Nicky held up his hand. 'You aren't a player, so naturally you don't get it.'
Maybe not, but Shane had been getting one good idea. So he sat down on the edge of the bed beside the little grifter. 'Guess what, Nick? This is your lucky day.'
'I don't want a lucky day.'
'Well, you got one. While you were just sitting here talking about your deal with this mobster, and this great life you finally got, I had a great idea.'
'Bubee, ain't ya heard? There's a twenty-year-old reward out for a cop with a great idea.'
'You're about to get a new fifty-fifty partner at CineRoma, and you're looking at him.'
Now Nicky actually looked frightened. 'Whatta you mean, 'partner'? Do I look like I want a partner?'
'Nicky, this isn't a negotiation. It's a condition. Either I come in for half of your company, or you take the pipe for Carol's murder. Say no, and I'll sell you so fast you'll think you're a used Bentley.'
'Shane, why are you doing this to me?'
'Because I want this guy, Nicky. I think he killed Carol and I want him.'
'Why? Why would he kill her? It makes no sense.'
'Who knows why? Because he's a goomba, or because he eats too much broccoli. Maybe she knew his plans to infiltrate Hollywood and when she started shooting heroin, she became a liability and had to be fixed.'
'Shane, he wouldn't do that.'
'Or maybe she was shaking him down for money, to buy drugs. Who knows? Look, Nicky, I'm not arguing here. You've got no choice.'
Little Nicky looked at him and actually started to weep. Tears came down his face, although for some strange reason, this time he made no crying sounds. Then he got control of himself.
'How much are you gonna pay me for your end?' he finally said, hope reappearing on his tear-stained face. ' 'Cause it won't be cheap. Cine-Roma has a book value of slightly over five mil. That's not counting goodwill with agents and distributors and unearned assets like future profits on Boots and Bikinis.'
'Five mil sounds high.' Shane opened his wallet and took out one dollar and handed it over. 'How 'bout one dollar and other considerations? I believe that's the legal necessity to guarantee a contract in the State of California.'
'No fucking way,' Nicky howled.
'Don't lose sight of the fact that the other considerations in this case include my keeping you off Lou Ruta's suspect list. I'll have somebody in the LAPD Legal Affairs Department draw up the contract.'
Nicky Marcella sat there looking at Shane for a long moment, then he finally sighed and nodded. 'I guess we should say a prayer or something.'
'You pray over deals?'
'No. I wanta pray for Carol. We should do that, don't you think?'
Shane sat looking at him for a long moment, trying to assess if he was serious, and for some reason, Shane knew he was. It surprised him. But that was the thing about Nicky; he wasn't just one thing. He could catch you off balance. 'Yeah, sure, let's do it,' Shane agreed.
So they held hands while Nicky the Pooh bowed his head and prayed for Carol White's newly departed soul.
Chapter 15
Even though he didn't get home until three in the morning, Shane was up at six. He left the house shortly before Alexa and Chooch and headed to the Hollywood division. Today was the day he was supposed to go back on duty, but now he wondered if that was the right move.
Once he arrived at the Hollywood division, he went directly up the stairs to the computer room on the second floor.
'Hi ya, stranger,' the morning-shift computer tech called out as Shane walked up. Shane couldn't remember the guy's last name, but like a lot of computer nerds at the LAPD, his nickname was Sparks.
'Hey, Sparks, you still hooked to LexisNexis?' Shane asked.
He smiled and gave a thumbs-up.
LexisNexis is a search service that transcribes legal publications and news. It's all-inclusive and references everything from newspapers and technical journals to the typed transcript of every episode of Larry King Live.
'Whatta you need?' Sparks asked.
'Can you see if there's anything on a guy named Dennis Valente-a. K. A. Valentine? He calls himself 'Champagne' Dennis. My guess is anybody who has that kind of handle probably likes to read his name in the papers.'
'Got it… Valente… a. K. A. Valentine, 'Champagne'
Dennis.' Sparks turned and logged on, accessed the welcome screen for LexisNexis, then typed in Dennis's name and hit the screen designation for 'All News.' A few minutes later the screen flashed: fifty-eight stories. All of them under Valente's alias, Valentine.
'CITE 'em,' Shane said. Sparks clicked the CITE command and topic sentences for each story appeared on the screen, along with the date and the original source the story had appeared in.
'Which ones do you want?' he asked.
Shane started scanning them. 'That one, from the New Jersey Sentinel in 'ninety-five, 'Mobster Gets Producing Bug,' and the one from the March five, 'ninety-nine, Trenton paper, 'Valentine Goes Hollywood.' Lemme have last year's Union Telegraph piece, 'Champagne Corks Pop for New Showbiz Enterprise.' '
The rest looked like stories about his uncle: Don Carlo DeCesare. Shane picked one or two of these just for background, then asked Sparks to print everything.
The pages started spitting out into the tray across the room, and when the printer stopped, Shane picked up his articles and went to get some coffee in the little snack room downstairs.
He sat at a table and went through the articles, which ranged from 1995 to the present. Even when he was still busting heads for his uncle in Jersey, it looked as if Champagne Dennis Valentine was a show business wanna- be. There were no pictures of Valentine, because LexisNexis didn't supply photos, but he was described in one article as 'a handsome Sonny Corleone type.'
In one 1995 article, Dennis Valentine talked about 'one day investing in a film.' As Shane read on, he started to pick up a thread that fascinated him. Almost all of the stories mentioned Michael Fallon, a handsome, dark-haired movie star who had appeared in dozens of gangster or action flicks. In one story, he called Fallon 'one of America's enduring filmic treasures.' In another: 'Fallon has redefined the essence of modern filmography with his extraordinary screen presence.' In a third, Dennis Valentine had gushed, 'My fondest dream would be to one day do a film with the great Michael Fallon.'
Nowhere was Carol White mentioned.
At nine A. M., Shane pulled up to the front gate of Hollywood General Studios.
'I'm sorry, Mr. Marcella isn't in yet,' the guard said. Shane got out of the car and walked up to the old, gray- haired man in the dark blue studio-issue uniform.
'Before you started doing this, were you by any chance on the job?' Shane asked.
'Yeah, thirty years in Marys,' the guard replied. The Mary unit was cop slang for motorcycles.
Shane took out his badge and showed it to the man. 'I'm working a gig here, undercover. I'm gonna be getting a parking pass and an office today. If I need any backup down the line, can I count on you for help?'
'In a heartbeat, Sergeant,' the guard responded. 'I'm sick and tired of smelling pot in these cars and taking shit from these twits. I used to kick ass for that shit, now I gotta call 'em sir.'
'Can you give me a little background on Nick Marcella?' Shane asked.
The old motorcycle cop had. plenty to say. He filled Shane's ear for almost half an hour.
Nicky didn't arrive until eleven-thirty, parking the maroon Bentley in one of his two spaces. Shane's black Acura was in the other. The guard had told Shane that Nicky usually poached that second spot to protect his side
