TINA CHALMERS LEANED back in her creaky chair. The seal of the City of Los Angeles, the Valley of Smoke, was printed on an aged piece of parchment and framed on the wall above and behind her. A symbolic guillotine that had made many a head roll in the name of maintaining the palace. But the moat was rising, and everybody in local government could feel the water at their ankles, if they didn’t act to right this city.

Chalmers let out a long sigh. “Most of the stuff in his notebook is unsubstantiated. It’s hearsay from other shopkeepers and small businesspeople, and rumors other Korean-Americans and Korean Nationals passed along to him.” She closed the file folder of executive summary Kenny Yu had prepared from the translated pages Monk had obtained from Roy Park.

“It’s done in a chronological manner. It puts names with dates, and lists various addresses and phone numbers. It raises enough questions, Tina. It got Suh killed.”

“What about Grimes?”

“I think he was killed because he got to be too much of a wild card. He was the one who kept getting busted because he was always escalating the strong-arm bit. Samuels seemed to be the cooler head, the one that thinks clearer.”

“So it was just him being hotheaded when you had your run-in with him at the Odin Club.”

“Maybe he did that on orders.”

“But he was on the shit list.”

“Yeah. They have him attack me, he gets killed by his pals, and then the obvious suspect is me.”

“Why?”

“A magician always uses misdirection. Suspicion on me muddies the waters, and nobody looks beyond me or the other set-up, Crosshairs. The task force tries to keep me on a long leash, hoping I give them Crosshairs. They know Grimes figures in this somehow, but the Rolling Daltons’ leader is their main worry.”

“That would imply they knew that Ray Smith had made contact, and your name came up in our conversation,” Tina said, a daring tone in her voice.

“All wiretaps ain’t legal, Tina.”

She mulled that over, men said, “If the City Council is going to discuss the matters raised in Suh’s notes, I have to supply them with translated copies. What I’m saying is that for us to really discuss it we have to have a closed session. The Council needs a good reason to go behind closed doors.”

“But if you pass copies around, sure as hell there’s gonna be a leak,” Monk said, thinking ahead.

“What if there is, Ivan?”

“Then some of the big fish might swim away.”

“Well, what can you do? If you want action, why haven’t you taken this information to Keys?”

“I don’t want this thing to become compromised.”

“Meaning you think Keys or one of the cops is in Jiang’s backpocket.”

“I don’t know what I mean, Tina.” Monk got up and paced around the room. “I just know my gut feeling is I need to play this out the way I started it. You, Jill, Dex, EIrod and a few others are all I can trust. Everybody else is a could-be conspirator.”

“What about your buddy, Seguin?”

Monk didn’t want to formulate an answer. “I think we can force their hand, exposing them.”

“I suspect I might know where you’re going with this and it’s a dangerous place.”

“Dig my grave deep, baby.”