Michael Connelly - The Poet

"Uh, no. I guess…"

I was still thinking about Thorson.

"Fuck him."

"What?"

"That guy, Thorson, he is an asshole."

"Forget about him. We're leaving tomorrow and he's staying here. What about the Hilton?"

"Yeah, fine. I've got my computer and everything else that's important already with me."

"I'll see about getting you a fresh shirt in the morning."

"Oh, my car. I've got a rental in the Hilton's garage."

"Where are the keys?"

I pulled them out of my pocket.

"Give them to me. We'll take care of it."

In the early hours, when dawn was still only a hint around the curtains, Gladden moved about Darlene's apartment, too nervous to sleep, too excited to want to. He paced through the small rooms, thinking, planning, waiting. He looked in on Darlene in the bedroom, watched her on the bed for a few moments and then returned to the living room.

Unframed posters from old porno movies were taped to the walls and the place was filled with bric-a-brac souvenirs of a worthless life. There was a nicotine veneer on everything. Gladden was a smoker but still found it disgusting. The place was a mess.

He paused in front of one of the posters, from a film called Inside Darlene. She had told him she'd been a star in the early eighties before video revolutionized the business and she started looking old, the wear and tear of the life showing around her eyes and mouth. She'd pointed with a wistful smile to the posters where the air-brushed photos showed her body and face smooth and unlined. She was billed simply as Darlene. No last name needed. He wondered what it was like living in a place where the images of your former glorious self mocked your present self from the walls.

He turned away and noticed her purse on the card table in the dining room and looked through it. It was full of makeup, mostly, and empty cigarette packages and matchbooks. There was a small spray can for repelling attackers and her wallet. She had seven dollars. He looked at her license and discovered for the first time what her full name was.

"Darlene Kugel," he said out loud. "Pleased to meet you."

He took the money and put everything else back in the purse. Seven dollars wasn't much but it was seven dollars. The man at the digiTime dealership had made him pay in advance to order the camera. Gladden was now down to a few hundred dollars and he figured seven more couldn't hurt.

He put his money worries aside and began to pace again. He had a problem of timing. The camera had to be shipped from New York. It wouldn't be in until Wednesday. Five more days. He knew that to be safe he'd have to wait it out right here in Darlene's apartment. And he knew he could do it.

He decided to make a list for the store. Darlene's shelves were almost empty except for tuna fish and he hated that shit. He'd have to go out, get supplies, and then dig in until Wednesday. He wouldn't need much. Spring water-Darlene apparently drank tap water. Also Fruit Loops, maybe some Chef Boyardee.

He heard a car drive by outside. He moved toward the door to listen and finally he heard the sound he had been waiting for. The newspaper hitting the ground. Darlene had told him the tenant in the apartment next door got the paper. Gladden was proud of himself for having thought to ask. He went to the window now and peered through the blinds to the street. Dawn was coming up gray and misty. He saw no activity outside.

After turning the two locks, Gladden opened the door and stepped out into the crisp morning air. He looked around and saw the folded newspaper on the sidewalk in front of the apartment next door. No lights were on behind the apartment's doors. Gladden quickly walked to the newspaper, picked it up and returned to the apartment he had come from.

On the couch he quickly went to the Metro section of the paper and flipped through the eight pages. There was no story. Nothing on the maid. He tossed the section aside and picked up the front section.

He turned the section over and there it was at last, his own photo at the bottom right corner of the front page. It was the mug shot from the Santa Monica arrest. He pulled his eyes away from his own image and started reading the story. He was overjoyed. He had made the front page again. After so many years. His face flushed as he read.

MOTEL MURDER SUSPECT ESCAPED THE LAW IN FLORIDA

By Keisha Russell Times Staff Writer A Florida man who authorities said escaped justice as a child molester in Florida has been identified as the suspect in the brutal mutilation murder of a Hollywood motel maid, Los Angeles police said Friday.

William Gladden, 29, is being sought in the death of Evangeline Crowder, whose body was found in Gladden's room at the Hollywood Star Motel. The 19-year- old victim's body had been cut into pieces and placed in three drawers of a bureau in the room.

The body was discovered after Gladden checked out of the motel. A motel employee who was looking for the missing maid entered the room and saw blood seeping from the bureau, police said. Crowder was the mother of an infant boy.

Gladden was registered at the hotel under the name Bryce Kidder, but police said that analysis of a fingerprint found in the room identified the suspect as Gladden.

Gladden was sentenced to 70 years in prison after a highly publicized child molestation trial in Tampa, Fla., seven years ago.

However, after serving only two years in prison, he was released when his conviction was overturned on appeal. Key evidence-photos of nude children-was ruled illegally obtained by authorities. After the legal setback, prosecutors allowed Gladden to plead guilty to lesser charges. He was released on probation for time already served in prison.

In another irony, police have also learned that Gladden was arrested in Santa Monica three days before the motel murder was discovered. He was taken into custody on a variety of minor charges stemming from a complaint that he was taking photos of children being washed at beach showers and at the carousel on the pier. However, he was arraigned and released on bail before his true identity was learned.

– Continued, page 14A

Gladden had to open the section and follow the story to an inside page. There he saw another photograph of himself staring out at the reader. This was of the thin-faced and red-haired twenty-one-year-old he had been before the persecution had begun in Florida. And there was another story about him as well. He quickly finished reading the first story.

– Continued from 1A

Police said they have not determined a motive for Crowder's slaying. Though the motel room where Gladden had stayed for nearly a week had been meticulously wiped clean of fingerprints, LAPD detective Ed Thomas said Gladden made one mistake that led to his identification. That was leaving a single fingerprint behind on the underside of the toilet's flush handle.

"It was a lucky break," Thomas said. "That one print was all we needed."

The print was fed into the department's Automated Fingerprint Identification System, part of a nationwide computer network of fingerprint data. A match was found to Gladden's fingerprints, which were on file with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement computer.

According to Thomas, Gladden has been wanted on probation violation for nearly four years. The violation was filed when he stopped regular visits to a probation officer in Florida and disappeared.

In the Santa Monica case, detectives arrested Gladden on Sunday after a chase from the carousel at the pier where they observed him watching young children on the popular ride.

While attempting to run from police, he threw a trash can off the pier into the bay. He was finally captured in a restaurant on the Third Street Promenade.

Gladden, who had used the name Harold Brisbane when arrested, was charged with pollution of public waterways, vandalism of city property and evading a police officer. However, the district attorney's office declined to file any charges relating to his alleged photographing of children, citing insufficient evidence of a crime.