Jonathan Kellerman - Alex 04 - Silent Partner

by Silent Partner

  The grimy, Peeping Tom feeling returned.

  Larry read my face, said, "Cold feet?"

  "It seems... ghoulish."

  "Sure it's ghoulish. So are eulogies. If you want to call it off, I'll go in there and tell them."

  "No," I said. "Let's do it."

  "Try not to look so tortured," he said. "One of the ways I gained entree was telling them you were sympatico to their hobby."

  I crossed my eyes, leered, and did some heavy breathing. "How's that?"

  "Oscar caliber."

  We reached the front door, a solid slab painted glossy olive.

  "Behind the green door," said Larry. "Very subtle."

  "You're sure they have the loop?"

  "Gordon said definitely. He also said they had some-

  thing else we might be interested in."

  He rang the bell and it chimed out the first few notes of "Bolero," then swung open. A Filipino maid in a white uniform stood in the doorway, petite, thirtyish, bespectacled, her hair in a bun.

  "Yes?"

  "Dr. Daschoff and Dr. Delaware to see Mr. and Mrs. Fontaine."

  "Yes," said the maid. "Come in."

  We stepped into a two-story rotunda with a pastoral mural: blue skies, green grass, fluffy sheep, hay bales, a shepherd playing the pipes in the shade of a spreading sycamore.

  In front of all that agrarian bliss sat a naked woman in a deck chair—fat, middle-aged, gray-haired, lumpy legs. She held a pencil in one hand, a crossword puzzle book in the other, didn't acknowledge our entry.

  The maid saw us staring, rapped her knuckles on the gray head.

  Hollow.

  Sculpture.

  "An original Lombardo," she said. "Very expensive. Like that." She pointed upward. Dangling from the ceiling was what appeared to be a Calder mobile. Christmas bulbs had been laced around it—a do-it-yourself chandelier.

  "Lots of money," said the maid.

  Directly in front of us was an emerald-carpeted staircase that spiraled to the left. The space under the stairs terminated at a high Chinese screen. The other rooms were also blocked by screens.

  "Come," said the maid. She turned. Her uniform was backless and cut low, past the gluteal cleft. Lots of naked brown skin. Larry and I looked at each other. He shrugged.

  She unfolded part of the Chinese screen, led us through twenty feet and yet another partition. Her walk took on a sashay and we followed her midway down the hall to a green metal door. On the wall was a keyhole and a key

  pad. She cupped one hand with the other, punched in a five-digit code, inserted a key, turned it, and the door slid open. We entered a small elevator with padded, quilted walls of gold brocade hung with ivory miniatures—scenes from the Kama Sutra. A button-press and we descended. The three of us stood shoulder to shoulder. The maid smelled of baby powder. She looked bored.

  We stepped out into a small, dark anteroom and trailed her through japanned double doors.

  On the other side was a huge, high-walled, windowless room—at least three thousand square feet paneled in black lacquered wood, silent and cool and barely lit.

  As my eyes accommodated to the darkness, I was able to make out details: brass-grilled bookcases, reading tables, card catalogues, display cases, and library ladders, all in the same ebonized finish. Above us, a flat ceiling of black cork. Below, dark, carpeted floors. The only light came from green-shaded banker's lamps on the tables. I heard the hum of air conditioning. Saw ceiling sprinklers, smoke alarms. A large barometer on one wall.

  A room designed to house treasures.

  "Thank you, Rosa," said a nasal male voice from across the room. I squinted and saw human outlines: a man and woman sitting side by side at one of the far tables.

  The maid bowed, turned, and wiggled away. When she was gone, the same voice said, "Little Rosie Ramos—she was a real talent in the sixties. PX Mamas. Ginza Girls. Choose One From Column X."

  "Good help's so hard to find," Larry whispered. Out loud he said, "Hello, people."

  The couple stood and walked toward us. At ten feet away, their faces took on clarity, like cinema characters emerging from a dissolve.

  The man was older than I'd expected—seventy or close to it, short and portly, with thick, straight white hair combed back and a jowly Xavier Cugat lace. He wore black-framed eyeglasses, a white guayabera shirt over brown slacks, and tan loafers.

  Even shoeless, the woman was half a foot taller. Late

  fifties, slender and fine-featured, with an elegant carriage, poodle-cut red hair with a curl that looked natural, and the kind of fair, freckled skin, that bruises easily. Her dress was lime-colored Thai silk with a dragon print and mandarin collar. She wore apple jade jewelery, gauzy black stockings, and black ballet slippers.

  "Thanks for seeing us," said Larry.

  "Our pleasure, Larry," said the man. "Been a long time. Excuse me, it's Doctor Daschoff now, isn't it?"

  "Ph.D.," said Larry. "Piled higher and deeper."

  "No, no," said the man, wagging his finger. "You earned it—be proud." He shook Larry's hand. "Lots of therapists staking out L.A. You doing okay?"

  "Oh, Gordie, don't be so direct," said the woman.

  "I'm doing fine, Gordon," said Larry. Turning to her: "Hello, Chantal. Long time."

  She curtsied and extended her hand. "Lawrence."

  "This is Dr. Alex Delaware, an old friend and colleague. Alex, Chantal and Gordon Fontaine."

  "Alex," said Chantal, curtsying again. "Charmed." She took my hand in both of hers. Her skin was hot and soft and moist. She had large hazel eyes and a jaw-line that had been tucked tight. Her makeup was thick, almost chalky, but couldn't conceal the wrinkles. And there was pain in the eyes—she'd been a knockout once, and was still getting used to thinking of herself in the past tense.

  "Pleased to meet you, Chantal."

  She squeezed my hand and released it. Her husband looked me over and said, "You've got a photogenic face, Doctor. Ever act?"

  "No."

  "I only ask because it seems everyone in L.A. has acted at one time or another." To his wife: "A good-looking boy, honey." He put his arm around her shoulder. "Your type, wouldn't you say?"

  Chantal gave a cold smile.

  Gordon told me: "She has a thing for men with curly hair." Running one hand over his own straight coiffure, he

  lifted it and revealed a bare scalp. "The way mine used to be. Right, honey?"

  He put the hairpiece down and patted it into place. "So, did Larry tell you about our little collection?"

  "Only in general terms."

  He nodded. "You know what they say about the acquisition of art being an art itself? Now, that's pure bunkum, but it does take a certain determination and... panache to acquire meaningfully, and we've worked like the dickens to do just that." He spread his arms as if blessing the room. "What you see here took two decades and I-won't-tell-you-how-many dollars to put together."

  I knew my line: "I'd love to see it."

  The next half hour was spent on a tour of the black room.

  Every genre of pornography was represented, in astounding quantity and variety, catalogued and labeled with Smithsonian precision. Gordon Fontaine jounced along, guiding with fervor, using a hand-held remote-control module to switch lights on and off, lock and unlock cabinets. His wife hung back, insinuating herself between Larry and me, smiling a lot.

  "Observe." Gordon rolled open a print drawer and untied several portfolios of erotic lithographs, recognizable without reading the signatures: Dali, Beardsley, Grosz, Picasso.

  We moved on to an alarm-equipped glass case housing an old English manuscript handwritten on parchment and illuminated with copulating peasants and cavorting farm animals.

  "Pre-Gutenberg," said Gordon. "Chaucerian apocrypha. Chaucer was a highly sexual writer. They never teach you that in high school."

  Other drawers were filled with erotic sketches from Renaissance Italy, and Japanese art—watercolors of kimonoed courtesans entwined with sto
ic, top-knotted men lugging exaggerated sexual equipment.

  "Overcompensation," said Chantal. She nudged my arm.

  We were shown displays of fertility talismans, erotic woodblocks, marital aids, antique lingerie. After a while my eyes began to blur.

  "Those were used by Brenda Allen's girls," said Gordon, pointing to a set of yellowed silk undergarments. "And those red ones are from the bordello in New Orleans where Scott Joplin played piano." He stroked the glass. "If only they could talk, eh?"

  "We have edible ones, too," said Chantal. "Over there, in a refrigerated case."

  We swept past still more sexual devices, collections of obscene party gags and novelties, raunchy record albums, and what Gordon proclaimed to be "the world's finest collection of dildoes. Six hundred and fifty three pieces, gentlemen, from all over the world. Every medium imaginable, from monkeypod wood to scrimshawed ivory."

  A hand brushed my rear. I did a quarter turn, saw Chantal smile.

  "Our bibliotheque," said Gordon, pointing to a wall of bookshelves.

  Oversized, gilt-edged treatises bound in leather; hard-and soft-cover contemporary books; thousands of magazines, some of them still shrink-wrapped and scaled, with covers that left nothing to the imagination—grandly tumescent men, semen-bathed, wide-eyed women. Titles like Double-Fucked Stewardess and Orifice Supplies.

  The Fontaines seemed to know many of the models personally and discussed them with near-parental concern. ("That's Johnny Strong—he retired a couple of years ago and is selling securities up in Tiburon." "Look, Gordie, there's Laurie Ruth Sloan, the Milk Queen herself." To me; "She married money. Her husband's a real fascist and won't let her express herself anymore.")

  I tried to look sympathetic.

  "Onward," said Gordon, "to the piece de resistance."

  A click of the remote module caused one of the bookcases to slide back. Behind it was a matte-black door that swung open at Gordon's prod. Inside was a large vault/

  screening room. Two walls were lined with racks of film reels in metal canisters and videocassettes. Three rows of black leather easy chairs, three chairs per row. Mounted on the rear wall was a gleaming array of projection equipment.

  "These are the cleanest prints you'll ever see," said Gordon. "Every important explicit film ever made, all converted to videotape duplicate. We're also trying really hard to preserve the originals. Our restorer is top-notch— twenty years at one of the studio archives, another ten at the American Film Institute. And our curator is a well-known film critic who must remain unnamed"—he cleared his throat—"due to lack of spine."

  "Impressive," I said.

  "We hope," said Chantal, "to donate it to a major university. One day."

  "What she means by 'one day,'" said Gordon, "is after I'm gone."

  "Oh, hush, Gordie. I'm going first."

  "No way, hon. You're not leaving me alone with my memories and my hand." He waved a fleshy palm.

  "Oh, go on, Gordie. You'll do just fine for yourself."

  Gordon patted her hand. The two of them exchanged affectionate glances.

  Larry looked at his watch.

  "Of course," said Gordon. "I'm retired—I've forgotten about time pressure. You wanted to see Shawna's loop."

  "Shawna who?" I asked.

  "Shawna Blue. That's the name Pretty Sharon used on the loop."

  "We always called her Pretty Sharon," said Chantal, "because she was such a lovely thing, virtually flawless. Shawna Blue was her nom d'amour." She shook her head. "How sad that she's gone—and a suicide."

  "Do you find that surprising?" I asked.

  "Of course," she said. "To destroy oneself—how awful."

  "How well did you know her?"

  "Not well at all. I believe we just met her once—am I right, Gordie?"

  "Just once."

  "How many films did she make?"

  "Same answer," said Gordon. "Just one, and it wasn't a commercial endeavor. It was supposed to be for educational purposes."

  The way he said supposed made me say, "Sounds like you have your doubts."

  He frowned. "We put up the money based on its being educational. The actual production was handled by that first-class cockroach P. P. Kruse."

  "Peepee," said Chantal. "How apropos."

  "He claimed it was part of his research," said Gordon. "Told us that one of his students had agreed to act in an erotic film as part of her course work."

  "When was this?"

  "Seventy-four," he said. "October or November."

  Not long after Sharon began grad school. The bastard had been a fast worker.

  "It was supposed to be part of her research," said Gordon. "Now we weren't born yesterday, we thought that was pretty thin, but Kruse assured us it was all on the up-and-up, showed us forms approved by the University. He even brought Sharon to meet us, here in our home-that was the one time. She seemed very vivacious, very Marilyn—down to the hair. She verified it was all part of her course work."

  "Marilyn," I said. "As in Monroe."

  "Yes. She projected that same innocent yet erotic quality."

  "She was a blonde?"

  "Platinum," said Chantal. "Like sunshine on clear water."

  "The Sharon we knew had black hair," said Larry.

  "Well, I don't know about that," said Gordon. "Kruse may have been lying about who she was. He lied about everything else. We opened our home to him, gave him free access to our collection, and he turned around and used it to pander to the bluenoses."

  "He gave a speech in front of church groups," said

  Chantal, stamping her foot. "Stood there and said terrible things about us—called us perverted, sexist. If there's one man who isn't sexist it's my Gordie.

  "He didn't use our names," added Chantal, "but we knew he was referring to us."

  "His own wife was a porn star," I said. "How'd he explain that to the church groups?"

  "Suzy?" said Gordon. "I wouldn't call her a star— adequate style, but strictly second drawer. I suppose he could always claim he saved her from a life of sin. But he probably never had to explain. People have short memories. After she married him, Suzy stopped working, disappeared from view. He probably turned her into a docile little hausfrau—he's the type, you know. Obsessed with power."

  It echoed something Larry had said at the party. Power junkie.

  "Onward," said Gordon. He went to the back of the room and began fiddling with the projection equipment.

  "Kruse has just been appointed head of the psychology department," I said.

  "Scandalous," said Chantal. "You'd think someone would know better."

  "You'd think," I said.

  "All cued," Gordon called from the back. "Everyone get comfortable."

  Larry and I took the front end seats; Chantal got between us. The room went black; the screen, dead white.

  "Checkup," he announced. "Starring the late Miss Shawna Blue and the late Mr. Michael Starbuck."

  The screen filled with dancing lint followed by flickering count-down numbers. I sat rigid, holding my breath, told myself I'd been an idiot to come. Then, black-and-white images floated in front of me and I lost myself in them.

  There was no sound track, only the whir of projection breaking the silence. Lettering that resembled white typescript over a grainy black background proclaimed:

  CHECKUP

  STARRING

  SHAVVNA BLUE

  MICKEY STARBUCK

  A CREATIVE IMAGE ASSOC. PRODUCTION

  Creative Image. A name on a door. Kruse's neighbors in the Sunset Boulevard office. Not a neighbor after all, but the two faces of Dr. K....

  DIRECTED BY PIERRE LE VOYEUR

  A jumpy black-and-white sweep of a doctor's examining room—the old-fashioned kind, with enameled fixtures, wooden examining table, eye chart, chintz drapes, a square of six framed diplomas on the wall.

  The door opened. A woman walked in.

  The camera pursued her, spending a long time on the sway of her buttock
s.

  Young and beautiful and well-endowed, with long, wavy platinum-blond hair. She wore a clinging, low-cut jersey dress that barely contained her.

  Black-and-white film, but I knew the dress was flame-colored.