Jonathan Kellerman - Billy Straight

She and Ron stood back as the local techs worked, hustling to finish up before darkness changed the game. Ramsey’s Montecito spread was huge, the house old and stately, cream stucco and red tile, real Spanish, no bell tower, none of the crazy angles of the Calabasas castle. Giant oaks shaded the acre closest to the building. The landscaping took the shade into account: ferns, clivia, camellia, azalea. Lovely pathways of degraded granite had been laid out expertly.

The property dipped, leading the eye down to the pond, a hundred-foot disc of green water set out in full light. White and pink lilies claimed half the surface; flame-colored dragonflies zoomed past like tiny aircraft; a bronze heron stooped to drink. Cattails and more lilies in the background, yellow, white with amethyst centers. Petra could see the missing foliage that had tipped Dr. B. to the grave.

Precise eyes indeed.

The techs were concentrating on the black Lexus. The interior was onyx leather; black carpeting covered the trunk. Not the easiest surfaces for spotting bloodstains, but one of the criminalists thought he saw a patch the size of a dime on the inside of the trunk door, and Luminol confirmed it. Nothing on the car seats, but the test brought up Rorschach-like blots of blood all over the carpet.

“I’d say about a pint,” said Captain Sepulveda. “If that. Meaning he killed her somewhere else, wrapped her in something, and it leaked out. Then he shampooed the trunk-I could smell it. Figured if it looked clean, it was. ”

Talking softly. Unhappy about being drawn in. Petra wondered if he’d ever been a homicide D.

He said, “We better get some warrants for the house and the grounds-who knows what else is out here.” He turned to face Petra, and his slit eyes must have focused on her, though she couldn’t see enough iris to tell. “I’m going to talk to a judge right now. What’s next for you?”

“Balch drove the car up here, so he’s obviously a suspect,” she said. “I’m calling this in to my captain, asking to put out a warrant. Whether or not Balch was working for Ramsey remains to be seen, but I don’t doubt this murder’s related to ours. I need Balch and Ramsey located ASAP.”

Telling, not asking.

“Fine,” said Sepulveda. “I should be back within the hour. Any questions, talk to Sergeant Grafton.” He indicated a slim, attractive, dark-haired woman in plainclothes taking notes by the side of the pond.

He left, and Ron handed Petra the cell phone. She phoned Wil Fournier first. Away from his desk. She left the number. Schoelkopf was out, too-meetings all afternoon-but she convinced a clerk to track him down. He called five minutes later.

“I was with Lazara, this better be good.”

“Seems pretty good to me, sir.” She told him.

“Shit-okay, we pick up both of them pronto.”

“Ramsey’s hiding behind Lawrence Schick.”

“I know that, so we yank the bastard the hell out from behind Schick’s skirts. Just to talk, not an arrest. You stay there, be an eagle eye, don’t lose control of the situation. And keep the goddamn phone line open.”

“Balch lives in Rolling Hills Estates,” said Petra. “His office is in Studio City. I’ve got both addresses.”

“Go.”

She read off the numbers. Schoelkopf clicked off.

Ron said, “I should call in, too. Hector, and my mom. We’re not getting out of here for a while.”

She returned the phone. Nifty little Ericsson. “Is this private gear or department?”

“Private.”

“I’ll reimburse you.”

He smiled and punched numbers. The Lexus was being winched to a tow truck; techs were setting up tape and post perimeters near the burial site; Sergeant Grafton paced off the area, pointing and instructing.

A Santa Barbara County coroner’s station wagon drove up and two men in white got out with a folding stretcher. Estrella Flores’s corpse was small. Those bowed legs, the gaping throat wound exposing a corrugated flash of trachea.

Ron couldn’t find De la Torre, but he connected with his mother, and Petra walked away to give him privacy, thinking about the call she’d have to make to Javier Flores. Schoelkopf had ordered her to keep the line open. To hell with him. It was Ron’s phone; let the department buy her one.

The tow truck backed out, manipulating the Lexus around oaks. Moments later, the coroner’s guys carried the body to the wagon and followed. The garden looked trampled, fronds and leaves bent over, broken. Petra smelled a hint of ocean, Pacific currents managing to make it this far inland. Lilies swayed. The yellow tape danced.

Ron came back and gave her the phone.

“Well,” she said, “it started out as a nice day.”

“Still is.” He moved closer to her and his fingers touched hers for a second. Taking hold of her index finger, he squeezed gently and let go. He was staring straight ahead. Drummer’s hands tapped a beat on the side of his thighs, but his eyes seemed serene.

He loves this, she thought. He’ll do homicide as long as they let him.

The phone beeped. “Connor.”

Schoelkopf said, “Talked to Attorney Schick. He and Ramsey are on their way up there.”

“What about Balch?”

“Ramsey said he was supposed to be in his office. We called there, got no answer.”

“Same thing happened to me the time I interviewed him,” said Petra. “He was in but didn’t pick up the phone.”

“Whatever. I’ve got officers headed there right now, and Rolling Hills has agreed to pay a house call.”

“Why’s Ramsey coming here?” she asked.

“It’s his house, Barbie. He’s very up set. ”

Motor slept lousy, and now the headache was a killer. No blanket, no pillow, just his leather jacket on the warped floor of an abandoned apartment on Edgemont.

Plywood over the windows and some sign about earthquakes on the door told him it was his place for the night. He used his Buck knife to pry the board up from the back door, rolled his scoot inside, and pushed it around from room to room. They were all the same: tiny; no furniture, light fixtures, or plumbing; graffiti all over the walls; linoleum pebbled with mouse shit, cockroach carcasses, oil stains, empty bottles. The room he finally chose was in the back. The whole building smelled of mold and wet dog, insect casts, burnt matches, and the worst thing: a chemical-like stink that made his eyes water.

But it was dark and he was wiped out from riding all day, walking around Hollywood-the place seemed mostly the same-then over to Griffith Park to scope out the rug rat’s territory. But the park ended up being too big to get a handle on-why the hell would a little fuck need such a goddamn big place?

He bought three hot dogs with kraut, washed it down with a chocolate malt, and cruised over to the Cave, parking his scoot with all the others in front, hoping no one would look close. Inside, he hoped for brotherhood, had to spend his last dough on beer when no one offered to buy him one. Eating three pickled eggs and stuffing some Slim Jims in his pocket before the bartender evil-eyed him.

No one gave a shit about the picture of the rat. Everyone was watching fuck films on big-screen TV. When some chick did something especially nasty up on the screen, a low growl of support rose up from the bar.

Forty, fifty crank-glazed eyes fixed on cum shots, no interest in making twenty-five big ones, except for one dude who didn’t really seem that interested, either, but said he might know something. Motor arranged to meet with him at eight tomorrow-maybe he’d bother; maybe he wouldn’t.

So might as well bunk down. Not exactly the Holiday Inn, but nothing he hadn’t seen before. Even though the chemicals gave him a headache, the aloneness turned him on, like the time he was celling with a greaser in Perdido, a DUI rap, three days of inhaling the motherfucker’s stale farts, ready to strangle him, and then the fourth day they took the guy away because it turned out he had federal warrants.