Gone

bit. But overall I think she was accurate because Dad never denied it. Mom used to hold up Bernadine as a negative example for me- don’t do what that ‘immoral wench’ did.”

“What’d Bernadine do?” said Milo.

“Left home at seventeen and went down to Oceanside with a friend, another wild girl named Amelia Stultz. The two of them worked the sailor trade and God knows what else. Bernadine got pregnant by some guy on shore leave who she never saw again. Had a baby boy.”

“Brad,” I said.

She nodded. “That’s how Brad came into this world. When Bernadine got put away he was three or four, got sent to California to live with Amelia Stultz, who’d done a whole lot better, married a navy captain with family money.”

Milo said, “Amelia was an immoral wench but she raised someone else’s kid?”

“The way my mother told it, my uncle Millard blackmailed her, said he’d tell her rich husband about her past if she didn’t ‘take the brat.’ ”

“Conniving fellow, your besotted uncle,” I said. “Did he ask anything for himself?”

“Maybe money changed hands, I don’t know.” Marcia Peaty frowned. “I’m aware that this lays responsibility on everyone but my father. I’ve wondered about that, could Dad have been that calculated.” A cheek muscle jumped. “Even if he’d wanted to help Brad, no way my mother would have agreed to take him in.”

“The rich captain was Bill Dowd Junior.”

“ Hancock Park,” she said. “On the surface, Brad lucked out. The problem was Amelia had no interest in raising her own kids, let alone one she’d been stuck with. She’d always fancied herself a dancer and an actress. A performer, Mom called it. Which meant stripping in some of those Tijuana clubs and maybe worse.”

“How’d Amelia snag Captain Dowd?”

“She was great-looking,” said Marcia Peaty. “Blond bombshell, when she was young. Maybe it was like that country song, guys going for women on the trashy side.”

Or family tradition. Albert Beamish had said Bill Dowd Junior married a “woman with no class” just like his mother.

Milo said, “Amelia took Brad in but didn’t care to raise him? We talking abuse or just neglect?”

“I never heard about abuse, more like she ignored him completely. But she did that with her own kids, too. Both of whom had problems. Have you met Nora and Billy Three?”

“Yup.”

“I haven’t seen them since we were kids. What’re they like?”

Milo ignored the question. “How’d you happen to see them as kids?”

“Dad must’ve felt guilty because he tried to make contact with Brad when I was around five. We drove into L.A. and visited. Amelia Dowd liked my dad and started inviting us to birthday parties. Mom griped about it but down deep she didn’t mind going to a fancy affair in a big house. She did warn me away from Bill Three. Said he was retarded, couldn’t be counted on to control himself.”

“He ever act scary?”

She shook her head. “He just seemed quiet and shy. Obviously he wasn’t normal but he never bothered me. Nora was a space cadet, walked around talking to herself. Mom said, ‘Look at Amelia, marrying rich, living the good life, but she ends up with defective kids.’ I don’t want to make it sound like Mom was a hateful person, she just had no use for Dad’s family and anyone associated with them. His whole life Uncle Millard did nothing but sponge off us, and Roald was no picnic either before he died. Also, when Mom talked like that it was always part of complimenting me. ‘Money’s nothing, honey. Your children are your legacy and that makes me a wealthy woman.’ ”

Milo said, “Could we talk to your mom?”

“She’s gone. Four years ago, cancer. She was one of the ladies you see at the slots. Wheelchair-bound, smoking, and feeding nickels.”

I said, “Brad goes by ‘Dowd.’ Was he adopted legally?”

“Don’t know. Maybe Amelia let him use the name to avoid uncomfortable questions.”

“Or,” said Milo, “she wasn’t such a witch.”

“I guess,” said Marcia Peaty. “Mom could be intolerant.”

I said, “Captain Dowd didn’t mind another child?”

“Captain Dowd wasn’t a real tough guy. Just the opposite. Anything Amelia wanted, she got.”

“Did your mother ever say anything about how Brad fared psychologically?”

“Her name for him was ‘the Troublemaker’ and she warned me away from him, too. She said unlike Billy he was smart, but always lying and stealing. Amelia sent him away several times to boarding schools and military academies.”

Persimmons and more. Alfred Beamish had pegged Brad’s behavior but never uncovered the boy’s origins.

Mansions, country clubs, rented elephants at birthday parties. A mother who really wasn’t. Who fancied herself a performer.

I said, “How did Amelia Dowd channel her interest in acting?”

“What do you mean?”

“All those performance dreams that never came to pass. Sometimes people live through their kids.”

“Was she a stage-door mom? Brad did tell me she tried to get the kids on TV. As a group- singing and dancing. He said he could carry a tune but the others were tone-deaf.”

The photo-covered wall of the PlayHouse theater floated into my head. Among the famous faces, a band I hadn’t recognized.

Kiddy quartet of mop-haired youngsters…the Kolor Krew. “What was the name of the group?”

“He never said.”

“When did all this take place?”

“Let’s see…Brad was about fourteen when he told me, so it must’ve been right around then. He laughed about it but he sounded bitter. Said Amelia dragged them to talent agents, made them sit for photos, bought them guitars and drums they never learned to play, gave them voice lessons that were useless. Even before that she’d tried to get Nora and Billy Three jobs as actors.”

“Not Brad?”

“He told me Amelia only included him in the band because the other two were hopeless.”

“He call her that?” I said. “Amelia?”

She thought. “I never heard him call her ‘Mom.’ ”

“Nora and Billy have any success at all, individually?”

“I think Nora got some dinky modeling jobs, department store stuff, kiddy clothing. Bill Three got nothing. He wasn’t smart enough.”

“Brad told you all this,” said Milo. “You and he talk often?”

“Just during those parties.”

“What about as adults?”

“Except for one face-to-face twelve years ago, it’s been the phone and not often. Maybe once every couple of years.”

“Who calls who?”

“He calls me. Christmas greetings, that kind of thing. Mostly showing off how rich he is, telling me about some new car he bought.”

“Twelve years ago,” I said. “That’s pretty precise.”

Marcia Peaty fooled with her napkin. “There’s a reason for that and it might be important to you guys. Twelve years ago Brad got questioned on a Vegas case. I was doing hot cars, a D from headquarters calls me, says a person of interest is tossing my name around, claiming we’re kissing cousins. I find out who it is, call Brad. It’s been a while since we’ve talked but he turns on the charm like it’s yesterday, great to hear from you, cuz. He insists on taking me to a big dinner at Caesars. Turns out he’d been living in Vegas for a year, doing some kind of real estate investment, never thought to get in touch. And once he didn’t need me I didn’t hear from him for seven more years- Christmas, to brag.”

“About what?”