CHAPTER 14I had to double back all the way to the North Pine crossroads in order to get to the road that led to Mike Van Ness’s place. I stopped at the gas station to fill the car and use the phone booth. I got Western Union and there was no message from Roy Rowley.
The station attendant was about twenty-three and friendly. “Looking for a place to stay?” he asked.
“Yeah—I see I’m a little late. Thought I might try Mike Van Ness.”
“Oh,” he said.
It might be an invitation—he had said it with a rising inflection.
“I don’t know Mike Van Ness,” I said, “—only the name.”
“Uh, yeah. He used to be on the cops around here. Got in some trouble.”
“Bad trouble?” I asked.
“Bad enough to get kicked off the force. I don’t know for sure what it was. He was on the vice squad, I heard, in Sacramento
