Free Destination by James Ellroy Page B

on
you.
Oh shit, we’re fuck—
    They schmoozed up X-Man. His credibility held. They said good-bye and walked out.
    They found the doctor. They braced him. They braced his wife concurrent. They backed X-Man up.
    Heartbreaker/square one again/fluke fingerprint/months trashed and fucked.
    Dave called and told me. He described “the worst day of my life.” I reran
Pollyanna.
I cued Stephanie up.
    It’s over. It’s not over. It’s been a year plus. Closure is nonsense. Nothing this bad ever ends. The killer is crucial and
irrelevant. He knew Stephanie for ten minutes. He never
loved her. His memories are brutal and suspect.
    Baby, who were you? How would you grow and who would
you love? Did you know you’d touch driven men and teach
them?
    You’ve got torchbearers. Three detectives and one chronicler. We want to know you. It’s a pursuit. It’s a likelier outcome than justice.
    We’re spinning our wheels. It doesn’t matter. We get
glimpses. You’re twirling in your prom gown. Color us
devoted. Color you gone.

Grave Doubt
    1.
    HOUSTON PD/DISTRICT 6/BEAT 6870.
DATE: 5/13/81.
TIME: 9:30 P.M.
LOCATION: 8935 NORTH FREEWAY.
PREMISES: SAFEWAY PARKING LOT.
CRIME: CAPITAL MURDER.
VICTIM: BOBBY GRANT LAMBERT/WHITE MALE/53.
SUSPECT: GARY GRAHAM/BLACK MALE/17.
INCIDENT # 035207084.
    The crime scene:
    The Safeway lot. Rectangular. Sixty yards deep.
    Night lights. Parking lanes and slots.
    A fence behind the store. Small homes adjacent. Strip malls moving north.
    A frontage road. Parking-lot access. A freeway adjacent.
    The beat: low-shelf. Urban blight ascendant.
    Motels. Gas stations. A low-end black demographic.
    Eyewits state:
    The victim enters the store. The victim walks the aisles. The victim grabs items.
    Three packs of lunch meat, bread, cheese, milk, cookies, Ritz crackers, onions, gloves, garbage bags, a carton of Raleigh cigarettes, a six-pack of V-8.
    A cashier totals the items. The victim pays with a C-note.
    The victim exits the store.
    He walks twenty feet. A black male walks up behind him.
    Witness Bernadine Skillern observes.
    She sits in her car. Two kids sit with her. Her daughter’s in the store.
    The black male accosts the victim.
    He grabs his back pockets. The victim reacts.
    He pulls away. He turns.
    The black male grabs his collar. The black male puts a gun to his head.
    Witness Skillern observes.
    She fears a shooting. She tries to deter it. She leans on her horn.
    The black male turns. Witness Skillern sees his face. The victim breaks free.
    Witness Skillern hears a “pop” noise. The victim drops his grocery bag. The black male walks away.
    Other wits observe. Their names:
    Daniel Grady/white male/age 35. Wilma Amos/black female/ age 32. Sherian Etuk/black female/age 29.
    The victim staggers. The victim weaves to the store.
    Witness Skillern starts her car. The victim falls in the doorway.
    Witness Skillern tails the black male. He’s in her headlights. He starts to run.
    He runs around the store. Witness Skillern’s kids scream. Witness Skillern turns back.
    Store employees call the cops. An ambulance shows. Paramedics examine the victim.
    He’s DOA.
    PATROL UNITS SHOWED. Homicide showed.
    For Houston PD: Detectives W. W. Owen and J. W. Ellis.
    They checked the grocery bag. They checked the gunshot wound.
    Small caliber. The entry point: near the sternal notch.
    They check the victim’s clothes. They found:
    One comb. Two pencils. A lighter. Best Western motel matches. A key for room 208.
    The vic’s driver’s license. Issued for Oregon State.
    Coins: $2.07. Sixty hundred-dollar bills.
    A botched heist. The killer got chump change. The killer missed six grand.
    A tech crew arrived.
    Techs shot the body. Techs shot the crime scene. Morgue men removed the body.
    Patrol cops checked the lot. They found the vic’s van. They impounded it.
    Owen and Ellis braced the wits.
    Witness Skillern described the incident. Witness