Silent Partner

by Jonathan Kellerman

  Cross reassured them and held a defiant news conference, his editor at his side, in front of a public storage vault in Long Beach, California, where he'd stashed thirty cartons of notes, many of them supposedly signed and dated by Leland Belding. Cameras whirring, he unlocked the vault, opened box after box, only to find each stuffed with notes unrelated to Belding. Frantic, he continued searching, produced old college essays, tax returns, stacks of bound newspapers, shopping lists—the detritus of a life soon to be ruined.

  Not a word on Belding. Cross's horror was captured in close-up as he shrieked conspiracy. But when a police investigation concluded that no one but the writer had entered the vault, and his editor admitted she'd never actually seen the alleged notes, Cross's credibility vanished.

  His publishers, faced with public humiliation and a legal adversary rich enough and tough enough to bankrupt them, settled quickly: They ran full-page ads in major newspapers featuring apologies to the Magna Corporation and the memory of Leland Belding. Immediately ceased further publication, and recalled all volumes shipped to stores and wholesalers. Refunded the record paperback advance to the soft-cover house.

  The publishers then sued Cross, demanding return of his advance plus interest plus punitive damages. Cross refused, hired attorneys, countersued. The publishing house filed a criminal complaint for fraud and misrepresentation in New York District Court. Cross was arrested, fought extradition and lost, was shipped back East and imprisoned for five days at Riker's Island. During that time he claimed to have been beaten and homosexually raped. He tried to sell his account of the ordeal to several magazines but none was interested.

  Released on bail, he was found one week later in a tenement room on Ludlow Street in New York's Lower East Side, head in the oven, a note on the floor admitting the book had been fiction, an audacious scam. He'd taken the risk, believing Magna would be too publicity-shy to challenge him, hadn't meant to harm anyone and was sorry for any pain he'd caused.

  More death.

  I turned to the magazines, looking for coverage of the hoax, found a long feature in Time, complete with a picture of Cross, shackled, in police custody. Next to that was a shot of William Houck Vidal.

  The chairman of Magna had been photographed walking down courtroom steps, a wide smile on his face, the fingers of one hand held in a victory V.

  I knew that face. Big and square and deeply tanned. Narrow pale eyes, a few blond hairs remaining in the brush-cut hair.

  A country club face.

  The face, fifteen years younger, of the man I'd seen with Sharon at the party. The old sheik she'd been trying to convince of something.

  Chapter

  23

  I reached Milo the next morning and told him what I'd learned.

  He said nothing for a moment, then: “I've got us a history lesson lined up at eleven. Maybe we can tie up some more loose ends.”

  He arrived at ten after ten. We got in the Seville and he directed me east on Sunset. The boulevard was Sunday-empty even on the Strip. Only a thin gathering of brunchers and featherheaded rockers hunched at sidewalk cafés, mixing with coke whores, call girls, and call boys trying to shake off the night before.

  “Wholesome,” said Milo. He pulled out a cigar, said, “You got me started on these again,” lit up, and blew soapy-looking smoke out the window.

  “What is that? Panamanian?”

  “Transylvanian.” He puffed with enthusiasm. Within seconds the car was fogged.

  We cruised past La Brea, past Western. No more café scene, just fast-food stands, pawnshops, discount outlets, and darker skin tones. Through the window came laughter and transistor music seasoned with bursts of Spanish. Families strolled the boulevard—parents young enough to be kids themselves, marshaling broods of black-haired cherubs.

  “Now that's wholesome,” I said.

  He nodded. “Cream of the crop—I mean it. Poor devils ransom everything they own to the goddam coyotes, get raped, robbed, and ripped off trying to make it over the fence. Then we treat 'em like vermin and send 'em back, as if the goddam country wasn't built on immigration—hell, if my forebears hadn't stowed away on a steamer and snuck in through Canada, I'd be digging potatoes somewhere out in County Cork.” He thought about that. “Seen postcards of County Cork. Maybe better off?”

  We passed through the Hospital Row that stretched between Edgemont and Vermont, rode past Western Peds, where I'd spent so much of my life.

  “Where're we going?” I asked.

  “Just keep driving.” He ground the cigar out in the ashtray. “Listen, there's something else I should tell you. After I left you yesterday, I took a drive out to Newhall and spoke to Rasmussen's old lady—Seeber.”

  “How'd you find her? I never gave you her name.”

  “Don't worry, your virtue's intact. Newhall sheriffs took her statement on the accident. I got the address from that.”

  “How's she doing?”

  “Seems to have made a good recovery—already has another guy shacking up with her. Skinny Casanova with junkie eyes and dirty arms, thought I was raiding and was halfway out the window before I calmed him down.”

  He stretched, yawned. “Anyway, I asked her if Rasmussen had been working much recently. She says no, his temper had gotten him into too many scrapes. Nobody wanted him on their crew. She's been supporting the both of them for the past six months with the roach wagon gig. Then I popped the matter of the thousand bucks he left her on the pillow, and she almost wet her pants. Even though the sheriffs released the money to her, she's scared I'm gonna confiscate it—what's left of it. Chances are Junkie's shoveled most of it up his arm.

  “I calm her down, tell her if she cooperates she can keep it, keep all the rest of it too. She gives me this look that says ‘How'd you know about all the rest of it?' Bingo. I say, how much was it, Carmen? Fess up. She hems and haws, tries to play hard-to-get—gives it her best shot, but she really doesn't have much will and finally she just blurts everything out: D.J. had come into lots of money recently, was throwing it around, buying expensive parts for his truck. She's not really sure of the exact amount—ya know? But she found ya know forty-four hundred more in one of his ya know socks.”

  “How long ago was recently?”

  “Couple of weeks ago. At least one week before everyone started dying.”

  I kept driving, past the Silverlake district and Echo Park, toward the western edge of downtown, where skyscrapers rose out of a tangle of freeway loops and back streets, glinting silver and bronze against a mud-bottomed sky.

  “If it was cash for kill,” he said, “you know what that means. Premeditation—someone'd been planning that contract. Setting it up.”

  He told me to turn left on an unmarked alley that climbed north of Sunset and tunneled between two building-supply lots. We passed dumpsters stuffed to the rim, graffiti'd rear walls, piles of plywood discards, damaged window screens, and hacked-up packing crates. Another quarter mile and we were weaving on cracked asphalt through weed-choked lots. At the back of some of the lots were lean-to shacks that looked ready to crumble. The alley angled and turned to dirt. Fifty yards later it terminated at a cinder-block wall. To the left, more dead grass; to the right of it a crow's-eye view of the freeway.

  “Park,” said Milo.

  We got out. Even this high up, the traffic roared from the interchange.

  The block wall was topped by barbed wire. Cut into the block was a round-topped wooden door scraped raw by time and the elements. No lock, no handle. Just a rusty metal spike imbedded in the wood. Looped around it was a leather thong. Hanging from the thong was an old, corroded cowbell. A tile sign over the door said: RUE DE OSCAR WILDE.

  I looked up at the barbed wire, said, “Where are the gun turrets?”

  Milo frowned, picked up a rock, and hit the cowbell. It gave off a dull clunk.

  All at once, from the other side of the wall came a rising tide of animal sounds. Dogs, cats—lots of them. And barnyard clatter: poultry clucks.
Goat bleats. The animals got closer, louder—so loud that they almost blocked out the sound of the freeway. The goats were the loudest. They made me think of voodoo rites, and the back of my neck tingled.

  “Don't say I never took you anywhere interesting,” said Milo.

  The animals were scratching at the other side of the wall. I could smell them.

  Milo called out, “Hello.”

  Nothing. He repeated the greeting, pounded the cowbell several times.

  Finally a whiny, crackling voice of indeterminate gender said, “Hold your frigging water. Who's there?”

  “Milo.”

  “So? What do you want me to do? Break open the frigging Mouton Rothschild?”

  “Opening the door would be a good start.”

  “Wouldn't it just.”

  But the door did push open. An old man stood in the doorway, wearing only a baggy pair of white boxer shorts, a red silk scarf around his neck, and a long puka-shell necklace that rested on a hairless chest. Behind him an army of quadrupeds bounced and squealed and churned up the dust: dozens of dogs of uncertain pedigree, a couple of battle-scarred tomcats, and in the background, chickens, geese, ducks, sheep, several black Nubian goats, which licked the dust and tried to chomp our cuffs.

  “Cool it,” said Milo, swatting.

  The old man said, “Down, quiet,” without enthusiasm. He walked through the opening, closed the door behind him.

  He was midsized and very thin, but flabby, with stringy arms and knobby, varicosed legs, narrow, sagging, grandmother's breasts, and a protuberant belly. His skin had been sun-baked the color of bourbon and had an oily sheen. The hair on his head was skimpy white fuzz, as if he'd coated his bare pate with glue, then dipped it in cotton wool. He had a weak chin, big beak nose, and narrow-set eyes that squinted so tightly they appeared sealed shut. A shaggy white Fu Manchu mustache ran down the sides of his mouth, continuing past the jawline and dangling an inch.

  He looked us over, frowned, spat on the ground.

  Gandhi with gastritis.

  “Afternoon, Ellston,” said Milo. “Nice to see you're in your usual good cheer.” The sound of his voice set the dogs howling.

  “Quiet. You're upsetting them—way you always do.” The old man came up to me and stared, running his tongue along the inner wall of one cheek, scratching his head. He gave off a strange blend of odors: children's zoo, French cologne, mentholated unguent.

  “Not bad,” he said finally, “but Rick was cuter.”

  He touched my shoulder. I stiffened involuntarily. His stare hardened and he spat again.

  Milo stepped closer to me. “This is Dr. Alex Delaware. He's a friend.”

  “Another doctor?” The old man shook his head and turned to me. “Tell me one thing, Curly: What the hell you upscale medico studs see in an ugly, uncouth lump like him?”

  “Friend,” said Milo. “As in friend. He's straight, Ellston.”

  The old man raised a limp wrist, adopted a mincing pose.

  “Sure he is, darling.” The old man looped his arm in mine. “What kind of doctor are you, Dr. Alex?”

  “Psychologist.”

  “Ooh,” he drew away quickly, stuck out his tongue and made a raspberry. “I don't like your type, always analyzing, always judging.”

  “Ellston,” said Milo, “you gave me enough shit over the phone, I have no appetite for any more. If you want to help, fine. If not, that's fine, too, and we'll leave you to play Farmer John.”

  “Such a rude lump,” said the old man. To me: “He's a frigging rude lump. Full of anger. Because he still hasn't accepted what he is, thinks he can deal with all of it by playing po-lice-man.”

  Milo's eyes flashed.

  The old man's opened wide in response. The left iris was blue; the right, milky gray with cataract.

  “Tsk, tsk, our poor gendarme is upset. Hit a nerve, Lump? Good. The only time you look half-human is when you're pissed off. When you get frigging real.”

  “‘I don't like your type,' ” mimicked Milo. “‘Always analyzing, always judging.' ” To me: “Enough of this crap. Let's split.”

  “Suit yourself,” said the old man, but there was worry in his voice. A headstrong kid who'd pushed his parents too far.

  We headed back to the car. Every step we took made the dogs bark louder.

  The old man cried out, “Stupid lump! No patience! Never had any.”

  Milo ignored him.

  “Just so happens, Lump, that the subject of your inquiry is one with whom I'm well versed. I actually met the rat bastard.”

  “Right,” said Milo over his shoulder. “And you fucked Jean Harlow.”

  “Well, maybe I did that too.” An instant later: “What's in it for me, anyway?” The old man was raising his voice to be heard over the animals.

  Milo stopped, shrugged, turned. “Good will?”

  “Ha!”

  “Plus a hundred for your time. But forget it.”

  “Least you could have frigging done,” shouted the old man, “was to be civil!”

  “I tried, Ellston. I always try.”

  The old man was standing with his hands on his hips. His boxer shorts flapped and his hair flew out like strands of cotton candy.

  “Well, you didn't try hard enough! Where was the introduction? A proper, civil introduction?” He shook one fist and his loose flesh danced.

  Milo growled and turned. “An introduction will make you happy?”

  “Don't be an ass, Sturgis. I haven't aimed for happy in a long, long time. But it might frigging placate me.”

  Milo swore under his breath. “C'mon,” he told me. “One more try.”

  We retraced our steps. The old man looked away from us, worked his jaws and tried hard to maintain dignity. The boxer shorts interfered.

  “Ellston,” said Milo, “this is Dr. Alex Delaware. Alex, meet Mr. Ellston Crotty.”

  “Incomplete,” huffed the old man.

  “Detective Ellston Crotty.”

  The old man held out his hand. “Detective First Grade Ellston J. Crotty, Junior. Los Angeles Police Department, Central Division, retired.” We shook. He thumped his chest. “You're looking at the Ace of Central Vice, Dr. Curly. A pleasure to make your frigging acquaintance.”

  The animals followed us as if heading for the Ark. A homemade pathway of railroad ties and cement squares bordered by unkempt hedges and sick-looking dwarf citrus trees took us to a small, asphalt-shingled house with a wide front porch littered with boxes and old machine parts. Next to the house an ancient Dodge coupe sat on blocks. The structure looked out on a flat half-acre of dirt yard fenced with chicken wire. More goats and poultry paced the yard. To the rear of the property was a ram-shackle henhouse.

  The barnyard smell had grown intense. I looked around. No neighbors, only sky and trees. We were atop a hill. To the north were smog-glazed hints of mountaintop. I could still hear the freeway, providing a bass line to the treble clucks of the chickens.

  Leaning against one of the fence posts was a bag of feed corn. Crotty stuck his hand in, tossed a handful of grain into the yard, and watched the birds scramble.

  “Frigging greedy bastards,” he said, then gave them some more.

  Old MacDonald's farm on the edge of the urban jungle.

  We climbed onto the porch.

  “This is all frigging illegal,” Crotty said with pride. “Breaks every frigging zoning law in the books. But my compadres down the hill are all illegals living in noncode shacks. Love my fresh eggs and hate the authorities—hell if they're going to rat. I pay their little kids to clean up the coop, two bucks an hour—more greenback than they're ever gonna see otherwise. They think I'm some kind of frigging great white father.”

  “Great white shark,” muttered Milo.

  “What's that?”

  “Some of those little kids are pretty sharp.”

  “Well, I wouldn't know about that, but they do know how to work their little tushies off, so I pay 'em. All of them think I'm the great
est frigging thing since sliced bread. Their mamacitas are so grateful, they bring me food all wrapped in aluminum foil—they love aluminum foil. Good stuff, too, no fast-food shit—menudo and sweet tamales like you used to be able to get over on Alvarado before the corporate frigs took over.”

  He pushed open a screen door, walked into the house, and let it slam shut. Milo caught it. We entered.

  The house was small and unlit, crammed so full of junk there was barely room to walk. We inched our way past stacks of old newspapers, towers of cardboard boxes and raw-wood fruit crates, jumbles of clothing, an upright piano painted with gray primer, three ironing boards bearing a collection of clock radios in various stages of disassembly. The furniture that managed to coexist with the clutter was cheap, dark wood and overstuffed chairs sleeved with antimacassars and doilies. Thrift shop fare.

  The floor was pine, trodden gray, splintered in several places by dry rot. A mantel above the bricked-in fireplace bore porcelain figurines, most of them chipped or missing limbs. The clock on the mantel wall said Coca-Cola. It was frozen at seven-fifteen.

  “Sit,” said Crotty. He brushed newspapers off an easy chair and sank down. A cloud of dust rose and settled like dew.

  Milo and I cleared a sofa with broken springs, created our own dust storm.

  Crotty cleared his throat. Milo pulled out his wallet and handed him several bills. The old man counted it, fanned it out, closed his fingers over it. “Okay, let's make this quick. Belding. Leland, A. Capitalist pig, too much money, no morals, a latent fag.”

  I said, “Why do you say that?” and heard Milo groan.

  Crotty turned on me. “Because I'm a frigging expert on latency is why, Dr. Psychology. You might have the diploma, but I've got the experience.” He grinned and added, “Hands-on experience.”

  “Let's stick to Belding,” said Milo.

  Crotty ignored him: “Let me tell you, Curly, one thing I know, it's latents. For thirty years I frigging lived that trip.”

  Milo yawned, closed his eyes.

  “He's frigging bored,” said Crotty. “If anyone should be listening it's him. Hell, you'd think someone in his position would seek me out, kneel at my feet and beg for my accumulated wisdom. But no, how do I meet the lump in the first place? Half-dead in the Emergency Room, sweet Rick massaging my heart, bringing me back to life. And then this lump shows up all Dragnet-butch, checking his watch and wanting to know when Rick's going off-shift. Frigging Beauty and the Beast.”