The Secrets of Harry Bright (35 page)

"How often did you see him?"

"About two, three weekends a month."

"Every time he came to Palm Springs?"

"I guess so."

"Did you ever sleep at his house?"

No.''

"Did he ever sleep at your house?"

"Not all night. No."

"Boy, I got a headache," Otto said. And I'm about to puke all over your pretty jacket. And I'm also about to book you for murder and let the Palm Springs cops sort it out. Now don't fuck with usl You and Jack were lovers, right?"

"Not lovers. I'm not gay."

"You had . . . experiences together," Sidney Blackpool said, double-teaming him with the Mutt and Jeff routine.

"I guess so," the kid said.

"Did he talk about his fiancee?"

"He didn't wanna get married. His family was pushing him. His father's a very strong guy, he told me." "How much did Jack like you?" Otto asked.

The kid hesitated for a second and stopped looking at his hands and turned to Sidney Blackpool, saying, "Lots more than I liked him. Man, I was running wild at that time. Jack was a serious guy. He had so many problems with his dad and his wedding plans that . . . I could see Jack and me could never go nowhere. It'd just be a lotta trouble for me, and I didn't wanna, you know, tangle with his dad. But he . . . Jack liked me a lot. He was always calling me from college." Then the kid stifled a sob and said, "And I liked him too. Jack was a good friend. I'd never hurt him."

"Tell us about the night Jack was killed," Sidney Blackpool said.

"About the night he was killed?"

"Son, I'm feeling more dangerous than an Arab with a truck full a dynamite," Otto said in the kid's ear. "My .. . patience is gone. You were in his Porsche that night!"

"You know about that?" the kid said, and this time he did sob. "That's why I left Palm Springs! I was scared something like this'd happen. I was in his car but he wasn't. I don't know what happened to him out in that canyon."

"Why'd you have Jack's car?"

"I lied to him. He told me his housekeeper was outta town that night. He wanted me to spend the night with him."

"Keep going, Terry," Sidney Blackpool urged.

"I went over there to his house and told him I had to pick up my sister at the airport. I told him she came into town like all of a sudden and I needed to borrow his car. I said I'd take her to a hotel and come back and sleep .. . and, you know, spend the night at his house. He gave me the keys to the Porsche. Told me he'd be waiting. I never saw him again."

"Then what'd you do?" Otto asked.

`Well .. .

"Go on, Terry," Sidney Blackpool said gently.

I wanted to show off the car to somebody."

"Who's that?"

"To some guy I knew. He was in town on a two-day pass. Some marine I'd met in a . . . gay bar. I liked him better than anyone. He was my best friend. You know what? Now all I can remember is his name was Ken. That's what crystal does to you when you use as much as I did in those days."

"So what'd you and Ken do?"

"We went to score some meth. I called Bigfoot but got no answer. So I went ahead and drove on up there to his house in Solitaire Canyon. We got there just when he was coming home from somewheres and he said he didn't have no crystal. But he goes, 'You guys sit in your car down at the end a the gravel road and wait.' But pretty soon this other biker comes up. This huge black guy. He had a shotgun! He told us if we didn't get out he was gonna kill us and feed us to his dogs. We went real fast."

"Keep going. You're doing just right," Otto said.

"I can't go no further. That's it. I drove Ken back to my place and I took the car to Jack's. He wasn't home so I parked it in front and put the keys in his bedroom."

"Now how the hell did you manage that?" Otto asked.

"I had the house keys on his key ring. In fact he told me that, you know, when I came back I should just come right in and . .

"And what?"

"And like . . . get ready for bed because he'd be .. . already in bed. Only he wasn't there. And then I looked in the garage and his dad's car was gone. That Rolls he always said he hated. I figured he was out looking for me."

"Think very carefully," Sidney Blackpool said. "Did Jack know you sometimes bought meth up there in Solitaire Canyon?"

"I don't have to think about it. He knew because he went up there with me the second time I scored. He drove me up in his Porsche."

"I thought you said he wasn't a doper."

"He wasn't! But I begged him to drive me. I told him if he took me just once and loaned me the money for the crystal, like, I'd go to a de-tox center and clean up and never do it no more. Just like every doper says."

"And that was how long before he died?"

"Maybe three weeks."

"Did he know you hadn't cleaned up?" Sidney Blackpool asked.

"He knew but he didn't wanna know. He pretended to believe me. It was all make-believe, the way we were with each other. Just make-believe.-

"Wait a minute," Otto said.

"Sir?"

"Nothing. Go ahead with the story," Otto said.

"That's the end a my story. I walked from the Watson house in Las Palmas to the gay bar where I left Ken. And we spent the night together. I read about Jack a couple days later.-

"And what'd you think?"

"I thought he must a went looking for me in the Rolls and maybe some biker shot him and drove his car off the canyon. They all have guns. They're all crazy cranked-out animals!"

"And yet you didn't call the Palm Springs police?" Otto asked.

"They started investigating the Cobras soon as the kidnapping stuff blew over! And they said on television a few days after Jack died that the F
. B. I
. was getting outta the case and the bikers were the best bet. What more could I tell them?"

"You coulda told them about the guy you scored from. About Bigfoot. Maybe he went to Bigfoot's looking for you and got wasted. You coulda told them that," Otto said.

"I was scared! I didn't wanna get mixed up in a murder with the Cobras or anybody else!"

"How about the reward?"

"What reward?"

"You didn't know Mister Watson posted a reward?" "When?"

"About a week after the body was found. After the F
. B. I
. pulled out."

"I was gone then. I went to Miami Beach for a couple months and worked in a hotel. Then I came back to California and got a job in La Jolla. I didn't hear. How much?"

"Fifty grand," Otto said.

"Fifty . . . let's go!" the kid cried.

"Where?"

"Let's go inside! I wanna make a statement! I want my name down in the police file! If it's Bigfoot, I deserve the reward! Let's go!"

Otto Stringer sat back in the seat and held his throbbing head. Sidney Blackpool just lit a cigarette and stared out the side window at the police parking lot. Terry Kinsale jumped out of the Toyota, anxious to get on the money list. He had lost his fear of Cobras and homicide cops.

"Come here, Terry," Sidney Blackpool said. "What time was it when you were up in that canyon, where the big black biker scared you off?"

"I don't know. That was over a year ago."

"Try to think," Sidney Blackpool said wearily. "What time did you say your sister's plane was coming in when you lied to Jack?"

"Ten o'clock. I remember saying ten o'clock." "So you got the car at what time then?"

"Maybe nine-fifteen."

"And you cruised the boulevard and you went to the gay bar and found your marine. How much time did tha
t t
ake?"

"Maybe an hour and a half."

"What'd you and the marine do then?"

"We sat in the parking lot for a little bit. We decided to score the crystal. I called Bigfoot and didn't get no
answer so . . .

"How long did that take?"

"Fifteen minutes maybe."

"Then what?"

"Then we drove to Mineral Springs."

"So you got to Mineral Springs about midnight or later?"

"I guess so."

"You didn't happen to see a burning Rolls-Royce anywhere off to the left of the canyon when you drove up the hill?"

"You kidding?"

"Okay. So sometime after you left the canyon, Jack Watson was up there looking for you?"

"Maybe."

"Get back in the car, Terry. I'll drive you home."

"I wanna go inside! I wanna make my statement and . . ."

"I'll pass it on tomorrow," Sidney Blackpool said. "Bigfoot didn't shoot anybody. He was with a very good alibi witness about that time."

"Who's that?"

"He was with the big black biker."

"Maybe they both did it!"

"The black guy reported you to the police a few days after the car was found. You're pointing at each other. Now get in the car and I'll take you home."

The young man walked dejectedly to the Toyota, got in and slammed the door. "I want that reward if those bikers got anything to do with it!" he said. "I wanna start a new life!"

"Don't we all," Sidney Blackpool said, starting his engine.

They dropped Terry Kinsale and then drove straight to the hotel to drop Otto who said he hadn't felt so bad since his second wife got the house and the car.

"Don't wake me when you come in, Sidney," Otto said. "Even if it turns out Harry Bright's ex-wife is the killer and her accomplice is Fiona Grout. Which I might believe right now. This place is even loonier than Hollywood."

"It's this case," Sidney Blackpool said. "This case makes no sense on any level."

"He didn't shoot himself, Sidney," Otto said. "H
e m
ighta been real heartsick about his boyfriend two-timing him, but he didn't shoot himself. You saw the angle a that bullet in the report. And he was right-handed. Forget it if you wanna try'n prove he shot himself."

"I know," Sidney Blackpool said. "That leaves us with Coy Brickman and Harry Bright."

"Sure. Or maybe it was a hitchhiker he picked up when he couldn't find Terry. And maybe the hitchhiker turned out to be Mister Goodbar Junior, and he shot the kid and dumped the car up there and . . . I don't know, Sidney, I gotta go to bed. Lemme outta here."

"I'll be awful late by the time I get to Thunderbird," Sidney Blackpool said. "I better think up a story. See you in the morning."

As Otto was walking away, he turned suddenly and yelled, "Sidney! Wait a minute. I almost forgot. I got an idea when the kid was telling us about Jack Watson. Maybe this is a nutty idea but . . ."

"Let's hear it."

"Terry said that him and Jack pretended things about each other. That their relationship was make-believe." "Yeah?"

"When the Mineral Springs cop was into heat exhaustion he thought the song was 'Pretend.' Now he decides it was 'I Believe.' I was thinking, you take 'pretend'--like, the idea of pretend--and then you put it with the 'believe.' . . . Anyways, maybe a delirious guy mightta heard that other old song.-

" 'Make Believe'!"

"Yeah."

"Otto, I told you you'd make a first-rate corpse cop!" "Maybe we can play the song tomorrow. But on second thought I don't know if it means anything anyvvays. "I don't know either, but it's the best thing I've hear
d a
ll day."

"I'm real happy you're happy. Good night, Sidney.'' "Sleep well, Otto."

He didn't get to Thunderbird Country Club until after 9:00 P
. M
. He stopped at the kiosk and said, "I'm Sam
Benton. Having dinner with Mrs. Decker. Did she clear me?"

The guard took his name on a clipboard and said, "Yes, sir. Have. a good dinner."

He parked and went straight to the dining room. "Mrs. Decker?" the hostess said. "She said she'd be waiting in the bar. That was some time ago."

Next he went to the bar where the barman said, "Yes, I know Mrs. Decker. She was here for over an hour. Sorry, sir."

Five minutes later he was driving the streets of Thunderbird Country Club. Her car registration had not said Thunderbird Cove or Thunderbird Heights so he figured the street must be around the golf course. There weren't many streets and he found hers at 9:15 P
. M
. Two hours after the dinner date, he was ringing her bell, hoping that there wasn't a maid or housekeeper at home.

The door opened. She was a little surprised and quite drunk. "I haven't been stood up in a while. The sure sign I'm losing my grip. How'd you find my house?"

"I asked at the gate."

"They're not supposed to give the street address without calling."

"I'm persuasive. Please, can I come in?"

"Just till I hear your excuse. I need a laugh."

"I took a nap. I didn't have a wake-up call because I didn't think I could possibly sleep more than an hour. It's this desert air. I'm mortified."