The Pallbearers

Chapter 19

It was 5:00 P. M., and I was back in my car on tlic cell to Alexa as I headed out of the Valley.

'That means Huntington House will get Walts life insurance." Alexa said after I told her what had just happened.

'They can certainly use it." But what I was thinking was how Alexa had embraced this from the beginning and had not put any of her own disappointment about losing our vacation 011 me. Sometimes this woman takes my breath away.

"I'd like you to rig this homicide so it ends up 011 my desk," I told her. "I know it's technically not a high-profile case and shouldn't go to Homicide Special, but there's gotta be some privilege we can claim to get it over there so Sally and I can work it." uOkav, but the reassignment has to come through channels. First the coroner needs to change his death finding and a homicide number needs to be assigned. Once that happens, I'll talk to Jeb and have him put in for it," referring to Captain Jeb Calloway, my boss at Homicide Special.

"I'm sorry about Hawaii, but I owe this to Walt. I can't let anybody else do it."

"I understand, babe. You don't have to apologize. What are you doing now? You want to meet me for an early dinner someplace?"

"I gotta go back to Harbor Division. I promised the two primaries who handled the original squeal I'd keep them in the pipeline. I want to do it in person."

"How about we meet at the Tiki Hut again around eight? Mai Tais on me."

"Book it."

Kovacevich and Cole were not happy with me, but they weren't exactly pissed off either. They were somewhere in between. Mostly they were just frustrated and angry at the events that had produced their mistake. We were standing in their detective's cubicle on the second floor of the new precinct house in Harbor City. I watched as each of them reviewed the top sheet on the Oakcrest Pathology and Medical Group's autopsy report.

Cole was frowning. "How the fuck did our ME miss this?" he growled.

"It happens. On the surface it looked like suicide. They were moving fast."

After rereading the top sheet for about the third time, Kovacevich finally looked up. "Good work, Scully. It makes me and Cole look like donkeys, but at least a righteous homicide didn't get lost."

"Listen. So this stays in channels and to keep your record clean, I think it would be best for you to be the ones to take this report back to the L. A. coroner. Tell him the private autopsy was ordered by Huntington House because they were the beneficiaries of Walt's life insurance. Talk to Ray Tsu over at North Mission Road. He already knows I'm looking into this and he's a friend. He'll smooth it over."

"Thanks," Cole said.

"The ME's office is gonna want to do another autopsy and establish their own result," I continued. "I've already arranged to have Walt s remains made ready to ship. You should call over to Oakcrest and have them send him back over to Mission Road."

"I can't believe our chop shop missed this," Kovacevich said, frowning again at the report in her hand.

"I got lucky, and I had an advantage that the rest of you didn't." They waited to hear me out. "I knew the guy. I was pretty sure he'd never commit suicide."

They didn't react to that, just stood there frowning.

"By the way, I'm in the process of getting the case moved to my homicide table, so if you could e-mail the file over to me at the Glass House I'd appreciate it."

We all exchanged cards, and then I closed my briefcase and prepared to leave.

"This Walter Dix guy was a close friend?" Cole asked.

"He raised me from the time I was six."

"You sure you're the one to be working on it?" he continued. "You get too close to something you can make different kinds of mistakes. It's also out of department policy for a detective to work a case where he's emotionally involved."

"We're not related so there's no policy issue. He just ran the group home where I was placed as a kid. Besides, that rule never made sense to me. Who better to work it than somebody who cares? With me, this case never goes cold."

When I walked out, they were still holding Walt's new autopsy finding, rereading it and shaking their heads.

Good homicide cops hate making mistakes. This murder had just missed going over the falls where it would have been lost forever, and they were both pissed off about it.