The Flaming Motel

Monday

November 4





X


The paper said it all with a single announcement: Officer Cleared in Halloween Shooting. Jendrek slapped his palm down on it and shook his head. “F*ckers do it every time. I knew they would. Didn’t I say it? Friday?” He was looking directly at me. “Jesus Christ, they practically quote me. It’s like they were listening in on our conversation. Christ, they couldn’t even wait a week to make it look good. Cleared the bastard over a weekend.”

He picked up the paper and snapped it stiff in front of him, peering over his reading glasses to read. “‘Officer Davis acted out of fear for his own safety and the safety of others,’ Police Chief Dixon said, in an official statement. ‘It is always tragic when accidents happen, and the entire Los Angeles Police Department grieves with the Vargas family, and we offer our deepest sympathy in this time of tragedy. I only hope that God’s mercy will heal them in this time of grief.’ Give me a f*cking break. ‘Police work is difficult and dangerous and requires quick and immediate judgments to be made based on the facts as they are known at the time. Had Officer Davis known the gun was a movie prop, he never would have fired. However, under the facts and circumstances, he was justified in taking the actions he took.’”

Jendrek threw the paper down on Ellen’s desk and put his hands on his hips. “You believe that shit?”

This was the Jendrek I’d been waiting for. This was the man I knew would come out of hiding before long. It was the same every time. He would focus on the bad aspects of a case until he drove himself crazy, convincing himself it was unwinnable, and then outrage would strike. Anything could set it off. And when the outrage arrived, Jendrek could give fire and brimstone stump speeches that would make Clarence Darrow jealous.

“I guess Chief Dixon doesn’t think the Constitution applies in the City of Los Angeles. Perhaps he’s not familiar with a little thing James Madison and I like to call the Fourth Amendment. And we’re not alone. We’re in good company. Seems to me a fellow by the name of Thomas Jefferson, and some wacko named John Adams both thought the Fourth Amendment was a pretty goddamned good idea too.”

When the forefathers came out, it was time to step aside. Jendrek rubbed his forehead. Flushed now. Veins emerging. He ran his fingers through his hair, scratching at the back of his head. Ellen sat behind her desk and smiled at me. She’d done twenty years with Jendrek and she’d seen it all. She sipped her coffee while he fumed. For a minute, I thought it might be over, but then he stuttered for a second, trying to get the words out, and then they came in a torrent.

“I mean, what’s going on around here? Has everyone lost their mind? Is it too much to ask that people do their jobs right? When did the rule become shoot and ask questions later? It’s Halloween for God’s sake. You’re responding to a noise disturbance. It never even occurs to this ignorant f*cker—what’s his name?” Jendrek swiped the paper off the desk and focused on it again. “Davis. Officer James Davis. It never occurs to that stupid son of a bitch that it might be a costume? And they do a whitewash over a weekend? Who do they think they’re fooling?”

Jendrek threw the paper down again. He stood with his hands balled in fists, catching his breath and collecting his frazzled thoughts. He seemed to really notice me for the first time that morning. He squinted and said, “What the hell is wrong with you?”

I was so hung over I could barely function. My skin was the color of chalk and my mouth tasted like a cat had shit in it. “Nothing,” I said.

Jendrek guffawed and said, “Catch yourself a little cocktail virus, did you? You ought to start spending your Sundays in a different church.”

I grunted and turned to go into my office. “I’d burst into flames if I went into a real church,” I said, over my shoulder. I was halfway into my office when I heard the main door open. We all turned to see who it was.

Tiffany Vargas stood in the open doorway, holding the knob in her hand, looking at us like she’d walked in on something private. She wore a dark blue tailored suit with a knee-length skirt and carried a red Louis Vuitton bag I only recognized because Liz had pointed one out to me once. It was oddly conservative, but failed to hide her curvy body.

She flashed me a brief smile of recognition, and I remembered that the last time I saw her she was sitting in her bedroom in tears. “Good morning,” she said, and then noticed the newspaper in a pile on Ellen’s desk. “I see you’ve already seen the paper.”

Jendrek came to life quicker than the rest of us and approached her with a rush. “Ms. Vargas, please, come in.” He took hold of the door and closed it behind her. I watched her eyes do a quick survey of our cramped, tattered space. Jendrek offered her coffee, which she declined, and then the three of us went into Jendrek’s office and closed the door.

She remained standing after Jendrek and I sat. Her urged her to sit, but she refused, saying, “There’s no need to prolong this. I was on my way downtown to meet with my lawyer, Mr. Stanton, and I figured I should come by and see you in person.”

The way she referred to Stanton as “her lawyer” struck me funny, and I caught Jendrek giving me a glance as she said it. His eyes seemed to recognize what was coming. He interrupted and said, “Ms. Vargas, I’m sure the newspaper upset you this morning. We anticipated that would happen. We discussed it with Ed on Friday.”

“Well you’re discussing it with me now,” she snapped, and then stifled herself. “I apologize,” she said. “As I’m sure you can imagine, things have been difficult, to say the least.”

I listened to her voice, her choice of words, and watched the stiff, almost uncomfortable way she carried herself. It was as if she was trying on a new personality that didn’t quite fit, the discomfort coming not from the suit, but from somewhere inside her.

“It’s not just this,” she went on. “My whole life has been one thing after another. It’s only been in the last few years that things have gone well. I guess I should have figured, with my luck, something like this was bound to happen.” She stopped herself for a moment, and I wondered if I might see more tears from her before it was over.

Jendrek spoke into the silence, softly. “Ms. Vargas, please, have a seat.”

“No, really, I’m not staying. I just wanted to come by to tell you that I have no intention of pursuing a lawsuit. I never did. Ed was the one who insisted. He’s insane about it. He’s being difficult about everything. I keep telling him that no lawsuit is going to bring Donnie back. All it will do is cause us to have to relive the whole thing over and over again. After reading that newspaper this morning, I know they’re going to fight, and I know it’s going to take a long time to win. If we win. And I just don’t think I can take it.”

The words had rushed out of her and she paused for breath. Jendrek and I exchanged looks. We were being fired. He didn’t seem surprised, but I was.

I said, “Ms. Vargas, if we let them get away, then something like will happen to someone else. You’re right, a lawsuit won’t bring Mr. Vargas back, but it might keep someone else’s husband alive by stopping this kind of thing.”

She turned and looked at me like she thought I must be joking. A smile flashed across her face that nearly turned to laughter. She cocked her head slightly to the side, as if I were a curiosity that couldn’t quite be real.

“Mr. Olson,” she said, “the world is a terrible place, and no lawsuit is going to change that. Blaming someone isn’t going to change that. I thought I’d already suffered my share of tragedy, but apparently I was wrong. But I know I’m right about something. I know I can’t get revenge against the universe. And I’m not about to grow old or go crazy trying.”

“I’m sorry, Ms. Vargas,” Jendrek said when she paused. “But Ed lead us to believe—”

“Ed’s a goddamned whiner who’s never had to work for anything in his life. This is his first dose of reality, and he doesn’t like the taste of it.” Her venom sent chills through me. Her careful demeanor was gone, and she hunched toward Jendrek like a prize-fighter towering over an unconscious opponent.

“He’s pissed about how his life is turning out. Well I say, welcome to the f*cking club.” Her self-control seemed to surface from nowhere and she stopped herself, wiping at the corner of an eye that I’d been watching and that I swear held no tears. “I’m sorry. It’s not you I’m mad at. Ed never should have hired you in the first place.”

Then, almost as quickly as she’d appeared, she turned and left the office. Jendrek and I stared at each other. Ellen poked her head in the doorway and marveled. “What was that all about?” she asked.

Neither of us had an answer.