Silent Partner

longue, reading the sports section.

I said, “How ’bout them Dodgers, big fella.” The voice was someone else’s, hoarse and thick.

He lowered the paper, looked at me, then out over the glen. “What army camped in your mouth?”

I shrugged.

He inhaled deeply, still taking in the view. “Ah, the good life. I fed your fish- could swear that big black-and-gold one’s growing teeth.”

“I’ve been training him on shark chum. How’s life on the night watch?”

“Peachy.” He stood and stretched. “Who told you?”

“Rick. I called you last night, woke him up. Sounds like Trapp’s back on the warpath.”

He grunted. We went into the house. He fixed himself a bowl of Cheerios and milk, stood at the counter and spooned the cereal down nonstop before pausing to catch his breath.

“Hand me a napkin. Yeah, it’s a regular funfest working the twilight zone. Paperwork on the cases that the guys from P.M. conveniently neglect to finish processing, lots of DUI’s and overdoses. Toward the end of shift, most of the calls are bullshit, everyone talking and moving real slow- bad guys and good guys. Like the whole damned city’s on Quaaludes. I caught two DB’s, both of which turned out to be accidentals. But at least I get to check out some heterosexual corpses.” He smiled. “We all rot the same.”

He went to the refrigerator, took out a container of orange juice, poured a glass for me and kept the carton for himself.

I said, “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Show-and-tell time. I was driving back home, listening to the scanner, when something interesting popped up on Beverly Hills’ frequency- burglary call on North Crescent Drive.”

He recited the address.

“The Fontaines’ house,” I said.

“Green Mansions, itself. I detoured to get a look-see. Guess who the detective turned out to be? Our old buddy Dickie Cash- guess he hasn’t sold his screenplay yet. I spun him some yarn about it maybe being related to a hot-prowl homicide out in Brentwood, and got the basic details: Break-in occurred sometime during the early morning hours. Sophisticated job- there was a high-tech security system but the right wires were cut and the alarm company never picked up a tweet. Only reason anyone caught on was that a neighbor spotted an open door out to the rear alley early this morning- our little friend playing Chames Bond, no doubt. Cash let me inside the house. Real good taste, those two- master bedroom has a mural of big, pink, drooling lips. The inventory of missing items is fairly typical for that neighborhood- some porcelain and silver, couple of wide-screen TVs, stereo equipment. But plenty of really expensive stuff left behind: three more TVs, jewelry, furs, better silver, all easy to fence. Not much of a haul after all that wire-cutting. Dickie was intrigued but not inclined to do much about it in view of absentee victims, the fact that they weren’t courteous enough to leave a forwarding with his department.”

“What about the basement museum?”

He ran his hand over his face. “Dickie doesn’t know about any museum, and guilty as it made me feel, I didn’t educate him. He did show me the elevator but there was no key or the access code to operate it- not listed with the alarm company either. But if they ever do get down there, ten to one the place will look like Pompeii after the big lava party.”

“Tying up loose ends,” I said.

He nodded. “Question is, who?”

“Any idea where the Fontaines are?”

“Bahamas. Bijan’s dad was less than helpful. Beverly Hills Cab only had a record of taking them to the airport. But I did manage to trace the car storage company and, through them, the travel agency. First-class passage, L.A. to Miami, ditto to Nassau. They kept moving after that but the agent couldn’t or wouldn’t say where. There was no way for me to push the issue. My guess is one of the smaller remote islands- bad phone lines, rum drinks named after birds and monkeys, banks that make the Swiss look nosy. Kind of environment where someone with cash could stay cozy for a long time.”

He finished the juice, then the cereal, raised the bowl to his lips and drank the milk.

“Where’ve you been, anyway?” he said. “And what were you calling me about last night?”

I told him what I’d learned in Willow Glen.

“Weird,” he said, “very weird. But I don’t hear any crime- unless she was kidnapped as a kid. Am I missing something?”

I shook my head. “I want to run some ideas by you.”

He filled the bowl again. “Run.”

“Let’s say Sharon and her twin were the result of an affair between Leland Belding and Linda Lanier- a party-girl thing that went further than usual. According to Crotty he singled her out; she used to go to his office. Linda kept the pregnancy secret because she was worried Belding would force her to terminate.”

“How could she know that?”

“Maybe she knew he didn’t like children, or maybe she was making an educated guess- Belding was a cold man, shunned relationships. The last thing he would have wanted was an heir he hadn’t planned. Make sense so far?”

“Go on.”

“Crotty saw Lanier and Donald Neurath together- playing coochy-coo. What if Neurath was her doctor as well as her lover- they met on a professional level and it went further.”

“Theme of the loop.”

“The loop was a cartoon of their relationship, compressed for posterity.”

He sat back, put his spoon down. “She starts as a party girl with Belding, takes it further. Starts as a patient with Neurath, takes it further.”

“She was beautiful. But more than that. An expert seductress- she had to have had something special for Belding to pick her out from all the other party girls. As her gynecologist, Neurath would be among the first to know she was pregnant- maybe the first. If he’d gotten deeply emotionally involved with her, finding out she was carrying another man’s child could have made him angry, jealous. What if he offered to abort it and she refused? He then threatened to tell Belding. Linda’s back was up against the wall. She told her brother, and his extortionist’s mind came up with a plot: seduce Neurath on film. Get leverage. Cable worked at the studio, had access to equipment. It wouldn’t have been hard for him to set it up.”

Milo chewed on that for a long time, then said, “And Cable, being a sleazeball, figures out how to make some extra cash on the deal- sells a copy of the loop to some collector.”

I nodded. “Gordon Fontaine or someone else who eventually sells it to him. Years later, Paul Kruse comes across it, sees the resemblance to Sharon and gets curious. But that’s jumping the gun. Let’s stick with Linda for a moment. When her pregnancy shows, she leaves town, gives birth- to twins- sometime between spring and summer of ’53. Now she figures it’s safe to tell Belding: Aborting a fetus is one thing; rejecting two adorable girl babies is another. Maybe brother Cable builds up her confidence- visions of dollar signs would be dancing in front of his eyes. Linda pays Belding a visit, shows him the girls, states her demand: Make an honest woman out of me or shell out enough money so the kids, Uncle Cable, and I can live happily ever after.”

Milo gave a sour look. “Sounds just like the kind of stupid scam stone losers always try to pull. The dumb story you piece together after they’ve ended up on a slab.”

“It was stupid. The Johnsons were penny-ante players. They gravely underestimated the threat they posed to Belding- and his lack of compassion. The twins would be his sole heirs. His entire fortune was at stake- monstrous loss of control for a man used to being master of his own destiny. This is a man who didn’t believe in sharing the wealth, never took his business public. He wouldn’t have tolerated a single careless afternoon coming back to haunt him. As Linda talked to him, the wheels started turning. But he didn’t show it- put on a happy face, played the proud papa. Expressed his good will by putting all of them up in that penthouse on Fountain. Bought them a car, furs, jewels, instant entree to the Good Life. And all he asked in return was that they keep the babies a secret until the moment was right to go public- buying himself a little time. The Johnsons