Jonathan Kellerman - Heartbreak Hotel

I said, “That could’ve worked for him in court, the power of intimidation. In Hoke’s case, there was an added benefit: Compared with the lawyer, the defendant looked harmless.”

“Didn’t do the defendant any good.”

“But obviously Hoke didn’t hold the conviction against McCandless. Continued to employ him, using Thalia as a surrogate the way he did with Wojik. What I find interesting is McCandless working for both Hoke and LaPlante aka Drancy.”

He said, “Backs up the collaboration scenario.”

“Big-time. Drancy and Hoke planned the whole thing together, the jewels got fenced or sold to other buyers with loose standards, the consignors ate the loss. If we’re right about Hoke continuing to operate from behind bars, he could’ve been involved in Drancy’s New York art scheme. The same goes for Thalia. But that one didn’t work out well for Drancy, he got busted. Maybe his descendants believe he was sold out. Or hadn’t gotten a fair share of the take.”

“Criminal genetics,” he said. “Seventy years later, Thalia pays the price.”

I said, “Tying her to any of it would be tough unless you were related to a criminal insider and had heard stories about Hoke’s number one girl. The person he entrusted with his fortune.”

Milo walked over to the computer. “Look for a link between Drancy, Bakstrom, and Waters. That doesn’t work, toss in McCandless and Wojik. Hell, do a goulash.”

I tried every combination. Nothing.

“My luck,” he said, “anonymous Ms. Cutie will turn out to be the killer kin... okay, I’m gonna lean on Lev — the guy at the archive.”

“What about Bakstrom’s and Waters’s visitors list?”

“Still looking.”

“Quentin coughs up Thelma Myers and they can’t give you anything?”

“Data’s ‘in flux.’ They got a federal grant to go completely digital and something screwed up, big surprise.”

He sat back down.

I said, “Waters and Bakstrom have been in L.A. for a while but apart from Bakstrom’s pickup construction job, neither seemed to have stable employment. What if they freelanced? Nothing violent. Fraud, bunco, something to tide them along while they planned the big job. Using the same name they gave the hotel.”

“The Birkenhaar brothers,” he said. “That’s got to come from somewhere — maybe it’s Girlie’s real name.”

“We already searched and came up with zero. But the name of a suspect in an ongoing investigation might not make it to the Web.”

“I’ll ask around about scams.” He glanced at his Timex. “Grampas and the little girls who admire them. Dr. Wojik’s an odd bird, I don’t see her consorting with serious bad guys. Ricki Sylvester, on the other hand, is a lawyer, which in my book is at least one strike against her. Let’s inform her what we’ve learned about ol’ Jack, see what she has to say.”

At four forty-five we took the unmarked to Ricki Sylvester’s office. When we were moments away, I got a text.

Maxine Driver. Pitcairn has no idea who the palooka is. She’ll look into Drancy. Intrigued. As am I.

Milo said, “Palooka? That’s prof-speak? Okay, here we are.”

Diminishing sun had altered the building’s glass walls to a yellow-gray that suggested chronic liver disease. The lights in the windowless waiting room had been switched off and the bearded receptionist was gone. Milo tried the door. Locked.

He phoned Sylvester.

“This is Ricki.”

“Lieutenant Sturgis again. Could you spare a few minutes?”

“Tomorrow’s kind of full.”

“How about now. We’re outside your door.”

“Oh, boy... hold on.”

Moments later, she appeared wearing a puffy gray jacket and carrying a purse. Unbolting the door, she flipped a switch that triggered the waiting room light.

“I hope this is quick. I’m tired and kind of famished.”

Milo said, “Happy to tag along while you dine, my treat.”

She waved a hand. “Let’s just do it right here.”

She took the receptionist chair. We stayed on our feet.

Milo said, “We’ve learned about your grandfather.”

The flush that captured her face was instantaneous and intense. “What about my grandfather?”

“He seems to have led an interesting—”

“Uh-uh, don’t even go there, Lieutenant. It’s hearsay innuendo and I don’t have to listen to it.” She stood. “You’re wasting my time with ancient history? End of discussion.”

“No offense intended,” said Milo. “Not that I see why you’re so off—”

“Of course I’m offended. You come here the first time, I do everything to help you, hand over every lick of information I have on Thalia, and you repay me by implying that one of the most important people in my life was a criminal. He was not. That’s an ignorant way to look at it and you, as a peace officer, should know better. Grandfather provided defense to those who deserved it.”

“Ma’am, I never meant to imply—”

“ ‘We learned about your grandfather’? Like that’s supposed to alarm me. To what end? I already told you everything I know.”

She smiled. “Let me guess: no progress on Thalia, so you began snooping around on anything related to her, found something about Grandfather in the documents I gave you, looked him up on the Internet. If I was trying to protect Grandfather, don’t you think I’d have taken the time to remove any references to him?”

She shook her head. “The Internet is a garbage dump.”

Milo said, “Sorry if I touched a nerve. Though I’m not sure why it’s a sore point.”

“It’s a sore point,” she said, “because I dealt with it a lot in law school and don’t want to repeat the experience. Please leave.”

I said, “What happened in law school?”

“Hearsay innuendo from a smug bastard visiting professor, some idiot named Gallico, I still remember his name because he was a total ass.”

“He insulted your grandfather?”

She glared.

I said, “A lecture on stretching the moral boundaries of legal representation?”

Her mouth dropped open. “That’s nearly verbatim. How the hell?”

Because I know academia.

I said, “Lucky guess.”

She said, “He brought a slide show, showed unflattering photos. Roy Cohn, people like that. And yes, Grandfather. He singled Grandfather out. ‘This one even looks like a mug.’ The lecture hall erupted in laughter. A few days later, one of my idiot classmates dug up the fact that I was related to ‘the mug.’ So of course, that spread and became the hot topic. Not just students, the faculty had fun with it. Staring at me, barely hiding their amusement. I thought I’d die. Built up my courage and confronted Gallico, stupid me, thinking he’d have regrets. Instead, he told me to ‘man up’ — I was ‘supposedly’ studying to be a lawyer, not a wet-nurse. And of course, in his final lecture, he made sure to pay extra attention to Jack McCandless and kept looking at me pointedly. So you can see why I don’t feel like raking that muck up, years later. Our system guarantees a right to representation for everyone and Jack McCandless represented all sorts of people. That’s what criminal work’s all about. You don’t work with saints.”

“Same for police work,” said Milo.

“But you people don’t get excoriated for doing your job.”

He smiled.

Ricki Sylvester said, “Fine, you have your problems, all the more reason to get where I’m coming from. Grandfather doesn’t deserve to be demeaned, he should be honored for serving the Constitution.”

Milo said, “We’re not here to demean anyone. But seeing as you inherited Mr. McCandless’s practice and we’ve since learned that Thalia had some links to criminals, we’re trying to find out if that relates to her murder.”