The blue plastic tab on the Ninth District waste contract file was broken, and the folder itself was three ounces too light. It sat on the center of my desk under a film of grey California dust that had settled overnight.
Raymond Ellis adjusted his wire-rimmed glasses and pointed a blunt finger at the index page. He was fifty-eight, a UCLA political ethics professor who spent his Thursdays helping our small Watchdog Initiative go through city hall filings.
“There is no Annex C,” Raymond said.
I rubbed my temples, feeling the sharp pinch of a headache starting right behind my eyes. Section 12-B of the Los Angeles administrative code requires all active municipal service bids to include their financial schedules in the public binder.
“These files are usually complete by the time they reach our desk, Raymond.”
“Maybe it is still in transit from the clerk’s office,” he said.
The telephone on the wall rang at ten past ten. I answered on the second ring, expecting a local donor, but the voice on the other end was short and clipped.
“Lydia, this is Nathan Hochman. We received your preliminary memo on the Ninth District sanitation bids.”
Nathan was fifty-four, the District Attorney, and he did not waste words on pleasantries.
“Is there an active investigation?” I asked.
“We require formal filings before we open an inquiry, Lydia,” Nathan said. “My office is under significant external pressure to resolve these municipal complaints quickly.”
“I am looking at a missing annex right now,” I said.
“Then find the paper,” Nathan said, and hung up.
I stared at the black receiver for five seconds before putting it back on the hook.
By two in the afternoon, the heat inside the Ninth District community center was thick enough to taste. Councilman Curren Price stood on the raised wooden stage, handing out framed neighborhood improvement awards to three local business owners.
Curren was sixty-three, dressed in a sharp grey suit that made him look like he belonged in a bank tower rather than a stucco hall on 110th Street. He used smooth, reassuring platitudes about community partnership to keep the crowd clapping.
