The investigation also provides an apparent, fictional solution to the Sleepy Lagoon murder - it's revealed that a young Coleman Masskie witnessed LAPD lieutenant Dudley Smith committing the murder, a racist hate crime in retaliation for the Latino victim sleeping with his niece. This was part of what forced Masskie into hiding with his father, and eventually factors into his killings, as he emulates Smith's use of a "zoot stick" when mutilating his victims' corpses. Dudley Smith is a prominent lead investigator of the anti-Communist investigation, and is never charged with the crime - however, this discovery contributes to Meeks' and Considine's disillusionment with the investigation. At the conclusion of the novel, after Mickey Cohen finds out about Meeks' affair with Anders, Meeks burns down the DA's house along with all of the anti-Communist investigative material before leaving town.