Hard Case Crime: Fade to Blonde (13 page)

“He’s going to—”

“No. You think you’re panicking,” I said. “And that you can’t stop. But you can, any time. You can stop now. Right now. Now just slow down.”

She didn’t answer.

I scooted closer, slid my left leg under both of hers and lifted my knee. The back of her knees felt delicious against my leg. I can’t help it, it did. I humped up my leg under hers, and both her feet came off the pedals and the car began to slow. She stared hopelessly straight ahead, gripping the wheel, feet dangling, tears trickling down her cheeks. “That’s right,” I said. “That’s right. You’re getting it back under control now. All righty.”

“I’m sorry,” she said.

“You’re okay now. I’m going to take my leg away. Will you hold it at 60?”

“Yes.”

“Say it so I believe it.”

“Yes.”

I pulled my leg back and she set her foot gently on the gas. We settled in at 60.

“All right,” I said. “There’s someone behind us. We don’t know who. If it’s Halliday, he can’t do anything while we’re all driving along, and it won’t help to put us in the ditch.” I looked back again. It was still there, a big car, dark blue and gleaming in the sun. “If it’s him, the one thing we don’t want is to lead him to your house. So we’re going to turn off in a minute, and see if whoever it is turns off with us. If he does, I’m going to meet him.
What’s in the trunk?”

“What? Nothing. A spare.”

“Good,” I said. We’d just passed Topanga. “Take the next turnoff,” I said, and started working the trunk key off the ring hanging from the steering column.

“What are you going to do?”

“If it’s Halliday? Take back the initiative. Here’s the turnoff.”

We turned up Tuna Canyon, a dirt road crawling up a little gully full of scrub and weeds, olive and brown. If the blue car turned in, we’d know.

I said, “This’s as good a place as any. Pull up over there. Now, nothing much’ll probably happen, but if you see or hear anything you don’t like, just take off. But don’t go to your house. There’s a diner called Charlie’s Gold Medal on Western and 137th. Go there and tell Rina you’re my friend and need to wait in the office upstairs. I’ll call you there as soon as I can. If you haven’t heard from me within, say, four hours, you’ll have to use your judgment. All right?”

“Western and 137th,” she said. “Okay. I’m sorry about before.”

“Good girl,” I said. “Right over here.”

I was out the door while the car was still rolling and trotted around to the trunk. It was the cleanest damn trunk you ever saw. The tire iron was right where it was supposed to be. It was just the right length and weight, too, and I took a few practice cuts with it, getting used to the gravel under my feet, wishing to God I’d worn my gun that morning. With the Colt, all you had to usually do was show it and folks got peaceable. I left the trunk lid open to block Rebecca off from whoever came up behind. We’d raised a trail of dust and it stung my nose. The blue car turned off the highway and began cruising toward us. I wasn’t too worried about a bottle of lye. He
wouldn’t slosh it at me, for fear of getting some on himself, and he wouldn’t want to carry it up to a guy with a tire iron that might break it. And I couldn’t see him setting out in the morning with a bottle of lye and a gun, both. Then I realized how dumb I was. If it was Halliday, he most likely carried a gun the way he carried a handkerchief. The big car coasted to a halt, glittering. It had been polished to within an inch of its life. The driver sat still for a moment, then got out. I was even dumber than I thought.

He reached back into the car and set a ten-gallon hat on his head. It was Lorin Shade.

I started laughing.

He walked halfway up to us, then stopped. “I didn’t know it was you,” he said. “I thought it was some fancy fella, in those clothes. You can put that iron down now. I guess you got the right to laugh. I guess it’s laughable.”

His eyes were steady, and so was his voice, but you could see what it cost to keep them that way. He was bitterly humiliated. At the sound of Shade’s voice, Rebecca shot out of the car and stood staring, motionless. I put the tire iron away and closed the trunk. “Don’t mind me, Shade,” I said. “It’s just nerves. You gave us a fright.”

“I’m sorry,” he said. Then he looked at Rebecca. That was worse than looking at me, but he managed it. “Hello, Becky. I’m awful sorry I worried you.”

“What.” She shook her head. “What.”

“I know you’re in trouble, Becky,” he said. “I guess you kid about it sometimes, but I know it’s bad. And I’ve been trying... I thought, if maybe I could just sort of quietly keep an eye. Just quietly. And, and they gimme some time at the Ever-Brite, and I know about, I guess I think about all these, these men you talk to, and, uh.” He couldn’t make it. He dropped his eyes. “I guess it’s all no part of my business anyhow. I’m awful sorry for the
trouble.”

“All right, Lorrie,” Rebecca said. “It’s all right.”

“I’m sorry, Becky.”

“Go home, Lorrie,” she said, eyes closed. “Just... go... home.”

Shade nodded, and then nodded at me, and then walked, a little jerkily, back to his car. It was an old Buick, not a new Lincoln. It was awfully shiny, though. He backed up all the way down to the highway, and then we watched him turn and head south.

Rebecca began to tremble. Her arms hung limp at her sides, but her hands were in fists, and the tremors started small and then got bigger, until it seemed someone angry was shaking her. I put my arms around her, and she set both hands flat on my chest and stared at them, then slipped her arms under my jacket and hugged me tight around the waist, mashing her face against me. The shuddering almost shook both of us. It went on for a little while. Then she grew still, gradually, and then she leaned back and looked wonderingly up at me. I lay my hand on her cheek and her eyes closed. I smelled the eucalyptus, and the chaparral all around us. I lowered my face slowly toward hers. Her lips parted and she let her head sink back luxuriously.

When our mouths were an inch apart, I whispered: “You’re a goddamn liar.”

She tried to jerk away.

“You’re a liar,” I said. “Maybe it’s not even your fault. You were probably born that way, but you’d think you’d be better at it by now. I called Ciro’s yesterday. They never heard of you.”

“What? I—”

“Why lie about a little thing like that, unless the whole thing was a fairy tale?”

“I used a different—”

“Why use a false name to take a job as a hat check girl?”

“Let
go
of me.”

“It’s okay. I lied too. I never called Ciro’s.”

“Please, I can’t—”

“Think straight, sure. That’s why we’re talking now, because when you think, you lie. How much of that story was true?”

“He’s going to
burn
me. Let me
go
.”

“What’s up between you and Lance Halliday?”

“He’s going to burn me.”

“Why?”

“Let me—”

“Why?”

“Because I stole his money!”
she screamed into my face.
“I stole his goddamn money!”

I let go of her and stepped back.

“There,” I said, “that wasn’t so bad, was it?”

She pushed herself upright with a hand on the fender, and stood there with her eyes closed, breathing.

“Keep going,” I said. “Why’d you steal from him? Don’t think. Tell.”

“Because I had the chance to,” she said. “Because he’d, because I had been in a movie for him. Two movies. I lied when I said it wasn’t him. And, afterward... And I did sleep with him. He always has them himself, afterward. Has us. He, you’ve met him, he’s very charming, and treats you like, like you were a real actress. And makes you think you’re being very brave and glamorous, even, and that everyone else is just stuffy, and that you’re just the most beautiful thing. I can’t help how stupid that sounds. It’s true that I fell for him. That part was true. And it was only after, when he was lying there, half asleep, it’s as if I didn’t know until then how much he’d taken from me. I had to get out of the room. He keeps this woman’s dressing gown in his closet. For whoever,
you know. I put on the gown and slipped out of the room, just to be away from him and think, and he’d left his jacket in the living room, on that flowered armchair there. And there was a pocket in the dressing gown. I think that’s what gave me the idea. I just picked up the jacket and took out his wallet and took the money from it and put it in the pocket of the gown. Because if he was going to take from me... And my purse was on the dining room table, and my shoes were by the sofa, so I just kept going. I knew it would take him a while to see I’d gone, because my clothes were all on the floor of his room, but I didn’t want to see any of those clothes again, and I drove home in the shoes and dressing gown, just like that. I knew there was a lot of money, but I didn’t know until I got home that there was nearly fourteen hundred dollars. It must have been money he’d gotten to pay us all.”

“When did he threaten you?”

“Right away. I’d gotten back to my room, and then the landlady knocked on my door, and I thought maybe she’d seen me coming home like that after all, but what she had to say is that there was a phone call for me, from my — ” She laughed briefly. “From my brother. And he was sorry to call so late, but it was an emergency. And I got on, and he said,
You have a pretty face.
He told me to keep the money, because I’d need it, and then he told me what he was going to do.”

“Did you actually meet him at Ciro’s?”

“No. He knows where to find girls like me.”

“When’d you take the photos? The photo-booth photos.”

“That was the way I told you. He did take me out and try to show me a good time. After. And then we went back to his house. He likes to think the girls he hires are
really his.”

“You were smiling pretty good in the picture.”

“I wanted to be having a good time. Don’t you ever do that? Smile when you wish you were enjoying yourself?”

“Maybe I ought to try it. Where’s that fourteen hundred?”

She flushed. “I gave you everything that’s left of it.”

“What did you do with the rest?”

“I, ah. I thought it would be better if it was more.”

I started laughing again. “You took it out to the track and lost it.”

“No,” she said. “I can’t look at you and — No. It was poker. I really am pretty good at cards, like Lorrie said. But not that night.”

I was laughing, shaking my head.

She began to smile herself, shakily. “I had a system, you know. I had it worked out.”

“Sure. You know how many times I’ve had it all worked out?”

“Yes,” she said, laughing shakily. “I believe I do.” She stopped and gave me a little punch in the chest, then hit me there hard. “Someday,” she said fiercely, “I hope somebody about ten feet tall comes along and bends
you
over backward that way.”

“It’s been tried.”

“Well. Well, at least you brush your teeth.”

“I know. I was thinking it would’ve been better if I’d eaten some garlic.”

“How did you know I was lying?”

“Because you’re a liar.”

“So it wasn’t anything I said today, or that Shade was here?”

“No. I always knew you must be lying about at least some of this. Shade shook you up, and I thought I saw a
chance to squeeze a little truth out.”

“You saw a chance... And here I was calling you nice. I suppose you can be, but you’re also somewhat horrible, aren’t you?”

“Anyway, this story’s better than the first.”

“Thanks. Well, I guess I’ll drop you home now.”

“Thanks.”

“I guess I’ve brought all this on myself.”

“That’s right. From now on, don’t lie to me. It makes everything harder.”

“From now on?” she said. “You’ll still help me?”

“Sure.”

“Even now?”

“I took your money.”

“It was stolen.”

I said, “Most money is.”

As soon as Rebecca dropped me off, I got into my car and went to a florist. There was a young gal at the counter and a middle-aged woman in back. I asked to talk to the older woman. She set down her shears and came to the counter, peeling off her gloves. I said my wife was mad at me and what did she suggest? I left with two dozen pink roses in a pink vase with gold doodads and drove over to Republic, holding it between my knees. Mattie Reece’s feet were back on the desk when I came in. I set the roses down next to them and dropped into a chair. He looked me over. I didn’t seem to please him much.

“You bringing me flowers, soldier?” he said.

I shook my head. “You’re bringing your wife flowers.”

“Why?”

“Because she’s mad at you.”

“Why would she be mad?”

“She’s married to you.”

He nodded. “Thanks for the flowers. Still waiting to hear on Halliday. Couple days.”

“Appreciate it,” I said.

He pointed his chin at my suit. “Going to a fancy dress ball?”

“Lenny Scarpa’s taking me to the prom.”

“Is he now.”

“I work for him. As of last night.”

“Huh. I thought you were working for your lulu.”

“I am. By working for Scarpa.”

He thought that over. He didn’t enjoy it. Mattie drinks and chases, but he likes things to go right. He likes the law. I guess he wouldn’t want that to get around. His feet were crossed left over right, and he recrossed them right over left, looking off into the corner.

He said, “Don’t explain it to me, all right? I just hope to hell you know what you’re doing.”

“A man in a suit like this always knows what he’s doing. Tell me something, Mattie. I’m an industry guy, and I want a little snow on my roof. Where do I go?”

“To your new boss,” he said grimly.

“Where else?”

“Nowhere else.”

“Think harder. Somebody’s been cutting in on Scarpa’s movie customers. Enough so he’s hired some palooka to go hunting for him. At least, that’s what I hear.”

“You don’t say.” Reece’s eyes got soft and happy. “Thanks. That’s nice. That’s nicer than flowers.”

“Always happy to help, Mattie. Where do I buy my hop?”

There was a battered clothbound address book on the corner of his desk. He worked his mouth around a little, then shoved the book toward me with the heel of his shoe. “Look up
Paley
,” he said. “With a
P
.”