Cold Blood (16 page)

Nick beamed at them; he knew he’d opened up one hell of a can of worms. He continued,

“So we got quite a few possible motives: one is the missing daughter could have been kidnapped and connected to a drug dealer; two, sh^was snatched as a threat to Caley to pull out of the casino deal, maybe just removed as a warning. Caley is mixing with very heavy hitters, and as far as I can make out, it’s the wife bringing in all the private dicks not Caley”

“He didn’t want us hired, but he sort of implied it was because he figured we were hopeless,”

said Rooney, draining his coffee cup.

“Lemme wind down, Bill. My number three theory is Caley needs money for the casino, and bad. You know what the politics is like down there if Caley had a big enough sweetener to slip into the right civicminded vest pocket, his problems would all just melt out of his way. So he knocks off his daughter, next comes the wife, and we got one very rich and happy guy with a license to print money for the rest of his life.”

Nick folded his scruffy notes and stuck them back into his pocket.

“Well, that’s what I got. May I make a suggestion? I think Lorraine or even Rosie should see what we can pump out of Phyllis Collins, I’ll do the Doc’s drugs scene and, Bill, you see if you can dig up more on the Caley casino property deal.”

“Sounds okay to me,”

Rooney said, easing his sweaty tie up to the equally sweaty collar of his shirt.

Nick lit another cigarette and crossed to the fronf door.

“Thanks for the coffee, Rosie, and so, partners, I’ll be seeing you….”

He hesitated and looked at Lorraine.

“Seeing that Mr. Smoojjiie has offered you a ride in his private jet, take it, because I don’t know ^out you but I figure he’s our prime target.”

Rooney pushed back his chair.

“Yeah, I’m outta here too. I’ll see what I can get from my old department. We all call in, right?”

“I’m looking forward to it,”

Rosie said, smiling.

“To what?”

Lorraine asked irritably.

“New Orleans, I’ve never been there. And with expenses we can book into a real nice hotel. And I can interview Phyllis Collins, she’ll be at the meeting tomorrow.”

“See you,”

Rooney said, already at the door.

“

‘Bye,
all,”p>

Nick called.

Lorraine looked up.

“Just one thing, Mr. Bartello. This is my case, I run the show, so after today you don’t tell me what to do.”

“Hey, that’s cool.”

Lorraine caught the glance between Nick and Rooney as they left. It really infuriated her, and she was angry at herself for coming out with such

ii a crass statement. She should have played her hand far better. She carried the dirty dishes across to the sink.

“Maybe I’ll talk to Phyllis, Rosie.”

Rosie ran water in the sink and couldn’t hide her disappointment.

Lorraine put her arm around her shoulders.

“You can see her too at the meetingtwo heads are better than one, Rosie, okay?”

-#

‘e corree in tne plaza on something for Mrs. Caley

CHAPTER

\

I Lorraine got on the freeway. Rosie had already contacted Phyl-

lis Collins and she had agreed to see Lorraine, but not at the house. Phyllis eventually suggested they BrVe coffee in the plaza on Rodeo Drive, as she had to be there to collect something for Mrs. Caley from the Georgette Klinger shop.p>

“What’s that?”

Lorraine asked.

“I dunno, maybe a boutique, I didn’t ask.”

“Okay, if you need me, I’ll have the cell phone with me.”

“Right, over and out.”

Lorraine checked her watch, parking the car at a meter on Rodeo Drive. She had over an hour to kill, so she decided she’d have her hair trimmed and chose a salon at random, asking if her hair could be done right away.

“Okay, Lorraine, gonna make you a new woman.”

Lorraine watched as Noel, the flamboyant African-American hairdresser, cut and snipped, looked at her with critical eyes, cut and snipped some more. She noticed on the shelf below the mirror some white tubes, the name Georgette Klinger printed down the side.

“What is that stuff?”

98 He looked up.

“Oh, those are the real expensive treatments, they have a shop farther up the Drive. Some of our customers”he made a sweeping gesture with his scissors”swear by it.”

At two-forty-five, armed with Noel’s card, she walked out. She still had fifteen minutes before she was to meet Phyllis, so she walked down Rodeo until she got to the Georgette Klinger shop, peeked in, and then stepped back to admire herself in the window. The cut was good, tapered to the nape of her neck and long at the front. He’d made one side much longer, the scar side, and she liked the way it hid half her face when she leaned forward. In fact, she liked her new image. She was so busy admiring herself that she didn’t see Phyllis parking on the opposite side of the road, didn’t see her continue on to another parked car, a metallic green stretch Lincoln with black tinted windows, and get into the backseat.

“Hi, I’m supposed to meet a friend, collecting something for Mrs. Elizabeth Caley.”

Lorraine’s confidence in her new look faltered slightly as the elegant Frenchwoman behind the counter swished back her waist-length blond hair.

“I am zo zorry, who?”

“Mrs. Elizabeth Caley.”

“No, I am zo zorry but I am not expecteeng anyone, unless… one moment, pleeze.”

She checked a leatherbound book. Lorraine busied herself looking over the various Georgette Klinger serums and lotions.

“No, Mrs. Caley is waiting for some of our sunscreen creams, but they have not arrived yet, not until next week. I am zo zorry.”

Lorraine asked for shampoo and conditioner and had a near-heart attack when the bill was rung up. A second assistant walked in from the back of the shop, eager to help sell more products.

“Theeze lady is a friend of Mrs. Caley’s, she said she was expecting a delivery”

The second woman smiled at Lorraine.

“I called two days ago to apologize for the delay. The sun creams won’t be here until the end of the month.”

Lorraine collected her goods in their neat white plastic bag and left the shop. She checked her watch, worried she was going to be late for Phyllis.

Juda’s heavy breathing and sweet perfume made Phyllis feel sick; she disliked the woman intensely.

“I am afraid Mrs. Caley’s husband has put his

foot down, there is nothing I can do. Please do not call the house again. Mrs. Caley said she would contact you at a later date.”

“I seew^ffit’s up to her. But you know she can’t make appointments and just keep canceling like this. I make the time for her and I have a lot of clients.”

Phyllis handed Juda an envelope.

“I think this will suffice …”

Juda took the envelope.

“Please tell my dear Elizabeth not to give up hope. I still feel a strong presence of Anna Louise, tell her not to give up hope.”

“I will.”

Juda nodded, passing Phyllis a small square package, wrapped in brown paper. As Phyllis reached for the door, she said,

“Perhaps Mr. Caley is going away and Elizabeth can see me?”

“I am sure Mrs. Caley will call you. I must go …”

Phyllis got out of the car. The driver half turned toward the backseat; he was only about twenty, with deep olive skin, and he wore a white shirt open at the neck. He watched as Juda opened the envelope and began to count hundred-dollar bills, a lot of them.

“Where to now, Aunt Juda?”

Juda glanced up, quickly stuffing the money into a soft leather purse.

“Get me back home, Raoul, then go do some grocery shopping. And keep your eyes to the front or you’ll be on the next bus.”

He chuckled.

“Nobody messes with you, huh?”

She leaned back, staring out of the dark window.

“You said it, sugar, an’ when they do, they get real sorry. Wait, smp a second, I just seen someone

“

9

Lorraine hurried along Rodeo toward the plaza. She saw Phyllis get out of the Lincoln, saw her waiting at the roadside, but by the time she had actually crossed the road, she was already ahead of Lorraine.

Lorraine presumed the Lincoln was Mrs. Caley’s, the chauffeur dropping Phyllis off for their meeting, so she didn’t give it a second glance. But Juda leaned forward in her seat as the nose of the Lincoln eased out from the parking bay. She was sure the blonde was the woman who had called on her, and by the look of it she was tailing Phyllis.

“Lorraine,”

Juda said softly.

“What? We stopping or moving on?”

“Drive,”

Juda snapped.

“A client?”

Raoul asked.

“No, she’s no client that one, she’s a private investigator.”

She repeated the name Lorraine to herself and then clasped her fat sweating ringed hands together. Her chest heaved as her breath caught in her throat in loud rasps.

“You got trouble?”

Raoul asked.

“No, I not got trouble, but that lady is gonna have it, bad trouble.”

He didn’t joke anymore. When she said stuff like that, when her big, false-eyelashed eyes stared sightlessly as if she was seeing through and beyond him, his aunt scared him like his mama couldbut then they were sisters. His hands clenched the wheel as he took another furtive look at Juda, then at the side-view mirror, wondering if he would catch a glimpse of the woman his aunt had referred to. But Lorraine had disappeared.

Lorraine caught her breath, joining Phyllis just as she sat down at one of the small white tables outside the coffee shop.

“Sorry I’m a bit late, but I wasn’t sure exactly which shop.”

Lorraine smiled.

“Would you like coffee?”

“Yes, please, a cappuccino. No need to go to the countera waiter’ll bring it, it’s not self-service.”

Phyllis spoke fast, nervously. She couldn’t fail to see Lorraine’s plastic bag from Georgette Klinger.

“I don’t think you’ve been very truthful, Phyllis.”

Two pink spots appeared on Phyllis’s cheeks and her mouth tightened.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t imagine why you think that. You’ve had your hair cut.”

“Yes, I had time to spare, and I also went to this store.”

She held up the bag and smiled.

“Ah, yes, I was going to collect something for Mrs. Caley.”

“But it’s not in until the end of the month. I know.”

“Yes, very irritating, waste of a journey. Still, I am free to see you, and you did want to see me, Rosie said, rather urgently.”

A waiter hovered and Lorraine ordered the cappuccinos. Phyllis’s right foot tapped nervously against the chair.

“But you knew they wouldn’t have Mrs. Caley’s sunscreen, they called you. Well, so the assistant told me.”

“Good heavens, did you ask them? Well, really, I think that was all rather unnecessary.”

“Maybe, but since I was there

“

“If that is what you term being dishonest, then I am sorry. I was going to call in just to make sure it hadn’t arrived. I also have other things to collect, so I wasn’t lying, and I rather resent your implying that I have been. Mrs. Caley suffers so much from the sun, she cannot sit out in it at all

“

Tap-tap went her foot, the table rocking a fraction, but Phyllis seemed unaware of it, constantly looking around, fiddling with her blouse collar. Lorraine let her>stew for a while. The two pink spots on Phyllis’s cheeks faded before she spoke again.

“Your hair is very nice, good cut, it’s all in the cut really, isn’t it?”

“Yes, I just got lucky, I went to the salon further up the drive.”

“St. Julian’s?”

Phyllis asked. Her face reminded Lorraine of a bird’s pecking, her thin nose sharp as she twisted her head and kept up the nervous kicking of the table.

“My, you are taking your work to rather silly lengths.”

“I’m sorry?”

“That’s Mrs. Caley’s salon. Well, it wasthey come to her now. But Anna Louise used it, she was always very particular about her hair.”

“Really? Then it was just a coincidence, I walked in off the street. As I said, I got here early.”

The coffee arrived, with tiny flaky pastries. Lorraine smiled her thanks to the waiter.

“How long has Mrs. Caley been a drug addict?”

Phyllis’s pink spots returned with a vengeance. She stirred her coffee, her foot still tapping, and now her head twitched.

“I have no idea what you are talking about.”

“Yes, you do, and that’s why I wanted to see you.”

“I really do not see that whatever medication Mrs. Caley requires is any business of yours or Rosie’s.”

“Medication? Come on, Phyllis, I know sjtt.’s on uppers, downers, cocaine, speed, you name it. Even her husbanqpdmitted

“

“Mr. Caley told you?”

Phyllis said, astonished.

‘Yes, but he implied they were simply painkillers for an old injury and that Mrs. Caley had, well, become dependent on them. But speed, cocaine, et cetera, are not what I would call painkillers, and when I last saw her she seemed very hyper. She was also very disturbed.”

Phyllis’s jaw was working overtime now.

“I think in the terrible circumstances, Mrs. Page, anyone would be disturbed. Her daughter is missing, she could obviously be dead

“

“Yes, I know, Phyllis. That’s why I have to investigate every possible motive.”

“You mean you suspect Mrs. Caley?”

“No, but I need to know who she was getting her drugs from because there may be a connection.”

“There isn’t, I assure you.”

“Your assuring me, Phyllis, is nol good enough, I’m afraid. And if you care about finding out the truth, then you’ll stop this silly game. You could be arrested for procuring drugs, you know that, don’t you? You see, I know how it used to work, Phyllis. The friendly, sympathetic doctorhe could be arrested for dealing. I know you collected from his office, just as I know you later dealt directly with a man called Gerry Fisher.”

“Oh, God,”

Phyllis was shaking now.

“Does Mr. Caley know you are talking to me?”

“No, this is a private discussion between you and me, it won’t go any further. But I need to know if anyone got nasty or made threats to Mrs. Caley. A three-thousand-dollar-a-week habit is big money for some, it gets to be competitive, understand me? And I know you cut out the doctor at one point, so he lost his share.”