This Storm

by James Ellroy

He subtly pumped Elmer Jackson. He quizzed him per Wayne Frank’s death and gold idée fixe. He curveballed “Karl Frederick Tullock.” Elmer deadpanned the name. Wayne Frank and Karl Tullock. This simple conclusion. They converged in Griffith Park that day. This less simple question perplexed him. The gold nugget in Tullock’s trouser cuff. How did it get there? He sought to buttress his fire-case logic. He set out to establish a certain Box Man ID. He recalled gossip. The Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Bertillon-charted their deputies. The men were comprehensively measured. Hand spans/arm and leg lengths/twelve phrenological marks. He could measure Box Man. He would measure up or he would not. He