Read Online Because the Night by James Ellroy - Free Book Online Page B

thousand man hours spent probing every possible scientific angle. Yield: Zero. Extensive background checks on the three victims: Zero multiplied by the silence of the random factor—decent people at the wrong place at the wrong time, loved ones importuning God for the reason why, the unearthing of dull facts leading nowhere. The fingerprint report was a pastiche of swirls, streaks, and smudges; the heel marks and fabric elements found at the death scene were all attributed to the victims. The snitch reports that filtered back to Hollywood Division officers had the air of hyperbole and were inimical to Lloyd’s concept of the killer as being very smart and very cool and not at all interested in reaping renown for his handiwork. If the queries on stolen .41 revolvers came back negative, the only remaining option would be to initiate nationwide gun queries and have a team of computer jockeys and astute paperwork detectives run through the over three-hundred thousand automobile registration records for yellow Japanese imports, crosschecking them with criminal records and records of known criminal affiliates, looking for combustion points. If no two facts struck sparks and if the gun queries washed out, the case would be shunted into the bureaucratic backlog.
    Lloyd recoiled at the knowledge that time was running out. Seated at Dutch Peltz’s desk, savoring the feel of a silent Hollywood Station drifting toward dusk, he read over Xeroxes of the Field Interrogation Reports he had requisitioned city wide. On the night of April 23, eleven yellow Japanese cars had been stopped for traffic violations and/or “suspicious behavior.” Four of the people cited and detained had been women, five had been ghetto black men, two with no criminal record, three with misdemeanor records for possession of drugs and nonpayment of child support. The two remaining white men were a lawyer stopped and ultimately arrested for drunk driving and a teenager popped for driving under the influence of a narcotic substance, which the arresting officer surmised to be airplane glue. No sparks.
    Lloyd yelled, “Shit!” and stormed through his makeshift command post looking for a pen and paper. Finding a yellow legal pad and a stack of pencils atop Dutch’s bookcase, he wrote:
    Dutchman—time running out. There’s a shitload of hotel stick-ups downtown, so I’ll probably get yanked to a robbery assignment soon. The 4/23 F.I.s and the snitch feedback are goose-egg. Will you do the following for me?
    1. Have another team of uniformed officers house to house (6-8 block radius) the area surrounding Freeway Liquor. Have them ask about:
    A. Yellow Jap cars recently seen in area. (Lic. #)
    B. Recent loiterers.
    C. Recent conversations with the three deceased. All 3 victs. were locals. Did they mention anything suspi cious?
    D. Have officers check previous canvass report filed by patrolmen who house-to-housed the night of the kill ings. Have them check residences of people who were not home that night.
    E. Tell the men that Robbery/Homicide has allocated unlimited overtime on this case—they’ll get the $ in their next check.
    2. Glom all H.W. Div. EI.’s for past 6 mos. men tioning yellow Jap. autos. Set aside all incoming FI.s featuring same, and collate all incoming rob. & homicide bulletins mentioning same.
    3. Re: Herzog. I’ve got a weird feeling about this—even beyond the fact J.H. stole my file. I want some kind of handle on it before we call I.A.D. Have you run your grapevines on the 6 officers? Are the files still missing? I’m going to sleep at J.H.’s pad for the next several nights—(886–3317) see what happens—also, if the Rob./Hom. brass can’t find me, they can’t reassign me—L.H.
    There was a knock at the door, followed by the sound of coughing. Lloyd put his memo under Dutch’s quartz bookend and called out, “Enter!”
    Lieutenant Walt Perkins