Cold Blood (4 page)

Rosie took a big breath.

“I used to see all her movies.”

Phyllis poured the rest of the Evian into her glass.

“

‘Used to’ being the operative words. She hasn’t made a movie for maybe fifteen years.”

Rosie leaned closer to Phyllis.

“Why, why do you take it? Is it the salary? Oh, I’m sorry, that was rude, you don’t have to answer that, I’m sorry.”

Phyllis pursed her lips, becoming defensive.

“No, no, it’s not the salary, believe me, and lately we’ve not traveled the way we used toshe’s hardly left the house.”

Rosie nodded.

“Yeah, I guess it must be awful.”

“It is, every time the phone rings. Not that she answers, just screams for me to do it, and so I get all tensed up, over and over again, hoping for news and afraid it will be bad, the worst… . She was such a pretty girl.”

Phyllis started to sniffle, opening her purse to take out a small lace handkerchief. Rosie noticed it was a very expensive suede-lined purse, with a gold chain threaded with leather for a strap.

“I’m so sorry to get like this, but I don’t have many friends, no one to really talk to. That’s why since I joined AA, it’s meant so much to me, you know. And Jake, he’s such a dear man, he’s been wonderful.”

“Oh yeah, I know, he’s a godsend to me too. Would you like another glass of water, Phyllis? Or we could go on to something stronger, like apple juice?”

Lorraine was waiting to apologize to Rosie when she heard heavy footsteps on the stairs leading up to the apartment.

“Rosie?”

Jake opened the screen door and then peered in.

“Nope, it’s me. She’s not here, then?”

“Nope.”

“I’ll drive around, see if I can find her. She took it hard about the business folding.”

Lorraine lit a cigarette.

“Yeah, well, I’m not out celebratin’ myself, Jake, but one of us has got to earn the rent.”

“You’re right, you’re right. So stay put, I’ll drive around.”

“Was she at the meeting?”

Lorraine asked with just a tinge of concern.

“Outside it, I left her with Phyllis whatever her name is. I just hope the two of them aren’t out someplace tying on a load. See ya.”

Her heart sank when not long after Jake had left she heard a bellow from the street and then Rosie’s footfalls. The small apartment, which had only one bedroom, a tiny bathroom and a living room with a kitchen crammed into a corner, was on the second floor of an old house on Marengo Avenue. The apartment below was occupied by an ever-growing family of Latinos. Luckily, they created much more noise themselves, their radio and TV sometimes turned up so loud you could hardly hear yourself sneak; anyone else having to live beneath the thunder of Rosie’s footsteps would have had a nervous breakdown.

“Hey! You #ťn’t believe what I got to tell you.”

Rosie’s cheeks were flushed pink with the exertion of hurrying home. She gasped for breath.

“Rosie, how much have you had?”

“I’ve got more bottled water swilling around inside me than the main water tank.”

Rosie kicked off her shoes and chucked her coat aside, hurling her purse onto the sofa, and then, with her hands on her wide hips, she beamed from ear to ear.

“I think we just got lucky.”

“You want some coffee?”

“No, sit down and listen, right now. Go on, siddown. Okay, now, you ever heard of a very famous movie star called Elizabeth Seal?”

“Nope.”

Rosie threw her hands up in the air.

“Of course you have. The Maple Tree, you remember that one. And you gotta remember The Swamp and Mask of Vanessa, yes?”

“Nope.”

“For Chrissakes, we saw it on cable. The movie star Elizabeth Seal is famous, you gotta know who I’m talking about, late fifties, sixties, she washugel”

“Have you been drinking with her?”

Rosie flopped down on the sofa bed, which creaked qminously.

“Don’t be dumb, as if Elizabeth Seal would be out drinkin’ water with me in Joe’s Diner. She’s a big movie star! Maybe you heard of the name Caley? Elizabeth Caley? That’s her married name.”

Ł>

“Nope.”

“

“Holy shit, I don’t believe you. Elizabeth and Robert Caley have been headlines, well, almost a year ago they were. Every paper ran their story, even the TV, it was headlines because of her bein’ so famous. Their daughter disappeared, you listening? Their eighteen-year-old daughter, Anna Louise Caley, disappeared.”

Lorraine was trying to recall their names, but she still drew a blank. Nothing new in thatthere were big gaps of months, even years, when she hadn’t even recalled her own name, never mind anyone else’s.

Rosie sipped the coffee. She was so excited she was sweating, her eyes bright like a child’s.

“She disappeared without a trace. They had the police involved, they had mystics, psychics, ‘cause they had a big reward on offer. But they got no ransom note, no phone calls, no notes, nothin’. Like she just disappeared into thin air. Cops reckoned she might have been kidnapped and it went wrong and they killed her. They think she’s been bumped off and …” Half an hour later, Lorraine was sitting with her head in her hands, still unsure what Rosie was so excited about.

“I mean, Rosie, if according to this Phyllis woman the Caleys have hired the top private investigation agencies, why come to us?”

“Because nobody has found her yet and they’re still spending thousands. They’re megarich, Lorraine, and they keep on shellin7 dough out.”

Lorraine held up her hand.

“Wait, wait, Rosie, please, just listen to me. If the… Caleys, yes? have already over the past… how long did you say?”

“Eleven months or so, happened during Mardi Gras in New Orleans,”

Rosie said eagerly.

“What? In New Orleans? Are you serious?”

“Yeah, what you think, I’m makin’ all this up?”

Lorraine sighed.

“Rosie, if it happened in New Orleans they’re not likely to hire private dicks located in LA, are they?”

“Yes, they already have, Phyllis told me. Cops were working on it here also. After all, they live here, right?”

Lorraine raised her eyes to the ceiling.

“If they have paid out all this money and still got no result, what makes you think they would be willing to shell out some moresay, to us, which I presume is what all this hysteria is about?”

“I’m not hysterical, for Chrissakes.”

“Okay, but facts are facts, Rosie. Why do you think they’d be interested in taking on Page Investigations Agency,
i.e.
you and me? Just because you’re in AA with the family’s secretary is not what I would call a great introduction.”

Rosie yelled,

“I never fuckin’ mentioned you were a soak. I built you up, said you were one of the best. I even gave a good line about havin’ Rooney as part of our team, you know, him bein’ ex-captain, that kind of thing. She was impressed, she was real impressed.”

“She was?”

The sarcasm was lost on Rosie.

“Yeah, she was. I gave her our card and she said she was gonna talk to Mrs. Caley.”

“Oh, and when she’s talked, then what?”

“Look, she’s trusted by them, worked for them for years, right? And she knows that Elizabeth Caley is desperate, like going nuts, because she just wants to know what happened to her daughter, and she’ll pay anythin’ to find out.”

“And you gave them our card?”

“Yes! An’ I’m not stupid, you know, ‘cause first I was all upset, right? Like tellin’ her about my partner quitting, but soon as I smelled a big fish on the line I sort of made out the new job you got offered was some big murder investigation, not just actm’ as a store detective I’m not dumb, I know how to spin a good yarn when I need to I said you was m demand

“

“So how IgjBg do we wait for her to get back7”

The phone rang Lorraine stubbed out her cigarette, nodding to it

“That’ll be Jake, you got him all wired up He’s been looking for you, so you answer it”

Rosie snatched up the phone But it wasn’t Jake, it was Phyllis, and she wanted details of Page Investigations’ company background sent around as soon as possible for Mrs Caley Rosie replaced the receiver with a smirk

“See7 She did talk to her, just like I said

“

The following morning, after a hurried session on the word processor, they had what they felt looked like a reasonable folder, Lorraine giving full details of all her recommendations as a police lieutenant, listing the cases she had been involved with They also included as part of Page Investigations’ team the experienced and dedicated ex-captain William Rooney, recently retired from the Pasadena precinct

Rosie went off to deliver the freshly printed folder to the Caleys’ home in Beverly Hills Lorraine sat in the empty office brooding over the new events She had a couple of days before she had to give, the store job a yes or a no, so she didn’t see any reason why she shouldn’t hang in there Rosie may be right, they might be able to earn a few bucks, but she somehow doubted it jft.

The buzzer on the office front door souPded as Bill Rooney wove in with an overbnght

“Hi, you called, didn’t you7 So as I was just passm’

“Oh yeah7 Via which bar, Bill7”

Rooney gave her the finger as he squashed himself into Rosie’s swivel chair He looked unshaven and well hungover, his big, florid face and bulbous nose a shade of mulberry One side of his shirt collar stuck up at an angle, and his tie was food-stained and pulled to one side, the seat of his pants was shiny, and the whole suit had a crumpled, worn-too-often look

“You look in good shape,”

Lorraine said, smiling

“I feel it, I feel real good Lost half my pension on the PI agency I never got off the ground in fact, I think the paint’s still wet on the door Never was a businessman, never any good with figures, an’ the bastard that sold me the place must have seen me cominghe fuckm’ saw ‘sucker’ written right across my forehead I got a computer compatible with no one, least of all myself, a cockeyed telephone system, and I had my cell phone no more than half an hour before I lost it I hadn’t gotten the insurance

BE

arranged, so I got no cover, an’ now I can’t sell the equipment for what I paid for it. So, I don’t know about passing any overflow cases to you. I’m looking around for myself, business pretty thin on the ground. You got much going?”

He looked over the office and smiled.

“I see business is flourishing, i can hardly hear myself talk for the sound of telephones ringing!”

“Very witty, considering your own fiasco.”

Lorraine fetched some’ clean mugs and prepared coffee. Rooney had glossed over the fact that he; had been in no shape to run an agencywith Ellen dying, and making!; arrangements for her funeral, he had been in a deep depression for weeks. | Lorraine felt sorry for him, since for all his bluff manner he was probably I* lonely, and she watched out of the corner of her eye as he leaned on Rosie’s desk and looked at the new Page Investigations Agency folder.

“Makes interesting reading. I like the way you skim over the missing years, sweetheart. Readin’ this it’s as if you left the force with glowing recommendations instead of out the back door on your ass.”

“Yeah, your section reads pretty good too.”

She banged down the mugs.

Rooney laughed as he read about himself and then he let the folder drop.

“I tell you Ellen passed on?”

“Yes, I’m sorry.”

‘Yep, went to collect her urn. I said to the guy, ‘How can I be sure these are my wife’s ashes? I mean, I know it’s the urn I ordered but you could’ve filled it with any crap.’

“

Rooney shook his head as he continued.

“

‘It’s your wife, Mr. Rooney sir, you see her name is on it!’ Fucking crazy, whole life and it’s packed into one tiny brass jar this size.”

He indicated with his hands and then rubbed his face.

“She was in the kitchen, cooking. Her radio was on, always had her radio playing, used to drive me nuts. And she fell, I heard her sort of thump to the floor.”

Lorraine poured water into the percolator. He didn’t seem to be talking to her or to care particularly if she was listening.

“She was lying on the floor, still with a wooden spoon in her hand, and she had this sort of look of surprise on her face. She was dead.”

“I’m sorry, Bill.”

Lorraine leaned on the lavatory door.

“Yeah, I guess I am. I mean, I know I haven’t been easy to live with. I haven’t even cleared her clothes out yet, hadda move into the spare bedroom. It’s like any minute she’s gonna call me, tell me food’s on the table. I dunno what to do with myself, Lorraine, I’m goin’ nuts. The house is quiet, I even miss her goddamned radio.”

“Don’t you still see all the guys down the station?”

“No. I did for a while but you know the way it is, once you’re outside it, you’re an outsider. Old drinking bars don’t feel right anymore, they all

talkin’ about this or that case and I gotta be honest, it’s all high-tech nowadays, you know, everything’s computerized, breeds a different kind of cop.”

2*”

Lorraine went to his side and patted his big, wide shoulder. He gripped her hand for a moment.

“I’m not in the way, am I?”

She felt sorry for him, so she punched him lightly.

“Like you said, we’re not exactly rushed off our feet. I’m sorry it hasn’t worked out for all of us.”

Rosie stormed in.

“What a place, it’s like a palace, I’ve never seen nothin’ like it… gardeners and servants, and the grounds are like some showpiece, ferns and flowers and swimming pools, two pools, and pool houses, and tennis courts and … Hi, Bill, how ya doin’? I was real sorry to hear about your wife.”

Rooney rose to his feet.

“Thank you.”

“You ever heard of a movie star called Elizabeth Seal?”

Rooney nodded.

“Sure, used to have the hots for her.”

Rosie turned, pointing to Lorraine.

“See? I told you she was famous. Well, that’s where I just come from, Elizabeth Seal’s home, like some kinda palace.”

Lorraine passed coffee to Rooney and indicated a ijiug to Rosie.

“I’ll have some,”

Rosie said as she took off her light coat.