“Hello.”
“I’ll be there in five minutes,” she said. “We’ll make this quick.”
“I’ll be here.”
“Right,” she said. “Turn off the porch light.” She hung up, switched off the engine, put the car in neutral and coasted slowly downhill with her lights off, stopping in front of the house. She got out and closed the door quietly, and with a brown envelope in one hand and her other hand in her large purse, she walked to the house. The porch light was off.
She rang the doorbell and waited. Shortly, he came to the door and opened it.
“Hey, I didn’t hear you drive up. Come on in,” he said, and turned to lead her into the living room.
Barbara took the silenced pistol from her purse and shot him once in the back of the head. He crumpled and fell forward onto the floor, striking his head on the coffee table on his way down. She backed away a couple of feet to avoid splatter and shot him again in the head, then looked around.
The cell phone she had given him was on the coffee table, and she put that into her purse. She went through his pockets and took his wallet, which contained a dozen hundreds, then found his bedroom and searched it. She found a lot of other cash, her cash, in a bureau drawer and took that, then left the house, opened the car door and pushed until it started rolling, then got inside and waited until she was at the bottom of the hill before starting the car.
She stopped at a quiet place, took the batteries out of the two cell phones, wiped everything clean and dropped it all into the brown envelope. She removed the credit cards from the wallet and put that into the envelope, too. On the way home, she found a house being remodeled with a Dumpster outside and tossed the phones and the wallet into it. A few blocks later, she dropped the credit cards into a sewer, then drove to Jimmy’s, undressed and got into bed with him.
Barbara slept like a lamb.
36
Cupie went to the hospital the following morning and found Vittorio’s bed empty. He looked up and down the hall and spotted him at the nurses’ station.
He walked down to where Vittorio stood, filling out a form. He was fully dressed, and his left arm was in a sling. “What are you doing out of bed?”
“I’m checking myself out of here,” Vittorio said. “I’m fine.”
“He really shouldn’t leave here,” the nurse said, “but he’s stubborn.”
“I’ve got a pocketful of pills to take,” Vittorio said, signing the document and handing it to the nurse. “Now the hospital has zero liability.”
“The doctor isn’t going to like this.”
“I don’t like it, either,” Cupie said, “but there’s no stopping this guy.”
“Let’s get out of here,” Vittorio said, starting down the hallway. They looked in on Ed Eagle, who had been moved to a room, and found him asleep. “Just as well. I don’t want to talk to him until this is over. Let’s go,” he said to Cupie, and they walked out into the parking lot. “We need to be in Los Angeles.”
“No, we don’t,” Cupie said. “We’re going to your place, and we’ll talk about L.A. tomorrow.”
“Cupie-”
“Shut up and get in the car, Vittorio.”
Vittorio got in, and Cupie drove him home.
As soon as they were there, Cupie called Centurion Studios and asked for Bart Cross.
“Long Productions,” a woman said.
“May I speak to Bart Cross, please?”
“Who is this?”
“A friend of his. He asked me to call him when I came to L.A., and I’m here.”
“I’m afraid I’ve got some bad news for you,” the woman said. “Bart has died.”
“Died? How?”
“He was murdered last night.”
“Murdered?” Cupie asked. “Who murdered him?”
“The police don’t know yet. His cleaning lady found him this morning in his living room. He had been shot.”
“I’m shocked to hear that,” Cupie said. “Can you give me his address? I’d like to send some flowers.”
The woman gave him the address. “It’s just west of Burbank Airport,” she said, “off Coldwater Canyon.”
“Thank you very much,” Cupie said.
“May I have your name, please?”
But Cupie had already hung up.
“Barbara killed him,” Vittorio said. “She must have found out that Eagle is still alive. This means she’s in L.A. ”
“And probably at James Long’s house,” Cupie said. “I know a cop in Burbank. Let me make a call.” He put the phone on speaker and dialed the number.
“ Burbank police,” a male voice said.
“Detective Dave Santiago,” Cupie said.
“Hang on.” The phone rang.
“Detective Santiago.”
“Dave, it’s Cupie Dalton.”
“Hey, Cupie, how are you?”
“Not bad. You working the Bart Cross murder?”
“I’m not the lead, but I was out there early this morning. Did you know the guy?”
“Friend of a friend. What did you see out there?”
“He took two in the head from behind,” Santiago replied. “Looked like a pro to me.”
“When did it happen?”
“TOD was between midnight and two A.M., the M.E. says.”
“Any leads?”
“None. We’re just getting started. What’s your interest in this, Cupie?”
“Just idle curiosity,” Cupie said. “I heard the name on the news and thought I knew him.”
“Should we talk to your friend?”
“Nah, he knows nothing. He doesn’t even live in L.A. Thanks for the info, Dave. I’ll pass it on.”
“Buy me lunch one of these days.”
“Sure thing,” Cupie said, and hung up. He turned to Vittorio. “There you go.”
“It’s Barbara. She went there to pay him off-or at least Bart thought that. I bet they didn’t find any money in the house.”
“I didn’t ask.”
“She found out Eagle is alive and burned Cross to cut the trail to her.”
“Yeah, but she knows that won’t do it for us,” Cupie said. “She knows we know. That means she’ll run. She won’t be in L.A. when we get there.”
“She’ll be coming to Santa Fe,” Vittorio said.
“Maybe, but not right away. Once Eagle talks to the cops, she’ll be too hot here. Maybe she’ll just hire somebody else.”
“She’ll be very pissed off that Eagle is still alive,” Vittorio said. “I think she’ll come here pretty quick.”
“She won’t go back to the same house,” Cupie said. “She knows we know about that place.”
“What was that detective’s name who talked to us?”
“Uh, Romeo? No, Romera, or Romero.”
“I’m going to call him,” Vittorio said, picking up the phone.
“What for?”
“Eagle’s going to need a police guard while he’s in the hospital, and maybe when he gets out, too.”
“What’s wrong with us?”
“We didn’t do so hot before,” Vittorio pointed out.
“But if we call in the police, we’re not going to get a shot at Barbara.”
“If they’ve got any brains, they’ll be guarding him anyway,” Vittorio said.
“They weren’t guarding him as recently as an hour ago,” Cupie said.
Vittorio punched the speakerphone button on the phone, called the Santa Fe Police Department and asked for Detective Romera.
“Romera,” the man said.
“Detective, this is Vittorio. You talked to me yesterday at the hospital.”
“Yeah, I remember.”
“I got out this morning, and there was no police guard on Ed Eagle.”
“I think the guy with the knife is long gone,” Romera said.