Rio was in black today, a black silk suit, double breasted, with a white silk shirt, and a narrow black scarf at the open neck. He wore black cowboy boots with silver inlays. Del Rio tasted his drink again.
“She showed up here yesterday morning in a state. Barely functional. She doesn’t know where I live, but she came to one of the, ah, offices I use in East L.A. and told the guy there that she had to see me.”
“Guy know who she was?” I said.
“Yes. But he is discreet. So he called the house and Bobby Horse went down and got her and brought her here. I keep a suite here, anyhow.”
“Of course,” I said. “Anyone would.”
“Chollo and I met her here, and she and I talked for a long while.”
“She offer to ball you?” I said.
“Of course,” del Rio said.
“And you declined,” I said.
“Perhaps that is not your business,” del Rio said.
“Perhaps you called me,” I said.
Del Rio nodded. “She said that I was the only one who could help her. That no one else would help her and that He was going to get her.
”I asked her who He was. She said she didn’t know. I asked her how she knew He was trying to get her. She said He’d called her again, the night she took off.“
”You know when that was?“
”Yes. It made the papers. Especially here,“ del Rio said. ”This is a company town.“ He sipped his scotch, looking at the glass. ”Times when there’s nothing better,“ he said. I nodded and rattled the ice around in my glass a little and took a small sip.
”I asked her what He said to her. She said He said awful things.“
”That’s our Jill,“ I said. ”Full of hard information.
“She said you wouldn’t protect her, that some guy named Hawk wouldn’t protect her, that the studio didn’t give a shit, and that I was all she had left. She said I had to help her.”
“What are you supposed to do?” I said.
“Make Him leave her alone.”
“But she doesn’t know who Him is.”
“This is true,” del Rio said.
“So what do you want me to do?” I said.
“Get her the fuck out of here,” del Rio said. “I don’t want her around.”
“Has she threatened to reveal all?” I said.
“She knows better,” del Rio said. “But she’s such a mess that I’m afraid she may cause trouble without meaning to, and I don’t want to have to dump her to prevent it.”
“What a softie,” I said.
“Don’t make that mistake,” del Rio said. “You want to talk with her?”
“In a minute,” I said. “What do you think?”
“About her?”
“Yeah.”
“I think she needs a shrink.”
I nodded. “How about the mysterious He?”
“I think it’s in her head,” del Rio said.
“Who killed Babe Loftus?” I said.
Del Rio shrugged, turned his palms up. “Hey, I’m a simple Mexican,” he said. “That’s your line of work.”
“And I’m doing it grand,” I said.
“Grand,” del Rio said.
“What about the harassment?” I said. “The hanged doll-that stuff?”
“I think she did it herself,” del Rio said. “She’s trying to get people’s attention.”
“It’s working,” I said.
A dark cloud had drifted up from the basin and some big raindrops splattered occasionally on the picture window. We all sat in silence.
“She drinking?” I said.
“If she cut back, she’d be drinking,” del Rio said. “You want a refill?”
I shook my head.
