“It has occurred to me. Tell me, was Mr. Barton on a picture when this happened today?”
“My latest. Half filmed, and it goes into the cutting room trash can. Five million dollars down the drain.”
“But surely you were insured?”
“Yeah, insured. But that’s not the game, is it? It takes a year to set up a film before the cameras begin to grind, and that year isn’t insured. I lost my star and, like Della says, we lost a son too. Poor Mike-poor dumb bastard.”
“Who do you think killed him?” Masuto asked casually, dropping into a chair facing the producer.
“Come on, come on, since when does a cop ask you that? This is my first murder, Sergeant-Masuto, isn’t it? You’re a nisei, if I’m not mistaken?”
Masuto nodded.
“I think I’ve seen your name in the papers. You’re a pretty smart cop. The Japanese are damn smart, too smart for the rest of us, I’m afraid.”
“I’m just a policeman, and you produce motion pictures,” Masuto reminded him.
“I’m not sure that my job takes more brains than yours, and certainly a lot less guts. No, I have no idea who killed Mike, but I could name a lot of people who have a damn good reason for killing him, and they’re all in this house-his friends, horseshit, pure, unadulterated horseshit.”
“Please go on, Mr. Goldberg. You intrigue me.”
“Start with McCarthy. He and Mike got into an argument at the Bistro two weeks ago, and Mike hit him across the face with his open hand. I don’t know what the fight was about, but they tell me Jack just took it and stalked away. I don’t know whether that’s a reason for murder, but I suspect that McCarthy hates his guts.”
“Still he rallied around this morning when the kidnapping took place.”
“Ah, money talks. Mike is his best client. As for Bill Ranier, I’ve been pressing Mike to dump him. Ranier’s a crook, and a business agent who’s a crook is something no one needs. Ranier knows Mike was about ready to part company with him. As for that little tart they call Angel, she’s not shedding any tears over Mike’s death. I imagine it was the answer to her prayers.”
“And the congressman and Mrs. Cooper?”
“She’s a silly woman, and you can drop her off the list. Hennesy is another matter. Shady, and once very close to being indicted for bribe-taking. They say he’s mad about the Angel, but that’s a thin rumor. The Angel is shacked up with someone, but who it is I don’t know. But then a million dollars talks pretty damn loud, doesn’t it?”
“So they say. And yourself, Mr. Goldberg?”
“Sure.” Goldberg nodded, staring at his cigar ash. “Don’t leave me out. I could have killed Mike ten times over-for being a horse’s ass, for marrying that bitch, for not divorcing her, for letting Ranier rob him blind-ah, what the hell difference does it make now?”
“Why didn’t he divorce her?”
“You know, there was a time when Della and me, we were like a mother and father to Mike. He would invite himself to dinner two, three times a week. He would bring his dates for our approval. He would beg Della to read his lines with him. Oh, I don’t claim it was all disinterested affection for the kid. I made him a star and he was worth his weight in gold to me. But beyond that, we were both crazy about him-until-” He stared at Masuto. “You want to listen to all this garbage?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Okay. Until he met the Angel. She was dealing twenty-one in Vegas. That was two-two and a half years ago. Mike was a hot gambler, but the stories about him losing two or three hundred thousand in a session are pure bullshit. When Mike went to Vegas, he’d take a couple of thousand with him and when it was gone, he was finished. Well, as I said, he meets this Angel, it’s love at first sight, and she quits her job which she had only a few days. They’re married right there in Vegas and she comes back with him, and for a week or so Mike is happy as a clam, and then it’s over.”
“Same question, Mr. Goldberg. Why didn’t he divorce her?”
“Did you ask Ellie Newman? She’s a nice kid. She and Mike were in love with each other.”
“I asked her. She claimed she didn’t know, and the closest she ever came to an answer from Mr. Barton was his belief that it would make him a clown, a joke in the eyes of the world. I guess he intimated that it would end his film career.”
“Poor dumb kid. Well, that’s more of a reason than I ever got. She had something on him. I don’t know what it could be-” He shook his head hopelessly.
“And the kidnapping this morning. Did you buy it, Mr. Goldberg?”
“What do you mean, did I buy it?”
“I mean,” Masuto said slowly, choosing his words carefully, “did you feel that it was a real kidnapping or a faked kidnapping?”
“How the hell should I know? Sure I knew that Mike wouldn’t have given twenty cents to get her back, but the public wouldn’t buy that, and if Mike had refused to pay the ransom for his wife’s life, that would wash him out as a working star. We talked about that, and I agreed that he should pay it.”
“Did you also agree that he should keep the police and the FBI out of it?”
“Did he? I didn’t know that.” He shook his head worriedly. “Why would he do that? He had to pay the ransom, but I’d think he’d have the cops in there every step of the way.” He stared at the curl of smoke rising from his cigar. “Sergeant?”
“Yes?”
“How long do we have to stay here?”
“You don’t have to stay here at all. You can leave whenever you wish.”
“Well, I’ll wait until my wife finishes talking to Ellie.”
Masuto nodded and left the room. Beckman was in the hall outside talking into a telephone. Masuto waited. Beckman put down the telephone.
“Where are they?”
“Downstairs in the game room.”
“Any of them leave?”
Beckman shook his head. “It’s like they’re all watching each other. Mrs. Goldberg is still upstairs with Newman. Angel’s still in her room.”
“And Kelly?”
“He’s in the kitchen with Mrs. Holtz. The black kid is downstairs. They keep her running for drinks. By the way, Doc Baxter called. It was a twenty-two short, just as we thought, and he still fixes the time of death between twelve-thirty and one. One more thing-” Beckman paused, relishing the moment. “Wainwright had a couple of cops canvassing the houses on San Yisidro. They found a kid who saw a yellow two-seat Mercedes drive by at about twelve-thirty or so. He remembered it because it’s his dream car, and he never saw it before.”
“Did he notice who was driving, a man or a woman?”
“No. He was at an upstairs window, being sick with the flu, so he never saw who was driving.”
Masuto thought about it for a while, and then he said to Beckman, “Sy, I want to talk to Angel Barton, and I don’t want anyone else talking to her first. So go upstairs and wait for me outside her room. No one goes in-but no one. And if she wants to leave, just delay her. I won’t be more than ten minutes.”
“This Dr. Haddam said-”
“I don’t give a damn what Dr. Haddam said.”
“Okay, Okay, Masao. What’s eating you?”
Masuto laughed and shook his head. “I’m sorry, Sy. We live in an insane world.”
“What else is new?”
“I try to suspend judgment. Sometimes that’s almost impossible. What did you find out downtown about Joe Kelly?”
“He has a record, like Miss Newman said. Seven priors. In and out, he spent maybe twenty years in jail, all of it theft, grand larceny, petty larceny. He’s a thief, that’s all. He got out on parole eight years ago, and Mike Barton hired him. He’s been clean ever since.”