"Avalon County homicide couldn't detect its way out of a cascaron, Milo. They're just trying to rattle you."
"They're succeeding."
I told him about my afternoon—about the autopsy files from Frank, then about the warehouse address I'd visited on PerrinBeitel.
"I know that place," Milo said. "This is good, isn't it? The RIAA guy, Barrera—he'll need to move on it now, right?"
"You ask Barrera, he'll tell you nothing's changed. There's still no evidence, no probable cause for a search. Just the fact I saw somebody there who I didn't like isn't enough. Barrera's willing to hold out another few years if it means strengthening his legal case."
"I've got until Friday," Milo muttered. "And you're talking about years."
"Barrera's technically correct," I said. "There's nothing they can move on in what I've found. At least not right away."
"Technically correct," Milo grumbled. "That's just great."
"We'll figure out something," I promised.
"And Les?"
That one was harder to sound confident on. "Consider him gone. For good."
Milo was silent, probably trying to formulate some kind of B plan. When he spoke again his voice was strange, tightly controlled. "I'll need to talk to Miranda. If we're going to have to come clean with Century when we bring them the tape, I need to talk to my client about strategy. She needs to know the risks. Maybe—"
"I'll bring her by later tonight," I promised. "It'll take a couple of hours."
"My office at nine," he suggested.
"Okay. And Barrera is good, Milo. The people he is working with are good. They will eventually put Sheckly's ass in a sling."
The other end of the line was deadly calm.
"Milo?"
"I'm fine," he said.
"Let it go, Milo."
"All right."
"Your office at nine."
Milo said sure. As he hung up he was still speaking, muttering unhappy and angry thoughts. I had the feeling I was no longer part of the conversation.
53
Mendoza Street ran along the eastern edge of the San Fernando Cemetery. On the lefthand side of the road the graveyard's chainlink fence tilted and bowed at irregular intervals, like a football team had been using it for blocking practice. Evening ground fog had thickened on the cemetery lawn, diluting the tombstones and the air and the trees into one grayish smear.
On the right side of the street was a line of box houses with brightly painted wood slat siding and burglar barred windows and worn tar shingle roofs. The yards were squares of crabgrass, some gravel, some display areas for broken furniture and tires.
There were no kids in sight, nothing of value on the porches, no windows open, few cars parked on the street except those that had been stolen from other parts of town, then stripped and abandoned here. There were plenty of those.
Number 344 was a turquoise onebedroom in slightly better repair than the houses around it. Ralph's maroon Cadillac and a babyblue Camaro were in the driveway.
The front yard was white gravel, decorated with bottle caps. The burglar bars on the screen door and windows were painted white and shaped like ivy, though they were so ornate and thick they reminded me more of a fused curtain of bones.
I rang the bell and stood on the porch for about twenty seconds before Ralph answered the door, midlaugh. Somewhere behind him I could hear Miranda laughing too. The smell of mota smoke wafted out the door.
"Eh, vato." Ralph's glasses shimmered yellow in the porch light.
He stood aside to let me in.
The living room was bare except for one brown couch opposite the window. The interior walls were stark white and the floors hardwood and several bullet holes in the ceiling had been imperfectly spackled over. Driveby souvenirs from the house's previous owner. Ralph had gotten the place cheap because of that.
Through an archway I could see Miranda sitting at a dining table across from another woman. They were both laughing so hard they were wiping away tears. Miranda was still dressed as she had been this morning— in jeans, boots, and my Tshirt. Her face had more colour, though? her posture was a little less weigheddown. The other woman was a young Latina with long coppery hair and a bright yellow dress that showed lots of leg. She wore black pumps and silver earrings and makeup.
When the women saw me they both smiled.
Miranda said my name like it was a pleasant memory from twenty years ago.
The other woman got up and came to give me a hug. "Hey, vaquero."
She kissed both my ears, then stepped back to appraise me.
"Cally," I said. "How you doing?"
"Asi asi." Then, still in Spanish, "You've got a nice lady here."
I looked at Miranda, who was still smiling and wiping her eyes. There was only one lit joint in the room—in Ralph's hand—but there were assorted munchies on the table—bags of tortilla chips, a steaming canister of Ralph's homemade venison tamales, a plate of Ralph's special pan dulce—the kind with the green flecks in the icing. Uhoh.
Ralph saw my expression and spread his hands. "Everything's cool, vato. Just relaxing, doing the grief process, right?"
I stared at him.
Ralph shrugged, turned to Cally. "Eh, mamasita, let's go out back, get Chico to take you home."
Cally said goodbye to Miranda, gave her a hug, then kissed me one last time. Ralph gave us an amused grin, then led his lady friend out the screen door.
In the floodlit backyard, Chico of the yellow pirate bandanna and the easily kicked balls was working on a halfassembled Shelby. Ralph kept the car out there just for his grunts—sort of like the block table for kids at the doctor's office. Chico stopped messing with the fuel pump and quickly wiped his hands when Cally and Ralph came out.
I sat across the table from Miranda and turned the plate of laced pan dulce around.
"How many?"
Miranda blinked very slowly. "Two? I don't remember."
"Great."