38
Petra and Milo wanted to talk more so we found an all-night coffee shop on Ventura near Sepulveda, ordered coffee and pie from a waitress who read our faces and kept her distance.
He told me, “You’re right about the money. Ten grand might’ve covered Kevin’s computer equipment- and maybe not all of it. That leaves printing expenses, marketing the magazine, rent and food.”
Petra said, “Kevin’s landlady said he’d paid six months in advance. The place goes for five hundred a month, so there’s three grand. He also paid for six months of POB rental up front. Not a big deal, but he was obviously spending Daddy’s cash up front. Daddy just said Kevin preferred ‘unconventional’ jobs.”
She’d ordered Boston Cream, cut away the cream, picked at the chocolate.
Milo inhaled half of his apple à la mode deluxe (two scoops of vanilla), and I realized I was hungry and made inroads on a slab of pecan.
“The thing is,” she said, “I’ve been out on the streets three days running, can’t find anyone who even knows him, let alone a hint of criminal enterprise.”
“What’s your guess?” I said. “Drugs?”
“Rich kid with a bankroll. It fits.”
Milo said, “Ten grand doesn’t make him a cartel, but it’s more than enough to finance an initial stash, mark it up, peddle it, use the profit for another stash.”
Petra said, “The spot where he picked up Erna is a well-known illicit pill market. Maybe Kevin knew it from previous experience.”
Milo finished his pie, began work on the ice cream. “Once upon a time, you worked at a hospital, Alex. Anything you want to toss in, here?”
“Never caught a hint of a black-market pill trade.”
“Still in touch with anyone at Western Peds?”
“From time to time.”
“What about the neighboring hospitals?”
“I’ve got a few contacts.”
He looked at Petra. “What do you think of his showing Kevin’s picture around to white coats?”
“Couldn’t hurt,” she said. “Maybe they’d be more open with a colleague. You mind, Alex?”
“No,” I said, “but if someone’s dealing pills, they’re not going to ‘fess up to it. Or admit they know any dealers.”
“But you could study reactions,” said Milo, “see if anyone comes across weird. We’d take it from there.”
“Okay.”
“Don’t wear yourself out, give it one day. It’s a long shot, but you never know.”
“I’ll do it tomorrow,” I said. “But we should also consider other sources of income for Kevin. All that computer equipment, the printers, the scanners. And Kevin collected pornography.”
Both of them stared at me.
Petra said, “I should’ve thought of that. When we visited Frank Drummond’s office, his secretary asked if this had something to do with porn. Jeez, right under my nose- maybe she knew the kid had a history.”
“Summers at Daddy’s office,” said Milo. “Didn’t seem to be a happy memory for Daddy.”
“Kevin being creative,” said Petra. “Maybe in ways Daddy didn’t like. The stuff Junior collects is hard-core S & M.”
“Or it wasn’t just Kevin in the biz, and they had creative differences,” I said. “What if there’s more than parental protectiveness to Frank’s hostility?”
Both of them were silent. Petra played with her fork. “Family business… you know, Terry looks like she could’ve done dirty movies in her youth.” She bounced the fork’s tines on the tabletop. “I’ll check it out with Vice.”
I spent all day talking to friendly faces at Western Peds and other Sunset Boulevard hospitals. No one recognized Kevin. I tried a few less friendly faces, got blank stares, headshakes.
I drove by the spot where Erna Murphy had been picked up. During the day, the street was quiet, sunny, lined with old apartment buildings. Not a hint of what went on after dark.
I spotted a young Hispanic woman walking twin babies in a double stroller. Smiling. The infants dozed.
A few miles west, she’d be wearing a uniform and they’d be someone else’s babies. Here, mothers took care of their own.
And locked them in at night.
Before heading home, I called Milo to let him know I’d come up empty. He said, “Comrades in arms, pal. No progress at the airlines, and I’ve been on the phone to Boston all morning, trying to find out if Kevin checked in anywhere near there- both now and during the period when Angelique Bernet got carved up. Nothing on the former, hard to be certain regarding the latter because most of the smaller hostelries claim not to hold on to their guest registers for more than a year. A few places did crack their computers, but if Kevin’s staying at any of them, it’s not under his own name. The bigger hotels report being booked the week of Bernet- lots of conventions- and they do keep records. Again, no Kevin.”
“What kind of conventions?”
“Let’s see… there were six good-sized affairs that week. Three at Harvard- rehabilitation medicine, media and public policy, and history of science- one on plasma physics at MIT, a law symposium at Tufts, something to do with the Middle East at Brandeis. Any of those sound like our boy’s cup of tea?”
“No,” I said, “and a student on a limited budget wouldn’t have stayed at the Four Seasons or the Parker House.”
“That’s why I concentrated first on motels and budget places. I also checked car rental outfits and bugged Boston and Cambridge PDs to check their traffic files, on the chance that Kevin rented another under an assumed name and got a parking citation. It’s how Son of Sam got nailed, why shouldn’t I be lucky?” Long breath. “Nada. And Petra found out the Drummond pornography connection isn’t Kevin, it’s his daddy. Franklin D. has represented over a dozen adult filmmakers. The Valley is Porn Central, so an Encino mouthpiece makes sense.”
“Constitutional issues?”
“Bread-and-butter civil issues: overdue bills, contract disputes, workman’s comp. Frank comes across as your basic hardworking solo practitioner. Guess he doesn’t blush easily. Given all the X-rated types in and out of the office, I can understand his secretary wondering about Kevin getting his feet wet. So to speak.”
“But no evidence Kevin got involved?”
“Not so far. Vice knew about Frank but never heard of Kevin. They checked all the corporate doing-business-as registrations. Nada redux.”
“What about Terry?” I said.
“Nothing. But even assuming Mommy did make some dirty movies. Maybe that’s even how she and Frankie met. So what, if Kevin didn’t take up the family biz.”
“The family biz could’ve contributed to Kevin’s sexual confusion,” I said. “By itself it means nothing, but toss it onto the pile and it helps define Kevin a bit more. I can see him wanting to distance himself. Becoming obsessed with art for art’s sake. Getting enraged at people he views as selling out- prostituting themselves. But in the privacy of his apartment, he stockpiles dirty pictures.”
“Sexual confusion,” he said. “Nice euphemism. He’s gay, Alex.”
“It’s not a euphemism to me. He could be straight and be confused.”
“Guess so- don’t mean to get touchy but like Ol’ Bob D. said, too much of nothing. Okay: The Drummonds are highly screwed up. Now how the hell do I find Kevin before he channels his confusion into offing another poor, unsuspecting artiste?”
I had no answer for that.
He said, “We’re still exploring the Erna Murphy angle. On the off chance that Frank and Terry lied to us about not knowing her, or maybe Erna’s smart, artistic cousin really does exist. Stahl’s been working the Internet, searching the family tree using the name of the battle-ax aunt- Trueblood. Turns out she really is in the money. Married an appliance king, lives in a big house in Pasadena.”