Chapter 4: House of Sticks, Part II
Elysian Fields Site
11:19 AM
The car pulled into a site with a small office in it. They had visited the site before, while chasing investigating the house fires while one the force, were looking for somebody who could point them in the direction of the house where Lou died. Cole and Herschel exited the car.
"Ok, let's look around" Cole said, "Let's see if we can find anything or anyone that can point us in the right direction".
The two private detectives headed into the office. Cole noticed a desk covered with a clipboard and shelves filled with various papers as he looked around. There were a couple other desks in the office, but he could look at those after, for now he would focus his attention on the desk nearest to him. Two of the papers were on the desk itself, separated from the rest that were located on the shelves. He picked up one of the pieces of paper, it was a demolition order. He quickly read through it.
"Looks like Elysian is bulldozing this place so they can start again" Cole said, "I wonder what evidence they are trying to hide by destroying this place".
He put the demolition order down and focused on the second piece of paper. It was an Elysian Fields memo, sent by Leland Monroe himself to a Frank Osterman. The memo dealt with the construction schedule and was comprised of only five words: DELAYS WILL NOT BE TOLERATED. The WILL NOT was highlighted on the memo by an underline, to hammer the point in.
"Looks like our good friend Mr. Monroe doesn't like to be disappointed" Cole remarked, "Well, I can't wait to see how he will react when he finds himself in prison".
He placed the paper down.
"Cole, I think you should see this" Herschel said.
The other detective had been looking around the office as Cole was investigating the pieces of paper. He was now looking at a piece of paper on another desk. Cole walked over to where Herschel was and picked up the piece of paper. It was a delivery receipt for materials used to make cement, with the amount of each material listed beside the name.
"I don't see what's so interesting about this, Herschel?" Cole said.
"That is not how you make good cement" he said, "I have a brother who worked in construction, so I have some knowledge on these things, and he would have fired any man who suggested mixing cement like this on the spot. It seems like someone in Elysian is cutting corners, like on that building we saw in Rancho Escondido".
"Yes, I see what you mean" Cole said, "Wait, I never knew you had a brother, Herschel".
"I like to keep it that way" Herschel said, "The less people know about me, the better".
"Considering my troubles," Cole said, "I have to agree with you on that".
Feeling as though they had discovered all the clues they could find there, the two men left the small office. As they exited the office, they ran into what seemed to be the foreman of the site.
"Hey!" the man said, "You just can't be walking around down here".
"We are Detectives Phelps and Biggs" Cole said.
"I don't care if you two were the goddamn popes" He replied, "Buzz off".
"We are investigating the accidental death of Lou Buchwalter and…" Cole said.
"Then buzz off, you have your answer" the man said, "You said it yourself, accidental death, so quit nosing around and leave".
"We are investigating the death anyways, as there are some suspicions…" Cole said, before being interrupted.
"You deaf?" the man said, "Do I have to throw you out by your collars".
"It looks like you're going to need to beat some sense into this guy, Cole" Herschel said.
The foreman raised his fists, as Cole did the same. The two men approached each other. Cole threw the first punch, hitting the man square in the jaw. He attempted to retaliate, but Cole dodged his blow. He took advantage of the man's opening by hitting him twice in the stomach, then he grappled the man and threw him to the ground. While the man was on the ground, Cole leant down and punched him once more in the jaw. Cole stood back up.
"Now, if you would kindly show us which house Lou Buchwalter died working on, we will be on our way" Cole said.
The man got up slowly, obviously in pain.
"It's out the gate and three houses down on the left" he said, "Don't know what you looking for, smart guy. There's nothing there".
"Then we'll just look around the rubble" Cole said.
"Fine" the man said, "As long as you're out of my sight".
Cole and Herschel exited through the gate and walked over to the wreckage of a house.
Demolished Elysian Fields House
11:30 AM
The house was utterly demolished, transformed from a skeleton frame of a home into a heap of timber and plywood. There was a bulldozer to the left of the heap, which caught Cole's attention.
"It doesn't make any sense, the house falls down, then they bulldoze it anyway" he said to himself, "I have a feeling something big is being hidden here".
He and Herschel began to walk around the wreckage. Cole noticed a piece of wood with what seemed to be lettering on it sticking out at the back of the house, by a trench near the bulldozer. He jogged back there to inspect the wood. As he got closer, he saw that there was indeed letters on the piece of wood. There were two different pieces of wood with lettering, so he picked one of them up.
"So," Cole said, "another puzzle to put back together".
He placed it close to another piece of sticking out of the heap. The places where the beam snapped were similar, showing that they had once been one whole beam. The beam being put back in place allowed Cole to make out most of the writing on it. The beam said "NOT SUITABLE FOR CONSTRUCTION USE".
"Well, this is very interesting" Cole said, "I wouldn't expect Mr. Monroe to approve of the use of substandard materials in his houses".
Knowing the quality of the Elysian houses Cole had seen, this was funny to him, as the company's own building materials were evidence against them. He grabbed the other piece on the ground and looked for another beam with a similar breaking point. He found it and put the two pieces together. Unbelievably, the writing on this one was even more interesting than the last.
"Keystone Films" Cole said, "Now what type of construction company gets their wood from a film studio".
As he backed away from the house, headed back towards the car, he saw the foreman get into the bulldozer. The man started up the bulldozer, seemingly with no reason to, then what the man was trying to do hit him. Cole pulled out his gun and ran towards the trench as the bulldozer crashed through the wooden skeleton of a shed. Cole dived into the trench, in front of him there were several blockades, which the bulldozer could easily destroy. He ran down the trench, bulldozer right behind him. He slid over the first blockade, then turned to shoot the foreman in order to stop the machine. As soon as he raised his weapon, the man almost instinctively raised the front plow to shield him from the bullets. However, the actions caused the bulldozer to slow down to a speed Cole could outrun. He ran through the trench, sliding over the various barricades, firing off shots to slow down the machine. As he turned to fire again, he heard some other shots ring out from a gun that wasn't his. The bulldozer suddenly stopped, allowing Cole to see that the foreman was dead, shot through the head.
"What the hell was he trying to do to you?" Herschel yelled from the top of the trench, gun in his hands.
Cole turned to face him, suddenly relieved.
"Kill me, I suppose" he said.
"Well, did you find anything important?" Herschel said.
"Apparently Elysian gets their lumber from film studios" Cole said, "Can you help me up?"
"Sure" Herschel said.
Cole holstered his weapon, and went to the side of the trench. Herschel was crouched down, hand ready to help him up. Cole grabbed it as the older man lifted him to the top of the trench. They headed out of the site to the car, confident they had found all the clues the demolished house had to offer.
"What's the name of this film studio?" Herschel asked.
"Keystone Films" Cole said, "We could try and get the address, but since we're no longer cops, we can't check R&I".
"Don't worry, Cole" he said, "Leave it to me".
They had arrived at the vehicle. Cole got into the driver's seat, wondering what Herschel would do to get the address. The older detective picked up the communicator for the police radio, which had not yet been removed from their car.
"This is KGPL" the voice on the other end said, "How may I help you, Detectives".
"Julia, hey, it Biggs" he said, "I was wondering if you could do me a favour".
"Herschel, you're no longer an officer" she said, "How are you even contacting me?"
"The police radio from the car hasn't been removed yet" he said, "Which makes it the perfect time to call in that favour you owe me".
"Alright" she said, "What do you need?"
"The address of a Keystone Films Company, here in L.A." he said.
"Let's see" she said, "The address is 658 North Wilton Place".
"Thanks, Julia" he said.
"Now that's one less favour I owe you, Herschel" she said, "Remember that".
Cole looked at him in disbelief.
"Why does the lady from KGPL owe you favours" he said.
"It's a long story, maybe I'll tell it another time" Herschel said, "Now let's get to that film studio".
A/N: Sorry for the delay. I've been traveling these past few weeks and haven't even been near a computer. I hope you liked this chapter. For the bulldozer chase, I expect that there would be an achievement called "Quick on the Draw" for killing the driver before Herschel does it for you. I should be writing a lot more of this in the coming weeks as I still need to figure out where to go on my Doctor Who fanfic, as I've decided against my original direction. I am starting a new project, but the chapters for this should still be coming at a good pace, as I have a lot of free time to work on both. Please Review, as I do appreciate constructive criticism, and want to hear what you of my story.
EDIT: Got KGPL and R&I mixed up, probably because they mostly mention them both in the same sentence and they're the same lady, so I fixed that.