I dropped to the floor just as the little gun went off.
More gunshots. Hollow pops, softer than the black pistol's thunder.
Coburg on me. We rolled. I struck out with the black gun and caught the side of his head. He fell back, soundlessly, landed on his back. Not moving.
Where was the silver gun? Arcing toward me again from across the room. Two red-nailed hands starting to squeeze.
I dove behind the couch.
Pop! The fabric puckered and gobbets of stuffing flew inches from my face.
I pressed myself flush to the marble.
Pop! Pop, pop!
Heavy breathing- gasping- but whose I couldn't tell.
Pop!
A dull noise from my back, then the windchime song of shattered glass. Scampering feet.
A small, black blur raced past me toward Meredith.
Hooking my arm around the couch, I fired the big black automatic blindly, trying to aim well above dog level. The recoil drove me backward. Something crashed.
Barks and growls and female screams.
I scuttled to the opposite side of the couch, squeezed the trigger, waited for return fire.
More screams. Footsteps. Human. Getting distant.
I hazarded a look around the couch, saw her heading for the front door, silver gun dangling like a purse.
Coburg still down.
Where was the dog?
Meredith was almost at the door now. The bolt was thrown- she was having trouble with it.
I rushed her, pointing the black gun, feeling the trigger's heavy action start to give.
Swift justice.
Screaming "Stop!" I fired into a wall.
She obeyed. Held onto the silver gun.
"Drop it, drop it!"
The gun fell to the floor and skidded away.
She said, "I'm sorry, I didn't want to- he made me."
"Turn around."
She did. I yanked off her mask.
Her face was trembling, but she tossed her hair in a gesture more suited for a teenager.
Blond hair.
My hand was still compressing the trigger. I forced myself not to move.
Jean Jeffers said, "He made me," and glanced at Coburg. He remained openmouthed and inert, and her eyes died. She tried tears.
"You rescued me," she said. "Thanks."
"What'd you do with Robin?"
"She's fine- I promise. She's in there- go see."
"Step out in front of me."
"Sure, but this is silly, Alex. He made me- he's crazy- we're on the same side, Alex."
Another look at Coburg.
His chest wasn't moving.
Keeping the black gun on Jeffers, I stooped and pocketed the silver one. Maintaining a clear view of her, I managed to pull a large, upholstered chair over the bottom half of Coburg's body. Not worth much, but it would have to do for the moment.
I walked Jeffers back to the bedroom. The door was closed. The dog stood on his hind legs, scratching at it, gouging the paint. An acetone stink came from the other side. Familiar…
"Open it," I said.
She did.
Robin was spreadeagled on the bed, hands and feet tied to the posts with nylon fishing line, duct tape over her mouth, a bandana over her eyes. On the nightstand were the spool of line, scissors, nail polish, a box of tissues, and Robin's manicure set.
Nail polish remover- the acetone.
A used emery board. Jeffers had passed the time by doing her nails.
She said, "Let me free her, right now."
I pocketed the scissors and let her, using her hands. She worked clumsily, the dog up on the bed, growling at her, circling Robin, licking Robin's face. Specks of blood dappled his fur. Diamond glints of broken glass… Robin sat up and rubbed her wrists and looked at me, stunned.
I motioned her off the bed and gave her the silver gun. Shoved Jeffers down on it, belly down, hands behind her back.
"Did she hurt you?" I said.
Jeffers said, "Of course I didn't."
Robin shook her head.
Jeffers' red nails were so fresh they still looked wet.
She said, "Can we please-"
Robin tied her up quickly. Then we returned to the living room. Coburg's head where I'd hit him was huge, soft, eggplant-purple. He was starting to move a bit but hadn't regained consciousness.
Robin trussed him expertly, those good, strong hands.
The dog was at my feet, panting. I got down and inspected him. He licked my hands. Licked the gun.
Superficial cuts, no sign he was suffering. Robin picked the glass out of his fur and lifted him, kissing him, cradling him like a baby.
I picked up the phone.
33
Three days later, I waited for Milo at a place named Angela's, across the street from the West L.A. stationhouse. The front was a coffee shop. In back was a cocktail lounge where detectives, lawyers, bailbondsmen, and felons drank and worked on their lung tumors.
I took a booth at the rear of the lounge, drinking coffee and trying to concentrate on the morning paper. Nothing yet on the "bad love" murders, orders of the brass till it got sorted out. Coburg was in the hospital, and Milo had been virtually sequestered with Jean Jeffers at the county jail.
When he showed up, fifteen minutes late, a woman was with him, thirties, black. The two of them stood in the doorway of the lounge, outlined by hazy gray light.
Adeline Potthurst, the social worker I'd seen on film, Dorsey Hewitt's knife up against her throat.
She looked older and heavier. A big white purse was clutched in front of her, like a fig leaf.
Milo said something to her. She glanced over at me and replied. A bit more conversation, then they shook hands and she left.
He came over and slid into the booth. "Remember her? She's talking to me."
"She have anything interesting to say?"
He smiled, lit up a cigar, and added to the pollution. "Oh, yeah."
Before he could elaborate, a waitress arrived and took his Diet Coke order.
When she left, he said, "Lots happening. I've got New York records placing Coburg in Manhattan during all the East Side break-ins up till the day after Rosenblatt's death: busted for shoplifting, he was arrested in Times Square two days before the first burglary, went to court the day he shoved Rosenblatt out the window, but his attorney got a continuance. Records listed his address as some dive near Times Square."
"So he celebrated with murder."
He nodded grimly. "Jivin' Jean finally opened up- her attorney convinced her to sell out Coburg for a reduced plea to accessory. Names, dates, places, she's puttin' on a good show."
"What's her connection to de Bosch?"
"She says none," he said. "Claims the revenge thing was all Coburg's game, she didn't really know what he was up to. She says she met him at a mental health convention- advocacy for the homeless. Struck up a conversation at the bar and found they had lots in common."
"Social worker encounters public interest lawyer," I said. "A couple of idealists, huh?"
"God help us." He loosened his tie.
"Coburg probably went to lots of conventions. With his phony law degree and his public-interest persona, he would have fit right in. Meanwhile, he's looking for de Bosch disciples. And trying to undo his past. Symbolically. All those years he spent in institutions. Now he's in the power role, hobnobbing with therapists. He was like a little kid, thinking magically. Pretending he could make it all go away."
"We're still trying to unravel his travel schedule, place him and Jeffers together at least once: Acapulco, the week Mitchell Lerner was killed. Jeffers admits going along for the weekend- she presented a paper- but claims to know nothing about Lerner. She also admits using her position to get Coburg shrink mailing lists, but says she thought he just wanted to use them in order to advertise the law center."
"How does she explain trussing up Robin and taking potshots at me?"
He grinned. "What do you think?"
"The Devil made her do it."
"You bet. As their relationship developed, Coburg began to dominate her psychologically and physically. She'd started to have some suspicions about him, but was too afraid to back away from him."