The cold six thousand

SEARCH FOR KING ASSASSIN BROADENS

_DOCUMENT INSERT_: 4/12/68. Houston _Chronicle_ headline and subhead:

LAUNDRY-MARK CLUE ID'S ASSASSINATION SUSPECT

_DOCUMENT INSERT_: 4/14/68. Miami _Herald_ subhead:

RIOT DAMAGE ASSESSED IN WAKE OF KING ASSASSINATION

_DOCUMENT INSERT_: 4/15/68. Portland _Oregonian_ headline and subhead:

_DOCUMENT INSERT_: 4/19/68. Dallas _Morning News_ subhead:

HUNT FOR KING ASSASSIN "#1 PRIORITY," HOOVER SAYS

_DOCUMENT INSERT_: 4/20/68. New York _Daily News_ headline and subhead:

_DOCUMENT INSERT_: 4/22/68. Chicago _Sun-Times_ headline and subhead:

_DOCUMENT INSERT_: 4/23/68. Los Angeles _Examiner_ subhead:

SKID ROW MURDER VICTIM DURFEE REVEALED AS LONG-SOUGHT RAPIST-KILLER

_DOCUMENT INSERT_: 5/7/68. New York _Times_ headline:

_DOCUMENT INSERT_: 5/10/68. San Francisco _Chronicle_ headline:

_DOCUMENT INSERT_: 5/14/68. Los Angeles _Examiner_ subhead:

SEARCH FOR KING ASSASSIN SHIFTS TO CANADA

_DOCUMENT INSERT_: 5/15/68. Phoenix _Sun_ subhead:

_DOCUMENT INSERT_: 5/16/68. Chicago _Tribune_ subhead:

HOOVER SAYS KING ASSASSINATION "NOT A CONSPIRACY"

_DOCUMENT INSERT_: 5/22/68. Washington _Post_ headline and subhead:

_DOCUMENT INSERT_: 5/26/68. Cleveland _Plain Dealer_ subhead:

_DOCUMENT INSERT_: 5/26/68. New York _Daily News_ subhead:

RAY DESCRIBED AS "AMPHETAMINE ADDICT-LONER"

_DOCUMENT INSERT_: 5/27/68. Los Angeles _Examiner_ subhead:

_DOCUMENT INSERT_: 5/28/68. Los Angeles _Examiner_ subhead:

LAPD LINKS VICTIM TO RECENT RAPE-MURDERS OF THREE WOMEN

_DOCUMENT INSERT_: 5/28/68. Portland _Oregonian_ headline and subhead:

MOVES CAMPAIGN TO CRUCIAL CALIFORNIA TEST

_DOCUMENT INSERT_: 5/29/68. Los Angeles _Times_ subhead:

_DOCUMENT INSERT_: 5/30/68. Los Angeles _Times_ subhead:

RECORD CROWDS CHEER RFK'S PLEDGE TO END WAR

_DOCUMENT INSERT_: 6/1/68. San Francisco _Chronicle_ subhead:

RFK SETS BREAKNECK PACE IN CALIFORNIA CAMPAIGN

(Lake Tahoe, 6/2/68)

The hole-up:

Wayne Senior's cabin / four rooms / secluded. Up mountain roads. Wide views and trout streams.

Home for now. Home since Memphis.

He had a scrambler phone. He had a food stash. He had a TV He had shit to sort out. He had time to think.

Let's wait. The Feds will get Jimmy Ray. LAPD will give up on Durfee.

Bob Relyea had his hole-up. Bob had some shack near Phoenix. Wayne got better lodging. Wayne made phone calls. Wayne watched TV.

The Feds traced Ray to England. The search tapped out there. They'll get him. They'll kill him or bust him. He'll give up "Raul." They'll say you're crazy. They'll say there is no "Raul."

The TV spieled news. Wayne Senior called daily. Wayne Senior spieled gossip.

I work with Carlos now. Carlos said he got some tapes. Mr. Hoover sent them. The tapes scared him. Bobby K.'s out to fuck us. Let's clip him fast.

Wayne Senior tattled. _See what l know?_ Wayne Senior bragged.

Fred O.'s gigging it. He runs the new shooter. Pete B. runs backup. Wayne Senior gloated. _I'm an insider_. Wayne Senior bragged.

Pete killed some kadre men. Pete klipped loose ends at sea. Carlos told me that. Wayne Senior tattled. _Your daddy hears things_. Wayne Senior bragged.

The kadre biz was a shuck. The Boys fucked the Cause. Carlos told me that. Wayne hashed it out. Wayne came to this: I just don't care.

He watched TV. He caught the war. He caught politics. Wayne Senior puffed. Bobby's a dead man. I'll set Nixon up with the Boys.

Wayne hashed it out. It felt felicitous. Wayne grooved the details. Wayne foresaw the balance.

King's dead. Bobby soon. Shit will peak and resettle. The Poor People's March tanked. The riots upstaged it. Fools popped their rocks and resettled. Chaos is taxing. Fools tire quick. King's death let them roar and resettIe. Bobby will go. Dick Nixon will reign. The country will roar and resettle.

The fix will work. Peace will reign. His type will run things. He saw it. He felt it. He _knew_.

And:

_You'll_ step up. You'll get _your_ piece. You _know_ it. You're making calls. You're listening. You're _thinking_.

He called Wayne Senior. He let him talk. He let him tattle and puff.

Wayne Senior said this:

Littell will retire. I'll get his job. I'll span Howard Hughes and the Boys. Dick Nixon and _me_. Dick and the Boys-shitfire.

Wayne listened. Wayne prompted. Wayne dropped soft tell-me-mores.

Wayne Senior said:

I ran Maynard Moore. He was my snitch. I bankrolled most of Dallas. I sent you there. I got you close. I bought you history. You killed Moore-_didn't you?_-you _lived_ history.

Wayne dodged the probe. Wayne rethought Dallas. Moore and the bankroll were old news. The hot news was contempt and hubris.

Dallas derailed your life. Dallas killed your wife. Dallas almost killed you. Wendell D. was there. You weekended with him. Cut to your last rendezvous.

Wayne Senior found Durfee. Dwight Holly helped. They found him and staked him for you. Durfee killed three more women. He killed them during that interval-_before_ your last rendezvous.

Wayne Senior gloated. _Hear this now_. Wayne Senior bragged. Pete killed the kadre men. Carlos vouched the job. Carlos said Pete could "retire." Carlos lied to Pete. Carlos told Wayne Senior why.

Pete was impetuous. Pete was erratic. Pete had ideals. Pete and Barb go. Pete and Barb go after Bobby. Carlos has a guy. His name's Chuck the Vice. Chuck kills shitfire. Carlos will call Chuck _aprиs_ Bobby.

Hubris. Miscalculation. Pure contempt for YOU.

He had time. He had the phone. He had scrambled frequencies. He called out. He didn't call Barb. He didn't call Pete.

He called Janice. He listened. She talked.

She had cancer. They cut some out. Most of it spread. She had six months tops. She blamed herself. Her cramps hid the symptoms. Said cramps were Wayne Senior-derived.

She hid the prognosis. She never told Ward. She moved into his suite. She still loved the golf course. She still hit shag balls.

She was fading. Ward never sensed it. Ward was soooo Ward. Ward talked in his sleep now. Ward invoked "Bobby" and "Jane."

Ward studied ledger books. There were two separate sets. Ward had them hidey-hole stashed. Ward was secretive. Ward was heedless. She found the stash.

Teamster books. Figures and code names. One set. Anti-Mob books. Typed pages with hand scrawls. One set.

Feminine scrawl. Probably scrawled up by "Jane."

Ward mimeo'd the Jane sheets. Ward wrote cover notes. Ward filled envelopes. Ward was secretive. Ward was heedless. She watched him. She peeked and saw.

She did the pencil trick. She traced a scratch-pad sheet. She bagged a cover note verbatim. Ward wrote to "Paul Horvitz." He was on Bobby's staff. Ward pleaded. Ward groveled. Ward pressed. Ward said here's more dirt. Ward said I'm not a spy. Ward said _please don't hate me_.

It was pathetic. Janice said so.

He called her again. She disdained cancer talk. She talked about Ward.

He's guilt-wracked. He's paranoid. He's confused. He's talking crazy. He says the Feds are on me. He says the Boys might be out for Bobby.

He plays Bobby tapes. He plays them late at night. He thinks I'm asleep. He sleeps fitful. He prays for Bobby. He prays for Martin Luther King. He split ten days ago. He hasn't called. I think he wigged out.

I miss him. I might burn his stash pile. It might drive some sense home. It might wake him up.

Wayne said don't do it. Janice laughed. Janice said it was just talk. Wayne proposed a date. He said I'll pass through Vegas soon. We'll meet at Ward's suite.

Janice said yes.

He wanted her. Dying or not. He knew it. Janice got him thinking. _Everything_ did.

He got an urge. It was time-travel stuff. It reached back fourteen years. He called his mother in Peru, Indiana.

The call shocked her. He let her calm down. They broke some ice. They bridged some pauses. They talked. He lied his life off. She said all good things.

You were a tender child. You loved animals. You set trapped coyotes free. You were a brilliant child. You learned complex math. You excelled at chemistry. You carried no hate. You played with colored children. You loved righteously.

I was pregnant once. It was '32-two years before you. Wayne Senior had a dream. He saw the baby as a girl. He wanted a boy.

He beat my stomach in. He used brass knuckles. The baby died. Wayne Senior was right. It was a girl. The doctor told me.

Wayne said goodbye then. His mother said God bless.

Wayne thought it through. Wayne called Janice. Wayne set up their date.