“Tell Noonan it was personal. Tell him I’m still his witness, and now I owe _him_ one.”
* * *
Out to East L.A., light-headed–light smoke inhalation. Custody fortyseven hours off–two days to GET it:
“LONG HISTORY OF INSANITY BOTH OUR FAMILIES.”
Olympic east–rain clouds dousing smog. Chasing/chased/partnered up/partner fucked:
Richie’s Chino file was still missing–warden’s aides were tossing storage bins for it. Sid Riegle was out chasing Richie–Darktown/Hancock Park–no leads.
Six IA men tapped out: no new Herrick/Kafesjian links. Links extant: Pennsylvania/chemical work/L.A. arrivals ’31–’32. Late-’31 marriages: Joan Renfrew, Madge Clarkson–no criminal records–their hometowns queried.
Meg chasing real estate: a Spindrift pad title search. Zero so far, Meg persisting.
The Kafesjians at home, cabin-fevered–Feds out front, Feds out back.
Partnered-up-family-tight–no way to tell them: You and the Herricks–filthy together. Liquor bottles smashed/dogs blinded/music trashed–murder/suicide/castration–I can TASTE it. You’ll tell me, you’ll tell somebody–I’m partnered up strong on my ride down.
Strong and dirty: Exley. Strong/cautious/grasping: Noonan.
Use them both: fight/squirm/lie/beg/ manipulate them.
Exley: Johnny D. as my wedge. The Feds–no lever yet–that fire fried my momentum. Henstell: “You know, Mr. Noonan was starting to think you’d be a pretty good witness.”
Was/is/could be/would be: DUES TIME. Junior nullified now–Glenda safe–punch my new grief ticket: FEDERAL.
No pre-court testimony taken yet–custody meant interrogation.
Noonan–cautious/grasping–shooting me wake-up phone calls:
“You’re commanding a homicide case-how odd.”
“Would Richard Herrick be the Richie you seem to be so interested in? The man Tommy Kafesjian seems to be rather concerned with? Chief Exley told the _Herald_
that you worked on a burglary case that may be tangentially connected to the killings. We _must_ discuss this after you enter custody.”
“I understand the dilemma you’re in, David. You may think that you can dissemble to us and be less than forthcoming vis-‡-vis your organized-crime connections, thus sparing yourself a Syndicate death sentence. You will of course be given Federal protection after your grand jury testimony, but you should know now that lies and lies by omission will not be tolerated.”
Smart fucker.
Holding back information–bet on it. My big fear: those Fed tails postJohnson.
Long-shot stuff, hard to shake: Abe Voldrich snuffed, a blue Pontiac spotted.
Side 179
Ellroy – White Jazz
Jack Woods–nine contract hits minimum–_my_ preferred killer. Jack Woods, proud owner: a powder-blue ’56 Pontiac.
Downtown, the 3rd Street Bridge, Boyle Heights. East to Wabash– Brownell’s Locksmiths–
A parking-lot drive-up hut.
Four keys–three numbered–maybe traceable.
I pulled up, honked. A man right there, customer smile on. “Help you?”
I flashed my badge and the key fob. “158-32, 159-32, 160-32, and one unstamped.
Who did you make them for?”
“I don’t even have to check my files, ’cause that 32 coding’s from this rent-a-locker storage place I do all the locker keys for.”
“So you don’t know who rented these individual lockers?”
“Right you are. The unstamped key’s for the front door, the number keys are for lockers. And I don’t cut no duplicates ‘less the manager at the place gives the okay.”
“What ‘place’?”
“The Lock-Your-Self at 1750 North Echo Park Boulevard, which is open twenty-four hours, case you didn’t know.”
“You’re pretty snappy with your answers.”
“Well . . .”
“Come on, tell me.”
“Well . . .”
“Well nothing, I’m a police officer.”
Whiny, wheedling: “Well, I hate to be a stool pigeon, ’cause I sorta liked the guy.”
“What guy?”
“I don’t know his name, but he’s that little Mex bantam fights at the Olympic all the time.”
“Reuben Ruiz?”
“Right you are. He came in yesterday and told me he wanted dupes of the keys with them numbers, like he saw the keys but couldn’t get his mitts on the two original sets I cut. I told him, ‘Ixnay, not even if you was Rocky Marciano himself.'”
“You cut _two_ original sets for the Lock-Your-Self place?”
“One customer original, one management original. The manager sent a guy by for a second customer set, ’cause the people who rented those lockers wanted dupes.”
Set number one–Junior. Set number two–maybe Johnny D.– Reuben’s pal.
“Officer, them locks and keys are being changed continually to thwart theft. So if you talk to Bob, the manager, will you tell him I’m doing my part toward keeping things–“