12:21 p.m.
Parker burned graphs.
He torched his traffic graph and roundup graph. He torched Watanabe Case/Details-Chronology and Lake/De Haven. He found a jug under the kitchen sink and built a bourbon blaze.
He raised a stink. The flames blew high. He doused them with tap water.
The sink was a sludge mound. Parker scooped the mess into a bag and dumped it in a trash can. He washed his hands and aired out the kitchen. He walked back to the den. Call-Me-Jack stuck him with more shitwork.
It was punitive. He messed with Dudley’s first go at The Wolf. He was back to the PD’s “Auxiliary.”
Call-Me-Jack got tight with the Hearst Rifle boys. They were his Auxiliary faves. They were out on Sheriff Gene’s dragnet. Call-Me-Jack craved more men like that.
Parker read applicant files. A low tide rolled in. Bottom-feeders gleamed in the muck.
Klanned-up studio guards. A nudist preacher. A Negro janitor at Le Conte Junior High. Numerous stat-rape assertions.
Low tide. Denizens of the deep.
Parker flipped files. He hit four clipped-up sheets.
Boudreau, Costigan, Gutridge, Palwick. Ex–Nevada prison guards. All Spanish-fluent. All canned from their state jobs. All dumped for brutality.
Hard boys. Goon-squad types. A routing slip and photos clipped to the sheets.
A messenger picked them up. One-week paper loan-out. Four files, sent to:
Exley Construction. 6402 Wilshire Boulevard.
Hard boys. Ex–prison guards. All Spanish-fluent. It comes down to—
The Valley. The Jap-owned farms. The wetback workers supplied by Carlos Madrano. Preston’s law-enforcement ties. Preston’s internment scheme.
Catch it now. It’s a soft lob. You should have caught it before this.
Preston was behind the house and farm buyouts. Preston was linked to the Watanabe case.