When she was done, I said, "Evelyn, did you leave any of this on your message?"

"Some of it. I told you the name of the place. I know it was your machine and not somebody else's, if that's what you're thinking. Who else would have a message that says they're the world's greatest human being?"

I put down the phone, then went upstairs, changed clothes, and drove to Palm Springs, wondering if Pike had heard the message, and if he'd erased it.

And why.

When I was thinking about Pike, I didn't have to think about Lucy.

Two hours and ten minutes later, I left the freeway and again made my way through the wind farms. The desert was already hot, and smelled of burning earth.

The storage facility was clusters of white cinder-block sheds set in the middle of nowhere behind a chain-link fence with a big metal gate. A cinder-block building sat by the gate with a big sign saying LOWEST RATES AROUND. Since nothing else was around, it was an easy guarantee to keep.

An overweight woman with skin like dried parchment gave me the key. Her office was small, but a Westinghouse air conditioner big enough to cool a meat locker was built into the wall, running full blast and blowing straight at her. It was little enough.

She said, "You gonna be in there long?"

"I don't know. Why?"

"Gonna be hot," she said. "Make sure you don't pass out. You pass out, don't you try to sue me."

"I won't."

"I'm warning you. I got some nice bottled water in here, only a dollar and a half."

I bought a bottle to shut her up.

Paulette Renfro's storage unit was located at the rear of the facility. Each unit was a cinder-block shell that sprouted corrugated-metal storage spaces. There was no door on the shell, so you walked inside what amounted to a little cave to get to the individual storage spaces.

From the tarnish on the lock, it was clear that Paulette rarely if ever came here, but the key worked smoothly, and opened into a space the size of a closet. Boxes of various size were stacked along the walls, along with old electric fans and suitcases, and two lamps.

I emptied the closet, putting the unboxed things to the side, then carried out the boxes. When all the boxes were out, I went through the older boxes first, and that's where I found the notebooks that Evelyn Wozniak remembered. Her father had kept field notes much like a daybook, jotting notes about the young officers he trained, the perps he busted, and the kids he was trying to help, all dated, and crammed into seven small three-ring binders thick with pages. I was pretty sure that the most recent would be the most relevant.

I put the seven binders aside, then went through the rest of the boxes to see if anything else might be useful, but the only other things of Abel's were a patrol cap in a plastic bag, a presentation case with Wozniak's badge, and two framed commendations from when he was awarded the Medal of Valor. I wondered why the commendations were here in a box, but she had remarried. I guess over time she'd lost track of them.

I was repacking the boxes when a shadow framed itself in the door, and Joe Pike said, "I wanted to get here before you."

I glanced over at him, then went on with the packing.

"It's so easy to show you up."

"Find anything?"

"Wozniak's daybooks."

"You look through them yet?"

"Too hot to look through them here. I'll take them where it's cooler."

"Want some help?"

"Sure."

He put the boxes I had finished repacking back in the closet. I sealed the last two boxes, then handed them to him one by one.

"You erase Evelyn's message?"

He nodded.

"Why?"

"I wanted to make sure you didn't find anything here that would hurt Paulette."

"I'm looking for something to help you."

"I know. Maybe we'll get lucky."

"But maybe there's something here that will hurt Paulette."

Pike nodded.

I took that in, and it was like taking in volumes.

"How did you break Karen Garcia's heart, Joe?"

Pike stacked the boxes until the last box was in place, and then he went to the door and looked out toward the desert as if something might be there. All I could see past him were other cinder-block buildings with other people's memories.

I said, "Karen loved you, but you loved Paulette."

Pike nodded.

"You dated Karen, but you were in love with your partner's wife."

He turned back to me then, the flat lenses empty.

"Paulette was married. I kept waiting for the feelings I had for her to go away, but they didn't. We didn't have an affair, Elvis. Nothing physical. Woz was my friend. But I felt what I felt. I tried dating other people to feel other things, but love doesn't just come and doesn't just go. It just is."

I stared at him, thinking about Lucy.

"What?"

I shook my head.

"You already know that Krantz thought Wozniak was involved with a burglary ring."

"Yes."

"It was true."

I watched him.

"Krantz thinks I murdered Woz for Paulette."

"Did you?"

The corner of Pike's mouth twitched, and he tipped the glasses my way. "You believe that?"

"You know better. Krantz also thinks you were involved with Woz in the ring. I don't believe that, either."

Pike tipped his head the other way, and frowned. "How do you know that?"

I spread my hands.

"Right."

Pike drew a deep breath, then shook his head. "I didn't have any idea. All that time in the car with Woz, and I never knew until Krantz talked to Paulette and scared her. She asked Woz about it, and he denied it, so she asked me. That's how I found out. I followed Woz and saw him with the Chihuahuas. He'd gotten some girl pregnant, and he'd set her up in an apartment in El Segundo. He was paying for it by tipping the Chihuahuas on easy places to rob. Krantz had it all. He just couldn't prove it." Just what McConnell had said.

"You tell Paulette?"

"Some of it. Not all. He was her husband, Elvis. They had the child."

"So what happened?"

"I told him he had to resign. I gave him the choice, and I gave him the time to think about it. That way it was between me and him. That's why he died."

I thought that maybe Krantz had been right about many things.

"What happened in the motel, Joe?"

"He didn't want to resign, but I didn't give him any choice. I didn't want to give him to Krantz, but I couldn't let a bad officer stay on the job. If he didn't hang it up, I would've brought in Paulette, and I would've arrested the Chihuahuas."

"The Chihuahuas would've rolled on him."

"If he resigned I would've found another way at them, but it never got to that. We got the call about the missing girl and DeVille, and Woz got the location. When we got over there, Woz was already short, and that's when he lost it and hit DeVille with his gun. I think he was just working up his nut, because he already knew what he was going to do. It was about me, and the box he was in, and how he was going to get out of it." Pike stopped for a time, then went on. "He let DeVille have it, and when I pushed him away he pointed his gun at me."

"You shot him in self-defense?"

"No. I wouldn't shoot him. I didn't draw my weapon."

I stared at him.

"He knew I loved his wife, and he knew she loved me. His career was over, and if Krantz could make the case he would go to jail. Some men can't take the weight. Some men break, and will do anything to stop the pressure."

"Abel Wozniak killed himself."

Pike touched his chin. "Pointed the gun here and pulled the trigger, up through his chin and out the top of his head."

I asked but I had already guessed. "Why take the blame?"

"It had to be explained. If I tell the truth, Krantz would be able to make the case, and if Woz goes out a felon, his pension and benefits could be withheld. Paulette and the girls would've lost everything. Maybe Parker Center might've felt sorry, and cut them slack, but how could I know? If he goes out a suicide, there's no insurance. The insurance we had then wouldn't pay if you capped yourself."