“She must’ve really liked Teddy.”
“Once they started dating, I hardly ever saw her. But I was cool with that, everyone has their own life.”
“Eventually, she told you who he was.”
“That was maybe… weeks after, I can’t remember. We hadn’t seen each other and all of a sudden Dahlia called to catch up. Said he was out of town, let’s go to Spago. She thought it was funny.”
“What was?”
“How we thought he was the assistant and he turned out to be from one of the richest families in the world. She said he still didn’t like to dress up. Sometimes he rented a cheap car and drove to McDonald’s and ate cheeseburgers. Next day he’d be in his Gulf-stream, that’s a jet, flying anywhere he wanted. She flew in it, too, said it was all pimped up, black wood, black everything inside.”
“Where’d he fly Dahlia?”
“Mostly Vegas, but one time Hawaii. He liked to gamble. Dahlia’s only thing was when she was with him she didn’t drink, ’cause he was Muslim.”
“He wasn’t drinking that night at the Le Beverly?”
“Diet Coke,” she said. “His thing was Diet Coke. But he wasn’t whack about it, you know? Religion, I mean. Basically, she thought he was a cool little guy. That’s what she called him. My cool little guy.”
“She ever talk about problems in the relationship?”
“He could get grumpy, had a temper, but not to worry, he was already a member of the…” Blushing, she drew hair across her face.
Milo said, “Member of what?”
“It was just a joke.”
“A joke about what?”
No answer.
Milo said, “What club was Teddy a member of?”
The hair fell away. “Not a real club, just a joke. The Three F Club. She said it was the only way to a man’s heart. Three F’s-feed ’em, flatter ’em, fuck ’em. Don’t write that down, I don’t want my parents to see it.”
“You see paper and pencil anywhere, Ati?”
“I’m just saying.”
“So Dahlia never complained about Teddy being aggressive or violent with her?”
“Never.”
“Just grumpy with a temper.”
“Nothing whack, like any guy.”
“But you told Detective Reed he hurt her.”
“Because I believe he did.”
“You believe?”
“I can’t prove it, but…”
“You suspect.”
Nod.
“Why, Ati? This is important.”
“Did he?”
“We don’t know, Ati. Help us.”
She breathed in. Exhaled slowly. “The last time I heard from her she was going traveling with him, she said she’d be back in a few days, we’d hang out. But she never called and I never heard from her again and when I called her phone, it was disconnected and when I went to her house, no one was there.”
“Where’d she say she was traveling with Teddy?”
“Back home,” she said. “His home.”
“Sranil.”
She frowned. “My parents told me about it. It’s a weird place, full of like old-fashioned peasants. Indonesia’s modern. Sranil’s just an island that never became part of Indonesia. Teddy didn’t like it himself, was going over there to get a bunch of his money and come back here and live with Dahlia. He was already building a house. He wanted to be modern and be with any woman he wanted even if she was white, not be under his brother’s thumb.”
“Dahlia told you all that.”
“Yes.”
“Maybe she went there with Teddy and decided to stay.”
“No way,” said Ati Meneng. “That’s why I know something happened to her. She totally planned to come back. Promised me we’d hang out when she got back. But she never got back.”
“Did you report her missing?”
“She wasn’t missing, she was with him.”
“You suspected he’d hurt her.”
“I didn’t think so at the beginning. I just… I don’t know, maybe it was his brother but I was too afraid to say that. His being a sultan, who’d believe me?” Looking at Reed. “I didn’t think you’d believe any of it, period. Mostly I forgot about it, then you showed up and it was like something clicked inside my head, you know?”
Milo said, “You told Detective Reed about a Swedish girl but you didn’t use Dahlia’s name.”
“I didn’t-I wasn’t sure. It’s not like I was still thinking about it. I used to think about it. Then it stopped. Then he showed up… I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“No, no, you did great, Ati. We really appreciate it. Now tell us everything you know.”
“That is everything.”
“Dahlia definitely planned to return to L.A.”
“We had plans,” said Ati Meneng. “A whole day, soon as she got back. First we were going to the Barney’s warehouse sale and have lunch at this café at the Santa Monica Airport-that’s where the sale is. Then we were having dinner at the Ivy-not the beach, the one on Robertson. Then we were going dancing. But she never came back. And she left her car at her house and when I looked in through the window, all her stuff was still in there.”
“You went over because you were worried.”
Tears turned the black eyes to pond-stones. “I kept calling. Her cell was disconnected, she had no more Internet for IM’ing, her house was dark. My mind started running. I mean I liked him the couple of times I met him, but I didn’t really know him. And what my parents said, that started to bother me.”
“About people from Sranil.”
“Superstitious peasants. Cannibals, rituals. You know?”
“Scary,” said Milo.
“Really scary, so I stopped thinking about it. I would’ve called her family but I didn’t know how to reach them. I figured if she stayed away long enough, they’d do something.”
“Even though her parents wanted her gone.”
“She just said that,” said Ati Meneng. “It probably wasn’t even true. Families love each other. Like her sister, Dahlia said they were different but they still loved each other.”
“The serious sister.”
“Dahlia said she even thought about becoming a nun then she became an architect, built houses.”
“Speaking of houses,” said Milo. “Do you remember the address of Dahlia’s?”
“Never knew the address, Dahlia always drove me there and took me home. She liked to drive real fast, said in Germany there were roads with no speed limits, she used to go a hundred miles an hour.”