The Renegades

24

Hood called Erin and told her about Kick.

“Bradley was here all night,” she said. “He’s still here-out in the barn. He’s pulling the engine on the truck.”

“I need to talk to him.”

“I can’t tell you exactly where this place is.”

“I know where it is.”

“But-”

“Don’t worry. I’ll see you in less than an hour.”

Hood had gotten Bradley’s address from police at Cal State Los Angeles, where Bradley had registered but never attended class. Hood confirmed it by tracking one of Bradley’s gang-the forger-through Probation to the same address. Hood wasn’t surprised to find that he was living in Antelope Valley. Bradley lived on an unimproved, unmaintained county road, in a house he didn’t own, far from L.A.

A few minutes later Hood steered the Camaro down Soledad Canyon Road toward Acton, a town of just a few hundred people spread over a few miles, tidy homes, large parcels, horses, hills and blue sky.

His first turn off of Soledad Canyon was a dirt road, wide and freshly bladed and running north. The second dirt road was narrower and turned to washboard that attacked the stiff suspension of Hood’s IROC and threatened to demolish the interior. The third dirt road was narrower still but the washboard ended. He stopped at the chain-link gate, pulled the chain and padlocks off the pipe rail, swung it open, ignored the “No Trespassing” sign and drove through. When he got out to close the gate a soft cloud of dust surrounded him.

Further down, the road improved. There was a pasture and a few head of cattle, and the sage and foxtail brome was dense and healthy from the rain. He passed a small stream and an outcropping of rocks. It looked to Hood like a good place for grinding acorns and chipping arrowheads and keeping watch. At first he thought he saw a ground squirrel sitting atop the highest point, then he realized that it was a surveillance camera.

Hood drove around a long bend, down an incline, then out into a broad meadow. There were buildings on the far upper slope of the meadow. The meadow was fenced and he could see horses, some grazing, some watching his car. He came to an electric chain-link gate, and a small speaker stand and keypad.

He pressed the CALL button and waited. A pack of Doberman pinschers and a small Jack Russell terrier barked and growled from the other side of the gate. He pressed CALL again. Bradley’s voice was half static.

“Beat it, Hood.”

“Nice dogs.”

“Have a nice day.”

“Kick’s dead. I can make this official business or not.”

“What’s the ‘not’ get me?”

“It allows you to open the gate and talk to me here where you live.”

“Otherwise you drag me to the station and hook up the cattle prods? Or do you waterboard now?”

“If you’d like. I want to say hi to Erin and I’ll say yes to a cup of coffee.”

Hood could hear Bradley talking to someone. He didn’t sound happy. Finally the gate opened and the Dobermans charged out and came to Hood’s side of the car, snapping, sharp-eared, sleek and muscled. The terrier finally couldn’t restrain himself any longer and he sank his teeth into the leg of the Doberman in front of him. The Dobie wheeled shrieking and the Jack Russell bolted away. But they didn’t touch the Camaro. They stayed almost exactly one yard away. When Hood tapped the gas and passed them they spread out on either side of the road and sprinted ahead of him all the way to the house, the terrier lagging far behind.

Hood parked in the circular asphalt driveway in front of the house. It was a sprawling one-story with faded yellow paint and a roof of buckling wood shingles eager to burn. Bright beach towels hung in the windows instead of curtains. There was a deck out front with an awning over it and an older man stood leaning on the railing, looking down at Hood. He was dressed in jeans and flip-flops and a USC sweatshirt. He wore sunglasses. The dogs had lined up along the deck to look down on Hood, too.

He cut the engine and lowered a window.

“You’re Hood.”

“I know that. Who are you?”

“Bradley told me all about you. This is private property you’re on.”

“Somebody let me in.”

“I own this land and this house. It’s paid for. I’ll die here and that’s fine with me. You have to die somewhere, so it may as well be with your dogs.”

“It may be sooner than you think with that roof.”

“I got the brush cleared back. Two hundred feet is what they recommend but I did three hundred. I do extra on things I care about.”

“You sure talk a lot for a guy with no name.”

“Preston.”

“Well, Preston, where is he?”

“Come on up. This way.”

“You have those dogs under control?”

“You’d know if I didn’t.”

The deck needed refinishing and creaked underfoot. Two of the dogs smelled Hood’s pants and boots and the others panted and watched him. Preston shouldered through the door and Hood followed him in. The living room was beaten leather couches, old concert posters tacked to the walls, and two acoustic guitars gleaming in their stands. In the corner was a baby grand piano, polished and stately.

“Erin’s a musician,” said Preston. Hood looked at him and saw the odd angle of his head as he spoke. “Come on.”

Preston led him through the living room and down a short hallway. He turned right into a kitchen. It was dark and small and to Hood it looked scantily equipped. Beyond the kitchen was a dining room and at the table sat a chunky fiftyish woman in a blue bathrobe. The Sunday L.A. Times was piled on the floor beside her and a stack of advertisements and coupons waited on the table in front of her.

“That’s Wanda,” said Preston, looking at the woman with that odd angle of head. “I’ll bet she’s keeping up with world events.”

“You’re Hood,” she said.

“I can’t fool anyone,” he said, realizing that Preston was blind.

“They’re out back wrecking another car,” said Wanda.

“Come on,” said Preston.

He led Hood outside, around a beaten stucco garage, down a ramp and into a small barnyard. His trail across the earth was narrow and well worn through the weeds. The dogs followed.

Bradley was in the barn, up to his shoulders in the engine of an old white F-150. Clayton, the document forger, stood across from him, also bent into the depths of the engine. Hood nodded to Erin, who was sitting at the end of a picnic bench under one of the barn windows, a small guitar resting on one thigh and an arm draped over the body. Wedged between the bench and her leg was a notebook with a pen on top. Stone, the car thief, sat at the other end reading a thick hardcover book. Between them was a pot of something steaming and one upside-down mug and an ashtray with a cigarette burning in it.

Preston walked over toward the workbench, felt for the chair, then swung it around backward and sat down facing Bradley’s direction. The dogs spread out around him on the cool concrete floor.

“Look what I found,” he said.

Bradley straightened and looked at Hood. He flipped a torque wrench full circle and caught it by the handle. “Not hard to find someone trespassing right up to your front door.”

Erin waved and smiled feebly but didn’t look at Hood. Clayton glanced at him. Stone never looked up from his book.

“So what do you want, Charlie?” asked Bradley. “You may as well just say it here and say it quick. I’ve got work to do.”

“Someone blew Kick away about four hours ago,” Hood said, though he knew where all this was going.

The quiet barn got quieter.

“I got a cup for you,” said Erin. “Have some coffee, Charlie.”

He walked over and upended the cup and poured. He caught the worry in Erin’s eyes as she looked back at the guitar strings. Hood went over to the truck and stood between Bradley and Clayton. The engine head was off and the cylinders were exposed and he could see the burned silver-black carbon in them.

“Kick was an unformed child playing games in the land of little error,” said Bradley to the engine. Then he looked at Hood. “So I don’t feel one bit sorry for him. My only slight regret is that I wasn’t the one to blow the life out of him. But that would have taken a risk far greater than Kick’s life was worth. As you can probably infer, and as all of these people will tell you, I’ve been on this property since last night and right here in this barn since before sunrise this morning.”

Bradley flipped the wrench again and caught it.

“That’s right,” said Preston. “I never let him out of my sight.”

Bradley dropped his wrench to the floor and it landed with a clang. Clayton dropped his, too. Stone dropped the book to the floor with a flat crack and Erin dropped her notebook and Preston took off his glasses and aimed his dead white eyes at Hood and they broke out laughing.

He smiled and waited for the laughter to trail off. “Well, that’s two felons, a blind man, and a woman who loves you.”

They all booed him. Erin strummed her guitar loudly, no chords, just dissonance. Hood wasn’t sure if she was trying to drown them out or join them.

Then Bradley wiped his hands on a once white T-shirt. “We’re just funnin’ ya, Hood. Come on, we’ll talk.”

They walked out and Bradley led the way up a trail from the house to an outcropping of rocks. The day was warming. Hood saw a small patch of California poppies blooming eagerly after the rain, the first he’d seen all year.

“Did you go to the grave yesterday?” Hood asked.

“I drove in from above, up by the mausoleum. I almost came down when I saw your Camaro but I didn’t feel like seeing you on my mom’s birthday. No offense.”

“I wouldn’t have wanted to share my mom with you, either.”

“I didn’t kill him. I wouldn’t have waited six months. My decision on that was made a long time ago. He’s a Southside Crip with enemies all over the place. It wasn’t me. All of those people back there will tell you I was here.”

“I can see that. But the description fits you and the timing is right.”

“Where?”

“Skid Row.”

Bradley shook his head, as if killing anyone on Skid Row would be beneath him.

“How?”

“Shotgun. Black cowboy hat, dark bandana over his face-outlaw style. Jeans and boots. He was tall, white or light Hispanic. Drove a black Silverado.”

“Well, you won’t find a black Silverado anywhere on this property.”

“That’s for sure.”

“But I do have jeans. And boots. I even got a combat Mossberg in my room, and a finger to pull the trigger with.”

“If I have to ask Erin where you were, Bradley, I’ll see it if she’s lying.”

“Go ahead. I want you to ask her. You’ll see that she’s telling the truth, just like the others. Did she give you directions here?”

“I found you through Cal State L.A.”

“I didn’t attend one class.”

“You applied and used this address. It’s on the campus police cop-only Web site.”

He studied Hood, then chuckled softly. “I’m thinking of applying to the Sheriff’s. Or maybe LAPD. You still willing to get me in?”

Hood knew where Bradley got his flair for the dramatic, his confidence in the bluff, his belief in the making of luck.

“Talk to me when you’re serious, Bradley.”

“You going to rat me out to LAPD for what I said about Kick? That was all in the past, man.”

“They’ll make the connection without me.”

“I didn’t kill him, Charlie. That’s the last time I’m going to say it to you.”

His eyes on Hood were hard and unwavering. His chin was strong. Conviction? Challenge? Wounded pride? Truth glides through appearances, thought Hood.

“Bradley, you can kill a man and hide behind your friends and get away with it. But you can’t get away with it for very long. Friends don’t stay friends forever.”

“Yes, sir, Mr. Sheriff, by golly.”

“Learn from your mother.”

“You don’t know what I’ve learned from her.”

“She let herself get killed for nothing. You have to understand the connection between what you do and what it leads to. She understood that, but she couldn’t control herself. Almost, but not quite. You’re going to have to. Bradley, you can do anything in the world you want.”

“I’m doing exactly what I want.”

“Living with creeps? Dragging Erin through your messes? You don’t know what you have because it’s all been given to you, and you think you deserve it. You’re a spoiled child in the body of a man. Suzanne coddled you. You should have had your ass kicked a long time ago.”

“You can try.”

“By your age you have to kick your own ass.”

“You old guys all say the same thing.”

“So will you if you live that long.”

“Having fucked my mother gives you no rights with me. None.”

“She’d be ashamed of you right now. Her heart was big. She tried to take care of the people who loved her.”

Hood turned and walked alone back down the path to the barn. He saw the men and the dogs. Clayton offered him a beer. The Jack Russell followed him. Erin was out on the front deck in the shade, guitar over her knee, red hair hiding her face. The notebook was at her feet and the pen was on it and there was writing on the page in red ink.

She shook back her hair and looked up at Hood. Her beauty came at him sideways and just under what was visible, a body blow.

“Was he here all morning like he says?”

“Every minute of it,” she said, and Hood saw that she was lying.

“Did he threaten you?”

“Come on, Charlie. He wouldn’t do that.”

“Talk to me.”

“There’s nothing to say. Just isn’t.”

“Write a song about a guy who’s willing to sell out his girl so he can get away with murder.”

“Sell me out?”

“Obstruction of justice? Perjury? It’s jail time, Erin.”

She looked up, briefly, wiped a tear on a knuckle, the guitar pick still in her hand. “Hood? Don’t. Please get outta here before he walks up. If he sees me crying he’ll figure all the wrong things.”

“You’ve got my numbers if you need me.”

“I need you to go.”

Hood kicked the railing upright, hard. Erin flinched and the terrier launched into a fit of barking. Hood stomped down the steps to his car. He was furious and ashamed of it.

He aimed the IROC down the drive and goosed the throttle and looked in the rearview mirror. The little dog receded and blurred in a cloud of dust and Erin watched him drive away.

He used that afternoon to meet with the local cable TV reporter who’d done a segment on the Lancaster LASD substation Toys for Tots campaign of last year. She gave him a DVD copy of the show.

Back in the Hole he played it on the computer and got exactly what he’d hoped for: the voice of Terry Laws.

“Well, it’s the least we can do for kids who don’t have a leg up in life. It makes us all at LASD really happy to bring a little joy this time of year.”

He listened to Laws say those two sentences a dozen times. Then he played the copy of the 911 tape that Warren had procured. But the anonymous call was so distorted, Hood couldn’t say with any certainty that it was made by Terry Laws.

So he tried Draper’s voice.

“Good. Because I don’t want anyone talking trash about my partner.”

Again, there was no way to hear much of a similarity. The more he listened the less it sounded like either of them.

He called a spectrograph examiner and made arrangements to get the recordings to him.