friendly step-deal on a shorter clock with a trigger clause.'
'What the fuck is that?' Filosiani growled, losing his impish smile.
'It's movie talk. Means we pay less now but he has a trigger date that obligates us to the whole amount in a few weeks. Normally he wouldn't get the full amount until completion of the principal photography. I'm planning to set up the meeting between Alexa and Valentine tomorrow. He's talking about giving her a hundred thousand in earnest money. We might as well let Valentine finance some of this sting himself; let it go toward our overhead and expenses. That gets us up to three hundred and fifty thousand. I'll try and move this along as fast as I can, get the RICO case made before this movie breaks us. But these guys and their agents are tough. The minute I stop paying, they stop playing, and once that happens, Dennis is gonna spot this for what it is. Then everything we've spent to date gets flushed with no case getting filed.'
'Okay… okay, I gotcha. I'll keep the money coming. But Christ on crutches, Shane, wrap it up quick, will ya?' 'I'll try.'
They left Filosiani and drove back to North Chalon Road. When they arrived, it was after midnight. Chooch's Jeep was still not there. The note was still on the fridge. Shane called the boy's cell phone again, but got the same out-of-area recording.
'Maybe he left a message for us on the Venice machine,' Alexa suggested.
Shane called the house and hit their retrieval code. There were two messages from Nora Bishop to Alexa, asking her to call about the bridal shower Alexa was throwing tomorrow. Alexa had changed the address to North Chalon Road, and Nora wanted her to fax a map to all the out-of-town friends. Then, they heard Chooch's voice…
'Hi, Mom and Dad. Look, I won't be coming home tonight… maybe not for a few more days. I know you're g onna be worried and upset with me, but I gotta take care of something. I promise you I'm safe. I'll check in and leave messages every day so you'll know I'm okay. This is very important to me. Talk to ya later. I love you guys… Bye.'
After they hung up, Shane and Alexa stood in the kitchen by the phone, staring at the floor. Both of them were flooded with emotions.
'He'll be okay,' Alexa finally said. But Shane was too upset to even answer.
Chapter 26
Shane slept badly.
Every time a car passed the house, he would wake up thinking it was Chooch's. Twice, he got up to check the garage. During one of these occasions he went outside to the pool, away from the listening devices, and attempted to reach Amac on the cell phone, calling the same number Chooch had given him, leaving a message with a Chicano who barely spoke English. He tried to go back to bed.
At two-thirty in the morning his cell phone rang. Shane snatched it up, swinging his feet out of bed, wide awake in less than two seconds. Alexa was also rolling into a sitting position.
'Yeah,' Shane said.
'Scully.' It was Amac.
He got out of bed and headed back out onto the pool deck, away from Valentine's bugs. Alexa grabbed a robe and followed.
Shane could hear folklOrica music in the background. 'Chooch is missing,' he said once he was away from the house.
'Just a minute,' Amac said. Shane heard a door close, then the sound of the party disappeared and Amac came back on. 'Orale. He called me.'
'Where is he?'
'He wouldn't say. You remember Delfina Delgado?'
'Who?'
'You met her, homes… when you came to mi tia's house. The beautiful chavala with the long black hair.' 'Yeah, yeah, I remember… your niece.'
'Well, kinda. She's in my family. Mi Ma's her comadre. It's like a godmother. Delfina is my aunt's brother's daughter, whatever that is… my second cousin or something.'
'What about her?'
'Hey, Scully, she's Chooch's jiana. He's in love with her. He's been seeing Delfina for almost two years now. You ain't heard about this?'
'He never told me,' Shane said softly.
'Delfina disappeared two days ago. We been looking all over for her. Don't know where she is. I can't give it much time 'cause I got this pleito with the mayates to run. When Chooch couldn't reach her, he called me. Now he's out looking for her.'
That was the missing piece. 'Has Delfina been kidnapped?' Shane asked.
'If the mayates know about her, then maybe, but you want my guess… I don't think so.'
'Then what? Where is she?'
'I don't know, but you gotta let go of Chooch, ese. Asi es, ast sera. This is how it is, how it's going to be.'
'I can't just do nothing.'
'What you gonna do, man? Get in your carrucha an' drive all around up in The Hills, looking? He'll come home.'
'Have you checked your aunt's house in Lomas?'
'My aunt is back in Cuernavaca. Estados Unidos was not her thing. Maybe it's not for any of us. We'll have to wait and see. If I hear from Chooch, I'll call you try and get him to go home.'
'Thanks, Amac… and thanks for the heads-up in that restaurant.'
'Don't know what you talkin' about, homes…' But there was a smile in his voice. Then he hung up.
'What?' Alexa said.
'Chooch has a girlfriend. I met her when I went up to talk to Amac two years ago. She's Amac's second cousin, a beautiful girl with long black hair. She's missing and it seems Chooch is out trying to find her.'
Alexa reached out and took Shane's hand. 'You gotta admit, that's exactly what you'd be doing.'
The remainder of the night was strangely more restful. Maybe it helped knowing that Chooch had not signed up to be a soldier in Amac's pleito.
Shane woke early, with a headache. He showered for a long time, standing in the strong, hot spray of the drug dealer's luxuriously tiled stall. The hot water relaxed his neck muscles and eased his headache. When he finished, he looked for a towel. Not finding one, he used Alexa's hair dryer instead. Then Shane slicked his hair back with his fingers, put on clean underwear with yesterday's clothes, and left. He didn't wake Alexa because it was the first time she had been able to sleep in two days.
Shane drove to Hollywood General Studios and waved as he pulled past his buddy, the retired motor cop. He had to park in a guest spot in front of the administration building because a Jag Roadster occupied his newly assigned parking space.
When he arrived at Cine-Roma Productions, he ran into a firestorm of activity. People he had never seen before were milling about in the halls, running in and out of Nicky Marcella's office, which now had a piece of paper stuck to the door that read: DIRECTOR.
Nicky was sitting on the couch and Paul Lubick was behind the desk. The director was a tall, fortyish man with a beefy build and a flushed complexion. There was too much tangled yellow-blond hair matting his large head and it had been fastened into a ponytail with a thick rubber band. He was wearing a safari vest with all kinds of shit in the pockets. Lens finders and fog filters dangled from chains around his neck; on his feet, he wore an ultrahip pair of lace-up Doc Martens.
'I don't give a shit if he thinks he can get them or not. He's gonna come through, or he's gonna get fired.'
