My Dark Places - James Ellroy [4]
George Krycki walked in. Hallinen and Lawton asked him about his Saturday-night activities.
He told them Anna May went to a movie around 9:00. He stayed home and watched a fight card on TV. He saw the victim drive off between 8:00 and 8:30 p.m. and did not see or hear her return home.
Ervin asked the Kryckis to accompany him to the L.A. County Morgue. They had to log a positive ID on the body.
Hallinen called the Sheriff’s Crime Lab and told them to roll a print deputy out to 700 Bryant, El Monte—the small house behind the larger house.
Virg Ervin drove the Kryckis to the L.A. Hall of Justice—a twelve-mile shot up the San Bernardino Freeway. The Coroner’s Office and the morgue were in the basement below the Sheriff’s Homicide Bureau.
The victim was stored on a slab in a refrigerated vault. The Kryckis viewed her separately. They both identified her as Jean Ellroy.
Ervin took a formal statement and drove the Kryckis back to El Monte.
The print deputy met Hallinen and Lawton outside the Ellroy bungalow. It was 4:30 p.m. and still hot and humid.
The bungalow was small and built of maroon-colored wood and river rock. It stood behind the Krycki house, at the far end of a shared backyard. The yard featured shade palms and tall banana plants, with a rock-and-mortar pond as a centerpiece. The two houses were situated at the southeast corner of Maple and Bryant. The Ellroy place had a Maple Avenue address.
The front door faced the pond and the Kryckis’ back door. It was constructed of louvered glass affixed to wood framing. A pane near the keyhole was missing. The door could not be locked from the inside or outside.
Hallinen, Lawton and the print deputy entered the house. The interior was cramped: two tiny bedrooms off a narrow living room; a stand-up kitchen, breakfast nook and bathroom.
The place was neat and orderly. Nothing looked disturbed. The victim’s bed and her son’s bed had not been slept in.
They found a glass in the kitchen, partially filled with wine. They checked the drawers in the victim’s bedroom and found some personal papers. They learned that the victim worked at Airtek Dynamics—2222 South Figueroa, L.A.
They learned that the victim’s ex-husband was named Armand Ellroy. He lived at 4980 Beverly Boulevard, L.A. His phone number was Hollywood 3-8700.
They saw that the victim did not have a telephone herself.
The print deputy dusted the wineglass and several other print-sustaining surfaces. He came up with no viable latent fingerprints.
Hallinen walked over to the Kryckis’ house and called the ex-husband’s number. He let it ring a good long time and got no answer.
Virg Ervin walked in. He said, Dave Wire found the victim’s car—parked behind a bar on Valley Boulevard.
The bar was called the Desert Inn. It was located at 11721 Valley—two miles from the dump site and a mile from the victim’s house. It was a flat one-story building with a red clay-shingle roof and front window awnings.
The rear lot extended back to a line of cheap stucco bungalows. A grass strip covered with sycamore trees divided four parking space rows. Low chain-links closed the lot in sideways.
A red-and-white Buick was parked by the west-side fence. Dave Wire was standing beside it. Jim Bruton and Harry Andre were standing by a Sheriff’s prowl unit.
Al Etzel was there. Blackie McGowan was there.
Hallinen and Lawton pulled into the lot. Virg Ervin and the print deputy pulled up in separate cars.
Dave Wire walked over and laid it all out.
He caught the license plate call and started checking side streets and parking lots. He found the victim’s car at 3:35 p.m. It was unlocked and appeared to be unransacked. He checked the front and back seats and did not find car keys or the victim’s purse, undergarments and shoes. He did find a half-dozen empty beer cans. They were wrapped in brown paper and tied up with