Voidrich: “I . . . am. . . not. . . an informant.”
Milner: “No, you’re a fifty-one-year-old Lithuanian refugee with a green card we can revoke at anytime. Abe, do you want to live behind the Iron Curtain? Do you know what the Commies would do to you?”
“I am not a snitch.”
“No, but you’d like to be. You’re letting hints drop. You told me you dried marijuana bales in one of the E-Z Kleen dryers.”
“Yes, and I told you J.C., Tommy and Madge didn’t know about it.”
Cigarette smoke–blurred faces.
Milner: “You know that J.C. and Tommy are scum. You always go to lengths to differentiate Madge from them. She’s a nice woman, and you’re an essentially decent man who fell in with bad people.”
Voldrich: “Madge is a very fine woman who for many reasons. . . well, she just needs Tommy and J.C.”
Milner: “Did Tommy clip a drunk driver who killed a Narco cop’s daughter?”
“I stand on that Fifth Amendment thing.”
“You and the whole goddamn world–they never should have broadcast the Kefauver hearings. Abe–”
“Agent Milner, please charge me or release me.”
“You got your phone call, and you elected to call your sister. If you’d called J.C., he would have found a smart lawyer to get you released on a writ. I think you want to do the right thing. Mr. Noonan explained the immunity agreement to you, and he’s promised you a Federal service reward. I think you want it. Mr.
Noonan wants to take three major witnesses to the grand jury, one of them you.
And the nice thing is that if all three of you testify, everyone who could conceivably hurt you will be indicted and convicted.”
“I am not an informant.”
“Abe, did Tommy and J.C. kill Sergeant George Stemmons, Jr.?”
“No”–hoarse.
“He died from a heroin overdose. Tommy and J.C. could have faked something like that.”
“No–I mean I don’t know.”
“Which one?”
Side 151
Ellroy – White Jazz
“I mean no, I don’t think so.”
“Abe, you’re not exactly a poker face. Now, along those lines, we know that Tommy plays his horn at Bido Lito’s. Is he tight there?”
“Fifth Amendment.”
“That’s TV for you. Kids break a window, they plead the Fifth. Abe, how well did the Kafesjians know Junior Stemmons?”
“Fifth Amendment.”
“Stemmons and a Lieutenant David Klein were bothering them about a burglary that occurred at their house two weeks ago. What do you know about that?”
“Fifth Amendment.”
“Did they try to shake down the Kafesjians for money?”
“No–I mean Fifth Amendment.”
“Abe, you’re an open book. Come on, Stemmons was a junkie, and Klein’s as dirty as cops get.”
Voldrich coughed–the speaker caught static. “_No. Fifth Amendment_.”
Milner: “Let’s change the subject.”
“How about politics?”
“How about Mickey Cohen? Do you know him?”
“I have never met the man.”
“Maybe not, but you’re an old Southside hand. What do you know about Mickey’s coin racket down there?”
“I know buppkis. I know that slot machines play to a nickel-and-clime mentality, which explains their allure to stupid shvartzes.”
Milner: “Let’s change the subject.”
“How about the Dodgers? If I was a Mexican, I’d be happy to leave Chavez Ravine.”
“How about Dan Wilhite?”
“Fifth Amendment.”
“We’ve looked at his tax records, Abe. J.C. gave him twenty percent of the E-Z
Kleen shop on Alvarado.”
“Fifth Amendment.”
“Abe, every man working Narco owns unaffordable items that we think J.C. gave them. We’ve audited their tax returns, and when we call them in to explain those items and say ‘Tell us where you got them and you’ll skate,’ J.C. will be sunk on twenty-four counts of bribery and suborning federal tax fraud.”
“Fifth Amendment.”
“Abe, I’ll give you some advice: _always plead the Fifth across the board_.
Conversational answers interspersed with the Fifth simply serve to single out the responses that indicate guilty knowledge.”
Silence.
“Abe, you’re looking a little green at the gills.”
Side 152
Ellroy – White Jazz
No answer.
“Abe, we heard Tommy’s been looking for a guy named Richie. We’ve got no last name, but we’ve heard that he and Tommy used to play jazz together and pull B&E’s.”