The Night Crew

Jesus, Jake, this is the guy.’’
    ‘‘You’re sure?’’ Wyatt asked.
    ‘‘I’m sure: I knew the voice,’’ Anna said.
    ‘‘Had you heard it before—other than the parking lot, when he jumped you?’’ Wyatt asked.
    Anna held her hands to her temples, as Harper had: so hard to think, so little time. Or no time at all. ‘‘I think . . . I don’t know, I’m getting confused. But when he was talking to me in the parking lot, God, it seemed familiar. Not like everyday familiar, but I knew the voice.’’
    ‘‘Face to face, or on the phone?’’ asked one of the L.A. cops. The phone? She hadn’t thought of that.
    ‘‘God, I don’t know. I talk to a hundred people every night, running around . . . I don’t know.’’
    Harper chipped in: ‘‘The guy on the door didn’t see anyone with a bite on his face. Says he would have seen it.’’
    ‘‘All right,’’ Wyatt said. He seemed weary, almost too tired to deal with it. ‘‘Let’s see if anybody here saw China leave with someone. We got a couple of cars coming.’’
    ‘‘That’s all?’’ Anna asked. ‘‘That’s all we can do?’’
    ‘‘Can you think of anything else?’’ Wyatt asked.
    ‘‘I’m outa here.’’ She stepped toward the door, but Wyatt caught her arm.
    ‘‘Look, we finally got something going on this thing— we’re pulling together a multi-department task force to track this guy,’’ he said. ‘‘We’re gonna need you. We need to set you up where we can watch you.’’
    ‘‘I think it’s too late for that,’’ Anna said. ‘‘He turned some kind of corner with that phone call. He’s gotta know you’ll be all over him now.’’
    ‘‘We still need to talk with you.’’
    ‘‘I’ll call you; I’d really appreciate it if you’d tell me if you shake anything out of these people,’’ she said, gesturing up the stairs. ‘‘And China: if you hear anything . . .’’
    Wyatt looked at Harper. ‘‘Jake, can you control her a little? She’s gonna wind up dead.’’
    Jake said, ‘‘I’ll try.’’
    ‘‘You wouldn’t hold anything back on us?’’
    Jake shook his head: ‘‘No. We’re not playing games: we just want somebody to get him. I don’t think there’s anything. Well, we thought for a while that he might be a little older, white-haired, but that’s gone up in smoke. Anna thinks he’s young.’’
    Wyatt turned to Anna, whose eyes seemed to have unfocused, staring at a spot on the other side of Wyatt’s face. Wyatt said, ‘‘Anna? Anna?’’
    Her eyes snapped back and a small, uncertain smile crinkled her face. ‘‘Yeah. I heard you. He’s young, I’m sure of it. Forget white hair. That was a wild-goose chase.’’ And to Jake: ‘‘Let’s go.’’
    Jake’s eyebrows went up, but he nodded and said to Wyatt, ‘‘Talk to you tomorrow.’’
    Norden was waiting out on the sidewalk: she didn’t like cops, and now she was leaning against a fire hydrant, smoking, watching the light bars on the cop cars.
    ‘‘We all done?’’ she asked.
    ‘‘Yeah, for tonight,’’ Anna said.
    ‘‘Drop me at my place; I want to get Harnett’s files out of the car,’’ Norden said. They dropped her at an apartment off La Brea, waited until she was inside, then Jake turned to Anna and said, ‘‘What was that about the white-haired guy and the wild-goose chase? Harnett was a pretty hot possibility an hour ago. He might not be the killer, but he’s involved somewhere.’’
    Anna shook her head and said, ‘‘Aw, he might have known Jason or something, just a coincidence, but he’s not the white-haired man. I know who the white-haired man is.’’
    Jake did a comic double-take: ‘‘Yeah? Well, speak up.’’
    ‘‘It’s Wyatt.’’
    ‘‘What?’’ He grinned, expecting a punchline.
    ‘‘Yeah, an older guy with white hair. You were talking about it and I was looking at him, and all of a sudden, I realized it was him. We were thinking the white-haired guy was after Creek or me, but really—it was Wyatt checking up on Pam Glass, and what was happening with her and Creek, and he didn’t want us to know it. That’s why he took off. He’s hung up on Pam, and he didn’t want Pam to know he was hanging around.’’
    Harper thought it over for a few seconds, then sighed: ‘‘Are you positive?’’
    ‘‘Ninety-nine percent. Next time we see Wyatt, take a good look at him. He’s the guy.’’
    Harper nodded. ‘‘All right. Christ, we commit a