Cold Blood (17 page)

“It’s not three”

“Come on, Phyllis, we’re not here to worry about a few hundred dollars this way or that.”

“It’s five

“

“What?”

“Sometimes a bit less, and obviously I would say a lot of that is for … confidentiality. I mean, if it was ever to get outshe is very famous, sits on a lot of charitable boardsand then of course there is Mr. Caley to consider. If it was ever to be made public, it would be dreadful for him.”

“He doesn’t use drugs of any kind?”

“No, no, not at all, he’s very much against them. He has tried every means possible to persuade Elizabeth to stop. She’s been in so many clinics, but no sooner is she released … it starts again, and with this tragedy it’s made things a lot worse. She’s in a stupor for most of the day, and then when Mr. Caley comes home she starts taking anything that’ll wake her up, so then of course she can’t sleep and the spiral begins. It’s a wonder she hasn’t killed herself yet. She must have the constitution of a horse, the abuse her poor body takes, but she still manages to put on a good show when it is needed. Nobody would know, and that’s part of the problem. She’s very sly, very devious, and will swear on a Bible that she was clean if you asked… .”

Lorraine drained her cappuccino. Phyllis had hardly touched hers, but she was not so agitated now, her hands folded in her lap.

“How we’ve managed to keep it secret for so long I don’t know, I really don’t, but at least I haven’t got to meet that dreadful man.”

“So who do you deal from now, Phyllis?”

“Please, I don’t deal, Mrs. Page. When Mrs. Caley went to a rehabilitation center, I told Mr. Fisher his services were no longer required. Then it started again, I picked up her prescriptions from the doctor’s office

again, just something to help her sleep and relieve the anxiety. She’s not using the other things, that is the truth. His license should be revoked, but if he didn’t geWWiat she wanted she would go elsewhere.”

Lorraine nodded, really needing a cigarette.

“So you never contacted any other street dealer, just the doctor?”

“Yes.”

“So no one else knows, nobody is putting any pressure on her to use their goods?”

“If they are, I don’t know about it.”

“Mr. Caley knows you are getting the stuff for her, does he?”

Phyllis chewed her lips.

“He knows about the painkillers.”

“Do they sleep together?”

Phyllis looked shocked.

“I cannot discuss that, really.”

“Do they share the same bedroom?”

“They have different suites. What they do in their own time I really have no notion of. He is, to my mind, very caring and patient with her, and she can be extremely difficult, you know.”

“What about Anna Louise?”

“I’m sorry?”

Lorraine sighed.

“Phyllis, did Anna Louise know about her mother’s addiction to drugs?”

Phyllis looked away.

“Perhaps, well, it is hard not fc> if you live in the same house. Mrs. Caley has extreme mood swings and sometimes she is quite irrational.”

“Did they argue a lot?”

W”

Phyllis nodded.

“Did Anna Louise use drugs?”

“No, no, she hated them, she wouldn’t even smoke a cigarette, hardly ever drank. In fact, sometimes she seemed more like the mother than the child, which is why this is so awful for Mrs. Caley.”

Lorraine picked at her tiny pastry.

“The day they left for New Orleans, what state was Mrs. Caley in?”

“She … she had taken something. She was very tense, always made the excuse she hated flying, that she needed something to calm down her nerves, but she was… I think the expression is ‘wired.’ She kept on changing her mind about whether or not to go, but we got her packed and ready, and by the time Mr. Caley returned, she was quite calm.”

“How was Anna Louise?”

“Well, she hated it when Mrs. Caley got anxious, and I think at one point she said she didn’t want to go. But when Mr. Caley came home they talked for a while, and then they all left.” “So the last time you spoke to Anna Louise was from the plane?”

“Yes, that was the last time. She asked me to pick up a dress, but you know this.”

“And she sounded okay, not stressed out?”

“She sounded relaxed and happy, as did Mrs. Caley.”

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“So you also spoke to Mrs. Caley?”

“Yes, she was making sure I’d get the dress sent to the house, and then I was to give it to the pilot who would return for it and take it on to New Orleans.”

Phyllis suddenly bowed her head.

“It was a lovely dress, and … she never got to wear it. You think she’s dead, don’t you?”

Lorraine signaled to the waiter.

“I am not in any position to say that, not until I know more. Do you?”

“Pardon?”

“Do you think she’s dead, Phyllis?”

She nodded, twisting her hands.

“Yes, she would not do this to her mother, and especially not to her fathershe was a very thoughtful girl. You know, if she was going to be late she’d call home, and when she went away she would call her father two or three times a day.”

Lorraine settled the bill for the cappuccinos; she could have bought a full meal in an Orange Grove coffee shop for what she paid. She was rising to her feet, preparing to leave, when Phyllis spoke again.

“It was very hard when she had friends to stay.”

She had sipped her cold cappuccino now and had a froth stain on her upper lip.

“She was protective about Mrs. Caley, afraid anyone would find out. You know, in this day and age it’s so difficult to trust people not to sell to the tabloids. Poor Anna Louise was worried about how it would affect her mother; it seems so incongruous that she should be the one to make such headlines, in every paper too. And you know something extraordinary, sick really … after fifteen years, during which she could not get a phone call returned well, not for serious work, maybe television, but she would never do television partsshe’s suddenly been offered numerous scripts from some of the big studios. And one, it’s hard to believe, even hinted that they may make a film about Anna’s disappearance and they wanted to discuss Elizabeth playing herself. Disgusting, just disgusting. So it is understandable why she is so dependent, isn’t it? Even if it is very hard on me.”

“Thank you for agreeing to see me and for being so honest, Phyllis. Obviously everything we have said was in confidence. And if there is anything, anything at all that you think may help me, will you call me? Or Rosie.”

“Yes, yes, I will and … well, thank you for coffee.”

Lorraine hurried out of the plaza onto Rodeo, leaving Phyllis still sipping her cappuccino. She was relieved that Lorraine had wanted to dis—

I

cuss only the drug situation. She had been afraid she knew more, and she could not, would not have talked about Juda Salinashe daren’t. She dabbed her lips’ with her napkin and looked around. Not until she saw Lorraine actually disappear from view did she get up and go into the cafe to use the public telephone. She gave a quick, furtive look around as she punched in the number, and waited.

“The Caley residence.”

“Peters, will you check on Mrs. Caley? And will you say to her that everything is all right and she has no need to worry. I will be home in half an hour or so.”

Lorraine sat in her car. It was sweltering, the seat burning her backside, so she opened her windows all around. The cell phone buzzed and hissed.

“Rosie, can you call Robert Caley? He’ll probably be at his office, so try there and ask if he’ll see me.”

“Sorry, hang on a second.”

Rosie was munching a carrot, her cheeks bulging. She swallowed quickly.

“Sorry, let me put Bill on, he wants a word. While you’re talking to him I’ll call Caley, okay?”

Rooney picked up the phone.

“I’ve been trying to check out this casino deal.”

“Yeah, what you got?”

“Not a lot but I got what I could. Caley heads a consortium made up of him, a couple of local moneymen and a casino outfit from out of state. They’re ready to back the deal to the tune of awmd two hundred and fifty million.”

“What?”

“Yep, lot of dough, but Caley will take the major slice of ownership because he laid out the initial payment for the land, massive site near the riverfront. The complex will have a hotel and a lot of high-class shops as well as the casino.”

“So what’s Caley’s problem?”

Lorraine interjected.

“Well, there’s a number of little hitches. One, he’s been wanting to set this deal up for five years, but unfortunately the state of Louisiana hasn’t been too quick about getting legalized gambling on the statute book, while their good neighbors next door have been straight off the blocks a lot of the gambling revenue for the whole of the southeast already has a happy home up the coast in Mississippi, and maybe it ain’t gonna move. Second, there’s some old-money elements in the city that are dragging out some case about rezoning the area, saying it’s prohibited by federal law load of fucking horseshitbut they could hold things up quite a Wiile. And third, get this, there’s some very fucking weird provisions in this gambling statutethe city gets to choose the guy who develops the site, but the state gets to say who runs the casino. Everybody has been thinking it would be Caley and his friends, as soon as they can get this legal mess straightened out about the site, but lately people are getting to wondering what’s holding things up. Some other rich guys down there seem to have gotten the message that maybe somebody else might just get the license to run the show, so now Caley’s got a rival consortium to worry about, call themselves Doubloons. One of his backers has dropped out until he has the operating license in his pocket, and the other may walk too.”

“You got the backers’ names?”

“Yep, two guys named Bodenhamer and Dulay. They’re big-time owners of major corporations, Bodenhamer construction, Dulay liquor. They both stand to make a bundle out of the casino, not only out of the gambling but by selling the stuff they got to sell, and as yet they don’t stand to lose a cent. Caley’s in a lot deeper, though.”

“What do you mean?”

Lorraine asked, trying to assimilate all the information.

“Caley paid for the land leases on the site. If he doesn’t get the license he’s stuck with them. This is all common knowledge in New Orleans, but I’d get a lot more from being there.”

“It might be common knowledge, Bill, but how come this isn’t detailed in any of the reports your pal Sharkey xeroxed for us?”

“Maybe he was looking out for his own ass, I dunno, or maybe they didn’t think it was important.”

“No? Well, I think it is. You’re sayin’, in so many words, Robert Caley’s got to get the casino deal?”

“Sure. He’s been cash-poor for yearshe liquidated a lot of his assets, sold off properties in LA and Louisiana. If the deal is greenlighted he stands to make megabucks. So maybe Nick was right about Caley. He’s up against very tough opposition, mainly from this other consortium, but the door’s wide open now for anyone else to walk in.”

“We got to get as much as we can and fast. I’ll see if Caley will give me further details. Rosie contacted him yet?”

Rosie took the phone.

“Yes, be there about four-thirty. He’s warned security to expect you.”

Lorraine tucked the phone under her chin and started up the engine.

“Okay, I’m on my way.”

Rosie replaced the receiver and bent down to start removing tinfoil dishes from a plastic bag of takeout, spreading a newspaper as tablecloth on Lorraine’s desk.

L VIM DA LA PLAIMTE

“It’s Japanese, Bill, nothing fatteningthat’s prawn, that’s salmon and that’s fish, raw fisj^. It doesn’t taste so good first time, but give it a good chew and a dip in the sauce. Then we got grated radish and broccoli.”

“No thanks, I’ll get a hamburger.”

“This is better for youat least just try it.”

“No thanks, I’ll wait.”

Rosie laid out all the dishes, then speared a piece offish on a fork and carried it to Rooney.

“Just have a taste it’s good, healthy, and if you don’t mind me saying so, that suit’d fit better if you lost a few pounds.”

Rooney made a face, but opened his mouth and chewed, while Rosie leaned over him, waiting. He swallowed, nodding his head.

“Not bad, bit like Chinese, isn’t it?”

Rosie prepared two platefuls as Bill hovered over the dishes, picking up a prawn and nibbling it.

“No rice? Didn’t you get any rice?”

“No, you can’t eat rice with protein because it’s a carbohydrate and you can’t mix them. Next meal we can have a huge plate of pasta, as much pasta as you can eat, but no protein-“

“That’s interesting. Where you getting all this from?”

“Lorraine, she put me onto it.”

Bill sat down in front of his plate, tucking a paper napkin in his collar.

“She knows a thing or two, does Lorraine.”

Rosie nodded, pouring some spring water into two cups.

“She always impresses me, sort of takes me by surprise. Sh^’s a funny woman, though, and I don’t mean to bitch about her behind Kr back, but sometimes she can have a sharp tongue, and then other times she’s as soft as a baby.”

Rooney had his mouth full, or he would have contradicted her vehemently, because in all the years he had known Lorraine Page he had never seen a side of her character that could be described as soft as a baby, but he said nothing chewing in unison with Rosie. Even if what he was eat-O’ O

ing did taste like rubber and he would have preferred a huge hamburger special with sausage and bacon on the side, he liked the fact that he was

O

not sitting at home alone. French fries he could get on his way home, sweet company he could not.

A young man with slicked-back hair, wearing a gray designer suit and floral tie, led Lorraine into Robert Caley’s office. He tapped at an immense floor-to-ceiling door a green light blinked on an intercom by the side and

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the floral tie opened the door. He peered in, Lorraine just behind him.

“It’s Mrs. Page, Mr. Caley.” He turned with a whiter-than-white capped-tooth smile.

“Please …”