Last Man's Head

by Philip Cox

  Sudeep leaned forward and signed out. ‘Now log on,’ he said. ‘Then key in what I tell you.’

  ‘Okay.’ Leroy logged on, entered his password and got his Home screen.

  ‘Now click on Internet Explorer,’ said Sudeep.

  ‘Okay.’

  ‘See the Tools tab at the top of the screen?’

  ‘Er – no.’

  ‘You don’t know much about computers, do you Sam?’ Sudeep laughed.

  ‘I get by. Show me Tools. It’s okay, I see it.’

  ‘Cool. Click on it. Now: down at the bottom you have Internet Options. See it?’

  ‘U-huh.’ Leroy clicked.

  ‘See Browsing History? Click on the Settings button.’

  ‘Okay. Now what?’

  ‘Click on View Files.’

  Leroy clicked and a box appeared. The box was empty. ‘And?’ he said.

  ‘Hmm,’ muttered Sudeep. ‘This guy’s clever.’

  ‘He worked in IT,’ Domingo pointed out.

  ‘And he certainly knew how to cover his tracks,’ Leroy added.

  ‘We’re not done yet,’ said Sudeep. ‘We just need to go deeper.’

  Leroy looked round at him. ‘Deeper?’

  ‘Cursor on the Start button. Then right click.’

  ‘Okay.’ Leroy right clicked. ‘What next?’

  Sudeep said, ‘Left click on Explore.’

  A box headed Start Menu filled the screen.

  ‘Now, scroll down to Cookies. Then left click.’

  ‘What is a cookie, by the way?’ Domingo asked. Leroy looked up at her.

  Sudeep answered. ‘In simple terms, a cookie is a small piece of data sent from a website when you visit it and is stored in your web browser. When you visit that website again, the data stored in the cookie gets retrieved by the website to notify the site of your previous activity.’

  ‘That makes sense,’ said Leroy, with a dead pan expression on his face.

  ‘Sam, do you understand what I just told you?’

  ‘Not a single word, but it doesn’t matter. Look: I’ve clicked on cookies. Nothing there either.’

  Sudeep leaned forward and whistled. ‘Clever clever.’

  ‘Well, all this proves one thing,’ said Domingo.

  ‘What’s that?’ asked Leroy.

  ‘This guy had something to hide.’

  ‘Yeah,’ agreed Leroy. ‘I have to admit, I’m surprised by all this. I really thought we’d draw a blank on here. On the basis that he’d use his laptop.’

  ‘He still might have. Maybe just used this once; still needed to cover his tracks.’

  Leroy sat back in his chair.

  ‘Well,’ he said as he stretched back and yawned, ‘there’s nothing on here. Seems there was, but he’s deleted it. Deleted it all.’

  ‘There’s just one more thing we could try,’ said Sudeep. ‘Click on Start, then Run.’

  ‘Okay. Now I have c colon slash setup.’

  ‘Good. Now overtype that with regedit.’

  ‘With what?’

  Sudeep spelt it.

  ‘What’s this?’ Leroy asked.

  ‘It’s an abbreviation for registry editor,’ explained Sudeep. ‘It’s kind of the soul of the machine where everything that’s ever done on it is stored.’

  ‘But he could have deleted stuff from here, also?’

  ‘In theory, yes. But the registry is very sensitive. It doesn’t mind you looking but gets cranky if you touch.’

  ‘Like my ex,’ said Domingo.

  ‘Like Domingo’s ex,’ Sudeep repeated. ‘If you’re going to play around here you need to know what you’re doing. If you delete the wrong thing it can make the computer hell to work with and possibly useless. Can be fun, though. I caught my wife and her internet boyfriend this way. Surprise! Put the kibosh on that for sure! They never met because I scared them off.’

  ‘There are loads of files here,’ said Leroy, getting the subject back on track. ‘What now?’

  Both Domingo and Sudeep looked at the screen.

  ‘I’m afraid you’re going to have to go through every folder and file there,’ said Sudeep. ‘Then make a list of any of the websites he visited in the days before he disappeared.’

  ‘Jesus. That’s going to take days.’

  ‘Never said it was going to be easy, Sam.’

  ‘Will the CCU be able to do it? Quicker than I can, that is?’

  ‘For sure. That’s what they’re there for.’

  ‘I’ll pass it to them in the morning.’

  Leroy switched off the computer and rubbed his face. He looked over at Domingo. ‘Thanks for your help today, Liza. You’ll need to go back to Connor in the morning.’

  ‘You’re welcome, Sam. In any case, I could argue that this affects my case. They’re obviously connected.’

  ‘Would seem that way, yes. Anyhow, I’m bushed. I’m just going to lock this stuff up and get some sleep. Thanks again, guys.’

  ‘You’re welcome. Any time.’ Sudeep wheeled his chair back to his original desk.

  ‘What are you going to do about her?’ asked Domingo. ‘About Ms Kennedy.’

  ‘Not sure yet,’ replied Leroy. ‘She must have been bullshitting us. She runs an IT office, for Chrissake.’

  ‘And her own history had been deleted,’ she said. ‘What reason did she give again? Listen to this, Sudeep.’ Sudeep looked up.

  Leroy laughed. ‘She had been visiting sites for male escort providers. Young male escort providers.’

  ‘A bit of a cougar, was she?’ Sudeep grinned.

  ‘Yeah,’ said Domingo. ‘Sam was too old for her. He’s over twenty-one.’

  ‘Very funny,’ said Leroy.

  ‘It is possible,’ Sudeep cut in, ‘that she didn’t know about what I’ve shown you.’

  ‘No way,’ said Leroy.

  ‘Way. Possibly. You said she was the office manager. Well, it is possible that even though she was managing the office she had no idea of how the technology works. I mean, if she was hired to – to reduce staff numbers, or to fix some customer service issues. She would leave the technical stuff to the others.’

  Leroy shook his head. ‘Unlikely.’

  ‘But not impossible,’ said Domingo. ‘Remember that dude who was with the MTA a couple of years back? At the time they were trying to extend the Orange Line up to Chatsworth Reservoir.’

  Leroy looked at her blankly. ‘Vaguely. So what?’

  ‘He was an accountant. Knew nothing about public transportation. But was hired because he knew about finance, which was what the City wanted.’

  Leroy scratched the back of his neck. ‘I see what you mean. But I’m still not convinced. I think… I think she offered to get her people to check Riley’s computer just in case he hadn’t deleted something. And,’ – he looked over at Domingo – ‘she was quite happy to check the search history on her computer, letting us think it was showing Riley’s history. Yes, she will be getting another visit. At some time, but I’m not sure if she’s a priority right now.’

  ‘Okay,’ said Domingo quietly. ‘Fine.’ She got up to leave.

  ‘The second thing I’m going to do,’ Leroy went on, ‘is to compare the missing persons list with the others that were found that night. See if I can get more luck with them. So I’ll be liaising with you and Connor.’

  ‘Cool. What’s the first thing?’

  ‘Getting some sleep.’

  EIGHTEEN

  IT WAS A still night when Leroy arrived home around ten thirty. The Santa Anas which the city had experienced over the last few days had subsided; now there was a gentle, but warm, breeze coming from the ocean. As he turned off Venice Boulevard to make the final hundred yards of his journey, he could see there was a thin layer of mist hanging over the beach. The last few mornings had seen a thick layer of fog - the Santa Ana fog – which had persisted until late morning when the sun burnt it off: a pain to drive in, and Leroy hoped it would not be around the next day.

  There was ve
ry little parking space around Leroy’s building: he had a dedicated space around the side, but tonight somebody had parked an SUV near the entrance. Resisting the temptation to call in, have the vehicle towed and the driver booked for obstruction, he slowly manoeuvred his Taurus between it and the fence. With only an inch to spare, he eventually parked in his allotted space. He looked over the SUV as he walked past it to his building: not a vehicle he recognised; maybe the driver was visiting someone in one of the other apartments. He decided against getting too heavy; after all, he had to live with these people. Instead, he retrieved a letter size sheet of paper from his car, scribbled you are obstructing a driveway, please take more care in future. lapd on it and fastened it under one of the wipers with one of his business cards.

  As he walked onto 23rd Avenue, he paused and looked around. It was a quiet night. Sometimes, depending on the direction of the wind, he could clearly hear the sound of traffic from Venice Boulevard, or even from LAX, which was seven or eight miles further down the coast. Tonight, however, as the breeze seemed to be coming from the sea, he heard very little. Only a slight breeze, probably not enough to disperse the mist. It was a warm night too, around seventy, he guessed. He looked up into the night sky as he could hear an engine noise: amongst the stars he could make out the white and red lights of an aircraft heading down the coast, about to turn east to begin its approach to the airport.

  He swung round as he heard another noise. Faint, but shrill enough to carry on this still night, it sounded like a woman’s cry. He looked around, trying to ascertain from which direction the sound had come. Frustrated, he waited a few seconds, then headed in the direction of the beach: it would most likely have come from there.

  As he broke into a run, he heard another scream; louder and closer than before. He paused: it was coming from three or four blocks away, from the direction of the marina. He could also make out at least one man’s voice. Men’s voices, being generally deeper, carried less well.

  He turned left on Speedway, and ran down. As he ran on, he could make out the sounds of feet running, then a clatter; maybe a trashcan being knocked over. Then, he could see, two blocks down, a figure run out onto Speedway. In the illumination of the streetlamps, he could pick out the silhouette of a figure. A woman’s figure, hair dishevelled and a short skirt. She was wearing only one shoe. She looked back - down 30th, Leroy guessed - and then began to run in the other direction. Leroy ran faster and called out.

  ‘Hey!’ he shouted. ‘Police!’

  The silhouette paused momentarily, and as she did so, two figures appeared from the side street. They paused too, just enough time for her whereabouts to register. Seeing Leroy, one of them put a hand in a back pocket.

  ‘Hey!’ Leroy called out again, this time pulling his Glock from its holster. ‘Police! Freeze!’

  Both figures stopped, looking at Leroy and back to the girl, as if deciding what to do next. As he walked quickly to them, Leroy could make out that they were two men, both Caucasian, early twenties or late teens. Leroy spoke, covering them with his weapon.

  ‘Against the wall, you two. Assume the position. It’s all right, miss,’ he said to the girl. ‘Just wait there, will you?’

  Both men leaned against the fence as instructed, and Leroy, still carefully covering them, used his left hand to frisk them. The first was clean; in the other’s rear pocket Leroy felt something hard. He pulled out a handkerchief from his own pocket and reached in. Holding the object in his handkerchief, he pulled out a black switchblade. He recognised it as a Magnano. He flicked it, revealing its long blade.

  ‘This looks over two inches,’ he said. ‘Therefore an illegal weapon, under the California Penal Code.’ The owner did not reply.

  ‘You okay?’ he asked the woman, who by now was sitting on the kerb. ‘What were they trying to do?’

  She ran her hand through her hair. ‘Rob me, I guess.’

  ‘Rob? You sure that’s all?’

  She shrugged her shoulders.

  Still covering the two men, he unhooked his cuffs from his belt, and cuffed the two men together. Then took out his phone and made a call. Five minutes later a blue and white police vehicle arrived. One of the two uniformed officers recognised Leroy; she and her colleague took off Leroy’s cuffs and substituted their own. She then read the two men their rights, and bundled them into the back of the car.

  ‘I heard a commotion and ran down here,’ Leroy said. ‘The lady says they were trying to rob her.’

  ‘Did they take anything?’ the female officer asked the woman.

  She shook her head.

  ‘Attempted robbery, then.’ She looked down at the woman. The light coloured blouse she was wearing had two buttons torn off. ‘Anything else you want to report?’

  ‘You up to making a statement now, ma’am?’ the male officer asked the woman. ‘Or would you rather call in in the morning?’

  The woman looked up. ‘Could I come in the morning? I’m so - so tired now.’

  ‘Surely. We’ll hold them for tonight, but you must come in tomorrow, otherwise we’ll be obliged to release them.’

  She nodded. ‘Sure. I will.’

  Leroy stepped over to the officers. ‘What’s with tomorrow? You need to take her statement now.’

  The female officer shook her head. ‘No, Sam; not according to the guidelines from our captain. As long as she files her report by noon tomorrow. We can hold them tonight on suspicion. But if she doesn’t come in by then, they’re back on the streets. What exactly’s your involvement anyway?’

  Leroy inclined his head in the direction of 23rd. ‘I live only half a dozen blocks away. I had just gotten home, when I heard a scream. I ran up here, and caught those two punks chasing her.’

  ‘That was a piece of luck. For her, I mean; not them. Did they say anything to you after you called it in?’

  ‘Diddly squat. Just stood facing the wall. Here: you’ll need this.’ He handed her his handkerchief, still containing the Magnano. She took the handkerchief, checked the contents, then showed it to her partner. He reached inside the car and retrieved a small transparent plastic envelope. Dropped the knife inside and sealed it. She held out Leroy’s cuffs.

  ‘Here you go, Sam. Fair exchange. You never know when you might need these.’ As she spoke, her gaze fixed his. ‘At least we can get them on possession of an illegal weapon. Something we can really hold them on. Until something more serious, that is.’

  She looked down at the blue and white. In the street lights they could make out the two sitting in the back of the car, silently staring out in front.

  ‘Just a couple of kids. See her top? It has some buttons missing: do you think…?’

  ‘She says only robbery. Maybe she got away before it could develop into anything else. Though she really needs to be checked over. Look: her arm is bleeding. Tonight, I mean; not by noon tomorrow.’

  The male officer flashed Leroy a stare, then asked the woman, ‘Ma’am, you’re bleeding. You need to be checked over by a doctor. Would you like -?’

  ‘It’s all right, thank you. I’m okay. Just a little shaken up. I just need to go home. I only live a couple of blocks away.’

  ‘Which street?’ Leroy asked.

  ‘Holly Court,’ she replied. ‘It’s only five minutes away.’

  ‘I know Holly Court,’ said Leroy. ‘I’ll walk her home. If that’s okay with you, ma’am.’

  She looked up from the kerb and, before nodding to Leroy, glanced over at the female officer.

  ‘It’s okay, ma’am; he is a cop, just like us. You wouldn’t think so, to look at him.’

  The woman smiled weakly at the joke, then stood up. She swayed slightly, unsteady on her feet.

  ‘We’ll take these two in then,’ said the female officer, ‘and leave the lady with you, Sam. Remember to call in tomorrow morning, ma’am. Detective Leroy will give you the address.’

  ‘I will. Thanks.’ The woman steadied herself. The uniformed officers got into their car, and
left, saying goodbye to Leroy as they turned the car around.

  Leroy stepped over to the woman and held her arm. ‘You’d better take my arm,’ he said. ‘You’re still a little shaky.’ Giving her his arm for support, he led her down 30th Avenue.

  ‘You sure you’re okay to walk?’ he asked after a hundred yards or so. ‘We could have gone back to my place where my car is parked, but I guess that’s just as far to walk.’

  ‘Yes, I’m okay to walk,’ she replied.

  ‘You live alone?’ he asked.

  ‘U-huh.’

  ‘Same here.’

  In silence, they crossed Pacific Avenue. ‘What exactly happened, then?’ he asked, as they took a footbridge which took them over one of the canals.

  ‘I had been out with a couple of girlfriends,’ she replied. ‘We had been in a restaurant on the 3rd Street Promenade. We shared a cab back home. We dropped one of them off on Lincoln, and me just back on Pacific. Then the cab went on to the other side of the marina.’

  ‘And then what?’

  ‘The car had just gotten round the corner when I saw - or rather heard – those two guys. They were walking on the other side of the road - this side – so I couldn’t cross over, but I knew they were following me. I started to walk faster, so did they. Eventually I started to run down one of the side streets, where they caught up with me. And….’ She paused; Leroy thought she was about to cry.

  ‘Leave it then,’ he said softly. ‘Tell the officers in the morning.’

  She nodded. ‘I guess you think I’m dumb walking in the first place, at this time of night.’

  ‘To be honest, yes. Why didn’t you get the cab to go past your place? Hardly out of his way.’

  ‘Don’t know. When we go out together, we always go home like that. I’ve done that walk dozens of times. This is the first time…’

  ‘Sure. Could’ve been your last. I recommend next time the cab takes you to your door.’

  ‘Don’t worry. I will. It’s just up there. I’ll be okay from here. Thanks Detective…Leroy, was it?’

  ‘Leroy, yes. Detective Leroy. Sam. And I’ll take you to your door.’

  ‘Julia. Julia Moore. It’s here. 2802.’