Breuning looked bored. Bud went out to the courtyard: crabgrass, barbed-wire fenced. Fourteen empty rooms–LAPD bought the property cheap.
“Lad.”
Dudley on the sidewalk. Bud lit a cigarette, walked over.
“Lad, I’m sorry I’m late.”
“It don’t matter, you said it was serious.”
“Yes, it is all of that. How are you enjoying the Hollywood squad, lad? Is it to your liking?”
“I liked Homicide better.”
“Grand, and I’ll see to it that you return sometime soon. And have you been relishing the spectacle of friend Exley ridiculed by the fourth estate?”
Smoke made him cough. “Yeah, sure. Too bad the case won’t get reopened and really make him squirm. Not that I’d want to see you stand heat for it, though.”
Dudley laughed. “I see the conflicts inherent in your perspective. And I feel a certain ambivalence myself, especially since a little birdie in Sacramento has informed me that the attorney general will soon press to reopen the case. Ellis Loew has an injunction prepared should things get dicey, so I think it is safe to assume that the Nite Owl is regrettably our hot potato once again. Political infighting, lad. The pinko Democrats have taken the tack of jigaboos wrongly accused, intend to press the issue during the primary elections, and the Republican A.G. has sidestepped and counterpunched. Lad, do you possess any Nite Owl information that you haven’t presented to me?”
Ready, prepared. “No.”
“Ah, grand. That aside then, I have an assignment for you here at the Victory tonight. A very large and muscular man requires a bracing, and frankly Mike and Dick lack the presence to appropriately impress him. It’s a small world, lad–I think this chap knew our friend Duke Cathcart back in ’53. Maybe he can give you some information on your Kathy Janeway fixation. Does fair Kathy’s fate still concern you, lad?”
Bud swallowed–dry.
“Lad, forget that I asked. Fixations like that are like prostitutes–they can reform, but their old ways still linger. Tonight at 10:00, lad. And be of good cheer. I have some extracurricular work for you soon, work that should rekindle your old fearsome habits.”
Bud blinked.
Dudley smiled, walked to room 6.
Prostitute equals Lynn. Janeway jibe equals just how much?
Joe Sifakis screamed–through four walls, out to the edge of the courtyard.
CHAPTER FIFTY
Gallaudet slipped him the news: the Attorney General’s Office was set to press for a reopening: statefinanced, state-run. Ellis Loew was set to usurp their investigation– the LAPD, Nite Owl redux. Time to call it all in.
Ed in a coffee shop on La Brea. Jack Vincennes due, paperwork on the table: Nite Owl, notes on the Hudgens case.
Check mark: was the man at San Quentin telling the truth? Most likely yes–whatever his motives.
Check mark: did the Englekling killings tie in to the Nite Owl? No way to tell until the Mann Sheriff’s shared their information.
Check mark: the purple car by the Nite Owl. A hunch: it was an innocent vehicle, the real killers followed the publicity, located Ray Coates’ car before the LAPD, planted the shotguns. This meant–astoundingly–that they planted the spent shells found in Griffith Park. Hall of Justice Jail records ’35 to ’55 had been destroyed–if the killers gleaned the information as part of a jail connection, finding that connection would most likely prove impossible. Have Kleckner and Fisk thoroughly investigate every logical possibility pertaining to the purple car/planted shotguns.
Check mark: victim Malcolm Lunceford, ex–LAPD officer/wino security guard. Did he tie in to some kind of criminal conspiracy that resulted in the Nite Owl massacre? Answer: unlikely–he was a certified, long-term Nite Owl habitué, late nights always.
Ed sipped coffee, thought POWER. Abused: IAD was autonomous inside and outside the Department; he’d had Fisk and Kleckner working toward a possible reopening–LAPD’s or his own. Vincennes admitted his tail on Bud White and lied about White knowing his sporadic girlfriend–Lynn Bracken–during the spring of ’53. Lynn Bracken was placed under loose surveillance; Fisk just submitted a report.
The woman was rumored to be an ex-prostitute; she co-owned a dress shop in Santa Monica. Her partner: Pierce Morehouse Patchett, age fifty-six. Kleckner secured a fmancial report: Patchett emerged as a wealthy investor known to pimp call girls to business associates. The financial kicker: