody in Media Relations to work with you. I don’t like celebrity arrests unless we know we can make ’em stick.”
“I understand, Captain,” Carlos said. “We’ll work quietly, don’t worry.”
“You’ve got a week,” the captain said. “Get out of here.”
“Thank you, sir, thank you, Lieutenant.”
Carlos went back to his desk and found Joe Rossi playing a computer game on his iPhone. “Joe, I see you’re underworked,” he said.
“Aw come on, Carlos, it’s not my fault people are returning stolen cars, instead of chopping them.”
“Joe, did you ever work Homicide?”
“In my youth,” Rossi replied. “I had a tour on the squad, but it was thought by my betters that I wasn’t gifted in that area.”
“How would you like to work on a homicide that hasn’t happened yet?” Carlos asked.
30
THE RUSSIAN WAS sitting in his trailer at the park overlooking the Pacific Coast Highway, when there was a heavy knock on his door. He opened his desk drawer and put his hand on the snub-nosed .38 there. “Yeah?” he called.
“It’s the Bear,” a voice said.
“It’s unlocked.”
A large man in a short-sleeved shirt with a thick, short beard entered the trailer. “Okay,” he said, “I followed them from the movie studio back to Malibu, where they’re eating dinner right now at a Mexican joint in the Village.”
The Russian gazed at Bear’s thickly forested arms. “Bear,” he said, “you ought not to wear short-sleeved shirts.”
“It’s hot,” Bear said petulantly. “What do you want, that I should get a wax job?”
He didn’t want to think about that. “What are you doing back here?”
“You want I should sit in the parking lot for a couple hours, doing nothing?”
“That was the idea.”
“They’re going to eat then go back to their house. I’m not stupid.”
The Russian started to speak but thought better of it.
“I like the girl,” Bear said. “I’d like to do stuff to her.”
“All in good time, Bear. I’ll let you know when the boss says it’s okay.”
“I’d like to make a movie with her, so I could look at it later,” Bear said. Bear had the reputation in the world of porno for the biggest equipment in California, maybe the country. His sobriquet, for billing purposes, was “The Log.”
“That’s not going to happen,” the Russian said, “but you might get to snuff her.”
“That would be nice,” Bear said.
“It’s not like she could go free once she’s seen your schlong. She could identify you in a lineup, no problem.”
“A girl tried that one time. She didn’t show up for trial.”
“Yeah, that’s the one that Dax’s lawyer got you out of, right?”
“Right. I didn’t think he had the guts to off her, but like I said, she didn’t show up for trial, and since I was in lockup at the time, I walked.”
“You’re a lucky guy,” the Russian said. “What were you driving today?”
“The Malibu, the brown one.”
“Drive something else tomorrow.”
“Okay. Can I drive your GTO?”
“No, not that. Take the Crown Vic.”
“Okay.”
“Now, go back to the restaurant, wait for them, then follow them home, and note the times.”
“Okay.”
“And Bear?”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t touch the girl until I tell you to.”
“Oh, all right.”
? ? ?
CARLOS RIVERA AND JOE ROSSI were having a drink at Cuffs, a cop bar, while Carlos told his partner everything he knew about what they were working on.
When Carlos had finished, Joe was quiet for a bit.
“So,” Carlos asked, “what do you think?”
“What do I think about what?”
“How should we proceed, Joe? I’m counting on your experience and your brains.” Joe, he knew, was very smart. Not many of the guys at the station knew that.
“I don’t know,” Joe said. “What do you think we should do?”
“I don’t know.”
“I was afraid of that.”
“Yeah, well. I was intrigued with what’s going on here. Problem is . . .”
“Nothing’s going on,” Joe said. “How do we stop something that hasn’t happened yet, that we have no evidence is going to happen?”
“We’ve got Dax’s previous behavior,” Carlos said.
“I don’t know,” Joe replied. “If I were Dax Baxter, and I sent a pro out to do a guy and my pro came back crippled, I’d think again about proceeding, wouldn’t you?”
“Yeah, that’s what you and I might do, but not Dax Baxter. This is a guy who hasn’t heard the word ‘no,’ from anybody, for a long time. Who’s going to have the balls to give him advice? I mean, if he offed the head of the studio, they’d check his grosses before telling him he was a bad boy. Money is all those people care about.”
“Yeah,” Joe said. “Money is the only thing that’s more powerful than love.”
“You’re a cynic, Joe.”
“You said it yourself—I’m experienced.”
Carlos looked up and saw a beautiful Latina enter the bar. He was transfixed, as he had been the first time he’d seen her.
“I think your mind just left the problem,” Joe said, glancing at the girl.
“Nope,” Carlos said, “she could be part of the solution.”
“You lost me, amigo.”
“She works in Dax Baxter’s office. I saw her when I was there a couple of days ago.”
She was joined by another, older woman Carlos had seen there, too. “The other one works there, too.”
“I guess you’re smarter than I thought,” Joe said. “How’d you know they were going to turn up here?”
“I’d like to take the credit, but this one is just dumb luck.”
“A coincidence?”
“If you like.”
“I hate coincidence,” Joe said.
Carlos got up and approached the two women, who had taken a booth near the bar. “Good evening, ladies,” he said. “I believe I almost made your acquaintance at Standard Studios recently.”
They looked up at him. “I remember you,” said the younger one. “You’re a cop.”
Carlos laughed. “And I was trying so hard not to look like one.”
“You need to work on your impression of a civilian,” she said.
“Would you two ladies like to join a couple of Beverly Hills’s finest for a drink?”
“Beverly Hills cops? Wasn’t that a movie?”
“It would make a great one,” Carlos replied.
“We’ve got the booth,” she said. “Why don’t you two join us?”
Carlos looked over at Joe and jerked his head a little.
Joe pointed his thumb at himself and mouthed, “Who, me?”
Carlos slid into the seat next to the younger one as Joe made his way across the room.
31
TEDDY AND SALLY left the restaurant and got into the Cayenne. As Teddy backed out of the parking place he saw taillights come on behind him as another car backed out.
“Billy?” Sally said.
Teddy was concentrating on getting a fix on the make and model as it passed under a streetlamp.
“Billy!”
“Oh, sorry.”
“Are you getting paranoid on me?”
“No.”
“Then what is it with pursuing vehicles?”
“If a vehicle is pursuing me, then I’m not paranoid.”