The Lost Witness by Robert Ellis Read Free Book Online Page B

probably five years older. He was a handsome man with an intelligent face framed by dark hair
and a pair of glasses that seemed to sharpen the light in his eyes. Although he may have been one of the best reporters Lena had ever known, that didn’t make him any less dangerous. The deal
he was talking about had been struck after her last case. The doer had worn a badge, and the brass on the sixth floor wanted to keep it buried at the expense of an innocent man’s reputation.
Lena needed an insurance policy and had given Ramira an exclusive “off-the-record” account of the investigation. Getting the story in print was the only way of ensuring that everyone
involved lived up to the truth. When it was over—when the official record became straight and true—Ramira won an award, and Lena’s plight with Chief Logan was born.
    “What deal is that?” she asked. “You already got your story”
    “You know what I’m talking about, Lena. You need me just as much as I need you. Even the senator said it last night. He saw Logan reaming you out. That’s why he walked in on
you and broke it up.”
    Lena slipped her computer into her briefcase without responding. Ramira checked the room, then sat down at the table and lowered his voice.
    “You want me to say it straight out, then I will. You’re in a rough business, Lena, and you need friends. Everybody knows that you’re on the outs with the chief and his band of
self-righteous boy scouts. It’s all about your last case. You were right and he was wrong, and everything went down in public. I know that you didn’t mean to embarrass him, but you did.
The bottom line is that no matter how much he’d like to, he can’t transfer you to the Valley and he can’t fire your ass to oblivion. His hands are tied, and he can’t get rid
of you. But I’ll bet he’s thinking about it. I’d bet the city he spends a lot of time thinking about it. And that’s why you need friends.”
    Lena relied on her ability to size people up quickly and accurately. As she stood up, she wondered if her read on Ramira had been off the mark.
    “You need to chill,” she said. “Take some time off. What you’re implying is ludicrous.”
    “Is it, Lena? Like I said, you’re in a rough business. Shit happens.”
    Ramira met her eyes. He looked tired and a little nervous. She wished that he hadn’t followed her into the café.

 
7
    A s Lena crossed the lobby at Parker Center and started around the security line, one of the two cops behind the front
desk called out her name. He lifted a package in the air, an eight-by-ten manila envelope.
    “A messenger dropped it off five minutes ago,” he said. “You saved me a trip upstairs.”
    “Thanks.”
    She glanced at the return address but didn’t recognize the name. McBride. Navy Street. Venice Beach. None of it registered.
    Stepping into the elevator, she hit the button to her floor, and took another look at the package. It was a padded mailer and she didn’t think the contents felt like a book or CD. When the
doors finally closed, the elevator shook and groaned and vibrated all the way up to the third floor.
    Parker Center, aka the Glass House, was due to be leveled sometime in the next five years. Lena tried not to think about it because there was nothing she could do to make it happen any faster.
Still, every time she stepped into an elevator, the question of her own personal safety crossed her mind. Parker Center hadn’t survived the last earthquake, but city officials were saying
that it did—pretending that it did. The replacement cost of the building was more important to city government than the safety of the people who worked here. At least that’s the way it
appeared to Lena as she did the math. The Northridge earthquake had rumbled through Los Angeles almost fifteen years ago. The department would get a new building, but only after the people working
here waited it out for a grand total of twenty years. For some, that