Joe Valery's Death

Joe Valery, Kate's trusted but increasingly fearful house pimp, had built his life on a careful system of hatred and self-protection. He distrusted everyone, believed the world was in conspiracy against him, and placed his faith only in money. For years he had worked for Kate, performing her hatchet work and enforcing her rules, but he lived in terror of her intelligence. When he discovered that Ethel, a former prostitute who knew about Faye's death, had drowned in Santa Cruz, he saw an opportunity. He lied to Kate, telling her that Ethel was still alive and threatening to expose her, hoping to extract money and power from her fear. Kate, however, saw through his game. She wrote a letter to the sheriff suggesting that Joe Valery's fingerprints be checked, and she sent it out with a girl just before she locked herself in her gray room to die.

The Flight and the Shooting

When Deputy Oscar Noble came to Kate's house the morning after her suicide to bring Joe in for questioning, Joe knew immediately that his luck had run out. He agreed to go with Noble, but as they walked toward Castroville Street, Joe asked if he had ever been mugged or printed. When Noble said they would soon find out, Joe bolted. He ran across the street and over the railroad tracks toward the alleys of Chinatown, zigzagging to avoid the deputy's fire. Noble, a methodical marksman, braced his left elbow against a telephone pole, gripped his right wrist with his left hand, and drew a bead on the entrance to the alley where Joe was heading. He fired just as Joe touched the front sight. The slug splashed off one side of Joe's heart, flattened against his ribs, and tore out a section as big as a fist. Joe splashed forward on his face and skidded a foot. A crowd gathered around the body as Noble went into a Filipino poolroom to phone.

The Aftermath and the Photographs

Sheriff Quinn, who had known Kate for years and had always suspected her role in Faye's death, went through the papers from Joe's pockets. The manila envelopes were glued together with blackened blood. Inside were the photographs Kate had used for blackmail—pictures of a state senator, a councilman, a professor of philosophy, a minister of the Gospel, and many others. Each envelope contained a man's honor and peace of mind. Quinn understood that these pictures, effectively used, could cause half a dozen suicides and tear the county to pieces. He called a trusted lawyer to his office, showed him the will Kate had written—leaving everything to Aron Trask—and then burned every photograph and negative in the iron stove. He gave the lawyer a list of the men involved and told him to inform each one privately that the pictures had been destroyed. The lawyer, who was himself among those photographed, thanked Quinn, but the sheriff knew that there was now a barrier between them that would never be removed. These guilt-feeling men could get him out of office, and they would have to. Quinn sat down heavily, knowing that his long career as sheriff was effectively over.

Significance

Joe Valery's death is the final unraveling of Kate's web of cruelty and control. His attempt to blackmail her, and his subsequent flight and killing, expose the fragility of the criminal world she had built. The photographs he carried, meant to be her ultimate weapon, are instead destroyed by Quinn, who chooses to protect the community from the scandal rather than pursue justice. The event also clears the way for Kate's will to reach Aron, though he will never know of it. Joe's death, like Kate's suicide, is a kind of moral cleanup, a purging of the corruption that had festered in Salinas. The novel's narrative arc, which began with Adam's naive trust and Cathy's monstrous betrayal, closes with the quiet, almost bureaucratic disposal of the evidence of that betrayal.