She found Dante Escabar in the courtyard at a table by the pool. Although it seemed clear that he wanted to be alone, she pulled a chair out and sat down. Several moments passed before he even acknowledged her presence. He was deep within himself, sipping bourbon and brooding on automatic, with sheets of sharp blue light from the water ricocheting off his dark eyes.
“I’ve already told you people everything I know,” he said finally.
He hadn’t looked up, but was still staring at his drink. The ice was melting away.
“Sometimes in the heat of the moment details get left behind,” she said.
“Heat of the moment? Is that what the LAPD calls it?”
She could hear the fury in his voice. The venom. Escabar was younger than his partner by at least ten years. He was a handsome man with clear brown skin, a strong frame, and black hair as fine as silk cut just above the shoulders. Lena knew very little about him because Bosco had been the front man for Club 3 AM. She thought that she could remember reading somewhere that Escabar had spent his childhood on the street. That it had been a long climb that began at a taco stand on San Fernando Boulevard. That he met Bosco, who gave him a job and eventually took him under his wing. A few months back The Times photographed Escabar’s home on Mulholland Drive and the actress he was living with. The climb was part of his history, but Lena wondered about his temperament. She watched him take a long pull on the glass, his eyes settling somewhere over by the pool.
“How much will you benefit from Johnny Bosco’s death?” she said.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“How much will you make?”
Escabar finally turned to her. “You’re right, Officer. After tonight I’ll be rich. I’ve been sitting here, counting it in my head. All that fucking money. While you assholes have spent the last three hours trying to cover for the fact that every one of you fucked up, I’ve been out here celebrating the murder of my best friend.”
A long moment passed. A long stretch of jagged silence.
“I know it’s not easy,” she said. “The timing’s worse than bad. But I need to clear a few things up and I need to do it quickly.”
Escabar took another swig of bourbon. “Sounds like you need to clear up more than that. You’re way off base.”
“I hope so,” Lena said. “But I still need an answer.”
“This isn’t about my partner. This is about that asshole kid.”
“How much are you gonna make from your partner’s death?”
Escabar glanced back at her, shaking his head at the inevitable. “Nada,” he said. “Nothing. Not a single cent. I’m lucky to be one of seven partners. More than lucky.”
“Who are the other five? Studio execs?”
“Three of them are. The other two are actors. If you want their names you’ll have to call our lawyer. But no one profits from Johnny’s death. The club grew out of his business with the studios. This was his place. His idea. Nothing changes, not even the split. He’s got family on the East Coast. South Jersey. A mother and father. If you really want to waste time, talk to them. Maybe they killed their own son tonight. It’s either that or you’ve gotta face the fact that Johnny Bosco’s dead because the LAPD couldn’t cut it. Someone else had to put Jacob Gant down, and he fucked it up. He killed Johnny. He’s even more lame than you are.”
Escabar turned away. As she thought it over, she studied his posture. His face and hands. Although she didn’t trust him, she believed that his reaction to her questions was genuine. That her gut instincts about the case were more right than wrong. Gant was the target. Bosco got in the way.
“Why did you tell the deputy chief that you thought this was a robbery?” she said.
Escabar didn’t move, didn’t blink-his eyes fixed on the memory.
“I heard the shots,” he said in a quieter voice. “I ran upstairs and found them. I saw Johnny lying on the floor, but the kid’s face was all fucked up. I didn’t recognize him. When I found out who he was, I knew I’d been wrong. It wasn’t a robbery.”
“Who told you his name?”
“I don’t know. I overheard some cops talking about it in the bar after you showed up.”
“What time did you hear the shots?”
“About twelve-thirty,” he said.
“What was Gant doing here? Why was he upstairs with Bosco?”
Escabar tossed his drink on the ground and set the glass down. “I’ve been asking myself the same thing. I have no fucking idea.”
“You ever see him here before, Dante?”
He shook his head again. “No.”
“Did Bosco ever talk about him or mention his name?”
“Never.”
“What about the girl’s father? What about Tim Hight?”
In spite of the blue light masking Escabar’s eyes, something changed. Lena could see him thinking it over. The fire inside the man was flaring up again.
“He knows the club,” Escabar said. “Way back before his kid got killed, he used to come here. Not often, but enough to know how the place works and where things are.”
“How could Tim Hight get into Club 3 AM?”
“He used to direct a TV show on cable. People liked it. The show did well.”
“Did you see him here tonight?”
“No, and I’ve already checked. He didn’t walk through the front door and sign in. But like I said, he knows the place.”
Escabar’s voice died off. After a long moment, he climbed to his feet and reached for the table to steady himself. Lena glanced to her right and saw Barrera wave at her through the windows as he circled the foyer inside and searched for the door.
“One more thing, Dante.”
“Just one, Detective Gamble?”
“You know my name.”
He nodded, but remained silent.
“The cocaine,” she said. “You knew it was there. Why didn’t you get rid of it?”
He paused to consider her question, but only briefly. “What cocaine? I never saw any cocaine. It must have been planted by the killer.”
“Nice try. Why didn’t you get rid of it?”
He looked down at his empty glass and wouldn’t answer.
“What?” Lena said. “You think that I’m gonna bust your partner? After tonight, I don’t think it would play in court. Tell me why you left it there.”
The door opened and Barrera stepped out. As he approached from the other side of the courtyard, Escabar lowered his voice.
“I was trying to take care of things,” he said. “I needed to call my partners and tell them what happened to Johnny. There was confusion. People were frightened. I gave myself an hour to shut the place down.”
“Did you call the DA?”
He appeared surprised by the question and didn’t know how to answer it.
“They were friends,” Lena said. “It’s seems only natural that Higgins would be your first call.”
He shook his head, but kept quiet.
“Is that an answer?” she said.
“I didn’t call the DA.”
He walked off just as Barrera reached them. Lena turned to her supervisor. From the look on his face, Barrera had news.
“We’ve got him,” he said under his breath. “It’s Tim Hight. Street cameras picked him up driving away from the club. His car. His plates. His face behind the wheel.”
“When?”
“About a half hour ago. He probably hung around to watch the chaos. Most of them do.”
Lena checked her watch. The night was slipping away. Too many people were involved.
“I want to notify Gant’s parents,” she said. “I don’t want them to find out what happened to him on their own.”
“He had a father and one brother. His mother’s dead.”
It had come up during the trial. Gant’s mother had been murdered when he was fourteen, her body found on a ball field a block from Santa Monica High School. Lena had forgotten. As Barrera handed her a three-by-five card with Gant’s contact information, she realized that she needed to pace herself better. Think things through more carefully and keep focused.
“Take Rhodes with you,” Barrera said. “Tito can help me get started on the warrants. But these guys need rest. I want to release them as soon as you’ve talked to Gant’s father. We’ll meet back at Parker by seven. The deputy chief is setting something up with the DA’s office. We can work things out then. You okay?”
She nodded, slipping the three-by-five card into her notepad. Then Barrera met her eyes and offered a shrug.
“I’m sorry, Lena,” he said gently. “I’m sorry that it turned out to be Hight. I’m sorry that you got stuck with this one. I kept hoping we were wrong.”
“I’m okay, Frank. I’m okay.”
“Maybe so. But that doesn’t change the fact that they’re using you. The way your last two cases played out. You’ve got capital to burn, and they’re gonna burn it.”
“I’ll do whatever it takes to put this behind us,” she said.
Barrera flashed a warm smile beneath his mustache. “That’s what I told them you’d say. Now grab Rhodes and hit the road. And remember, Hight lives next door. Keep your eyes open. Be careful and be safe.”