Robert Ellis: CITY OF FIRE, Chapter 18

Lena’s home in Hollywood Hills … 

One of the victim’s neighbors, George Smythe, is on the late-night news saying he saw James Brant park in the lot at Rustic Canyon Park and run into the woods at 1:00 am on the night of the murder. Novak and Lena wonder how Smythe was missed when they canvased the neighborhood. Deciding to let Stan Rhodes handle it in the morning, Lena readies for some much needed sleep with a glass of wine. She gets in bed, the view of the fog rolling in from the ocean remarkable. She notices her phone blinking in the darkness and checks her voicemail. Tim Holt, a friend and member of her brother’s rock band, called. He’s back in town and needs to talk to her about something …

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Robert Ellis; CITY OF FIRE, Chapter 17

The Murder House, Rustic Canyon, Late Night …

 

With James Brant cut loose, LAPD Detective Tito Sanchez drops Lena off at the crime scene to pick up her car. After Sanchez drives off, Lena hears something in the backyard. She walks through the fog and sees the man accused of murdering his wife trying to get past the crime scene tape and break into the house. She draws her gun and confronts him alone and in the dead of night, Brant’s eyes big and wild. He claims he just stopped by for a change of clothes. But Lena notices that he didn’t park on the street. Instead, he climbed over the fence in the backyard and snuck through the mist ...

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Robert Ellis; CITY OF FIRE, Chapter 16

Los Angeles, Police Headquarters, Late Night …

 

James Brant, the man who stands accused of stabbing his wife to death, fails his polygraph test. His attorney, Buddy Paladino, questions the validity of all polygraph tests, citing the ACLU who calls them voodoo science. Because of the lack of evidence, Lena and her partner, Hank Novak, are forced to cut Brant loose. Their killer is out and about and in the free world. Free to kill over and over again!

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