Born To Be Wild

FORTY-NINE

The last network radio soap opera went off the air in November 1960.

It happened in an instant. Jeff Renfrew shoved her back against the door, and the bike skidded sharply away, tires screeching, engine revving. Jeff leaped forward, and threw a hard punch, hitting the rider against his shoulder. The bike jerked and skidded some more, but the man in the black helmet managed to stay on and keep the bike upright. He turned on a dime and took off, bounced over the curb and wove back between two cars, horns honking all around him, curses filling the air. Jeff raced after him and cut him off before he could pick up speed. He kicked the back tire, but the guy managed to pull in front of a car, blocking him off. Jeff stepped back, watched the bike speed up, and knew he couldn’t catch the guy now. He trotted back to Mary Lisa.

“You okay, Mary Lisa?” Her face was perfectly white, people were hovering around her, all talking at once. She blinked, then to his surprise, she smiled at him. “Thank you, Jeff. You saved my neck.”

Suddenly they heard a horrendous screech of brakes, a car horn sounding, and the sickening sound of a loud thud.

They ran back out on the sidewalk, toward the sound of the crash. Cars were stopped, drivers leaping out, trying to find out what had happened. They ran around the side of a white Pathfinder and saw the driver leap from the cab and run toward the front of the SUV. Traffic was gridlocked now, nobody was going anywhere.

A man was lying on his side in front of the SUV, unmoving, his Honda motorcycle beside him, one of its wheels bent nearly in two.

“It’s him,” Mary Lisa said. “The man who tried to run me down.”

Someone yelled that he’d called 911.

The driver of the SUV was on his knees beside the man and felt for his pulse, all the while saying the motorcycle had jumped right in front of him. He took off his light jacket and laid it over the man. His helmet was still on his head.

People from surrounding cars converged, elbowed their way through to see the man.

“The guy jumped right in front of him! I couldn’t believe what that bike was doing!”

“Is he dead?”

“You’re Mary Lisa Beverly?”

“You’re on Born to Be Wild, right? You play Damian Sterling, don’t you?”

Mary Lisa started to go down to her hands and knees next to the man, but Lou Lou grabbed her. “No, stand back now, okay? The ambulance will be here soon. There’s nothing you can do.”

“Do you think he’s dead, Lou Lou?”

Mary Lisa sounded perfectly calm and that worried Lou Lou. “It doesn’t matter. Now, you come back with me.” As she spoke, she called Daniel on her cell.

They soon heard sirens in the distance, then the paramedics’ voices.

“Let us through! Come on, folks, move aside.”

They saw the paramedics, and then a police officer, striding through the crowd, telling people to step back.

Mary Lisa stepped up to him and said, “Excuse me, but the biker, he tried to kill me.”

The officer’s head whipped around. “What did you say? Who are you?”

“I’m Mary Lisa Beverly. We’ve called Detective Daniel Vasquez at the Lost Hills Station. He’s on his way.”

“Who is the guy?”

“I don’t know. He’s got a helmet on.”

“They’ll leave it on too. The doctors will take it off. So you don’t know who he is?”

“No.”

The officer was trying to understand what had happened when Daniel ran up. People hovered around her, nothing new in that. She sat on a bench in front of the studio, sunglasses perched on her nose, a bottle of water in her hand. She was speaking alternately to a Burbank police officer and to Jeff Renfrew. He heard her say, “I can’t believe it’s over. Officer, this is Jeff Renfrew, he saw the guy coming toward me and shoved me out of the way. Then he kicked his back tire, messed him up. We still don’t know who he is. Detective Vasquez, thank heaven you’re here.” She gave him a huge grin. “It’s over.”

“I’ll want to hear everything, Mary Lisa, everything, but first things first.”

“I don’t know if he’s dead. They left his helmet on. I don’t know who he is.”

“That, Mary Lisa, we’ll find out fast enough.” He nodded to Lou Lou. “Okay, you guys want to come with me?”

He led them to the cordon the police were setting up around the site. Daniel had to show three different cops ID before they were let through.

When they reached the ambulance crew, the paramedics were lifting the man on a board onto a stretcher. His helmet was dented and scuffed, and there was a restraint around his neck. The man wasn’t moving, no, wait, his left leg twitched. They’d cut off some of his clothes, pulled a sheet to his waist. They saw blood.

Daniel spoke briefly to one of them and looked down into the man’s face under the helmet’s opaque visor, which the paramedics had lifted.

“Mary Lisa, come up here.”

Daniel pulled her beside him so she could see the man’s face. He said nothing, waited.

Even though the man’s face was covered with blood, she knew who he was. She was surprised even though she supposed she shouldn’t be.

She said, “It’s Paulie Thomas. He’s Tom O’Hurley’s nephew. Tom’s one of the directors for Born to Be Wild. But you already know that, Detective Vasquez. Paulie was here at the studio today, I saw him. Is he going to be all right?” This to one of the paramedics.

“I don’t know. Sorry. Okay, we’re out of here now. Step back, please.”

Daniel pulled her away. They watched in silence as the ambulance wove its way through the crowds of people and cars and, siren on, began to pick up speed.

Daniel took both her hands in his. “Listen to me now, Mary Lisa. It’s over.” He saw Lou Lou muscling her way through to them. “There’s my tough girl. Okay, I want the two of you to go home now. There’s nothing more you can do here. You drive, okay, Lou Lou?”

“I can drive, Detective Vasquez,” Mary Lisa said, her voice surprisingly firm. “I’m dandy now.”

He nodded slowly. “All right. I’ll call you when I know more about this.”