Chasing Darkness

by Robert Crais

  I was still listening to the trees when the phone rang, and a quiet female voice came from two thousand miles away.

  “Is this the World’s Greatest Detective?”

  I immediately felt better. I felt warm, and at peace.

  “It was. How’re you doing?”

  Lucy said, “Was?”

  “Long story.”

  “I think I know part of it. Joe called.”

  “Pike called you?”

  “He said you could use an ear.”

  “Did Joe really call?”

  “Tell me about Lionel Byrd.”

  The canyon grew dark as I told her. As the outside darkness deepened, the houses dotting the banks and ridges of the canyon glowed with flickering lights.

  When I finished, she said, “So what do you think?”

  “It’s just the thought of it, I guess. Sometimes you can’t duck the blame even when you do everything straight up and by the book.”

  “Do you believe Byrd killed those seven people?”

  “Looks that way, but I don’t know. The facts appear to be on their side.”

  “It might look that way, but do you believe it?”

  I hesitated, thinking back through everything Lindo and Starkey had told me, and also everything I had learned three years ago on my own.

  “No. Maybe I should, but I don’t. I know Byrd. Not the way someone who knows him would know him, but I put everything I had into reconstructing his life on the night Yvonne Bennett was murdered. That night, I owned him. I had him by the places he went, the people he met, what he said to them, and how he said it. I knew how loud he talked, how little he tipped, where he sat, and how long he stayed before moving on. An A-list predator would have blended into the background, but Byrd was loud, crude, obvious, and drunk. I knew him on that night better than anyone, and I do not believe he killed Yvonne Bennett. Maybe he knew the murderer, I guess that’s possible, but he did not kill Yvonne Bennett. I do not believe it. I can’t.”

  “Listen to me. Are you listening?”

  “Yes.”

  “Even if the worst is true, what happened here is not your fault. You will feel bad, and you will mourn because something so ugly happened, but you have always acted with a good heart. If this terrible thing is true, do you know what you will do?”

  I nodded, but didn’t answer.

  “You will man up and ranger on. I will personally fly out on the L-jet, and hold you. Do you hear me?”

  The L-jet was our personal joke. If Lucy had a private jet, it would be the L-jet.

  I said, “You’re holding me now.”

  “I’m not finished. Have you been drinking?”

  “Yes.”

  “Listen to me.”

  “I miss you.”

  “Shut up and listen. I want you to listen to me.”

  “I’m listening.”

  “Say something funny.”

  “Lucy, c’mon—”

  She raised her voice.

  “Say something funny!”

  “Something funny.”

  “Not your best effort, but it’s a start. Now hang up.”

  “Why?”

  “Just hang up. I’ll call right back.”

  She hung up. I held the phone, wondering what she was doing. A few seconds later it rang. I answered.

  “Luce?”

  She shouted.

  “Answer like you mean it!”

  She hung up again. I waited again. The phone finally rang, so I answered the way she wanted.

  “Elvis Cole Detective Agency. We find more for less. Check our prices.”

  Her voice came back as gentle as a kiss.

  “That’s my World’s Greatest.”

  “I love you, Luce.”

  “As a friend.”

  “Sure. Friends.”

  “I love you, too.”

  “We could be friends with benefits.”

  “You never give up.”

  “Part of the benefit package.”

  “I’d better get going. Call me.”

  “Call you what?”

  She hesitated, and I knew she was smiling. I could feel her smile from two thousand miles away, but then my own smile faded.

  I said, “Do you think I’m kidding myself?”

  “I think you want to be convinced. One way or the other, you’ll have to convince yourself.”

  I stared at the black canyon below, and the lights showing warm on the ridges.

  “If Byrd didn’t kill them, then someone else did.”

  “I know.”

  She was silent for a while, then her voice was soft and caring.

  “You told me the facts were on their side. If you don’t like their facts, find your own facts. That’s what you do, World’s Greatest. No one does it better.”

  She hung up before I could answer.

  I held the phone for a while, then called Pike. His machine picked up with a beep. Pike doesn’t have an outgoing message. You just get the beep.

  I said, “You’re a good friend, Joe. Thanks.”

  PART TWO

  UP IN THE CANYON

  8

  THE WIND died during the night, leaving the canyon behind my house still and bright the next morning. I brought in the paper, then went into the kitchen, where the cat who shared the house was waiting. He’s large and black, with delicate fur and more scars than an Ultimate Fighter after a bad run. He loves me, he worships Joe Pike, and he pretty much hates everyone else. All the fighting has had an effect.

  I said, “How’s life in Cat Land?”

  When your girlfriend lives two thousand miles away, you talk to your cat.

  He was sitting by his dish where he waits for breakfast, only this time he brought his own. The hindquarters of a tree rat were on the floor by his feet.

  The cat blinked at me. Proud. Like I should fall to and dig in.

  He said, “Mmrh.”

  “Good job, m’man. Yum.”

  I cleaned it up with paper towels, then gave him a can of tuna. He growled when I threw away the legs, but the tuna helped him get over it.

  I made a cup of instant coffee, then put on a pot of real coffee to brew while I read the newspaper’s coverage of Lionel Byrd: Killer Leaves Bloody Album of Death.

  The Times had done a good job with so little time. The story was tight and direct, describing how uniformed officers had discovered Byrd dead by his own hand while evacuating Laurel Canyon during the recent fires. The “death album” and the pictures within it were described in tasteful detail. A photograph of Marx and Councilman Wilts appeared on page six, along with a sidebar article identifying the seven victims and showing the locations of their murders. Yvonne Bennett’s description left me feeling sad. She had draped herself in lies like summer scarves to convince people she was other than she was, but now a cold five-word phrase summed up her life: twenty-eight-year-old prostitute.

  Only a single paragraph mentioned that Byrd had been charged with her murder, focusing more on his history of violence toward prostitutes than why the charges had been dropped. As with the newscast the night before, neither Levy nor I was mentioned. After the way Marx carried on when we met, I had expected him to publicly condemn us, but he had not.

  I finished the story, but hadn’t learned much more than I already knew. Marx had spoken much about the album and Byrd’s criminal history, but presented no additional evidence linking Byrd to the victims or the crime scenes. No comment was made about DNA, witnesses before or after the fact, how Byrd selected and stalked his victims, or how he avoided detection.

  I clipped out the article and map, then used the names and dates to search online for articles published at the times of the original murders. There wasn’t much to find. Only four of the seven murders had made the local papers, producing a total of nine published pieces spread over the seven years. I made notes as I read.

  Sondra Frostokovich, the first victim, had been given six column inches in a single article. Described as an office ma
nager in the city administration, her body was found in a downtown office building empty for renovation. She had been strangled only four blocks from the city administration building where she worked. The story ended with a pro forma plea that anyone with knowledge of the crime contact a Central Bureau Homicide detective named Thomas Marx. I wondered if it was the same Marx. Had to be. I wondered if he even remembered.

  Janice M’Kele Evansfield was the second victim, whose arcing blood showed that she was still alive when the picture in Lindo’s book was taken. Her body had been discovered at the edge of the Brentwood Country Club in one of the richest parts of L.A., eleven months and sixteen days after the Frostokovich killing. A follow-up article two weeks later reported there were no suspects in the case and requested the public’s help.

  Unlike Frostokovich and Evansfield, the third, fourth, and fifth victims were prostitutes. Chelsea Ann Morrow, Marsha Trinh, and Yvonne Bennett had not been covered by the local papers, but the sixth victim, a homeless woman named Lupe Escondido, made the front page because of the horrific nature of her murder. On a cooling night in October, she had been doused with gasoline while sleeping behind the Studio City Park and burned to death. In the picture Lindo showed me, she had been engulfed by yellow flames. I hadn’t even been able to tell she was human.

  I read about Escondido, then went to the kitchen because I needed a break from the deaths. The cat purred when I looked at him. He was by the garbage bin where I dumped his rat. I opened the bin, fished out the legs, and put them in his dish.

  I said, “You earned them.”

  The final two articles were about the most recent victim, Debra Repko.

  Like the first victim, Repko was white, educated, and professional. She had recently earned an MA in political science from USC, after which she was hired by a downtown political consulting firm called Leverage Associates. Sometime between eleven P.M. and two A.M. thirty-six days before Lionel Byrd’s body was discovered, she was struck from behind and suffocated by having a plastic garbage bag held over her head. This event occurred behind a strip mall two blocks from her apartment on the outskirts of Hancock Park, just south of Melrose Avenue. She was survived by her parents and three brothers, all of whom were heartbroken by the news of her death.

  I pushed the articles aside, got a bottle of water, and went out onto my deck. The wind had died sometime during the night, and now two red-tailed hawks floated overhead. They had been down with the wind, but now they were up. They appeared to be hunting, but maybe they just enjoyed being in the sky. Maybe, for them, there was no difference.

  Thirty yards away, my neighbors were out on their own deck, reading the morning paper. They waved when they saw me and I waved back. I wondered if they were reading about Byrd.

  I drank some of the water, then stretched through the traditional twelve sun salutes from the hatha yoga. My neighbor Grace shouted across the hillside.

  “Do it naked!”

  Her husband laughed.

  The yoga flowed into a tae kwon do kata. I kicked and punched with focus from one side of the deck to the other, running one kata into the next, not the classic Korean forms, but combinations I had created: a little wing chun, a little krav maga, a little shen chuan. I moved through all three planes of space, working with greater intensity until sweat splattered the boards like rain and the pictures of dead people had faded. When I finished, Grace jumped to her feet and applauded.

  I shouted, “Your turn. Naked.”

  She lifted her T-shirt, flashing her breasts. Her husband laughed again.

  These neighbors are something.

  I drank the rest of the water, then went back inside as the phone rang. It was Alan Levy’s assistant.

  “Mr. Cole?”

  “Did Alan see the news about Lionel Byrd?”

  “Yes, sir. He’d like you to bring by your file at ten if that time works for you.”

  I told him the time worked fine, then returned to my notes. I combined the information I learned from Lindo and the Times with the facts I found online, then organized it into a chart:

  1—Frostokovich—wht—10/2—strngld—dwntn—(Marx!)

  2—Evansfield—blk—9/28—stab—Brtwd—jog—(?)

  3—Morrow—blk—10/7—blntfc—Hywd—pros—(?)

  4—Trinh—asn—9/23—stab—Slvrlk—pros—(?)

  5—Bennett—wht—10/3—blntfc—Slvrlk—pros—(Crimmens)

  6—Escondido—lat—10/9—fire—StCty—hmls—(?)

  7—Repko—wht—7/26—suff—HanPk—conslt.—(?)

  When you study these things you look for patterns, but patterns were in short supply.

  The victims were of diverse ethnic and economic backgrounds, and none had been raped, bitten, chewed, or sexually abused. Two of the murders occurred in Silver Lake, but the others were scattered throughout the city. The only common elements seemed to be that all of the victims were women and six of the seven murders had occurred in the fall.

  The most recent murder was different. Where the first six victims had all been murdered in the fall, Debra Repko had died in the early summer, almost three months ahead of the others.

  I was wondering why when I had a notion about the dates and went back to my computer. You hear about killers being triggered by astrological events or the zodiac, so I googled an astronomy almanac and entered the dates.

  I didn’t learn anything about astrology, but the first six murders had all taken place within two days either way of the new moon—the darkest nights of the month. Repko had been murdered when the moon was nearing its three-quarter phase. After six consecutive murders in darkness, Debra Repko had been killed when the night sky was brilliantly lit.

  I checked the time. It was after nine, but I dug out Bastilla’s card and called. She was clipped and abrupt when she answered.

  “Bastilla.”

  “It’s Elvis Cole. You have a minute?”

  “Can I pick up the files?”

  “I’m seeing Levy at ten. Christ, Bastilla, can’t you ride a different horse?”

  “I have a lot to do, Cole. What do you want?”

  “How did you guys explain the differences in the Repko murder?”

  Bastilla didn’t speak for a moment. I heard noises in her background, but couldn’t tell if she was at her office or in her car.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Debra Repko was murdered three months out of sync with the others.”

  “Thank you. We know.”

  “She was killed on a night with a three-quarter moon. The first six were killed under a new moon. That’s a major change in method.”

  “Believe it or not, we know our business here. If you expect me to review our investigation with you, you’re out of your mind.”

  “Your asshole partner Crimmens telling me I got two women killed makes it my business, too.”

  “Good-bye, Cole. We’re done.”

  The line went dead in my ear, but I grinned hard at the phone.

  “Bastilla, I’m just getting started.”

  I showered, dressed, then packed up the copy of my files and went to see Alan Levy.

  Finding my own evidence.

  9

  PICTURE THE detective swinging into action. I picked up the freeway at the bottom of the Cahuenga Pass and called John Chen as I headed downtown. Chen was a senior criminalist with LAPD’s Scientific Investigation Division, and one of the greediest people I knew. He was also a total paranoid.

  Chen answered so softly I could barely hear him.

  “I can’t talk. They’re watching me.”

  You see?

  “I’m calling about Lionel Byrd. You have a minute?”

  Lindo mentioned Chen had worked on the case.

  “What’s in this for me?”

  The greed.

  “I’m not convinced Byrd killed Yvonne Bennett. I have questions about the most recent victim, too. She doesn’t match up with the others.”

  “You’re talking about Repko?”
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  “That’s right.”

  Chen lowered his voice even more.

  “It’s weird you’re asking about her.”

  “Why weird? Is she different from the others?”

  “Not so much, but the way they’re handling her is different. Shit—Harriet’s coming. I gotta go.”

  Harriet was his boss.

  “Call me, John. Repko and Byrd. I need your work, the CI, the medical examiner—whatever you can get. I’m heading downtown now.”

  “This is going to cost you.”

  Twenty minutes later I pulled into the parking garage beneath Barshop, Barshop & Alter, and brought the copy of my file upstairs to a lobby rich with travertine, cobalt glass, and African teak. Low-life criminals like Lionel Byrd could never hope to hire them, much less afford their fee, but Levy saw Byrd’s trumped-up confession as a ticket to argue before the California Supreme Court. After twenty years of practicing criminal law, Levy boasted a ninety-eight-percent acquittal rate and seven arguments before the California Supreme Court. Six of the seven were decided in Levy’s favor and resulted in precedent-setting case law. It was for this opportunity that Levy agreed to represent Lionel Byrd pro bono—for free. Levy’s firm even threw in my fee.

  Levy’s assistant was waiting when the elevator opened.

  “Mr. Cole? I’m Jacob. If you’ll come with me, please.”

  Alan was on the phone when we reached his office, seated behind a desk that probably cost a hundred thousand dollars. He raised a finger, indicating he would be with me in a minute, then made a brushing gesture, the brush telling Jacob to leave.

  Levy was a large man in his late forties with a wide head, bulging eyes, and poorly fitting clothes. He carried himself as if he was embarrassed by his appearance, but juries probably related to the sloppy clothes and awkward manner. I figured he was faking it. The first thing you noticed when you stepped into his office were the pictures of his family. Framed photographs of his wife and two little girls smiled down from the walls.