Sacred and Profane (27 page)

“Now this is just speculation—”

“I’m not interested,” uttered Pode weakly. But Decker went on.

“When Earl was seven, he was hauled into the doctor for treatment of burns on his hands. At first I thought this was abuse also, but then I started thinking. Burns for abuse are usually on places where people don’t see them—the back, the stomach, the butt. Burns on the hand indicate a kid playing with fire.

“See, that’s why I asked you about the bed-wetting. Fire-starting and bed-wetting, along with cruelty to animals, are a triad you find in a lot of psychopathic teenagers. I’m wondering if Earl ever tortured anything living—like bugs or pets…or people?”

Pode refused to answer. Decker began to circle him—a vulture ready to swoop.

“Let’s get a little more hypothetical,” he said. “For some reason Earl stopped getting beat up by your mother. Now I, being a curious kind of guy, think to myself, why? Maybe Earl was a weird kid who played with fire to scare Mama off, huh? What do you think about that?”

“You have a vivid imagination.”

“Earl started setting fire to Mama’s bed as she slept off her stupors. And she was a bright lady who got the message real fast. Of course she never
told
anyone that sonny boy was trying to burn her. Then she’d have had
to admit what she was doing to you both. So she just covered her ass and said she fell asleep while smoking. And besides, she knew you’d rescue her. You were the good boy—”

“Lies—”

“Mama knew the score,” Decker said, talking over him. “Kicking the shit out of Earl just wasn’t worth getting barbecued for. Besides, there was always little old Dustin to kick around. She began laying off Earl. But that just made it worse for you, didn’t it, Dustin?”

“Filthy lies!”

“Earl thought he was helping both of you. He didn’t realize that Mama was still picking on you when he wasn’t looking. And you were too ashamed to tell him.”

Decker crouched in front of him, almost nose to nose.

“Let’s go back to May 1977,” he said.

Dustin gasped out, “No.”

“Mama was alone in her bed,” Decker said. “Earl had run away from home by then. There was no record of him in high school in ’77. Now I don’t know what the catalyst was but the idea hit you. Mama was sleeping one off, and you took a match—”

“No!” Pode yelled. “I mean, this is preposterous!”

“You set her bed on fire. Maybe you suddenly grew yourself a set of balls—”

“You don’t understand a thing!” Dustin blurted out. “My father…” He didn’t finish.

“She didn’t stay asleep like a good girl, did she, Pode? She tried to get out. No one was there to help her. Maybe someone even hindered her a little…”

“No!”

“No one blames you,” Decker said gently. “Man, I’d be pretty damn pissed if someone binged on hooch and then beat the crap out of me. And you must have been pretty pissed at her, Dustin. I mean, to go to all the trou
ble to take down the personal pictures in your dad’s house and destroy them after he died. But even that wasn’t enough. You had to burn down the whole house even if it meant losing money on resale. Now that’s an angry kid.”

Dustin shook his head feebly.

“You also blew up Daddy’s studio, didn’t you?”

“No!” Pode gasped. “That’s not true! I mean, none of it is true.”

“It’s all true,” Decker continued. “I’ve seen child abuse thousands of times, Dustin. I’m just moonlighting in Homicide. I usually work Juvenile, and you’d be amazed at how many cases I’ve worked on that tell your story.”

Sweat dripped down Pode’s nose onto his shirt.

“You hot, Buddy?” Decker asked.

“No.”

“Want a handkerchief?”

“NO!”

“Okay. Just take it easy.” Decker walked away.
Don’t crack him before you read him his rights
. He poked around another box and found a ledger that didn’t add up. “Who does your books, Dustin?”

Pode said nothing.

“Someone’s been fudging, huh? Skimming off the top. Trying to bleed a little out of legit profits to finance turkey films and shoddy real estate deals.”

“Shut up!”

“Nah, it wasn’t you. You’re too smart. But Cameron…” Decker paused. “He’s a dumbshit, isn’t he? Earl’s best friend whom you’ve always hated. But Earl liked him. Actually they were two of a kind. Weird kids. Neighbors used to say the two of them were inseparable.”

“I’m not going to say another word, Decker.”

“I’m not saying that Earl didn’t love you. In fact, he worshipped you, emulated everything you did. If you
were in Spanish Club, so was Earl, if you were on the football team, so was Earl. So you couldn’t figure out why Earl would keep seeing this creep whom you hated. Little did you know how similar they were.”

Pode said nothing, but his body was trembling.

“Let’s go back to that fateful day in May. You killed you mother—”

“No!”

“Earl had left home, but he was still in contact with you—and with Cameron. You told Earl what happened. I mean if anyone could understand, it had to be Earl. But then Earl did a dumb thing. He told Cameron.”

“I need some air,” Pode said, suddenly gasping.

Decker turned the air conditioner on full blast.

“Want to get it off your chest?” Decker urged.

“Fuck off!”

“Now Weirdo Cameron had you by the balls. He started blackmailing not only you but your father as well. Cameron would make sadistic porno films—snuffs—and force your father to film them and use his old porno contacts to peddle them. If your father refused, Cameron threatened to tell the police how you murdered your mother—”

“No!”

“Ever see one of the films, Dustin? Ever see the look of abject terror on the girl’s face as she’s being sliced and tortured. Ever see flesh burn? Too bad the films couldn’t have featured the putrid smell of sizzling skin—”

“NO, NO, NO!” Pode screamed. “They were all staged, damn it! It was ketchup and Karo syrup…”

He sunk to his knees.

“Tell me about it, Dustin?”

“NO!”

“Then I’ll keep talking.” Decker glanced at his watch.
“Wonder what’s keeping Detective Dunn and Mr. Smithson?”

He smiled, knowing the number she must be playing on Senior. Damn, she was good.

“Before I keep going, let me just read you your rights, just for the hell of it.”

Pode said nothing as Decker Mirandized him.

“Sure you don’t want to talk about it?”

Pode didn’t answer.

“Where were we?” Decker pulled Dustin back onto the chair and leaned over his shoulder. “Oh yeah. Cameron made films, Earl and the Countess starred in them, and the proceeds went to pay off Cammy Boy’s sour investments. Damn son of a bitch always fancied himself as a bigwig producer
artiste
, didn’t he? Kissed up to assholes like Armand Arlington when they all thought he was a piece of shit.”

Pode let out low moan.

“When you protested, Cameron would threaten to blow the lid on you and your father. At first your dad was genuinely coerced, but then he started enjoying the extra revenue—helped pay off his gambling debts to the loan sharks. But the only problem was, the more money he had, the more he blew. See, Dustin, I know everything—”

Pode bolted up and began to pace.

“You don’t know a
damn
thing!” he shouted. “She would have killed us all! She was getting worse. She was
paranoid
when she was drunk. Thought everyone was out to get her. She was coming after us with knives! She once cut up Dad so badly…”

He leaned against a wall and started to weep. Decker let the sobs continue for a minute, then walked over to him and gently placed his hands on his shoulder.

“I understand,” he said softly. “Look, Dustin, none of
this is your fault. It’s Cameron’s. He was the one who murdered. He murdered the Countess, didn’t he?”

Dustin sniffed and nodded his head.

“Did he tell you why he did it? He did it for money, didn’t he?”

Again Dustin nodded, as he dried his eyes on his shirt sleeve. The man had turned pathetic.

“She wanted a bigger piece of the pie, huh?” Decker asked.

“That’s what Cameron told me,” Dustin said in a weak voice. “He threatened to expose me if I told anyone.”

“Threatened you with what?”

“You know.”

“Your mother?”

Dustin nodded.

“Cameron’s evil, Dustin, a psychopath. He’s the one who talked your brother into killing Lindsey—”

“My brother never killed anyone. I told you it was all
staged
!”

“I saw the film, Dustin. The girl died. Your brother and the Countess killed her. Then Cameron went ahead and used the same gun that killed Lindsey Bates to murder the Countess and your brother.”

Either Pode didn’t hear him or Decker’s timing was off, because the broker didn’t react.

“Did you understand what I said, Dustin?”

The tear-stained face looked up.

“Earl’s dead, Dustin.”

Pode shook his head no.

“He was positively identified by dental records, Dustin. Cameron killed him—”

“No!” Pode screamed, drool slipping out of the corners of his mouth. “
No!
” He lunged at Decker, who sidestepped the attack, and went stumbling onto his knees.

“Cameron killed your brother. I know about it. Tell me where he is.”

“No, no, no!” He was wailing now. Decker let him cry it out, then helped him off his knees and back onto the chair.

“He
couldn’t
have killed Earl,” Pode argued desperately. “He told me Earl had left town. I just got a postcard from Mexico.”

“Cameron must have had it mailed. Earl’s dead, Dustin. I saw his skull this afternoon, complete with the mid-line lower jaw fracture.”

“Dear God!” The man’s shoulders heaved with sobs. “He was all I had. I don’t believe you. I don’t believe any of this nightmare.”

“It’s all true. Cameron killed your brother for the same reason he killed the Countess. They were trying to extort more bread from him, and Cammy Boy couldn’t afford ’em any longer. So he whacked ’em. I’ve got the ledgers, Dustin. They’ll tell me the whole story.”

Dustin shook his head like a child denying a sinful thought.

“Help me find the bastard, Dustin. Tell me where he is.”

“I don’t know,” Pode said weakly. “I don’t know.”

“We all know that Cameron wasn’t just working with your father and brother. There had to be someone bigger. Who else was involved?”

“I don’t know anything. I tried to keep out of it.”

“Maybe for names, we could strike a deal with the district attorney.”

“I don’t know anything.” Pode’s body was shaking, jerking loosely as if he were having a seizure. “I swear it!”

“Did Cameron take off?” Decker asked.

Numbly, Pode nodded.

“When?”

“Few hours ago. One of his contacts…” Pode blew his nose and started crying again. “When can I see him?”

“Who?”

“My brother. When can I pick him up?”

“I’ll see to it that the body’s immediately released, but you’ve got to help me out, Dustin.”

Pode began to weep uncontrollably. Decker shook him.

“Help me, dammit. Help yourself, for God’s sake!” he yelled. “Where is Cameron?”

“I don’t know!” Dustin screamed back. “I swear it! A contact tipped him off over the phone that the cops were closing in. He didn’t even bother to pack. Just took off.”

“Where?”

“I don’t know.”

“Would his father know where he is?”

“I don’t know. Harry didn’t tell me if he did.”

If Smithson Senior knew anything, Marge would find out.

“Why didn’t Cameron take off as soon as the cops started to investigate?”

“He claims he had protection.”

Arlington!

“Was Harrison Smithson involved in the film business?” Decker asked.

“Not as far as I know. He knew something wasn’t right, but never asked questions. When Cameron told him to start packing, Harrison did as told. That was part of the problem. Harrison spoiled the kid rotten. His only child. Let the son of a bitch have everything he ever wanted.”

“Why didn’t you take off after Cameron called?” Decker asked.

“Someone had to clean house,” Pode said flatly.

“Do you know who the contact was?” Decker asked.

Pode shook his head.

“C’mon, Dustin! Save your ass and tell me a name!”

“I don’t know anything, Sergeant. I swear I don’t know!”

“I hope you know something for your own sake. Something you can bargain with. Tell me anything you know that might help your case, Dustin. These ledgers are full of incriminating evidence. You admitted knowing about the snuff films—”

“They told me they were staged!”

“But you knew about them.”

Pode said nothing.

“Dammit, Dustin. Who made the fucking call to Cameron?”

“I don’t know.”

“Who were his contacts?”

“I don’t know.”

“Big shots?” Decker asked.

“He claimed they were.” Pode looked at Decker and beseeched, “What do you
want
from me? I don’t
know
anything.”

Decker sighed. He’d have to get Arlington another way.

“All right. Let’s take it slow. What time did Cameron take off?”

“The call came at about ten tonight. He left right afterwards.”

After banking hours, Decker thought. If Cameron was going to hole up somewhere, he’d have to get hold of some money.

“Did Cameron have cash on hand?”

“You kidding? The son of a bitch was always in the hole.”

“Did he have any kind of nest egg?”

Dustin looked sick.

“We had a…”

“Slush fund?” Decker tried.

“More like an emergency fund. At the Security Pacific here in Century City.”

“How much is in there?”

“About twenty thousand.”

“Can he withdraw from it without your consent?”

“He needs all three signatures, and he can only withdraw the money at this branch.”

“How is Cameron at forging signatures?”

Pode’s face turned a bilious green.

“God!” He bowed his head in utter defeat. “I know what you’re thinking. That he’ll probably come by tomorrow morning and try to pick it up.” He buried his face in his hands and began to cry again. “Oh Jesus Christ, what happened to my life?”