the shower the phone rang. It was Tom Demick. “I got that address from MasterCard you wanted. I tried your cell, but you must have had it turned off, and I left you a message on your room phone to call me. Didn’t you get it?”
“Sorry, I was out to dinner. It was late when I got in.”
Demick gave him the address. It was a post office box in Aqua Dulce. “Where’s that?”
“It’s about an hour north of here. Take the 101 to 170.”
“Thanks, Tom.” Vail hung up and looked at the blinking light on the phone. He had ignored it when he came in, thinking it was Tye Delson. He pushed the Message button. The first one was Demick asking Vail to call him. The remaining three were from Tye, each a little more drunken, a little more desperate. He turned on his cell phone and there were the same number of calls from both Demick and Tye. He took a deep breath and hit Tye’s callback number.
“’Lo,” answered a voice almost unrecognizable with sleep.
“Tye?”
“Oh, God, Steve.” Vail could hear her sitting up. “I’m so embarrassed.”
He laughed. “You should be. Are you all right now?”
“I wish I could say I was too drunk to remember, but unfortunately I do. You must hate me.”
“Yes, that’s why I called.”
“I’m so sorry.” Vail could hear her walking with the phone and then opening a door. “There is an explanation, not that there’s anything that could excuse what I did.”
“I don’t need an explanation.”
“Maybe I’ll hate myself a little less if I can give you one.”
“Then fire away.”
She didn’t say anything for a few seconds. “Great, that’s just great.”
“What?”
“The morning paper. It’s as bad as I thought.”
“What is?”
She sat down with an audible sigh. “You know I’ve been planning to leave the United States attorney’s office. I mentioned it a couple of months ago to a reporter who was covering one of my cases. Last night I stopped at one of the local watering holes to have a drink while the traffic cleared. And this reporter’s in the bar. Looking back on it now, I’m not so sure it was accidental. We start talking. Somehow he heard that I had gotten search warrants in the Pentad case, so he starts asking me about it. A couple more drinks and he tells me he’d like to do an article about me leaving the U.S. attorney’s office. As you’ve probably figured out by now, my judgment isn’t the best when I’m drinking. Eventually I started complaining about the Department of Justice, the United States attorney’s office here, and—I’m sorry, Steve—about how poorly, overall, the FBI conducted the investigation. That is until you got here and then repeatedly risked your life without a second thought or a bit of thanks. The article comes off as if I’ve got this big crush on you. By the time I got home last night and started sobering up, I realized what direction the reporter was going to take the article and wanted to give you a heads-up. I tried to reach you, and when I couldn’t, I started drinking until I finally found you, and by that time I was a mess.”
“Is that going to hurt you at work?” Vail asked.
“That’s your only concern?”
“In a couple of days I’ll just be one of the great unwashed in a place where they don’t read Los Angeles newspapers.”
“Can you ever forgive me?”
“For being concerned about me—I think so.”
“With a little bit of luck I’ll never have to face Kate again. She must legitimately hate me. I hope I didn’t cause any problems last night.”
“Kate’s a good person. And she also will be leaving L.A. soon.”
“I’m getting out of here too,” Tye said. “Do you think there’s any chance I’d like Chicago, Steve?”
He hesitated so she would understand what he was about to say had two meanings. “I’m afraid you wouldn’t find it much different from Los Angeles.”
She gave the kind of disheartened chuckle that came involuntarily after a failed long shot. “Sorry, Steve, I had to give it one last try.”
TWENTY-SEVEN
THE CLERK AT THE AQUA DULCE POST OFFICE HAD GIVEN VAIL DIRECTIONS to the old Franklin Movie Ranch. “It’s on Stanfield Road off Hope Creek Road.” The name on the box rental was the same as on the credit card receipt, Andrew Parker, with an address of simply Franklin Movie Ranch, Stanfield Road. The property had been used as a movie set back in the for-r ties when the studios were