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Braverton went on: “We do not know precisely why Rice wanted revenge, but that he did is a safe assumption. Our witness in custody is the man who sold the robbery gang their guns, and he, a long-term associate of the three men, states that distrust ran deep among them. The other men also possess criminal records—Garcia for burglary, Klein for possession of narcotics. Klein was also heavily involved in video pornography. Circumstantially, we believe that Rice shot and killed both Garcia and Klein, his motive being a desire to keep their share of the money from the Pico-Westholme robbery. There is also an evidential corroboration for this—our chief ballistics officer, Arthur Cranfield, has examined the .45-caliber slugs taken from the bodies of Garcia, Klein and Rice, and he states conclusively that they came from the Colt army-issue .45 found in Duane Rice’s hand when patrolmen discovered his body lying in the Sepulveda Wash.”

Lloyd scanned the rest of the article, a hyperbolic spiel about tragedy, law and order, and the forthcoming L.A.P.D. funerals. The total picture bombarded him as a patchwork of victory and defeat, survival and denial. His report to Dutch, the forensic subterfuge at Stan Klein’s pad and Louie Calderon’s testimony had been, if not actually believed, accepted in the spirit of letting sleeping dogs lie. But the Duane Rice “suicide” was preposterous. On Tuesday night Dutch had said that two .45s were recovered at the Bowl Motel, while his own gun had supplied the Stan Klein “death” shots. If Rice had been killed with his own piece, which was doubtful, because he never would have relinquished it—he didn’t pull the trigger himself. Lloyd felt a queasy rage overtake him. Rice had deserved to die; he had contemplated his cold-blooded murder himself. And the man who most likely killed him held a death sentence over his own head. Running red lights and siren to Parker Center, he couldn’t believe he was crazy enough to take the both of them out in one fell swoop.

*

*

*

The Central Crime Lab was bustling with technicians. Lloyd found Artie Cranfield in his usual workday posture, hunched over a doubleplated ballistics microscope. Knowing that nothing short of an air raid would force Artie’s head up, he said, “Tell me the real dope on Klein and Rice. What’s Braverton stonewalling?”

Artie came up smiling. “Hello, Lloyd. Would you repeat that?”

Lloyd smiled and cleared his throat; Artie said, “Not here,” and 634

L.A. NOIR

pointed to his office. Lloyd walked in, and five minutes later Artie joined him. Shutting the door, he said, “Straight business?”

Nodding affirmatively, Lloyd said, “A bunch of fixes are in. I found Klein’s body, D.O.A. knifing. I fired three shots from my .45 into his stiff, so I know that ‘same gun’ stuff in the papers is bullshit. Did you process the evidence on Rice?”

Artie gave his four walls a furtive look, then said, “I was there at the autopsy. The M.E. handed me three spent .357s, dug them out of Rice’s chest. The rear of the jackets were nicked, right where the firing pin would make contact. Very distinctive, and very familiar. I checked ballistics bulletins going back eighteen months. Bingo! Matchup to an old unsolved in Wilshire Division, street shooting, gun found and held by the Wilshire dicks, you know, to lean on possible shooters with.”

Taking the stats in, Lloyd got the feel of a wild card or big wrong move.

“Your conclusions, Artie?”

“Do I look dumb? One of our guys zapped the cop-killing cocksucker. Anyway, I called John McManus and told him what I found, and he said,

‘Keep it zipped, Officer.’ A half hour later Big Thad shows up, hands me three .45 spents and says, ‘Garcia, Klein, Rice, case closed. Capice?’ Since I intend to collect my pension, I said, ‘Yes, sir.’ So you keep it zipped. Capice, Lloydy?”

A Technicolor movie of Louie Calderon guzzling beer and Joe Garcia strumming a guitar surrounded by hula girls passed through Lloyd’s mind’s eye. He resisted an impulse to grab Artie in a bear hug, then said,

“Do I look dumb?”

“No,” Artie said, “just slaphappy.”

“Well put. I need a favor.”

“You always need favors.”

“Well put. I’ve got a long stakeout coming up. Processed any speed lately?”

“Black beauties?”

“Music to my ears. I’ve got a phone call to make. I’ll see you in five minutes.”

While Artie made the speed run, Lloyd called Wilshire Detectives. His old friend Pete Ehrlich’s answer to his question made wild card/big wrong move a big understatement:

At 9:30 Wednesday morning, Captain Fred Gaffaney appeared in the Wilshire squad room, looking uncharacteristically nervous. He cracked