L.A. Confidential Part 53

Exley futzed with the recorder--tape spun. Whirr, whirr, "My G.o.d to be so nimble and so hung, like Heifetz on the fiddle with his shlong that dog is, and hung like--"

Cohen hit the roof. "No! No! No man on earth is capable of shtupping me like that!"

Exley pushed b.u.t.tons. Start--"Lana, what a s.n.a.t.c.h she must have"--stop, start--a card game, a toilet flushing. Mickey kicked the coffin. "All right! I believe you!"

Jack: "Now you know why Davey wouldn't let you put him in a rest home."

Cohen wiped his face with his beanie. "Not even Hitler is capable of such things. Who could be so brainy and so ruthless?"

White said, "Dudley Smith."

"Oh, Jesus Christ. Him I could believe. No . . . tell me in full view of my late beloved you are joking."

"An LAPD captain? This is for real, Mick."

"No, this I don't believe. Give me proof, give me evidence."

Exley said, "Mickey, you give us some."

Cohen sat down on the coffin. "I think I know who tried to clip me and Davey in the pen. Coleman Stein, George Magdaleno and Sal Bonventre. They're en route to San Quentin, a pickup chain from other jails. When they land, you could talk to them, ask them who put out the bid on me and Davey. I was going to clip them, but I couldn't get a good rate, such gomfs these jailhouse killers are."

Exley packed up his tape kit. "Thanks. When the bus gets in, we'll be there."

Cohen moaned. White said, "Kieckner left me a memo. Kikey and Lee Vachss are supposed to be meeting at the deli this morning. I say we brace them."

Exley said, "Let's do it."

CHAPTER SEVENTY-FOUR

Abe's Noshery: the tables full, Kikey T. at the cash register. White pressed up to the window. "Lee Vachss at a table on the right." Ed put a hand on his holster--empty--his suicide play. Trashcan opened the door.

Chimes. Kikey glanced over, reached under the register. Ed saw Vachss make heat, make like he was smoothing his trousers. Metal flashing waist-high.

People ate, talked. Waitresses circulated. Trash walked toward the register; White eyeballed Vachss. Metal flashed: under the table coming up.

Ed pulled White to the floor.

Kikey and Vincennes drew down.

Crossfire--six shots--the window went out, Kikey hit a stack of canned goods. Screams, panic runs, blind shots--Vachss firing wild toward the door. An old man went down coughing blood; White stood up shooting, a moving target--Vachss weaving back toward the kitchen. A spare on White's waistband--Ed stumbled up, grabbed it.

Two triggers on Vachss. Ed fired--Vachss spun around grabbing his shoulder. White fired wide; Vachss tripped, crawled, stood up--his gun to a waitress' head.

White walked toward him. Vincennes circled left; Ed circled right. Vachss blew the woman's brains out point-blank.

White fired. Vincennes fired. Ed fired. No hits--the woman's body toOk their shots. Vachss inched backward. White ran up; Vachss wiped brains off his face. White emptied his gun--all head shots.

Screams, a stampede to the door, a man bucking gla.s.s shards out the window. Ed ran to the counter, bolted it.

Kikey on the floor, blood gouting from chest wounds. Ed got right up in his face. "Give me Dudley. Give me Dudley for the Nite Owl."

Sirens loud. Ed cupped an ear, bent down.

"Grand. Begorra, lad."

Down closer. "Who took out the Nite Owl?"

Blood gurgles. "Me. Lee. Johnny Stomp. Deuce drove."

"_Abe, give me Dudley_."

"Grand, lad."

Sirens brutal loud. Shouts, footsteps. "The Nite Owl. _Why?_"

Kikey coughed blood. "Dope. Picture books. Cathcart had go. Lunceford on posse what got dope and hung out Nite Owl. F.I.'s on Stomp so Deucey stole. Man said scare Patchett. Two birds one stone Duke and Mal. Mal wanted money 'cause he knew man on posse."

"Give me Dudley. Say Dudley Smith was your partner."

Vincennes squatted down. The restaurant boomed: millions of voices. Blood on the counter--Ed thought of David Mertens. A flash--the Dieterling studio school--a mile from Billy D.'s house. "Abe, he can't hurt you now."

Kikey started choking.

"Abe--"

"Can too hurt can too."

Fading--Trash slammed his chest. "You f.u.c.k, give us something!"

Kikey mumbled, pulled a gold star off his neck. "Mitzvah. Johnny wants jail guys out. Q train. Dot got guns."

Vincennes, looking crazed. "It's a train, not a bus. It's a crash-out. Davey G. knew about it, he was rambling. Exley, the cute train, the _Q train_. Cohen said the guys from the jail bid are on it."

Ed grabbed at it, caught it. "YOU CALL."

Trash ran out. Ed stood up, breathed chaos: cops, shattered gla.s.s, an ambulance backed through the window loading bodies. Bud White shouting orders, a little girl in a blood-spattered dress eating a doughnut.

Trash came back--more crazed. "The train left L.A. ten minutes ago. Thirty-two inmates in one car, and the phone on board's out. I called Kleckner and told him to find Dot Rothstein. This was a set-up, Captain. Kleckner never left White that memo-this had to be Dudley."

Ed shut his eyes.

"Exley--"

"All right, you and White go to the train. I'll call the Sheriff's and Highway Patrol and have them set up a diversion."

White walked over, winked at Ed. He said, "Thanks for the push," stepped on Kikey T.'s face until he quit breathing.

CHAPTER SEVENTY-FIVE

A motorcycle escort met them, shot them out the Pomona Freeway. Half the stretch elevated: you could see the California Central tracks, a single train running north--a freight carrier, inmate cargo in the third car--barred windows, steel-reinforced doors. Surface streets outside Fontana-- up to hills ab.u.t.ting the tracks--and a small standing army.

Nine prowl cars, sixteen men with gas masks and riot pumps. Sharpshooters in the hills, two machinegunners, three guys with smoke grenades. At the edge of the curve: a big buck deer on the tracks.

A deputy handed them shotguns, gas masks. "Your pal Kleckner called the command post, said that Rothstein woman was DOA at her apartment. She either hanged herself or somebody hanged her. Either way, we gotta a.s.sume she got the guns on. There's four guards and six crewmen on board that train. We stand ready with smoke and call for the pa.s.sword--every prison chain's got one. We hear the okay, we call a warning and wait. No okay, we go in."

A train whistle blew. Somebody yelled, "Now!"

The sharpshooters ducked down. The gas men hugged the ground. The fire team ran behind a pine row--Bud found a tree up close. Jack took a spot beside him.

The train made the curve--brakes caught, sparks on the tracks. The engine car stopped--nose up to the obstruction.

Megaphone: "Sheriff's! Identify yourself with the pa.s.sword!" Silence--ten seconds' worth. Bud eyeballed the engine car window--blue demin flashed.

"Sheriff's! Identify yourself with the pa.s.sword!"

Silence--then a fake bird call.

The gas men hit the windows--grenades broke gla.s.s, slipped between the bars. Tommygunners charged car 3--full clips took down the door.

Smoke, screams.

Somebody yelled, "Now!"

Smoke out the door--men in khaki running through it. A sharpshooter picked one off; somebody yelled, "No, they're ours!"

Cops swarmed the car--masks on, shotguns up. Jack grabbed Bud. "They're not in that one!"

Bud ran, hit the car 4 platform. Open the door--a dead guard just inside, inmates running helter-skelter.

Bud fired, pumped, fired--three went down, one aimed a handgun. Bud pumped, fired, missed--a crate beside the man exploded. Jack jumped on the platform--the inmate squeezed a shot. Jack caught it in the face, spun, hit the tracks.

The shooter ran. Bud pumped, hit empty. He dropped his shotgun, pulled his .38-one, two, three, four, five, six shots-- hits in the back, he was killing a dead man. Noise outside the car-convicts on the tracks by Trashcan's body. Deputies behind them firing close--buckshot and blood, black/red air.

A smoke bomb exploded--Bud ran into #5 gagging. Gunfire: white guys in denim shooting colored guys in denim, guards in khaki shooting both of them. He jumped the train, ran for the trees.

Bodies on the tracks.

Convicts picked off sitting duck-style.

Bud hit the pines, hit his car, gunned it over the tracks dragging the axles. Into a gully, fishtailing down, tires sliding on gravel. A tall man standing by a car. Bud saw who he was, aimed straight for him.

The man ran. Bud sideswiped the car, skidded to a stop. He got out--groggy, b.l.o.o.d.y from a crack on the dash. Deuce Perkins walked up shooting.

Bud caught one in the leg, one in the side. Two misses, a hit in the shoulder. Another miss--Perkins dropped the gun, pulled a knife. Bud saw rings on his fmgers.

Deuce stabbed. Bud felt his chest rip, tried to make fists, couldn't. Deuce lowered his face, smirked--Bud kneed him in the b.a.l.l.s and bit his nose off. Perkins shrieked; Bud bit into his arm, threw his weight down.

They tumbled. Perkins made animal noises. Bud thrashed his head, felt the arm rip out of its socket.

Deuce dropped the knife. Bud picked it up--blinded by rings that killed women. He dropped the knife, beat Perkins to death with his own two wounded hands.

CHAPTER SEVENTY-SIX

The Patchett estate in ruins-- two acres of soot, debris. Shingles on the lawn, a scorched palm tree in the pool. The house itself rubble-collapsed stucco, soaked ashes. Find a b.o.o.by-trapped safe inside a six-trillionsquare-inch perimeter.

Ed kicked through the rubble. David Mertens hovered--he had to be _there_, it was just too right.

The floor collapsed into the foundation blocks--timber to be cleared away. Wood heaps, mounds of sodden fabric--no telltale metal glints. A ten-man/one-week job, a tech for the b.o.o.by trap. Around to the yard.

A cement back porch--a slab with fried furniture. Solid cement--no cracks, no grooves, no obvious access to a safe hole. The pool house another rubble heap.

Wood three feet high--too much work if Mertens was there. Circuit the pool--burned chairs, a diving platform. A handgrenade pin floating in the water.

Ed kicked the floating palm tree. Porcelain chips in the fronds; a piece of shrapnel embedded in the trunk. Down p.r.o.ne, squinting: capsules in the water, black squares that looked like detonator caps. The shallow end steps exploded plaster--metal grids showing, more pills. Check the lawn--extra-scorched gra.s.s running from the pool to the house.

Access to the safe. Grenade and dynamite safeguards. Flames shooting to the terminus, defusing the b.o.o.by trap-just maybe.

Ed jumped in the water, tore at the plaster--pills and bubbles broke to the surface. Two-handed rips--plaster, water, bubbles, a swinging metal door. Pill eruptions, folders under plastic, plastic over cash and white powder. Loads and loads and loads--then nothing but a deep black hole. Sopping-wet runs to his car--the sun beat down--he was almost dry when he got the stash loaded. One last trip in case HE was THERE: pills scooped from the deep end.

The car heater warmed him up. He drove to the Dieterling school, bolted the fence.

Quiet--Sat.u.r.day--no cla.s.ses. A typical playground--basketball hoops, softball diamonds. Moochie Mouse on everything-- backboards to base markers.