Pike took off his running shoes and pistol. He pulled off his pants and sweatshirt, wrapped the gun in his pants, then put on his shoes and slipped quietly into the water. His muscles clenched at the first shock of cold, but the shock, like all pain, faded.

Pike resumed where he had left off, checked eleven more blocks, and was wading beneath the salt plants when his leg struck a hard object. He felt it with his foot, and realized he had bumped against a ten-inch pipe. He had seen pipes like it in the canals when the water was out. They were drains for rain and runoff collected from the alleys and yards.

The pipes he had seen were capped with a heavy mesh grid to keep out birds and animals when the water was low, but when Pike pushed his foot against this one, he felt the grid move.

Pike took a breath, pulled himself under, and found four nylon duffel bags stuffed up the pipe, tied together with rope. They did not come easily, but after a while Pike had them free.

Once he had them out of the water, he put on his shirt and pants, clipped the pistol to his belt, and headed back to his Jeep with the bags. As he climbed the narrow pedestrian bridge, an older couple stopped on the far side to let him pass.

Pike said, “Thank you.”

The lady said, “Lovely night.”

Pike’s Jeep was on Venice Boulevard not far from the bridge. He dropped the bags in the shadows at the curb, then opened the rear hatch. When he went back for the bags, former DEA agent Norm Lister was waiting. Holding a gun.

“Good job, Pike. Very good. Excellent.”

Lister looked ragged and dirty, like he’d been living in a car. He made a pushing gesture with the gun, as if he expected Pike to step back. If only you knew.

“Put the keys there in the bed, and walk away.”

Pike didn’t move.

“Did you know where the money was?”

“No, man, but I knew Rainey. I’m the guy who flipped him. It had to be close.”

Pike thought back to the video. How they had tailed Rainey and Platt, watching their every move. Maybe hoping Rainey would visit the money.

Lister made the push again.

“Go away, Pike. This is your pass.”

Pike looked at Lister’s trembling gun, then at the man’s nervous eyes. He thought about Jerry Button, and poor little Futardo, and Rainey and Dru Rayne who turned out to be Rose Platt.

“Lister. If you knew me as well as you knew Rainey, you wouldn’t be here.”

Pike shot Norm Lister in the chest, then walked over and shot him in the face exactly as he had shot Jerry Button.

Pike loaded the money aboard, leaving Norm Lister on the curb.

Chapter 51

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