'Honest to God?' I said. 'Talk about coincidences.'
'Whaddya want?' Lenny said.
'I'm looking for a woman used to live here,' I said. 'Angela Richard.'
'Never heard of her.'
'How about Lisa St. Claire?'
'Never heard of her.'
'Someone named Vaughn?'
'Never heard of him.'
'Anita Bryant?'
'Never heard of her.'
'Sic transit gloria,' I said.
'Huh?'
'How long this place been a bike shop?' I said.
'Whadda ya mean?'
I sighed. 'Are these too hard for you, Lenny? You want to warm up with something easier?'
'Hey, Duke. Don't get bright with me. I'll run your ass right out of here.'
'Not unless you're better than you look,' I said.
Lenny reached over and picked up a ball peen hammer.
'How good's this look?' he said.
I opened my coat and showed him the gun. And gave him a big charming smile.
'You a cop?' Lenny said.
'How long since this place was a house?' I said.
Lenny shrugged. He kept the hammer in his hand, letting it rest against his right thigh.
'I took the place over last year. Guy owed me dough. It was a bike shop then.'
'You around here in 1985?' I said.
'No.'
'Where were you in '85?''
'I was outta LA.'
'How far out? Chino, maybe? Getting tattooed?'
'I done a little time at Chino,' he said.
'And you're probably a better man for it,' I said. 'Who around here was here in '85?'
'I don't know nobody around here. People come and go, you know?'
'I've heard that,' I said and left Lenny to ponder his ball peen hammer. Nobody else in the neighborhood knew anywhere near as much as Lenny and several of them weren't as nice. After a couple of hours I gave up and cruised back along Venice Boulevard. I went under the 405 and, as a gesture of defiance, drove back to Westwood on Sepulveda. It took longer, but an easy gesture is hardly a gesture at all.
Chapter 20
I met Madeleine St. Claire for lunch at The Grill on Dayton Way. The place was so in that the entrance was hard to find, around the corner, off Camden Drive. It was an oak-paneled place which claimed to be famous for its Cobb salad. I'd been there before and on principle had never ordered the Cobb salad. The room was full of people, mostly men, dressed in expensive casual, and talking about movie deals. A couple of them were recognizable television performers. Some of them were doubtless agents, being as we were right down the street from CAA. And some of them were probably real estate brokers from Ventura. I didn't see anyone else who looked like a gumshoe.
She had arrived before me, which was one way to tell she wasn't a producer, and was already seated at a woman with delicate bones and short hair the color of polished pewter. She had on a very expensive fawncolored suit and big round glasses with deep blue rims. Her pearls were probably real, and she wore a very impressive engagement/wedding set on her left hand. Her complexion looked like she spent a lot of time out of doors. Her handshake was strong when I introduced myself.
'Please have a drink if you'd like,' she said when I was seated. 'I have patients this afternoon, so I must drink tea.'
'Thanks,' I said. 'But if I have a drink with lunch a nap sets in almost immediately.'
'Pity,' she said. 'How may I help you with Angela Richard?'
'I don't know, really,' I said. 'As I told you, she's missing.'
'Do you fear foul play?'
'No reason to fear it or not fear it, except that her husband was shot from ambush and badly wounded a few days after she vanished.'
