Joseph Wambaugh - The Secrets of Harry Bright

“Well, I know people who’ve lost a lot in this world, but Harry Bright, he lost everything . So okay, I looked the other way the past few years when I could see Harry was drinking more and more. I was gonna ask him to retire next month. That’s the God’s truth.”

Paco sat down and stared at his hands. “I didn’t like knowing he was getting bombed and sleeping in a police car in Solitaire Canyon, but I played dumb, All my cops knew about it, and they all protected him. Everyone a them, not just Coy Brickman. I wanted to come down hard on him when I’d see him all trembly and boozy in the morning. But every time I tried, I thought a that day in San Diego. The man kneeling on the ground with the secret he was gonna take to the grave. A secret that’s irrelevant. That face belonged to somebody’s son and I guess Harry figured that out too.

“Anyways, I excused Harry Bright when I wouldn’t excuse nobody else, Now I tell you guys one thing: we’re gonna go through with this ballistics check even though there’s not one shred a motive for Harry Bright or Coy Brickman to’ve murdered that Watson kid. I’ll do it, but I can tell you for sure, Coy Brickman and Harry Bright, neither one could ever murder anybody .”

“He should be coming in soon,” Otto said. “How do we get to Harry Bright’s mobile home? We have the general location but don’t know where the street is.”

“Take the main drag two blocks before you get to the oasis picnic ground. Turn left on Jackrabbit Road. Last mobile home at the end a the street. Coy has a key to Harry’s place and we keep another at the front desk. The whole department watches after Harry’s property.”

There was a knock at the door and Anemic Annie came rushing in. “Chief,” she said. “There’s a sheriff’s unit in pursuit on the highway! And one of our units joined in!”

“Who is it?”

“Maynard Rivas! Sounds like they’re after a two-eleven suspect from the Seven-Eleven Store!”

“Oh, shit!” Paco said. “Where’s O. A. Jones?”

“He’s after them!”

“Where’s Wingnut?” Paco grabbed his gun from the desk and ran toward the front door of the station house. “He’s off the air!”

“Goddamnit! I’ll be back soon as I can! Annie, when Coy comes in, tell him to wait in my office!”

Paco Pedroza was gone before she yelled, “Coy’s already on the street! And I can’t reach him on the air!”

“Whaddaya mean, he’s already on the street?” Sidney Blackpool asked Annie.

“He came in and took his messages and rushed out to his unit. I can’t reach him. He’s not answering.”

As Annie went back to the radio, Sidney Blackpool and Otto looked at each other and walked out of Paco’s office. They heard Maynard Rivas break in to broadcast his location as the secondary chase car.

Then Sidney Blackpool said to Annie, “What’d Sergeant Brickman say when he left?”

“Nothing, except to ask me what time the message came in.”

“What message?”

“A pawnbroker called to ask if Coy’d been given back the ukulele that the detective had inquired about. He didn’t say which detective. I figured it was you.”

“Let’s hit it, Otto!” Sidney Blackpool yelled, rushing out the front door.

“Loan me a gun!” Otto said to Anemic Annie.

“Are you sure it’s okay, Sergeant?” she asked. “You can’t join the pursuit in a private car, and …”

“Gimme a fucking gun!” Otto bellowed, and the trembling woman quickly unlocked the drawer at the front desk and shoved a.38 Colt four-inch revolver across the counter to Otto Stringer who jammed it in his waistband and ran out of the station.

“We shouldn’t be doing this!” Otto said, as he slid into the Toyota.

“We got no choice! He knows we’re onto him. He’s either getting rid of his gun or Harry Bright’s. If it’s his gun we can’t guess where he might be. If it’s Harry Bright’s gun we know where that is.”

“Brickman might try to shoot us, Sidney!”

“We got no choice. At least, I got no choice. Want me to leave you here?”

“I’ll back you up,” Otto said without enthusiasm.

Sidney Blackpool blew through the red light and was wheeling left on Jackrabbit Road within minutes. He cut his lights and drifted toward the end of the cul-de-sac in total darkness. The street was on the edge of town. There were no sidewalks, no curbs, no sewer lines, and no streetlights.

“Where is it?” Otto asked, barely moving his lips. “Where’s Brickman’s car?”

There were only six mobile homes on the street and they were all thirty yards apart. Behind them was open desert and a view clear to the foothills. When they parked they heard the coyote packs loping down from the mountains, yapping in ecstasy as they began the night’s hunt.

“He’s not here yet,” Sidney Blackpool said.

“Or he’s here and gone.”

“No, because he’d wanna find two things: Harry’s gun and the cassette with Harry’s songs. He’d need a little time. I think he’s getting rid a his gun. I think he’ll be coming along here at least to get the cassette. Even if it was his gun and not Harry’s that the kid was shot with.”

Sidney Blackpool backed in behind a mobile home that looked vacant. At the mouth of the street a dog uttered a halfhearted bark. Anyone would think that the dog was just nervous about the pack of coyotes, as well he should be.

They got out of the Toyota and walked across a grass driveway. The wind gusted and howled, and the coyote voices joined in.

They could see a woman through a kitchen window of a mobile home on the opposite side of the road. The home belonging to Harry Bright was only large enough for one bedroom. There was a telephone line and a cable T.V. hookup coming from a pole at the edge of the property.

“Otto, I’m gonna wait behind the mobile home,” Sidney Blackpool whispered. “How about you staying near the car? If he spots me or gets nervous about anything, I’d like you to turn on the headlights and make a lotta noise and run right toward us. I want him to think Paco’s with you. I don’t want him to know it’s just us two, He might fight.”

“He might shoot .”

“I’m not gonna give him a chance. Soon as he’s inside Harry Bright’s place, I’m gonna announce our presence and tell him the ball game’s over and he might as well come out and talk.”

“Wonderful!” Otto said, looking down. “This fucking Colt’s not loaded!”

“Paco should be here any minute,” Sidney Blackpool said. “I just hope he doesn’t pull up at the same time Brickman does, and spook him.”

“This is an evil fucking case,” Otto said, hefting a flashlight and an empty gun.

A car turned into the dark street and drove to the end of the cul-de-sac. It was not a police car. There were two kids in it. The car made a U-turn and headed back to the main road. The detectives could hear the coyote voices growing faint. That hunt had passed them by.

There were other night sounds: the trill of insects, the hoots and chirps and whoops, and the demented yapping in the desert at night. A shaggy tamarisk tree behind Otto started rattling in the moaning wind and scared the hell out of him. He looked fearfully at the gargoyle shapes behind him in the desert, and up at the glittering gems whirling in the pure black air. He thought of bloated buzzards with ugly naked heads, and of writhing deadly serpents that rattled like the trees.

Sidney Blackpool thought he heard a scrape. At first he believed it was in front of the mobile home. He crept around and looked at the street. Nothing. He was walking back past the door and on impulse gave the knob a turn. It was unlocked!