From Down Here Chapter 31
Lucy looks excited when she comes home. "We found out who Curan is!"
"Some kid who was kidnapped from a rich family years ago?" Tim asks.
"More complicated than that," Lucy says. "His parents were comers in Silicon Valley. They had a company that was almost ready to go public. Curan was named for an early version of their software. His parents were afraid he'd be kidnapped, so they had him fingerprinted and his DNA sequenced. But his parents were killed in a car crash. Nothing was ever proven, but the local cops had some suspicions that it wasn't an accident. Curan's only relative was a second cousin, Devin Larchmont. Children's Services had their doubts, but the system was overloaded, and they couldn't spare the resources for a deep background check before they placed the boy with him. After Larchmont took Curan and moved south, Curan fell off the radar - until now. The fingerprints and DNA were in a private registry, so it took this long to get a match."
Kojo doesn't understand much of what Lucy said, but it sounded like something bad happened to Curan before.
"Anyone talk to Larchmont?" Tim asks.
"We haven't been able to find him," Lucy says. "The address he gave the DMV is a condemned building. Some unhoused were squatting there, but none of them had seen Larchmont. No one at any of the local businesses saw him either."
Tim starts walking around. "He have a car?"
"There's one registered to him. We have a BOLO out for it," Lucy says.
"Are you working on it as a detective?" Tim asks.
"Harper's letting me look into it as long as I can still handle our other case," Lucy says.
Tim stops walking near Lucy. "That could change. There will be a new sergeant assigned to the detectives. A woman is transferring in from Olympia Division."
"Korea Town," Lucy says. "That's a cultural jump from Mid-Wilshire."
"In L.A. we have to interact with every culture, Chen. I know I taught you that."
Lucy looks mad. "I may have been your boot, but you didn't have to teach me that, Bradford. I've known it since I was in preschool. But Koreans and Chinese, um, have history."
"The LAPD has one culture, Chen – cop," Tim says.
Kojo doesn't hear Lucy and Tim call each other Bradford and Chen very often, but it usually means they're unhappy with each other. He wonders if they'll forget about it if he can get one of them to take him for a walk. He decides to get his leash. But before he gets to it, Tim's phone makes the noise that comes before he has to leave. "More field supervision?" Lucy asks.
"No, it's a call-out for Metro," Tim says, "hostage situation. This could be over in an hour or go on for days."
The mad is gone from Lucy's face. "I know. Take care of yourself, Bradford. The LAPD is short-handed enough as is."
"I'm touched, Chen," Tim says, but he doesn't look mad either. Kojo is happy about that. He's also happy that Tim cooked for him before Lucy came home. Maybe he'll be lucky, and Tim will be home for breakfast. He still wants a walk and decides to bring his leash to Lucy.
She looks down at the leash with her face a little sad and a little happy. "Want to go to the park?"
Kojo gives a happy yip. He's been in the backyard for a few days and would love to have some room to run. Tim likes to run with Kojo. Lucy isn't as fast, but she doesn't get tired. A run with either one of them can be fun.
"You know, it's strange about Curan," Lucy says as she follows Kojo toward the park. "We can't find any school records or anything. We don't even know if he stayed with Larchmont." Kojo doesn't understand, but he yips to let Lucy know he's listening. "The lab has Curan's clothes. They're trying to get some prints or DNA or trace or anything off them that doesn't belong to Curan. Maybe that will give us a clue where he was or with whom."
Kojo yips again and walks faster as they get closer to the park. He scents another dog and hopes he can find her and make a friend. Kojo likes having dogs as friends. People like Lucy and Tim are nice. They're part of his pack so he takes care of them and they take care of him. But other dogs can be more fun. They can smell each other and chase each other and play without even needing to bark.
It seems like people can't play without talking or something. He likes it when they laugh, tell him he's a good boy, or say it's time to eat. But they talk a lot at other times. Sometimes they don't stop talking even if they get mad faces. And they can be strange about it. Sometimes Lucy wants to talk, and Tim doesn't. Then he gets a mad face. And when he gets a mad face, she gets a mad face. Then sometimes she cries. Kojo doesn't like it when Lucy cries. He doesn't like it when anyone cries. He likes happy faces and happy noises.
Tim and Lucy make happy noises when they mate. It takes people a long time to mate. They don't just fit themselves together, they do all kinds of other things Kojo doesn't understand. He's seen it a couple of times when Tim and Lucy wanted to mate so much they forgot to close the bedroom door. Kojo would have rather they stopped and went to sleep so Tim was up early enough to make his breakfast. But they seemed to like taking a long time, especially Lucy, just like she likes to take a long time talking. She's talking to him again, but he isn't paying much attention. He just knows she didn't say "play" or "eat."
The scent of the other dog is getting stronger. Kojo thinks she can't be far away, probably on the grass part of the park where he likes to play. Finally, he sees her. She's what people call a poodle. But she's big, bigger than Kojo. No one did the strange things with her fur he's seen on other poodles either. It just grows and curls. She's wearing a harness like some dogs do when they help people who can't see. She has something tied around her neck, too. Kojo wonders if there is someone who can't see nearby. Usually, they have what Lucy calls sunglasses over their eyes. But he doesn't see anyone wearing any. There is a woman who is shaking a little, sitting on a bench near the poodle. Lucy lets Kojo off his leash, and he starts running around in the grass, hoping the poodle will follow. He can see that she's watching, but she stays where she is near the woman. The woman starts shaking more, and the poodle puts her head in the woman's lap the way Kojo does to Lucy when she's sad. The woman strokes the poodle's fur and stops shaking so much.
Kojo sees Lucy watching. Lucy goes over to the woman. "Excuse me, but you seem upset. Is there anything I can do to help? You don't have to be afraid. I'm a police detective."
The woman hugs the poodle. "Thank you, but I don't need any help. I have Lulu. She's my emotional support dog. I'll be fine."
"All right," Lucy says, "if you're sure."
Lucy has a funny look, like when she's thinking about something. Whatever it is, it's making her face happier.
