To Die in Beverly Hills

hundred bucks?'

'Yes.'

The woman shook her head, turned another page.

Carr returned to his sedan and wrote the name D. Piper in his notebook. He put a question mark after the name and drove off.

It took him less than half an hour to drive to Jack Kelly's tract-style home in Orange County. As usual, he made a wrong turn or two on identical cul-de-sacs before he found it … even the curbside mailboxes in front of the newly built stucco row houses were the same. He parked and, because it was still early, headed straight for the garage, hoisting its heavy door. The lawn mower was in the corner where he'd left it a week earlier. He rolled it along the driveway and onto the lawn, first mowing a strip of grass along the sidewalk.

Rose Kelly waved at him from the front window, then hurried out the front door. She wore a blue housecoat. 'There's no need to do that,' she said. 'Jack's coming home from the hospital today. He gave me strict orders not to let you mow the lawn. He said he was perfectly well enough to do it himself. You know how he is.'

Carr nodded and mowed another strip of turf.

'Breakfast will be ready when you're done,' she said before returning to the house.

'No thanks, Rose,' Carr called after her, though he was starving. 'I'm in a hurry.'

About an hour later Carr washed his hands at the kitchen sink before he sat down at the kitchen table in front of a platter of four eggs and what must have been half a pound of bacon. 'I won't be able to eat all this.'

'I'm so used to cooking for Jack…' she said as she washed out a frying pan. 'I'm so excited about Jack coming home … and the boys… I'm glad they had a soccer game this morning. They'd be tearing the house apart in anticipation.'

Carr smiled. He made it through half of the eggs and a sizable portion of the bacon.

Rose Kelly bustled around the kitchen, turning things on and off on the stove. She washed out another pan at the sink. 'Jack told me that he's going to retire,' she said. 'Did he tell you?'

'He mentioned something about it.'

Rose Kelly refilled his coffee cup. She returned the coffee pot to the stove and stood facing it. 'He's doing it for us.'

'What do you think of the idea?'

She turned towards him. 'I think it's a great idea … if it's what Jack really wants. I'd love to have him home at a decent hour every night. But I know Jack. He's not suited very well for other kinds of work. He's too … I don't know what the word is … aggressive. He won't be happy doing anything else. I know that.'

Carr sipped coffee. 'Will you tell him that?'

'God spared Jack's life. The doctor said that he was lucky to have survived. I don't think the Lord saved him to spend the rest of his life just taking it easy. I don't think that.' She stirred something on the stove for a while. 'But on the other hand, I'm not going to encourage him to stay in law enforcement if he doesn't want to.'

'I think he wants to stay.'

Rose came to the table with the coffee pot again. 'I'll stand by Jack no matter what he wants to do.' She tried to fill Carr's cup, but he held his hand over it. 'I'm so glad he's coming home,' she said, returning the pot to the stove.

'Gotta run.' Carr carried his plate and coffee cup to the sink. 'Thanks a million for the breakfast.'

'I just want to have my husband.' Her voice was almost pleading, but not with Carr. 'And my boys need their father. I don't care about anything else. Perhaps that's selfish of me, but I just don't care about crime and crooks and the things I hear you and Jack talk about when you play cards. It all ends up for naught. My husband has been in the hospital for three weeks and nothing has changed. The crooks are still there. The lawyers are still getting rich. I'm still alone nights and weekends.' She paused, looking down at her hands. 'I guess I shouldn't be so negative.'

'Tell Jack I'll be giving him a call,' Carr said with a nod. He opened the door and went out.

Rose Kelly followed him to the door and thanked him profusely for mowing the lawn, then waved as he trotted down the driveway.

Though the Chez Doucette was the latest West Side 'in' spot, there were few customers as Travis Bailey and Delsey Piper sat having lunch.

The walls of the French restaurant were floor-to-ceiling murals of people (both men and women diners had similar faces) sitting at tables in a French restaurant. As Bailey listened to Delsey drone on about her Playboy photo deal, he wondered why Bones Chagra had left a message for him at the office. He glanced at his watch again.

'The layout is called Officers of the Raw,' Delsey said. 'The photographer wants to do a shot of me standing in front of a police car with nothing on but my Sam Browne and my hat. The other one is with my tits hanging out of the driver's window as I point my gun at the camera. The photographer is a real pro. He has every shot planned out. The photos will have a caption about me being the daughter of Rex Piper the movie star. The whole thing sounds great… really super. And if the Department tries to fire me just think of the free publicity I'll get! I talked to daddy about it and he thinks it's a fantastic idea. Like he says, to break into show business, ya gotta use what ya has. One of the kids I went to high school with got a movie contract by starring in a fag porno flick. He was dressed up like a sailor. Now he plays the part of the guy who lives next door in 'The Riley Family.' His name used to be Barry Chernowitz but he changed it to Barry McDonald. The casting director for the program was named McDonald and he thought that he would get more attention if he-'

'Gotta make a phone call,' Bailey said abruptly. He left the table, found a pay telephone in the rest room and dialed Bones Chagra's home number. Bones answered. 'Been trying to call all day,' Bailey said. 'What's up?'

'L.A.P.D. leaned on DeMille real heavy like. He-'

'I don't want to talk on the phone,' Bailey said. 'Meet me at Chez Doucette.'

'I'm on my way to work.'

'So be late for fucking work.' He hung up the phone and returned to the table. A hair sprayed young waiter with a New York accent was serving Chateaubriand. He opened a bottle of wine and poured, then rushed off.

Bailey sipped the wine as he sat staring at his plate.

'You've been so preoccupied for the last few days,' Delsey said.

'Is your father in town?' he said, ignoring her remark.

'He gets back today from the desert. He had a part in a remake of Beau Geste. They're doing it as sort of a black comedy … a low-budget thing, but he says it's very creative. They filmed on the sand dunes on the way to Las Vegas. He's costarring with the guy who's the host of that game show where the little birds pop out of the box with the answers. I can never remember his name.' She broke a French roll in half and pulled a piece from its soft center. She popped it into her mouth and chewed daintily.

'I want you to go see your father,' Bailey said. 'Have him phone the mayor and tell him about the opening for a commander in Traffic Services Division. Mention Cleaver's name.'

'Why should you care about doing a favor for that donothing, Cleaver?'

'Think about it for a minute.'

'Oh,' she said. 'I see what you're getting at. You'd be in line for Cleaver's job. You'd be in charge of the Detective Bureau.'

'And you'd be my number-one detective. I'd be able to soft-soap any heat that would come down when your photos come out in the magazine.'

'The rest of the detectives are going to really hate me.'

'So what else is new?'

'I really hate all of the macho bullshit that goes along with police work. It's a real turnoff … a super turnoff.' She slipped an oversized chunk of beef into her mouth, chewed and washed it down with a swig of Beaujolais.

As they finished eating, Bailey saw Bones Chagra at the entrance to the restaurant. Without saying anything he left the table and joined him. At Bailey's suggestion, they went outside.

'Who was it?' Bailey said.

'Higgins from L.A.P.D. homicide and a Fed named Carr.'

'What did they ask him about?'