The stern look softened and she resumed the watering. 'Aren't they always, though. You watch the way these people on television act and you wonder how they can live with themselves. All that smug attitude.' She made a little shiver. 'That Geraldo Rivera. That horrible little man on Channel Two. Ugh.' She shook her head in disgust and the stern look came back. 'You should've been here yesterday. Yesterday is when people were trying to bother her.'

'They were?'

She squinted harder. 'You know, one of them looked an awful lot like you.'

'I came by yesterday to introduce myself, but she wasn't home. I came with my partner, a tall man with dark glasses.'

The squint relaxed, and she nodded. 'Well, you and your partner weren't the only ones. There were others. One of them even tried to get into her house.'

I looked at her. 'Who tried to get into her house, Mrs Harris?'

'Some man.' Great. 'I remember him because he came three different times. You and your friend came the once. All the different press people came the once.'

'What did he look like?'

She made a waving motion. 'He was pretty big. You'd better watch out.'

'Big.' I put my hand a couple of inches above my head. 'Like this?'

'Well, not tall, so much. But wide. Much wider than you.' She gave me a just-between-you-and-me look. 'His arms were so long he looked like a monkey.' Kerris.

'And he was here three times.'

She was nodding. 'The first time was before you and your friend, then he came back in the afternoon and once more at dusk. When he was here in the afternoon he tried the door and he went around back. He was back there for quite a while, and for all I know he got in. For all I know he did all manner of horrible things in there.' She made the little shudder again, equating all manner of horrible things with Geraldo Rivera and the little man on Channel Two. 'It's a good thing Louise went away.'

'No one told me that she'd gone away.'

Mrs Harris continued with the watering. 'Well, no one told me, either, and that is highly unusual. We've been friends for forty years and I always water her plants when she's away. We watch out for each other. Older people have to.'

I looked more closely at the plants. Some of the leaves were wilting and the soil was dry and beginning to crack. 'Do you know where I can find her?'

Mrs Harris continued with the watering and did not answer.

I said, 'Mrs Harris, I can't keep people away from her if I'm here and she's somewhere else. Do you see?'

The water can wavered, and then Mrs Harris looked around at the drying plants and seemed lost. She shook her head. 'She always calls when she goes away. Why wouldn't she call?'

I waited.

Mrs Harris said, 'I saw her leave and it just wasn't like her, let me tell you. It was the day before yesterday, the evening after all those horrible people were here, and she just walked away.'

I thought about it. 'Could she have gone to visit Mr Lawrence?'

'Not walking. Mr Lawrence would always come in the car.'

'Do you know where Mr Lawrence lives?' I thought I might drive over.

'I'm afraid I don't. I saw her from the window, dressed very nicely and carrying her bag, walking right up this street, and in all this heat, too.' She made her lips into a thin, wrinkled line. She was holding the can with both hands, and both hands were twisting on the handle. 'I came out and called after her. I said, "Louise, it's too hot for all of that, you'll catch a stroke," but I guess she didn't hear.' The thin lips were pressing together. Worried. 'People our age are very sensitive to this heat.'

'Yes, ma'am. And she didn't call.'

Mrs Harris looked at me with wet, frightened eyes. 'You don't think she's mad at me, do you? We've been friends for forty years, and I just don't know what I'd do if she was mad at me.'

'No, ma'am. I don't think she's mad.' I was wondering why she might be in such a hurry that she would just walk away.

'But why wouldn't she call? I always water her plants.'

'I don't know, Mrs Harris. Maybe she was just trying to get away from the press. You know how horrible they are.'

Her eyes brightened a bit, drawing a little hope. 'Yes. Yes, I'm sure that must be it.'

'I'm sure she'll be back soon.'

The ancient eyes finally smiled, and she turned back to the plants. 'When you find her, you'll keep them away from her, won't you? It must be awful, having people like that around.'

'Yes, ma'am. I'll take good care.'

I helped Mrs Harris water the remainder of Louise Earle's plants, and then I went back to my car, wondering why Kerris had come three times, and wondering if his coming around had had anything to do with her going away. If he had come here three times, that meant he very much wanted to see Louise Earle. Three times was a pattern, and if the pattern maintained, he might return again today. Of course, he might not, but I still didn't have a whole lot else to do.

I went back to my car, drove four blocks to a 7-Eleven, bought two large bottles of chilled Evian water, then drove back to Louise Earle's, parked on the next block behind the Carrier van so that Eleanor Harris couldn't watch me, and continued to wait.

Exactly twelve minutes after I pulled up behind the van and turned off my car, Stan Kerris returned, but did not stop. He was driving a Mercedes SLsoo, and this time he slowly cruised the block, peering at Louise Earle's house, maybe hoping to see if she was home. I copied his tag number, then pulled out the little Canon and took four quick snaps just as he turned the corner.

The Mercedes was small and black, and I was hoping that Jonna Lester would recognize it.

CHAPTER 25

I drove south to a Fast-Foto in a minimall on Jefferson Boulevard about six blocks west of USC. A Persian kid was alone in the place, working at the photo processing machine. He said, 'I'll be with you in a moment.'

'I don't have a moment. I'll pay you twenty bucks if you stop what you're doing and take care of me now.'

He eyed me like maybe I was pulling his leg, but he got up and came to the counter. I put the film on the counter between us. 'There are only four exposures on the roll. I've got to make a call. If they're done when I get back, you get the twenty.'

He wet his lips. 'What size?'

'Whatever's fastest.'

I used a pay phone in the parking lot to call Angela Rossi at home. She didn't answer her phone; her machine got it. Screening. 'Detective Rossi, it's Elvis Cole. I think I might have something.'

She picked up before I finished saying it. She sounded tired, but then she probably hadn't slept last night.

I told her where I was and what I was doing and what I had seen. I said, 'Do you want a piece of it?'

'Yes.' She said it without hesitation and without fear, the way someone would say it when they were still in the game.

'I have to show the pictures to Jonna Lester, first. Call Joe. Have Tomsic call Anna Sherman in the DA's office. If this is going where I think, everything will begin to happen very quickly.'

'I'll be ready.'

'I'll bet you will.'

I hung up, then called Jonna Lester. She answered on the second ring, and I told her that I was on my way to see her.

She said, 'But me and Dorrie was just goin' to the mall!'

'Go to the mall after. This is important, Jonna. Please.' The detective stoops to begging.

'Oh, all right.' Long and drawn out and whiny. 'Dorrie wants to meet you. I told her you were really cute.' Then she giggled.

I hung up and closed my eyes, thinking that only twenty-four hours ago she'd found her husband impaled on glass. Man. I called the information operator last, and asked if they had a listing for Mr Walter Lawrence. They did not…