by Philip Cox
‘Weren’t there any volunteers, Lieutenant?’ Quinn asked.
Perez walked round the side of his desk. ‘Think about it, guys. Sam: how long have I been behind this desk?’
Leroy shrugged. ‘Around three years, I guess.’
‘Three years seven months. And one week two days if you want to be pedante. And how much action have I seen in that time? Very little; I’ve been stuck behind that desk shuffling papers, worrying about budgets, figuring out rosters.’
‘So you’re missing the action?’ Leroy was unsure where this conversation would end up.
‘Some times. In a fashion. There’s no reason why I shouldn’t keep my hand in, as it were, is there?’
Leroy said nothing.
‘You have a problem, Sam?’
‘No problem, no. Just surprised.’
‘Also, I need every available man or woman on what they’re doing right now. So do downstairs. The captain’s happy with this: he says he’ll provide cover for me while I’m on this.’
A little less time on the golf course, Leroy thought, but did not say.
‘The other point is, Sam,’ the lieutenant went on, ‘is this. We talked about the risk whoever volunteers takes regarding whatever drugs these people are using, but it doesn’t need to go that far. If, for argument’s sake, I allow them to slip me something so the next morning I’m presented with some of my own dirty pictures, then we can’t book them for that. It would be entrapment. All we need to do is to flush these girls out, maybe the Chinese guy also. Or use the girls to get the Chinese and lead us to whoever else is in this.’
Leroy nodded. ‘Yeah. All that’s true.’ He pointed to some wiring lying on the lieutenant’s desk. ‘Is this what all that’s for?’
Perez picked the wiring up and unwound it. ‘I drew it out earlier. Take a look.’ He tossed it over to Leroy.
It was small: a junction box, no more than two inches long and the same in circumference. From one end led a single wire, coiled, which led to a small black box inside which was room for two small batteries. From the other end came three uncoiled wires. One led to an earpiece, one to a signet ring, the other to a miniature microphone.
‘Motorola Stealth,’ Perez explained while Leroy was checking over it. ‘The ring is actually the Push To Talk button.’
‘I know. I’ve used them a few times before.’
‘The wire to the earpiece is quite discreet, but I have no problem not using it. Each attachment is detachable. This one would be for you.’ He gave Leroy a smaller version, with two wires: earpiece and microphone. ‘As long as you’re listening in.’
Leroy dropped the wires back down on the desk. ‘Okay,’ he said quietly. ‘Let’s do it. But we still have the question of Evald Mets.’
Perez returned to the other side of his desk. ‘Yes, Evald Mets. Do you feel his murder’s connected to all this?’
‘The COD is slightly different. Strangled, not shot, not dismembered, but found in a dumpster, just like Kirk.’
‘Sam, you got any idea how many dead bodies are fished out of dumpsters in a year?’
‘No, but I can imagine. But it’s one hell of a coincidence.’
‘It is, yes; but he could have been involved in something else which got him killed and just happened to be at that mall at that time.’
‘Then why not just leave it?’ Quinn asked. ‘What’s that expression? “Discretion is the better part of valour”? And why was he looking in the dumpster at that time of night, anyway?’
Perez looked over to Leroy. ‘What do you think, Sam? What do you want to do about him?’
Leroy replied slowly. ‘I think Mets was somehow mixed up in all this. I don’t know how or why, but my gut tells me he was. But I also think that the key to all this is those girls, and we need to flush them out. They’ve been very clever: their faces aren’t really shown on the pictures, and they don’t have any distinguishing marks – tattoos, that sort of stuff. Ray’s checked with Vice, and come up with nothing there. We need to get them.’
‘But we can’t put investigating Mets’s murder on ice,’ Perez said.
Leroy nodded. ‘I know. But I want Ray and I to focus on this, for the next day or two.’ He paused, then asked the lieutenant, ‘I’m assuming somebody has called on his widow?’
‘Of course. A patrol car called to give her the news. She has to identify the body, after all.’
‘When we last spoke to her, she’d not seen her husband, and said she had no idea where he had gone. Was that still the case when they called?’
‘I’m not sure; we’ll need to check.’
‘What about where he worked? He worked in the kitchen in some Eastern European Restaurant a few blocks from where he lived.’
Perez shook his head. ‘I don’t believe so. I think they were waiting to decide on who was taking his case. I can get a patrol car to call, see if anybody had heard from him. I’m guessing we’ll need to call on that interpreter again.’
‘You may not need to. The restaurant’s owner is a prick by the name of Andrew Dudley. Told us he was originally from Sacramento, now has a house in Burbank. In fact, that’s where Mets had apparently been the night Kirk’s body turned up. For the purposes of his restaurant, he calls himself Dudinsky, Andrey Dudinsky.’
‘I’ll arrange for a patrol car to call on the restaurant, ask this Dudinsky - Dudley - if he can tell us anything, talk to some of the staff also.’
‘And tell him Mets won’t be showing up for work anymore,’ added Quinn.
‘Do me a favour, Lieutenant,’ Leroy said. ‘Get the patrol car to park in plain sight outside the restaurant. Dudley’s too arrogant, brash, cocksure, for my liking.’
‘You think he had something to do with Mets’s murder?’
‘I’d like him to, but there’s no evidence.’
‘You just don’t like the guy?’ Perez asked.
Leroy said nothing.
‘I’ll do that now, then.’ Perez sat down and picked up his desk phone. You two go do what you need to do. Sam, can you get me booked into the Stocker for tonight, and tomorrow night. We’ll take a view if nothing happens after two nights.’
‘What alias?’ Leroy asked.
‘Better use my real name; they might ask for ID. Nobody knows me there, in any case. Once I’m booked in, I can get down there late afternoon and check in. I have next month’s rosters and overtime projections to work through while I’m there.’
Leroy and Quinn turned to go. ‘Hightower was at the LACC so would have gotten back to the hotel around five, five-thirty. Kirk would have done the same. What say we touch base here around four, then head off? We can’t arrive there together, of course.’
‘Of course not. We can leave here together; you can give me a ride as far as Pershing Square, maybe. I’ll get the subway the rest of the way.’
Plan agreed, Leroy and Quinn returned to their own desks.
‘I didn’t see that coming,’ Quinn said as they stood by the coffee machine.
Leroy grinned. ‘No, neither did I.’
‘What’s funny?’
Leroy shook his head. ‘You’ve never met la senora Perez, have you?’
‘No.’
‘Our lieutenant’s going to have to spend the next few hours convincing her why he’s booked himself two nights alone at the Stocker.’
Still grinning, Leroy took his coffee back to his desk.
Chapter 41
Leroy and Quinn left the Station at just after four, with Lieutenant Perez in the back seat. Somehow, during the day, he had gotten himself an overnight bag. Maybe he kept one in his office in case of an emergency; maybe he had always intended to volunteer himself. They dropped the lieutenant off at Pershing Square and headed straight for the hotel, remaining in the underground parking garage. Perez himself headed for the Red Line and took the two stops to Union Station and walked across to the hotel, overnight bag over his shoulder and attaché case in his hand. As agreed, they did not inform the hotel management
of their presence.
‘We’re not going to tell the hotel manager about this, are we?’ Perez had asked on the way there.
‘No,’ Leroy replied. ‘These girls may just be bar-hopping on the look-out for men on their own, men who look like family men. Or, there’s also the possibility that somebody working at the hotel is looking at who’s booked in, and if they fit the profile, passing their details on. Which is why I didn’t want Ray or me to be staying here; we’d be recognised.’
Quinn looked over to his partner. ‘So Hightower, and Kirk, were marked men even before they arrived.’
‘I reckon so,’ Leroy replied. ‘They must have fitted the profile these people were after, so - yes, maybe even before they took off from Alabama.’
Perez adjusted his position in the back of the car. ‘I’ve come up here from La Mesa. I’m here for two nights. I have a wife and five children back home.’
‘Yup, that seems to be the right profile. Let’s hope you get lucky tonight. Here’s Pershing Square, Lieutenant.’
Perez checked in, and went up to his room, Room 922. It was almost 5pm. ‘Can you guys hear me?’ he asked as he walked round the room. He had decided to retain the earpiece as it was very discreet, the wire being almost invisible except at a close distance. To activate the microphone, all he had to do was press the top of the dummy signet ring.
‘Yes, Lieutenant, loud and clear,’ answered Leroy, relieved that they had an excellent reception, even though they were parked in the hotel’s basement garage.
‘I’m going to go downstairs, take a look around. Make myself visible. See if I can spot either of those two girls. Get this over with tonight.’
‘Ten-four, Lieutenant.’ Leroy released his microphone and said to Quinn, ‘I just hope he doesn’t screw things up by jumping the gun. Ten to one he’s up there worrying about how much overtime this operation’s incurring.’
Quinn grinned. He watched as two cars entered the garage, drove around and found a space. The drivers both locked their vehicles: one waited for the elevator which went direct to the lobby; the other headed for the emergency staircase. ‘Last night,’ he said, ‘you made some crack about the lieutenant’s wife. What was all that about?’
Leroy chuckled. ‘You never met Rosanne Perez?’
‘No.’
‘She’s Hispanic, like him, but has a real hot temper. He can get a bit fiery at times - always has – but she can get off the Richter scale. When I moved out here, his previous partner had retired early or something, so I was with Roman literally from Day One. Well, we were about a week into things when he let it slip that he had been banging some traffic cop.’
‘A woman cop?’
‘Oh, for sure. This was all before your time, I think. Anyway, Rosanne found out somehow - she didn’t get it from me – and for weeks he had to sleep in hotels, in the squad room, in his car. He even spent a few nights on my couch.’
‘She forgave him, though?’
‘Eventually. I guess she did: they had two more kids after that. But he’s always had to give her a minute by minute account of what he was doing, where he had been, after then. Things might have changed since he got the lieutenant’s job, but I can imagine her reaction when he told her he would be staying here for two nights.’
‘To pick up two girls.’
‘Oh, he won’t have told her that. He would have said it’s some kind of undercover operation, given her some kind of bullshit. Oh Christ, I hope she doesn’t show up.’
‘Is she likely to?’
‘Unlikely. Jesus, what a thought.’
As if on cue, Perez came through on the radio. ‘I’m headed for the bar. Just bought three or four newspapers. I’ll sit in the bar with them, see who comes in.’
Perez took his four newspapers to the bar, read all of them front page to back, twice. He ate alone in one of the hotel restaurants, checked out the other, and returned to the bar, where he remained until midnight.
While they waited downstairs, Leroy called the patrol team who were going to visit the restaurant where Mets worked. They had not been there yet: they were on their way but were diverted to a shooting. Now they were about to go off shift: did Leroy want them to pass the details onto another car?
‘No, don’t do that. Go tomorrow, not at the crack of dawn. Sometime after 11am, when everybody’s there. It’s a restaurant, remember? And remember to park out front, in plain sight. I want everybody eating there, in fact everybody on that block, to know the police are visiting.’
Midnight, and Perez told them he was going to bed. ‘Wasted evening. Let’s hope we have more success tomorrow; otherwise we ‘re going to have to try another approach.’
After Perez had signed off, Leroy said, ‘I told you he’d be bothered about the cost of all this. Look: here’s our relief.’ The patrol car pulled up alongside: Leroy handed over the radio and briefed the officers one more time. It was very unlikely that anything was going to happen tonight, but if it did, he told them how to respond and then to call him. He and Quinn would relieve them by seven the next morning.
*****
It was actually 6:30 the next morning when Leroy and Quinn arrived back in the parking garage. The officers reported that it had been a quiet night: Perez had called a half hour ago, and was getting up. Once back in the car, Leroy called Perez and told him they were back.
‘Fine,’ the lieutenant said. ‘I’m out of the shower, and will head downstairs for breakfast around seven. You never know, they might be around then.’
Leroy shook his head. Unlikely, but the lieutenant might get himself spotted.
Perez had himself a plate of heuevos rancheros, while Leroy and Quinn settled for a breakfast burrito from a stand at the end of Olvera Street. At 8:15 Perez went down to Reception and asked them to call him a cab to the Convention Center. The receptionist told him there was no need, as there was a taxi stand at the front of the hotel. Now the reception team knew he was headed for the LACC, Perez took his cab there, Leroy and Quinn following.
Chapter 42
There were two events on at the Convention Center that day: a naturalization ceremony in the south hall, and a convention held by the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery in the west hall. The next week the Center was due to host auditions for the television show America’s Got Talent.
Perez had arranged to meet Leroy and Quinn at the cafeteria on the mezzanine level: his taxi dropped him off out front, while the others headed for the parking lot. To park outside and have to go through the ritual of showing identification may have attracted unwanted attention. They arrived some fifteen minutes after the lieutenant; taking the escalator up one level, they found him sitting at one of the tables with three cups of coffee.
‘We need to be careful, even here,’ Leroy said as he sat down and looked over the balcony to the huge lobby below. ‘It’s possible that Hightower and the others were picked out here. Most of the guys down there would be in the same situation: here on business, away from home, staying alone in a hotel. Not too difficult to follow someone back to where they’re staying.’
‘Others?’ asked Quinn.
‘Think about it. It’s too slick for them to be just starting out. No way were Hightower and Kirk the only ones. No way, man.’
‘Kirk followed Hightower’s route exactly, didn’t he?’ said Perez.
Leroy agreed. ‘Yup, even down to catching the same flight.’
‘So it could be somebody here, or at the hotel, or even the cab driver.’
‘Or even the airline,’ said Quinn.
‘Or even the airline.’ Leroy looked around. ‘What do you plan to do here all day, Lieutenant?’
Perez snorted. ‘No way am I sitting on my ass drinking coffee all day. I’ll have to make it look as if I have business here. There’s lots of guys in suits just wandering about. Look.’
Leroy and Quinn looked down at the lobby. The place was full of business men: most in suits, most on their cell phones, some sitting on ch
airs working on laptops.
‘There are two events on here: a naturalization ceremony and something about eyes - an opticians’ convention, or something. I’m sure they’re both closed to the public, but I have my badge with me.’ He drank more coffee. ‘I didn’t notice any girls hanging around in either bar last night, or the restaurant. If I did, I’d’ve called you guys.’
Leroy raised himself in his chair and looked down at the lobby again. ‘Well, while you’re spending your day with eyes and naturalization, Ray and I will keep our eyes open for either one of those girls. We can separate for that, Ray: it’s a huge place here.’
‘There are a lot of hotels Downtown,’ Quinn said. ‘Maybe they’re working out of there now.’
‘That’s possible,’ Leroy replied. ‘But remember both Hightower and Kirk were taken at the Stocker. That hotel is the common denominator.’
‘If nothing happens tonight,’ Perez said, ‘I’ll have to take a view on where we go next.’
‘Stay for a few more nights?’ Quinn asked.
‘Not with me. I can’t be away too long. We’ll have to find a volunteer.’ Perez checked his watch. ‘9:25. I’d best start hanging around here playing with myself. You two go look for those girls.’
‘Hightower told me he left here around four. Got back to the hotel 4:30.’
Perez spluttered over his coffee. ‘What? That’s seven hours here.’
‘Have a nice day, Lieutenant,’ Leroy grinned as he and Quinn got up. Perez muttered something in Spanish and picked up his attaché case. Back down in the lobby, Leroy and Quinn split up, leaving the lieutenant to descend the escalator alone and look business-like.
Quinn was assigned to the upper level, and spent the next few hours looking busy, and watching. He called his wife Holly a couple of times, just to relieve the boredom, and to look authentic.
‘Jeez, Ray; that must be so boring,’ she had said.
‘It is, but I keep telling you police work is mostly boring and routine.’
Leroy stayed on the lower level, doing the same. He wanted somebody to call on his cell phone, just to blend in more: he was on the verge of calling Julia, when his phone rang. It was the driver of the patrol car which had stopped by the Europa restaurant.