a few moments they slowed and stopped. I watched his face and waited. It was years since I had tried any hypnotic techniques, and that had been to draw out visual descriptions of events and suspects. What I wanted from Cross now was a memory of a time and place and the dialogue that went with it.
“You see the blackboard, Law?”
“Yeah, I see it.”
“Okay, go to the board and write Jack’s name on it. Write it at the top so you have room underneath it.”
“Harry, this is stupid. I -”
“Just humor me, Law. Write Jack’s name at the top of the board.”
“Okay.”
“Okay, Law, that’s good. Now look at the board and underneath Jack’s name write the words ‘phone call.’ Okay?”
“Okay, did it.”
“Good. Now look at those three words and concentrate on them. Jack. Phone call. Jack. Phone call.”
The silence that followed my words was punctuated by the barely discernible ticking of the new clock.
“Now, Law, I want you to concentrate on the black around those words. Around those letters. Go through the letters, Law, into the black. Go through the letters.”
I waited and watched his eyelids. I saw the retinal movement begin again.
“Jack is talking to you, Law. He’s telling you about the agent. He says she has new information on the movie set heist.”
I waited for a long moment, wondering if I should have mentioned Gessler by name, then deciding it was better that I hadn’t.
“What is he saying to you, Law?”
“There’s something wrong with the numbers. They don’t match.”
“Did she call him?”
“She called him.”
“Where are you when he is telling you this, Law?”
“We’re in the car. We’ve got court.”
“Is it a trial?”
“Yes.”
“Whose trial is it?”
“It’s that little Mexican kid. The little gangbanger who killed the Korean jeweler on Western. Alejandro Penjeda. It’s the verdict.”
“Penjeda is the defendant?”
“That’s right.”
“And Jack got the call from the agent before you went to court to hear the verdict?”
“That’s right.”
“Okay, Law.”
I had gotten what I wanted. I tried to think what else I could ask him.
“Law? Did Jack say what the agent’s name was?”
“No, he didn’t say.”
“Did he say he would check out the information she gave him?”
“He said he’d do some checking but that he thought it was a bullshit call. He said he didn’t think it meant anything.”
“Did you believe him?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, Law, I’m going to tell you to open your eyes in a moment. And when you open them, I want you to feel like you just woke up but I want you to remember what we just talked about. Okay?”
“Okay, yes.”
“And the other thing is I want you to feel better. I want you to be… okay about things in your life. I want you to be as happy as you can be, Law. Okay?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, Law, open your eyes now.”
The eyelids fluttered once and then they were open. They strafed the ceiling and then came to me. They seemed brighter than before.
“Harry…”
“How do you feel, Law?”
“Okay.”
“You remember what we were talking about?”
“Yeah, that little Mex. Penjeda. We called him PinHeada. He didn’t take the deal the DA floated. Life with. He took his chances with the jury and got snake eyes. Life without.”
“Live and learn.”
What sounded like what might have been a laugh gurgled from deep in his throat.
“Yeah, that was a good one,” he said. “I remember when we were going over to court that day was when Jack told me about the call from Westwood.”
“Right. You remember when that verdict came in on Penjeda?”
“End of February, beginning of March. My last trial, Harry. A month later I took the bullet in that shithole bar and I was history. I remember watching PinHeada’s face when he heard that verdict and knew he was facing life without parole. Fucker got what he deserved.”
The laugh came up again and then I saw the light go out of his eyes.
“What is it, Law?”
“He’s up there at Corcoran playing handball in the yard or getting his ass rented out by the Mexican Mafia on an hourly basis. And I’m here. I got life without, too, I guess.”
His eyes looked into mine. I nodded because it was the only thing I could think of to do.
“It’s not fair, Harry. Life isn’t fair.”
17
The downtown library was on Flower and Figueroa. It was one of the oldest buildings in the whole city. Therefore it was dwarfed by the modern glass-and-steel structures that surrounded it. Inside it was a beauty, centered around a domed rotunda with 360-degree mosaics depicting the founding of the city by the padres.