I detected a Chicago accent in the way she flattened some of her vowels. The woman rose and adjusted her loose dress. It was a cute retro style with big colorful 1960s'-esque polka dots.
"I'm Amy," she said, offering me her hand. "Amy Reichel. I'm Barry's Webmaster. Maybe I can help you. Why are you looking for him exactly?"
I hesitated, but Jack spurred me on. She's a source, baby. Pump her. Find out what she knows about your mark.
I paused, deciding on a line of questioning. I guessed her age at around thirty. She wore her black hair in a short cut, had a tattoo of what looked like an anime character on her upper arm, and a nose ring in her left nostril. She was heavy-set and wore no makeup. She didn't need to. She looked cute and fresh with porcelain skin, high cheekbones, wide blue eyes, and full lips.
"I didn't know FylmGeek. com had a Webmaster," I began, trying to sound casual and friendly. "I thought Barry did all that stuff himself."
Amy sat down again, threw her head back, and laughed. "That's funny. Barry can't even type, except with two fingers."
"You're kidding," I said, shocked that the star of an internationally poputar Internet site wasn't a computer whiz himself.
Amy shook her head. "He's a great guy, and really sweet, but he doesn't know his ass from an open-source software program!"
"I guess you've known Barry a long time, huh?"
"Like forever. I met him right after he dropped out of college, back when he worked for Pulse Studio."
"A studio? So Barry actually worked in a Hollywood film studio?"
"If you can call it that. It was low rent, you know? They made a lot of direct-to-DVD movies, that sort of thing. Barry's done a lot of things, but what he's always, always, always wanted to do was make movies. And it's finally going to happen for him, too. He's got one of his scripts at Paramount -and they told him they're actually going to make it. They're putting it into production. It's amazing, isn't it?"
I gave her a weak smile. "Amazing…so is that what he did at the other studio? Did he write screenplays? Do you think he ever worked with some older actors and actresses?"
I was fishing again, trying to find a link between Barry and Hedda-or even Pierce Armstrong. But Amy shot that down.
"Oh, no," she said. "He didn't do anything like that. He was just a grip at first, and then he built sets. He used to come home covered with paint."
Clearly, Amy and Barry had been a lot closer than employer and employee. "I guess that was a dead end for his career then? Or did Barry meet people there who helped him?"
"Oh, people helped him." Amy nodded. "Barry learned a lot from the special effects people. In like, a year, he became the studio's main pyrotechnics guy. It paid pretty well, too, gave him enough money to launch the Web site. Now he makes his living on that. People know his name now, so he can sell books, too. He's got another one coming out this fall. You should make sure to stock up on it at your store. I'm sure he'd come back here for another signing-"
"I'm sorry, Amy, back up a second. You said something about pyrotechnics?"
Amy's head bobbed. "Special effects. Fires. Squibs. Barry
did it all." "Squids?"
"Squibs," Amy corrected. "Little explosive bags filled with fake blood. A tiny controlled explosive detonates them to create bullet holes."
"Controlled explosives?" I repeated. "Barry knows about explosives?"
"Oh, you bet!" Amy grinned. "You haven't celebrated Independence Day until you've been to one of Barry's Fourth of July parties!"
My mind was racing now. Bud had told me that the falling speaker that had almost killed Dr. Lilly must have been triggered by a small explosion!
Bingo, baby. You found your crooked Boy Scout.
I glanced around the room, trying to think of what else to ask. I noticed Amy's laptop, and I saw Barry Yello's image peeking out from behind a sprinkling of program icons. He was laughing, eyes crinkled, blond hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail. His head was tilted, so he was almost in profile, and once again I spied that black onyx earring on a silver post.
The earring, baby! You should ask Betty Boop here about the-
"Right!" I reached into my purse and showed the earring to Amy.
"Oh my god," she cried. "Where did you find it? Barry came home last night and told me he'd lost it at the block party. I was so sad. I bought that for him in Mexico, back when were going to get…"
Amy's voice trailed off. "Can I have it?" she said. I shook my head. "I'll give it to Barry myself-just as soon as I find him."
"Well, like I said, he'll be here soon. He's at the Movie Town Theater now. He didn't want to miss Double Indemnity." I blinked. "Did you say Double Indemnity?"
"Yeah."
I cleared my throat. "Amy, I'm confused. Barry told me that he was going to the showing of Double Indemnity on Saturday morning. He said that was the film's one and only showing this weekend."
"No," said Amy firmly. "It's playing right now. Right now is the one and only showing. I should know. I post the schedule every day on his Web site."
He lied, baby, Jack whispered in my head. He didn't want to get tied down to signing books for you. So he came up with a fast excuse. The question is, why? What was he doing Saturday morning if he wasn't watching Barbara Stanwyck play Fred MacMurray like a cheap violin?
"Oh, my god, Jack… didn't Seymour say he thought the door to the lighthouse bungalow was blown open with a small explosive?"
Yeah, doll. He did.
"Barry must have been the one! He blew his way into Dr. Lilly's bungalow. He stole her tapes, laptop, and manuscript!"
My thoughts exactly. Which means you better blow out of here fast, doll.
"Thank you," I said to Amy, quickly rising to my feet. "You've been a real help."
"A help? With what?" Amy asked. "I don't understand… "I hurried out into the motel parking lot, my mind still spinning.
"Barry has to be the culprit, Jack. All of the pieces of the puzzle are there. All except one."
Same problem I had with the Vreen case. A motive.
"What did Barry Yello have to gain from all of this mayhem?"
A payoff, doll. Yello's working for somebody. All you have to do is find out who.
"And how am I going to do that?"
Go to the source. You've got to find Barry and brace him. "Brace him!"
Yeah, put the squeeze on him, like I did with Egbert.
"I can't put the squeeze on a guy like Barry. He's big. He's tall. He's young. What do I do, beat him up with strong language?"
You can put the fear of the law into him, baby, that's what you can do. Just call that cop friend of yours, Freddie-
"You mean Eddie… Officer Franzetti?"
Sure, You've got the goods, and the badge can provide the muscle. Between you and the cop, Yello should give up the ghost… and I'm not talking about yours truly.
CHAPTER 20. Mellow Yello
He's one of the smartest men I know. He's in the movie business.
– Clash by Night, 1952
I USED MY cell to call Eddie. He was on duty and patrolling Cranberry. I asked him to meet me in front of the Movie Town Theater. About fifteen minutes later, I double-parked beside his squad car.
Eddie yanked off his reflecting sunglasses and greeted me with a nod. I looked around. Bull McCoy, Eddie's partner, was nowhere to be seen.
"Bull's working the big homicide investigation up on Larchmont," Eddie said with a frown. "I'm on my own today."
"Well, if my theory pans out, I may have solved that crime and the burglary over at Fiona's place-maybe even the death of Dr. Lilly in my store on Friday morning. And as far as I'm concerned, if you help me, they're all yours."
Eddie didn't even blink. "What do you want me to do?"
It took me five minutes to fill him in. Two minutes after that, we stepped into the back of the darkened movie theater as the final scenes of Double Indemnity played out.