Car radio back out:
Watts killings–Negro preacher blames liquor–“the enslaver of our people.”
Exley press-leak fantasia:
During a hot pursuit through a closed-down Southside nightclub, Sergeant George Stemmons, Jr., suffers a fatal heart attack. The robber escapes; there will be no autopsy–it violates the dead officer’s religion.
No Miciak.
No Fed stuff.
Blues guarding Junior’s door–I locked them out and worked.
I took photos:
Booby traps/cornflake piles/sloth.
I bagged fibers, listed property.
Print dusting next–tedious, slow. I got Junior himself–multiple sets–ten point matched to the abstract. The living room/hallway/ kitchen–odd latents, featuring scar ridges. An easy make–me–Pops caught me stealing and burned my fingers.
Three rooms down–I wiped them clean. The inside doorway–a new set, a match: Duhamel, eight comparison points. Extrapolate it: Johnny scared to enter.
I wiped them. The phone rang–PC Bell, responding.
I copied:
10/28/58–BR 6-8499–Mr. & Mrs. George Stemmons, 4129 Dresden, Pasadena.
10/30/58–BR 6-8499—ditto.
11/2/58–MA 6-1 147–Administrative Vice Division, LAPD.
11/2/58–Mom/Dad.
11/3/58, 11/3/58, 11/4/58, 11/4/58–Ad Vice.
11/5/58, 11/5/58, 11/6/58–GR 1-4790–John Duhamel, 10477 Oleander, Eagle Rock.
11/6/58, 11/6/58, 11/7/58, 11/9/58, 11/9/58–AX 4-1192–Victory Motel, Gardena.
11/9/58–MU 8-5888–pay phone, 81st/Central–Los Angeles.
11/9/58–MU 7-4160–pay phone, 79th/Central–Los Angeles.
11/9/58–MU 6-1171–pay phone, 67th/Central–Los Angeles.
11/9/58–Victory Motel.
11/9/58–ditto.
11/9/58-Duhamel’s pad.
11/10/58–WE 5-1243–pay phone, Olympic/La Brea–Los Angeles.
11/10/58-Victory Motel.
Side 137
Ellroy – White Jazz
11/10/58, 11/10/58, 11/11/58, 1 1/12/58-KL 6-1885–pay phone, Aviation/Hibiscus–Lynwood.
11/16/58-HO 4-6833–Glenda Bledsoe, 2489 1/2 N. Mount Airy, Hollywood.
Writer’s cramp-interpret the data:
Mom-Dad/work early on–straight biz. Duhamel calls next–Junior going crazy. The Victory Motel–Mobster Squad HQ–Smith’s strongarm spot/Johnny on duty.
Pay phones then–Darktown locations–say dope biz, maybe talks with Steve Wenzel. A non-sequitur phone booth–Olympic and La Breathe Kafesjian pad six blocks south. Crazy Junior–THEY said don’t call the house.
11/12 to 11/16–no calls, Junior INSANE. 11/16–_my_ late Glenda call.
Logical, but:
Lynwood pay-phone calls = ????
Exhaustion-fried–I dusted the bed rail.
Fuck–
Interlocked hand spreads–laced fingers gripping. Sweat smears, viable latents: and _no_ Johnny points. Obvious Junior prints linked with unknown prints: some ham-handed faggot.
Wipe them–_bbring bbring_–grab the phone, shut the bed out.
“Exley?”
“It’s John Duhamel.”
“_What the–how did you know I was here?_”
“I heard a radio call about Stemmons. I drove by his place, and the patrolmen told me you were inside. I–look, I need to talk to you.”
ADRENALINE–my head buzzed.
“Where are you?”
“No . . . meet me tonight.”
“Come on, _now_.”
“No, we’ll make it eight o’clock. 4980 Spindrift. It’s in Lynwood.”
“_Why there?_”
“Evidence.”
“Johnny, tell me–”
_Click_–dial tone–tap the button–Exley, fast.
NO.
Don’t–he’s hinked on Johnny–just maybe.
Option call–I dialed MA 4-8630.
“Office of the District Attorney.”
“Dave Klein for Bob Gallaudet.”
Side 138
Ellroy – White Jazz
“I’m sorry, sir. Mr. Gallaudet is in a staff meeting.”
“Tell him it’s urgent.”
Transfer clicks, “Dave, what can I do for you?”
“A favor.”
“Name it–you’ve shot me a few recently.”
“I need a look at an lAD personal file.”
“Is this an Ed innovation? IA’s very much his cadre.”
“Yeah, it’s an Exley thing. When a man makes the Detective Bureau, IAD does a very thorough background check. I’m meeting a man tonight, and I need more of a handle on him. It’s about the Darktown trouble, and you could get a look at the file with no questions.”
“You’re doing this behind Ed’s back.”
“Yeah, like those Kafesjian reports I gave you.”
A pause-seconds ticking. “TouchÈ, so call me back in a few hours. It can’t leave the Bureau, but I’ll oblige you with a synopsis. What’s the man’s name?”
“John Duhamel.”
“Schoolboy Johnny? I lost a bundle on his pro debut. Care to enlighten me?”
“When it’s over, Bob. Thanks.”
“Well, quid pro quo for now. And next time I see you, let me tell you about the meeting Ed and I had with this colored minister. Strange bedfellows, huh?”
That bed–laced hands. “The fucking strangest.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Surplus adrenaline–it jacked me up to peep the Kafesjians.
I staked their house from three doors down–no bedroom-window strip show. Nobody peeper-chasing–three cars on the lawn.
Stakeout time killer–my car radio:
Junior eulogized–LAPD chaplain Dudley Smith: “He was a grand lad. He was a dedicated crimefighter, and it is a cruel caprice of fate that so young a man should suffer cardiac arrest while chasing a common robber.”