A closed door. Background noise huge–no way to take a listen. Jack kicked; wood splintered; the door creaked open. Two coloreds inside–one asleep on a cot, one snoring on a mattress.
Jack walked in. Sirens whirring up very close. The mattress kid stirred–Jack bludgeoned him quiet, bashed the other punk before he could move. The sirens screeched, died. Jack saw a box on the dresser.
Shotgun shells: Remington 12-gauge double-aught buck. A box of fifty, most of them gone.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Ed skimmed Jack Vincennes’ report. Thad Green watched, his phone ringing off the hook.
Solid, concise–Trash knew how to write a good quickie.
Three male Negroes in custody: Raymond “Sugar Ray” Coates, Leroy Fontaine, Tyrone Jones. Treated for wounds received while resisting arrest; snitched by another male Negro– who described Coates as a shotgun toter who liked to blast dogs. Coates was on the DMV sheet; the informant stated that he ran with two other men–“Tyrone and Leroy”–also living at the Tevere Hotel. The three were arrested in their underwear; Vincennes turned them over to prowl car officers responding to shots fired and searched their rooms for evidence. He found a fifty-unit box of Remington 12-gauge double-aught shotgun shells, forty-odd missing–but no shotguns, no rubber gloves, no bloodstained clothing, no large amounts of cash or coins and no other weaponry. The only clothing in the rooms: soiled T-shirts, boxer shorts, neatly pressed garments covered by dry cleaner’s cellophane. Vincennes checked the incinerator in back of the hotel; it was burning–the manager told him he saw Sugar Coates dump a load of clothes in at approximately 7:00 this morning. Vincennes said Jones and Fontaine appeared to be inebriated or under the influence of narcotics–they slept through gunfire and the general ruckus of Coates resisting arrest. Vincennes told late-arriving patrolmen to search for Coates’ car–it was not in the parking lot or anywhere in a three-block radius. An APB was issued; Vincennes stated that all three suspects’ hands and arms reeked of perfume–a paraffin test would be inconclusive.
Ed laid the report on Green’s desk. “I’m surprised he didn’t kill them.”
The phone rang–Green let it keep going. “More headlines this way, he’s shacking with Ellis Loew’s sister-in-law. And if the coons doused their paws with perfume to foil a paraffin test, we can thank Jack for that–he gave that little piece of information to _Badge of Honor_. Ed, are you up for this?”
Ed’s stomach jumped. “Yes, sir. I am.”
“The chief wanted Dudley Smith to work with you, but I talked him out of it. As good as he is, the man is off the deep end on coloreds.”
“Sir, I know how important this is.”
Green lit a cigarette. “Ed, I want confessions. Fifteen of the rounds we retrieved at the Nite Owl were nicked at the strike point, so if we get the guns we’ve got the case. I want the location of the guns, the location of the car and confessions before we arraign them. We’ve got seventy-one hours before they see the judge. I want this wrapped up by then. _Clean_.”
Specifics. “Rap sheets on the kids?”
Green said, “Joyriding and B&E for all three. Peeping Tom beefs for Coates and Fontaine. And they’re not kids–Coates is twenty-two, the others are twenty. This is a gas chamber bounce pure and clean.”
“What about the Griffith Park angle? Shell samples to compare, witnesses to the guys letting off the shotguns.”
“Shell samples might be good backup evidence, if we can find them and the coloreds don’t confess. The park ranger who called in the complaints is coming down to try for an ID. Ed, Arnie Reddin says you’re the best interrogator he’s ever seen, but you’ve never worked anything this–”
Ed stood up. “I’ll do it.”
“Son, if you do, you’ll have my job one day.”
Ed smiled–his loose teeth ached. Green said, “What happened to your face?”
“I tripped chasing a shoplifter. Sir, who’s talked to the suspects?”
“Just the doctor who cleaned them up. Dudley wanted Bud White to have first shot, but–”
“Sir, I don’t think–”
“Don’t interrupt me, I was about to agree with you. No, I want _voluntary_ confessions, so White is out. You’ve got first shot at all three. You’ll be observed through the two-ways, and if you want a partner for a Mutt and Jeff, touch your necktie. There’ll be a group of us listening through an outside speaker, and a recorder will be running. The three are in separate rooms, and if you want to play them off on each other, you know the buttons to hit.”