Lone star

Jimmy is the easy answer, so far as a designated murderer is concerned. Though ‘easy’ is the wrong word here. If Jimmy is the killer, it means trouble for everyone.”

“For the studio.”

“Everyone. It’s sort of hard to release an epic film when the star is being electrocuted at San Quentin.”

I felt a chill. My heart beat wildly. “My God, Mercy, no.”

“I really don’t believe Jimmy killed Carisa, Edna, but what do I know? Even accusation of murder can get the censors in an uproar. My God, remember the uproar two years back when Columbia used the word ‘virgin’ in The Moon is Blue? The Catholic Legion of Decency started speaking in tongues. Walter Winchell turned purple.”

“I want to talk to Jimmy,” I said.

“Don’t we all.”

Later Tansi joined us in the commissary, and I asked how she was. “I will never do Jack Geyser’s dirty work again,” she sputtered. “He sprang that on me.”

Mercy patted her wrist. “He’s a damn coward.”

Her hands shook. “It’s bad enough I have to be called late at night, told to prepare the dumb press release, then say-no comment, no comment, no comment. I couldn’t sleep all night. And Jake pushing me out like that.”

“Have you seen Cotton around?” I asked Tansi, interrupting.

“He’s blowing hot and cold, frustrated. He’s asked me the same questions ten times. What did I think of Carisa? I told him I scarcely knew her. In Marfa I had to deal with her when she was fired-get her out of there. Cotton says to me, ‘Was she angry?’ I said yes, she seemed angry all the time. I don’t remember much about her. Then I hear him asking the same questions of people in lighting and in sound. They stare at him as though he’s speaking another language. He shows her picture. They nod. Yes, she was around. No, no, they didn’t know her. It’s maddening.”

“It’s police work. Stabs in the dark, looking for a light.”

“Well, I have to contend with the slow simmer of Warner and the hiccoughing panic of Jake.”

“Scylla and Charybdis,” I said.

Tansi smiled. “More like Ma and Pa Kettle, fighting over a chicken bone.” But she leaned in. “But he’s already asking for Jimmy, who, by the way, I can tell he doesn’t like, not even having met him.”

“Why?”

“He referred to Jimmy and Marlon Brando as the dirt-under-the-fingernails school of acting.”

“Who else did he ask about?” I wanted to know.

Tansi whispered. “He asked me if knew Max Kohl.” She turned to Mercy. “Do you know a Max Kohl?”

“No.” Puzzled. “He didn’t ask me that. It must be a name he picked up after my conversation with him.”

“Let me guess,” I said. “A bit player.”

Tansi looked confused. “No, I don’t think he’s ever worked for us. At least I’ve never seen him on the Warner list. But he was-or is-part of Jimmy’s world, I gather. Cotton talked to me right after he talked to Lydia. She cornered me in the hall, panicking, and told me about her talk with Cotton. She mentioned Max to him-that he dated Carisa, disappeared, came back. She says his name just came out because she was nervous. Lydia says he’s been seeing her, since Jimmy left her. He calls her. She says he scares her.”

“What in the world does that mean?” I asked.

“I don’t know.” She breathed in. “After she was fired, Carisa retreated into that apartment, and Max was seen around town with her. He’d met Lydia through her. But Max had a fight with Jimmy, Lydia said.”

“Over what?”

“Nonsense, Lydia said. I don’t know.” She sighed, weary. “I don’t know him. He was Jimmy’s motorcycle buddy, I guess. You know, Jimmy has that other life. Late night, riding his bike at breakneck speed into the Hollywood Hills. I saw him tear past, one night, hands in the air, whooping it up. He was with some other guys.”

“Is he a suspect, this Max Kohl?”

“Cotton wants to talk to him. Supposedly, he’d been staying with Carisa, but moved out last week. Lydia learned that from Carisa, who was scared of him, too. Lydia told me that once she told Cotton about Max Kohl, she couldn’t stop talking. And now she feels guilty. Like she got him in trouble. She’s afraid of him.”

I nodded. “Lord, a new character in Jimmy’s world.”

Tansi continued, “When Cotton asked Lydia where to locate Max, she said to ask Jimmy.”

“Why?”

“Well, she said she doesn’t know where he lives. He showed up one night at her place with Jimmy and then alone. He’s stopped in, and they’ve gone out. He sits in the lobby of her building until she comes down. She’s afraid to say no to him. Jimmy would know where he lives. They’re buddies.” She paused. “Or were buddies. I don’t know. I don’t think Lydia is telling the whole truth. I know she doesn’t want Jimmy to know she’s seeing Max, so she’s lying. She’s hoping Jimmy will come back to her. But Lydia just babbles on and on. She said Max was a friend of Jimmy, and then said they had a fight and now hate each other. She told me she’d stopped talking to Carisa, and then said she just spoke to her days ago. I guess she just rambled on to Cotton.”

I was impatient. “This is madness. Lydia makes no sense. What does this all mean?”

Tansi shrugged. “Well, Lydia told me she broke down, weeping. Cotton left her alone, but said he’d talk to her later.”

I turned to Mercy. “This Max Kohl intrigues me.”

Tansi started rustling papers. “I think Lydia’s hysteria got Cotton to thinking there’s a lot more to this story than he first thought. She couldn’t keep her stories straight.” She looked at her watch. “I have to get back. Jake is a man possessed today. I heard him tell Warner that Jimmy has been nothing but trouble.”

“All geniuses are,” I said. “Even those who murder.”

Tansi rushed her words. “Oh, Edna, you certainly can’t believe Jimmy would hurt anyone?”

“That remains to be seen,” I said. “I like the boy, but last night I saw a dead woman lying in a pool of blood.”

Tansi gulped. “Oh, God, Edna. Please! I told you not to go there. That neighborhood. Nobody goes there.”

“It’s not the neighborhood that killed her, Tansi.”

Tansi whispered, “Yes, you two go there, and you find bodies.”

I smiled. “Only one, Tansi.”

“One is too many.”

Mercy looked at Tansi, who looked exhausted. “Granted,” Mercy said. “But it wasn’t the neighborhood that killed her.”

“Edna, my mother would kill me if you got hurt during my watch.”

I stood. “I’m a big girl, Tansi. Have been for many decades, with no complaints. World wars, two of them, haven’t done me in. I doubt this will. I don’t need attending.”

“I didn’t mean…”

I softened. “I know what you mean, and, all right, I understand. And thank you, dear. But a woman who can’t take care of herself, at any age, is a fool. Trouble for a woman should be, well, temporary.”

Mercy was smiling, but Tansi looked offended. Mercy stood. “All our nerves are frayed. Tonight, eight o’clock, my apartment, no refusals from either of you. Wine and a tuna casserole and a loaf of homemade bread. And peach cobbler, from scratch. No refusals. The three of us, relaxing.”

Tansi started to beg off, so I asked her, “Can you give me a lift, Tansi? I don’t want to ask for the studio car. I’d find Jake in the back seat dictating a memo to me about my errant behavior last night.”

Tansi smiled. “Of course.”

Mercy’s efficiency scarcely held room for the three of us, much less the bowls of food she spread out. We all