Beverly Hills Dead

40

Rick and Glenna got back to L.A. on Wednesday, and on Thursday morning Rick was in a meeting with Eddie Harris, Tom Terry and the studio’s publicity chief, Bart Crowther. Tom brought them up-to-date on the investigation.

“The police are at a dead end,” he said. “They have Susie’s car and her boxes of belongings, and, except for a few clothes in her bungalow, that’s all that exists of her. They have two different sets of fingerprints from Susie’s car and no one to compare them to. Hank Harmon has got herself a lawyer, and he won’t allow her to be fingerprinted. I personally think Susie is dead, but my guess is until her body is found there aren’t going to be any breaks in this case.”

“Tom, what’s your time line for all this?” Rick asked.

“Harmon told the police she was out of her apartment from around two to four on Sunday afternoon, and the cops tell me a couple of witnesses have put her at the farmer’s market during that time. My guess is that’s when Susie went to the apartment, packed up her stuff, then wrote Hank Harmon a note, which Harmon now says she can’t find, and was about to leave when Harmon came home. There was probably an argument, and Harmon either hit Susie with something or strangled her.

“After that, I think she waited until the wee hours, put Susie’s body in her car, disposed of it — God knows where — then drove the car to Vance Calder’s house. She used Susie’s key to get in and leave a box of clothes in an upstairs dressing room, then put the keys back in the car’s ignition and walked home.”

“How long a walk would that be?”

“I clocked it at about three and a half miles, perfectly doable in the middle of the night without being noticed. Sunset is deserted at that hour.”

“Any other way it could have happened?”

“Only if she had an accomplice, and who the hell do you call up and say, ‘I’ve just murdered somebody and I need help in getting rid of the body and getting her car out of here’?”

“That all makes sense to me,” Rick said. “Is anything else being done?”

“I’ve got two private detectives, experienced men, going over everything about Henrietta Harmon with a fine-toothed comb. We’ll know more about her in a day or two.”

“Has anybody talked with her family?” Eddie asked.

“I called them from New York,” Rick said. “They wanted to come out here, but I discouraged that.”

Bart Crowther spoke up. “I speak to them daily.”

“I see the papers have got this now,” Eddie said.

“It’s been pretty mild, considering,” Bart said. “They’re concentrating mostly on Hank Harmon, and she’s hiding out somewhere. She hasn’t been to work since the first of the week.”

“Have the press found Susie’s parents yet?” Eddie asked.

“Yes, but a relative is answering their phone and giving out ‘no comments.’ Vance has spoken with them, too.”

“How’s Vance doing?” Eddie asked.

“I haven’t seen him since I got in, but I’m going over there when we’re done here,” Rick said.

“I’ll go with you,” Eddie said.

Tom spoke up again. “He was very shaken right after he got back. He was going to lie down for a while.”

“Bart,” Rick asked, “do you have any other recommendations on how we should be handling this?”

“It’s under control right now. If the police find a body, then everything will explode, but my people are ready for that.”

“Why don’t you come over to Vance’s bungalow with us and get him ready for it?” Eddie said.

They broke up the meeting, and Rick, Eddie and Bart went over to Vance’s bungalow and found the actor sitting on the living room sofa, looking pale and drawn. They all sat down in the bungalow’s living room.

“How are you managing, Vance?” Rick asked.

“I’m all right,” he replied. “I’m getting a little cabin fever here, though. I’d really rather be at my house.”

Bart shook his head. “Vance, if you go back there before there’s some resolution to all this, the press will be all over you, and we don’t want that.”

“I suppose that at some point I’m going to have to address this publicly.”

“No, you’re not,” Bart said. “We’ll issue a press release with a quote of two or three sentences from you, and that will be it. I don’t want you to talk to anybody about this, except the police.”

“Vance, did Hy Greenbaum get you a lawyer?” Eddie asked.

“Yes, a fellow named David Sturmack. I spoke to him at some length on the phone. After I told him what little I knew he told me to tell the police everything. They came here and talked to me for an hour, and I followed David’s advice.”

“Vance,” Rick said, “you were talking about going down to Puerto Vallarta for a few days with Susie; maybe it would be a good idea if you went now.”

“No,” Bart said. “The press would find him there. Confidential magazine is trying to get together a story on Susie, and they’d pay anything to get to Vance.”

“Vance,” Eddie said, “would you like to go to the ranch in Jackson Hole for a while? You wouldn’t be molested by all these news hounds.”

“Yes!” Vance said emphatically.

“There’s snow on the ground,” Eddie said, “but the Coopers are still in the main house, and I’m sure they’d be glad to see you.”

“Yes, please,” Vance said.

“I’ll arrange for you to be flown up there,” Rick said. “Nobody will ever find you there.”

“How soon can I leave?”

“Tomorrow morning. Early, say, seven o’clock at Clover Field?”

“Good. I’ll be there.”

“I’ll have wardrobe fix you up with some warm clothing,” Rick said. “If you need anything, you have only to call me.” Rick handed him a manila envelope. “Here’s something to read, when you feel like it.”

“A script?”

“Yes, and we can go to work on it the minute you feel like it.”

“I’ll read it.”

“Oh, we’d like to assign a permanent secretary to you,” Eddie said. “There’s already a lot of fan mail about Susie.”

“The steno pool sent a girl over earlier. I’d be happy to have her stay on permanently.”

“Good. Phone her every day, and if we need to speak to you, we’ll leave a message with her.”

The group left, and Rick went back to his office to make the arrangements for Vance’s travel. An hour later, Tom Terry called.

“Remember our friend Harold Schmidt from Milwaukee?”

“Yes,” Rick said.

“He’s turned up in L.A.”