Strip

33

KAPAK SPOKE into his cell phone. “I just spent nearly an hour talking to Lieutenant Slosser. I need you to come and pick me up at the Parker Center.”

“I’ll be there as soon as I can.” Spence pressed the red phone symbol to end the call and put his phone away as he stood up. “He’s at the police station downtown. That lieutenant is bugging him again.”

“It’s an opportunity. You know what you want him to feel,” said Joe Carver. “So you say the things that will make him feel that way. If you run out of ideas, call. I’ll be right here in the guesthouse.”

“Just stay out of sight. I’ll probably be bringing him back here.” Spence went out the door of the guesthouse and made his way up the path through the tropical plants to the back of the house. He went right to the garage, got into the black Town Car, and backed it out of the driveway.

Spence drove downtown quickly. He had planned to pull up near the Parker Center where he had waited for Kapak during his first police interview, but when he reached North Los Angeles Street, he could already see him. Kapak was standing on the sidewalk in front of the white stone with the weathered brass letters: DEDICATED TO WILLIAM H. PARKER, CHIEF OF POLICE. Spence stopped in front of the sign, leaned over, and pushed the door open, and Kapak climbed in looking irritated.

“See if the bastards follow us,” he said.

Spence drove a couple of blocks, turned, and went back the other way, then made a U-turn and then a series of right turns until he was near a freeway entrance with a split ramp that sent cars on the 110 freeway or the 101. He went onto the freeway, stayed to the 110 side until the last second, then changed lanes to go onto the 101. “Nobody was following. What did they want you for?”

“Lieutenant Slosser got the idea that I killed Rogoso last night and burned his house in Malibu.”

“Somebody did that?”

“Yeah. He had two men with him too—Alvin and Chuy. Slosser got the idea that it was me. I put up with the accusations as long as I could, until he got on my nerves. Then I said I wanted my lawyer, and he told me I could go.”

“I guess you must have been incredibly shocked to hear about Rogoso to begin with.”

“Not so much.”

“You did it?”

“I wouldn’t tell you, but since you did Joe Carver and didn’t make any big thing of telling me, I have to. Yeah, I did it. He was a rotten, crazy, greedy son of a bitch, and he was getting worse every day. He decided I was drawing attention to myself by letting Joe Carver rob me over and over. I’m listening to a man who had just bought a fifteen-million-dollar house on the beach at Malibu telling me I’m drawing attention. What he really thought was that I must be too weak to fight him off. That he could take over my clubs and kill me.”

“Jesus.”

“Yeah. He told his two monsters, Alvin and Chuy, to take me out for a ride and kill me. There wasn’t much choice.”

“If they’re dead and you’re here, you must have done the right thing.”

“That’s what I think.”

“And you killed everybody there and torched the house?”

“Well, there were a couple of girls—drug mules, no more than seventeen or eighteen, I think—who had come to take me to meet with Rogoso. I guess he used them because they didn’t look scary. And maybe because nobody wants some guy frisking him for weapons, but a girl can get away with checking everywhere.”

“Let me get this straight. What you did last night was kill Manuel Rogoso and Alvin and Chuy, and burn down the house. But there were also two witnesses, girls who worked for Rogoso.”

“Yeah.”

“Are they dead too?”

“No. I gave them the keys to Alvin’s car and told them to get out of there. I gave them time before I lit the fires in the house.”

“Holy shit. Where are they now?”

“I saw them a little while ago back at the police station.”

“Oh my God.”

“They’re drug mules. They could be in the station for anything—possession and sales is what they do—or maybe they’re out of work since Rogoso died, and they were caught turning tricks or boosting things from stores.”

“The day after the killing?”

“Young kids don’t know how to save money anymore.”

“They had to be in the police station ratting you out.”

“Could be,” Kapak admitted.

“It’s got to be,” Spence said. “Talking to the police is probably their only shot at staying alive.”

“Think so?”

“If Rogoso’s people know the girls were in the house when you killed Rogoso, how can they not think the girls helped you?”

“I guess you’re right. The police will protect them, maybe get them out of town.”

“How are we going to get you out of here?”

“What do you mean?

“You can’t stay in L.A.”

“Wait a minute. I haven’t decided anything like that. I mean, think about it. We’ve all had a rough week. It’s all just part of the Joe Carver problem. He robbed me a month ago, but we didn’t find him in all that time. That was what caused all this trouble for us. The worst thing it did was make that rat bastard Rogoso think he could kill me and take over. But you got Joe Carver, so he’s not going to be a nuisance anymore. I got Rogoso last night, and so he’s not a problem. There was a war going on for a few days, but it didn’t bring us down. We won. Our enemies are dead. It’s over.”

Spence said, “If you killed three men last night and the police have two eyewitnesses, then your trouble is only beginning.”

“Even if those two girls testified at a trial, the jury might not believe them.”

“I don’t see why they wouldn’t.”

“They’re criminals.”

“Do the girls know you did business with Rogoso?”

“They know something. They delivered Rogoso’s money to me a few times.”

“Think back. Can they say you were in business with Rogoso and how the business worked?”

“Sure, but who’s going to believe them?”

“Mr. Kapak, I don’t usually step out of line and give advice to my elders, or to the guy I’m working for. I shut up and learn. But you seem to be asking my opinion. Is that right?”

“I guess it is. Yeah,” Kapak said.

“Okay then. Will a jury believe two girls who worked for Rogoso when they say they saw you kill him and Alvin and Chuy? Yes. They will. Unanimously.”

“All I’ve got to do is pay one guy to hold out for innocent.”

“If there’s a hung jury, they don’t have to let you go. They can have another trial.”

“We can pay the next guy.”

“Even if we do, the whole story will have been in the papers and on television everywhere, every day, because it’s about a drug dealer with a house in Malibu and a strip club owner who’s been running dirty money through his pussy palaces for years to help gangsters. You’d be in worse trouble. Everybody in Rogoso’s organization, and all of his relatives, will know who got him. Getting off in court doesn’t get you off with them. There will be bunches of them out for revenge. There will also be people who can’t imagine anyone burning Rogoso’s house without first backing a truck up to the place and filling it with money and drugs. They’ll want to take you alive, but they’ll settle for dead, because then they can search your house and the clubs.”

Kapak let his frustration show. “I had no choice. What the hell am I supposed to do about any of that?”

“What I thought you must be doing already—getting out of town as fast as you can. Have the cops filed any charges yet?”

“No.”

“How do you know?”

“I asked Slosser before I left.”

“And he didn’t say you can’t leave the city?”

“No. And fuck him if he did.”

“This is good. It’s great. You’re still free. We’ve got to keep you out of sight and away from them. They’ll probably try to keep an eye on you so they can yank you in as soon as they’ve finished their investigation. They could even be running the case by the DA right now. Once they arrest you, you’re stuck.”

“But what about Rogoso’s people?”

“I don’t think they can know it was you yet. The girls would be crazy to tell anyone before they were under police protection, because Rogoso’s people would also want to know why you let them go and how they got away.” He sighed. “Of course, the minute you get arrested, it will be on the news. Then you worry about Rogoso’s people.”

Spence judged it was time to be silent and let Kapak think about his predicament. He drove the rest of the way to Kapak’s house, waiting for Kapak to change his mind and name another destination. He pulled up in front of the house, and Kapak said, “I’ve got some things to do right now. I’ll call you in an hour or two, so keep your phone on.”

“Don’t you want somebody around to watch your back?”

“No. This is stuff I have to do alone. And besides, the only ones who might come now are the police. If they do, I don’t want you watching my back. I want you miles away. It doesn’t do me any good to have both of us arrested.”