“Only problem,” said Ben, “was her coming in at all hours, because Homer’s a good watchdog and when she came in he used to bark and wake us up. But we couldn’t very well tell her when to come in and out, could we? Mostly, she was okay.”
“When did she start taking things?”
“That was later,” he said.
“A couple of months after she arrived,” said Bobby. “At first we didn’t put it together. It was just small stuff— pens, guitar picks. We don’t own anything valuable, except the instruments, and stuff gets lost, right? Look at all those one-of-a-kind socks, right? Then it got more obvious. Some cassette tapes, a six-pack of beer— which she could have had if she’d asked. We’re pretty free with our food, even though the deal was she was supposed to buy her own. Then some jewelry— a couple pairs of my earrings. And one of Ben’s bandannas, plus an antique pair of suspenders he got up in Seattle. Real nice, heavy leather braces, the kind they don’t make anymore. The last thing she took was the one that bothered me the most. An old English brooch I got handed down from my grandmother— silver and garnet. The stone was chipped but it had sentimental value. I left it out on the dresser and the next day it was gone.”
“Did you ask her about it?” I said.
“I didn’t come out and accuse her, but I did ask her if she’d seen it. Or the earrings. She said no, real casual. But we knew it had to be her. Who else could it have been? She’s the only other person ever stepped in here, and things never disappeared until she came.”
“It must have been an emotional problem,” said Ben. “Kleptomania, or something like that. She couldn’t have gotten any serious money for any of it. Not that she needed dough. She had plenty of clothes and a brand-new car.”
“What kind of car?”
“One of those little convertibles— a Mazda, I think. She got it after Christmas, didn’t have it when she first started living with us or we might have asked for a little more rent, actually. All we charged her was a hundred a month. We thought she was a starving student.”
Bobby said, “She definitely had a head problem. I found all the junk she stole out in the garage, buried under the floorboards, in a box, along with a picture of her— like she was trying to stake claim to it, put away a little squirrel’s nest or something. To tell the truth, she was greedy, too— I know that’s not charitable but it’s the truth. It wasn’t until later that I put two and two together.”
“Greedy in what way?”
“Grabbing the best for herself. Like if there’d be a half-gallon of fudge ripple in the freezer, you’d come back and find all the fudge dug out and just the vanilla left. Or with a bowl of cherries, all the dark ones would be picked out.”
“Did she pay her rent on time?”
“More or less. Sometimes she was a week or two late. We never said anything, and she always paid, eventually.”
Ben said, “But it was turning into a tense scene.”
“We were getting to the point where we would have asked her to leave,” said Bobby. “Talked about how to do it for a couple of weeks. Then we got the gig in Sonoma and got all tied up, practicing. Then we came home and . . .”
“Where was she murdered?”
“Somewhere downtown. A club.”
“A nightclub?”
Both of them nodded. Bobby said, “From what I gather it was one of those New Wave places. What was the name of it, Ben? Something Indian, right?”
“Mayan,” he said. “The Moody Mayan. Or something like that.” Thin smile. “The cop asked us if we’d been there. Right.”
“Was Dawn a New Waver?”
“Not at first,” said Bobby. “I mean, when we met her she was pretty straight-looking. Almost too straight— kind of prim, actually. We thought she might think we were too loose. Then gradually she punked up. One thing she was, was smart, I’ll tell you that. Always reading textbooks. Studying for a Ph.D. Biomathematics or something like that. But at night she used to change— she’d dress up to go out. That’s what Ben meant by her having the clothes— punk stuff, lots of black. She used to smear on that temporary hair dye that washes right out. And all this Addams Family makeup— sometimes she’d mousse up her hair and spike it. Like a costume. The next morning she’d be straight again, going to work. You wouldn’t have recognized her.”
“Did she actually get killed at this club?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “We really weren’t listening to the details, just wanted the cops to get her stuff out of here, get the whole thing out of our systems.”
“Do you remember the detective’s name?”
“Gomez,” they said in unison.
“Ray Gomez,” said Bobby. “He was a Los Lobos fan and he liked doo-wop. Not a bad guy.”
Ben nodded. Their knees were pressed up against each other, white from pressure.
“What a thing to happen,” she said. “Is this child going to suffer because Dawn stole the chart?”
“We can work around it,” I said. “It just would have been nice to have.”
“Shame,” said Ben. “Sorry we can’t help you. The police took all her stuff and I didn’t see any medical chart in there. Not that I was looking that close.”
“What about the things she stole?”
“No,” said Bobby, “no charts there, either. Not too thorough of the cops not to find it, huh? But let me just check, to make sure— maybe inside the flaps or something.”
She went into the kitchen and came back shortly with a shoebox and a strip of paper. “Empty— this here’s the picture she laid on top. Like she was staking her claim.”
I took the photo. One of those black-and-white, four-for-a-quarter self-portraits you get out of a bus terminal machine. Four versions of a face that had once been pretty, now padded with suet and marred by distrust. Straight dark hair, big dark eyes. Bruised eyes. I started to hand it back. Bobby said, “You keep it. I don’t want it.”
I took another look at the photo before pocketing it. Four identical poses, grim and watchful.
“Sad,” I said.
“Yeah,” said Bobby, “she never smiled much.”
“Maybe,” said Ben, “she left it at her office at the U— the chart, I mean.”
“Do you know what department she was in?”
“No, but she had an extension there that she gave us. Two-two-three-eight, right?”
“Think so,” said Bobby.
I took paper and pen out of my briefcase and copied that down. “She was a doctoral student?”
“That’s what she told us when she applied. Biomathematics, or something.”
“Did she ever mention her professor’s name?”
“She gave a name for a reference,” said Bobby, “but to tell the truth we never called it.”
Sheepish smile.
“Things were tight,” said Ben. “We wanted to get a tenant quickly, and she looked okay.”
“The only boss she ever talked about was the guy at the hospital— the one who got killed. But she never mentioned him by name.”
Ben nodded. “She didn’t like him much.”
“Why’s that?”
“I dunno. She never went into details— just said he was an asshole, really picky, and she was gonna quit. Then she did, back in February.”
“Did she get another job?”
“Not that she told us about,” said Bobby.
“Any idea how she paid her bills?”
“Nope, but she always had money to spend.”
Ben gave a sick smile.
Bobby said, “What?”
“Her and her boss. She hated him but now they’re both in the same boat. L.A. got ’em.”
Bobby shuddered and ate a muffin.
17
Learning about Dawn Herbert’s murder and her penchant for stealing got me thinking.
I’d assumed she’d pulled Chad’s chart for Laurence Ashmore. But what if she’d done it for herself because she’d learned something damaging to the Jones family an
d planned to profit from it?
And now she was dead.
I drove to the fish store, bought a forty-pound bag of koi food, and asked if I could use the phone to make a local call. The kid behind the counter thought for a while, looked at the total on the register, and said, “Over there,” pointing to an old black dial unit on the wall. Next to it was a big saltwater aquarium housing a small leopard shark. A couple of goldfish thrashed at the water’s surface. The shark glided peacefully. Its eyes were steady and blue, almost as pretty as Vicki Bottomley’s.
I called Parker Center. The man who answered said Milo wasn’t there and he didn’t know when he’d be back.
“Is this Charlie?” I said.
“No.”
Click.
I dialed Milo’s home number. The kid behind the counter was watching me. I smiled and gave him the one-minute index finger while listening to the rings.
Peggy Lee delivered the Blue Investigations pitch. I said, “Dawn Herbert was murdered in March. Probably March 9, somewhere downtown, near a punk music club. The investigating detective was named Ray Gomez. I should be at the hospital within an hour— you can have me paged if you want to talk about it.”
I hung up and started walking out. A froth of movement caught the corner of my eye and I turned toward the aquarium. Both the goldfish were gone.
• • •
The Hollywood part of Sunset was weekend-quiet. The banks and entertainment firms preceding Hospital Row were closed, and a scatter of poor families and drifters massaged the sidewalk. Auto traffic was thin— mostly weekend workers and tourists who’d gone too far past Vine. I made it to the gate of the doctors’ parking structure in less than half an hour. The lot was functioning again. Plenty of spaces.
Before heading up to the wards, I stopped at the cafeteria for coffee.
It was the tail end of lunch hour but the room was nearly empty. Dan Kornblatt was getting change from the cashier just as I stepped up to pay. The cardiologist was carrying a lidded plastic cup. Coffee had leaked out and was running down the cup’s sides in mud-colored rivulets. Kornblatt’s handlebars drooped and he looked preoccupied. He dropped the change in his pocket and saw me, gave a choppy nod.
“Hey, Dan. What’s up?”
My smile seemed to bother him. “Read the paper this morning?” he said.
“Actually,” I said, “I just skimmed.”
He squinted at me. Definitely peeved. I felt as if I’d gotten the wrong answer on an oral exam.
“What can I say,” he snapped, and walked away.
I paid for my coffee and wondered what in the paper was eating him. Looking around the cafeteria for a discarded paper, I failed to spot one. I took a couple of swallows of coffee, tossed the cup, and went to the library’s reading room. This time it was locked.
• • •
Chappy Ward was deserted and the door to every room but Cassie’s was open. Lights off, stripped beds, the tainted meadow smell of fresh deodorization. A man in yellow maintenance scrubs vacuumed the hallway. The piped-in music was something Viennese, slow and syrupy.
Vicki Bottomley sat at the nursing station reading a chart. Her cap sat slightly off-kilter.
I said, “Hi, anything new?”
She shook her head and held out the chart without looking up.
“Go ahead and finish it,” I said.
“Finished.” She waved the chart.
I took it but didn’t open it. Leaning against the counter, I said, “How’s Cassie feeling today?”
“Bit better.” Still no eye contact.
“When did she wake up?”
“Around nine.”
“Dad here yet?”
“It’s all in there,” she said, keeping her head down and pointing at the chart.
I flipped it open, turned to this morning’s pages, and read Al Macauley’s summary notes and those of the neurologist.
She picked up some kind of form and began to write.
“Cassie’s latest seizure,” I said, “sounds like it was a strong one.”
“Nothing I haven’t seen before.”
I put the chart down and just stood there. Finally she looked up. The blue eyes blinked rapidly.
“Have you seen lots of childhood epilepsy?” I said.
“Seen everything. Worked Onco. Took care of babies with brain tumors.” Shrug.
“I did oncology, too. Years ago. Psychosocial support.”
“Uh-huh.” Back to the form.
“Well,” I said, “at least Cassie doesn’t seem to have a tumor.”
No answer.
“Dr. Eves told me she’s planning to discharge her soon.”
“Uh-huh.”
“I thought I’d go out and make a home visit.”
Her pen raced.
“You’ve been out there yourself, haven’t you?”
No answer.
I repeated the question. She stopped writing and looked up. “If I have, is there something wrong with that?”
“No, I was just—”
“You were just making talky-talk is what you were doing. Right?” She put the pen down and wheeled backward. A smug smile was on her lips. “Or are you checking me out? Wanting to know if I went out and did something to her?”
She wheeled back farther, keeping her eyes on me, still smiling.
“Why would I think that?” I said.
“’Cause I know the way you people think.”
“It was a simple question, Vicki.”
“Yeah, right. That’s what this has all been about, from the beginning. All this phony talky-talk. You’re checking me out to see if I’m like that nurse in New Jersey.”
“What nurse is that?”
“The one killed the babies. They wrote a book about it and it was on TV.”
“You think you’re under suspicion?”
“Aren’t I? Isn’t it always the nurse who gets blamed?”
“Was the nurse in New Jersey blamed falsely?”
Her smile managed to turn into a grimace without a movement.
“I’m sick of this game,” she said, standing and shoving the chair away. “With you people it’s always games.”
“ ‘You people’ meaning psychologists?”
She folded her hands across her chest and muttered something. Then she turned her back on me.
“Vicki?”
No answer.
“What this is all about,” I said, fighting to keep my voice even, “is finding out what the hell’s going on with Cassie.”
She pretended to read the bulletin board behind the desk.
“So much for our little truce,” I said.
“Don’t worry,” she said, turning quickly and facing me. Her voice had risen, a sour reed solo superimposed on the Sacher-torte music.
“Don’t worry,” she repeated, “I won’t get in your way. You want something, just ask. ’Cause you’re the doctor. And I’ll do anything that’ll help that poor little baby— contrary to what you think, I care about her, okay? Fact is, I’ll even go down and get you coffee if that impresses you and keeps your attention on her, where it should be. I’m not one of those feminists think it’s a sin to do something other than push meds. But don’t pretend to be my friend, okay? Let’s both of us just do our jobs without talky-talk, and go about our merry ways, okay? And in answer to your question, I was out at the house exactly two times— months ago. Okay?”
She walked to the opposite end of the station, found another form, picked it up and began reading. Squinting, she held it at arm’s length. She needed reading glasses. The smug smile returned.
I said, “Are you doing something to her, Vicki?”
Her hands jerked and the paper dropped. She bent to pick it up and her cap fell off. Bowing a second time, she retrieved it and stood up rigidly. She was wearing a lot of mascara and a couple of specks had come loose below one eye.
I didn’t budge.
“No!” A whisper with lots of force behind it.
&nb
sp; Footsteps turned both of our heads. The maintenance man came out into the hall, pulling his vacuum. He was middle-aged and Hispanic, with old eyes and a Cantinflas mustache.
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