Fatalis

"I'll look around the site and see what I can find in the way of sinkholes or tu

"The one right at the tar pits?"

"Yes."

"I can be there in about ninety minutes," Ha

"Great See you there."

Ha

"All this bloodshed. These are heartbreaking," he said.

Ha

The Wall looked at her. "Is that the best you can do?"

"What do you mean?"

"'Completely.' This is tragic."

"I know, Wall," she said. "But it's like my dad said about war. Fight now, mourn later. Give the best shots to Charlie and then get your stuff."

"What's happening?"

"We're going to meet Jim at the George Page Museum in Los Angeles," Ha

The photographer shook his head. "Can't you leave me here?"

"Leave you? Hell, no. Wall. You're my photographer, remember?"

"For The Coastal Freeway," he said, "Covering greater Santa Barbara County."

"Which is where this story started, which makes it ours. Now let's go."

He didn't move.

"Come on Walter. I don't have time for this."

"Time," he said. "You know what happens to reporters who don't take the time to sleep, eat, and reflect on life a little?"

"They get scoops," she replied impatiently.

"No," the Wall said. "They lose perspective. They get desensitized."

"Wall, what the hell are you talking about? What brought this on? The photos?"

"Partly. I've been standing here looking at these photos and thinking that we may be part of the problem. Gearhart wants to save human lives. Grand wants to save prehistoric monsters. Gearhart doesn't want people to know what's going on, you want people to know everything." The photographer shook his head. "We're fighting each other over creatures that are fighting each other. Somewhere, sometime, someone has to say, 'No more fighting.'"

"Wall, we're fighting to keep people informed, to try and improve the quality of human life."

"Not to prove something? Maybe to a father or to ourselves?"

"Hey, I want respect," Ha

"No, to do good."

"That's right!"

"But you're never the one who gets seriously knocked around," the Wall said. "Remember our last year at Brown when we did the series about mobsters and jocks making book on college sports?"

"Of course I remember. We were nominated for the A

"You were nominated for the prize. When we showed up at one of the bars where they did their betting, I was the one who got hit with a blackjack. A year ago when we did that Lone Rangering about Caltrans and the right-of-way land they bought cheap up here then sold at a big-bucks auction, who got roughed up trying to get into the public meetings? The guy without the lucky dog tags hanging from his neck."

"You survived," she said, "and I was able to be there when upper management voted themselves big pay increases using that money. A week after our article appeared they got voted out. We won."

"That's just my point," the Wall said. "We never really win. We just keep fighting, and they just keep fighting- whoever 'they' are on that particular day-and we all just keep getting more and more worn down." He gestured toward the desktop. "I look at pictures like these and you know what I see? Not death and blood. I see a great page one. We'll sell a lot of copies, outsell the LA Times. Another battle won, until the next day and the next day and the day after that."

"Wall," Ha

He looked at her. "You always say that. And it's never over."

"Sure it is," she said. "My great-grandmother once said to me, 'Ha

The Wall looked at her. "You like Jim."

"Yeah." She flushed.

"I do too, even though he's a little Twilight Zoney."

"He's a good man, Wall."

The Wall sighed. "I guess." He turned to the coat rack where his cameras were hanging. "I'll do this one more time, Ha

"You've got a deal," she said.

The Wall removed his cameras, slung them over his shoulder, and followed Ha

He savored it while he could.

Chapter Sixty-Nine

The Chinook landed at Fire Station 108 on the top of Coldwater Canyon, then immediately took off to help with the search. Meanwhile, Grand and Gearhart were driven by a Los Angeles Police Department patrol car down the road toward Sunset Boulevard and the site of the massacre. The driver maneuvered through a crowd of TV and print reporters who were clustered at the edge of the driveway behind police guards and yellow crime-scene tape. It did not escape Grand, the irony of being taken inside the one time he really wanted to be outside, searching for evidence of where the cats had gone.

Like the Juncal campsite, the hedged-in estate was spotted with large patches of blood-drenched grass. All the spots were marked by stakes with red flags. The bodies had obviously drained of blood where they fell; holes from nine-inch teeth would have caused that to happen very quickly. That was obviously the reason there was never a trail of blood to follow. Though it was a savage panorama, the absence of bodies made it possible to concentrate on the predators and not the prey. Grand wondered if the cats always brought kills back to their caves. He couldn't imagine that they were challenged by other predators. Perhaps they brought the food back to share with older cats or cats that had unsuccessful hunts in the colder times. If so, it suggested a level of socialization far greater than modern cats possessed. He had to study these creatures at greater length.

There were also the remains of roasts in the open fire pits, though the food was untouched. That didn't surprise him. Most animals in the wild did not eat cooked meat.

Lieutenant Mindar had arrived minutes before. He did not look happy as he greeted the two men. He took a moment to introduce them to young, blond LAPD commander Heeger, who was in charge of the police side of the investigation. Heeger was standing by the rear gate and was on the radio, talking to his field commanders. As Mindar walked Grand and Gearhart toward the pool, he informed them that Chief of Police Gus Mailer was conferring about the next course of action with Mayor Greenburg and with Deputy Chief Janet Dumaman of Beverly Hills Operations and Deputy Chief Kurt Maser of Wilshire Operations, which included the area around La Brea.

"I was afraid of that," Sheriff Gearhart said. "They've got the timid leading the incompetent."

"What does that mean?" Grand asked.

"It means that for now, Professor, the sheriff and myself are on the sidelines," Mindar told him. "The Los Angeles city charter stipulates that the mayor has to declare a level-one state of emergency before the governor can order the National Guard to run security and logistics and also authorize law officers from other counties to become involved in an operation."