Dream Town

Chapter 54

In the hotel lobby Archer phoned Mallory Green’s house after getting the number from the directory. Green’s personal assistant, Sally, answered and told him that Green had flown to Lake Tahoe.

“That’s right, I remember now.” It was actually the pilot Steve Everett who had told him that. “Do you have the phone number and address up there? She wanted me to fill her in on developments.”

She gave this information to him and Archer wrote it down in his notebook.

Later, he drove to the Formosa, where he walked into the red train car that the owner, Jimmy Bernstein, a former prizefighter from New York, had attached to the building to give him more space for customers to spend money and have a good time. Being across the street from the Goldwyn Studio, the Formosa saw its share of stars. Archer wasn’t guessing about this. There were hundreds of autographed pictures on the walls, with everyone from William Powell to Joan Crawford represented.

He waited until seven on the dot and ordered a Gibson with the trio of onions. It was delivered to his table at just the moment a back-door entrance opened. Sidling into the train car was a woman wearing a long black coat, a broad-brimmed black hat, and sunglasses big enough to hide most of her face. She spotted Archer and headed over, depositing herself in the chair across from him with her back to the entrance.

She took her hat off, revealing the platinum-blond hair, but kept the glasses on. She smiled at Archer and set her plastic purse on the table, then took a sip of her Gibson and slowly put it back down. “God, that tastes so damn good.”

“Must be the extra onions. They do it every time.”

She smiled. “I don’t even know your name. You signed the note, ‘Sincerely, I’m cute.’ Nice touch.”

“Name’s Archer, Miss Lourdes.”

“Please, just call me Sam. And Samantha’s not my real name. Pretty much every star out here has changed theirs. Many of them because they’re Jewish. Heaven forbid. Right?”

“Right. What film are you working on?”

“Does it really matter? The next one before the next one. They’re paying me so much money I could never spend it all.”

“But other people could, so be careful. Lots of stars end up with nothing. Don’t be one of them, Sam.”

She took another drink, while he sipped on his scotch on the rocks. “How’s your hand?”

He flexed it. “I’m a fast healer.”

“I didn’t think I’d hear from you.”

“To confess, I didn’t know your name until I saw it on a movie poster. No knock against you. I’m a nobody and you’re a star, but I’m just not much of a movie guy.”

“It’s actually refreshing. I almost didn’t answer your note, but you seemed like, well, like a nice guy, not a swooner or a grifter, and I can usually spot them.” She set the drink down. “So, it seems you had a close call at the Jade.”

“I also had a close call in Vegas with the guy who runs the Jade, Darren Paley. Almost ended up residing forever in the desert.”

She reacted to the name in a way that surprised Archer. “I think he has lots of close calls like that with people. Only most of them don’t get away like you did.”

“So you know who he is?” asked Archer curiously.

She made a face that Archer couldn’t quite read. “I know what he is. You got a cigarette?”

He shook out a Lucky and lit it for her. She blew the smoke to the wall and lifted the Gibson with her free hand. It was a pretty hand, Archer observed. But there were indications of old calluses on the palm and fingers, along with a certain strength. The lady had known hard manual work, he concluded.

She noted him looking, eyed her hand, and said, “I grew up in Minnesota, like I told you. On a farm. Lot of hard work and heavy lifting. Riding mules and horses. I still like riding horses. Only now I do it for pleasure; back then it was just so we could eat or get from one place to another.”

“I can see that.”

She tapped her ash into the ashtray. “Can you, Archer? Then you’re in rare company in this town.”

“I didn’t grow up on a farm. I grew up poor in a city where every day you could see all the things you would never have.”

“I think that might be as bad as living on a farm with nothing to see except how little you have.”

“They’re both tough.”

“As soon as I turned fifteen I got out of there. Saved money, got on a bus, and left. And that trip? Let me tell you, I could write a book on it.”

“I bet.”

She blew smoke out and rested her chin on her knuckles. “But MGM doesn’t want me to ever mention where I came from. It’s apparently too common. And people don’t like to lay down dough for movie tickets to watch common. So the studio invented a past for me, and I can tell you for a fact it’s simply marvelous.”

She took off her glasses, dipping her gaze for a moment before swinging it up to him and giving him a look that froze him to his bones with its sultry, honest frankness. He didn’t know if this was a perfected signature movie move of hers or not, but she did it with a lot of class, exhibiting both a fragility and a longing that made one ache, or at least it did him.

She smiled at his reaction, and the look vanished instantly. “You should see me do that shtick with the right lighting. They say the difference between being a film star and a run-of-the-mill actress is how good your lighting guy is.”

“Okay.”

“You see, Archer, this is a fantasy town, and I’m now part of that fantasy.”

“You can choose not to be. Go back to Minnesota.”

“I think about that. A lot. Some days I almost work up the courage to do it.”

“Why can’t you go all the way?”

Her wide eyes became sad and distant. “Because working your fingers to the bone on a farm in the middle of nowhere for peanuts is not all that great, either. I busted my butt to escape it, in fact. That makes it hard to rush back to. At least here I can mostly call my own shots. And the money? I make more in one day than I’d make in a lifetime working that farm.”

“Money’s not everything.”

“It is if you never had much of it.”

“You still have any family left?”

“My parents are dead. I have two sisters. They think I’m an evil hussy who has blackened the family name.”

“What was your real name?”

“I’ll take that to the grave, thank you very much. So, why did Paley want to kill you?”

“Maybe I know more than I should know, at least about what he’s doing.”

“And what do you know?”

“Some of what I saw that night.” He glanced at her pupils. They were normal. She noticed his scrutiny.

Lourdes said sharply, “When I work, I don’t play. And I worked today.”

“Okay. But you may get to the point where your body doesn’t give you a choice.”

Furrows covered her lovely brow. “Is that why you asked to meet with me? To lecture me? Because others have tried. And failed.”

“No, I said my piece the first night I saw you.”

“And I said my piece right back.”

“How well do you know Paley?”

“Pretty well, considering I was married to Darren for two years.”

Archer just sat there for a few moments. It had been a long time since he had been that stunned.

“Yeah, I didn’t think you knew about that. I was only seventeen.”

“Seventeen?”

“Really young and even more stupid. We didn’t meet out here. It was in Reno. I tried to make it as a dancer and singer there after escaping the farm. I met Darren. He was a lot older than me, an ex-con, all tough and smooth and dangerous and involved in some shady deals and with some seriously bad people, and he swept me right off my little naive farm girl feet. Then it became apparent we were not a good match and we got a quickie divorce; in that regard Reno was perfect. It was mutual, by the way. Darren had already moved on to another woman before we separated. And then the war started and he joined up. And I came out here and finally got the brass ring. When he got out of uniform I heard Darren went to Vegas and started working at the Flamingo.”

“Bugsy Siegel and those boys?”

She tapped her ash in the ashtray. “Yeah. He was their enforcer. And he was really, really good at it. He did a bunch of stuff for them and for himself. And then he came here.”

“I think he was pulling double duty between Vegas and LA during that time.”

“How do you mean?”

“He was operating a gambling ring for the mob out of Chinatown about five years ago. Cost a friend of mine the use of his legs. He blew town after that and then he came back to run the Jade. Maybe with the mob’s blessing and participation.”

“Nothing Darren did or will do would surprise me.”

“You said you were seventeen when you got married?”

“And nineteen when we got divorced. I’m thirty now. I’ve got maybe, maybe ten good years left for pictures. I’ve got to hoof it while the hoofing is good. And don’t worry. I invest my money in blue chip stocks and government bonds and prime real estate, and I have ownership pieces in some of the best restaurants and nightclubs in LA. I’ll be sitting pretty when I blow this joint and go wherever I go.”

“And when Darren got to town and found out you were a big star, what did he want?”

She finished off her Gibson and raised her hand for another. After it was delivered she said, “Why do you think I go to the Jade?”

“He’s blackmailing you. What with?”

“Let’s just say that while we were married I helped my husband with some of his business dealings and some people got hurt. I mean, really hurt. I knew nothing about any of it, of course. I was just a kid, but Darren doesn’t care. He could make my life miserable and my career would flame out just like that.” She snapped her fingers. “And if you repeat that to anybody I’ll sue your ass off and take everything you have.”

“I don’t repeat things and I don’t have much to take. But if he spills, he brings himself down.”

“I’ve got a lot more to lose than he does, Archer. And Darren always lands on his feet. Always. He’s the cat of all cats.”

“They’re filming you at the Jade.”

“I know they are. But only from the ceiling angle. They sell it to the Japs and the Chinese and the South Americans, and maybe here, too, who the hell knows? They just see the top of my platinum-blond head... and then the rest of me. Nobody knows it’s the wonderful Samantha Lourdes, of course. He makes money, and when Darren makes money he lays off me. And that makes it worth it.”

“And do you get others to go there, too? Your fellow stars?” She looked down into her glass, her expression flexing to despondency. “He wants me to. But I keep making excuses. I don’t want anyone I care about to get mixed up with that man. He was bad in Reno. Now he’s far worse. Maybe it was the war, or maybe it was the stuff he did for Bugsy and that crowd. Whatever, he really scares me. But I’m running out of excuses with him. And I’m not the only star there, I can tell you that.”

“And he got you hooked on drugs?”

She sat up. “No, in fairness, I can’t blame Darren for that — it was all my doing. I dabbled when I was married to him; Darren won’t touch the stuff. He doesn’t even drink booze. He has to always be in control. Me, I kept dabbling. Now the studio feeds it to me so I’ll keep working my cute little ass off for them. But I’m not hooked, not per se.”

“I don’t think there’s any per se when it comes to being an addict.”

“You might be surprised. I only take ten percent of the stuff they throw my way. Same at the Jade. It’s starting to bore me, actually. I might just chuck it all one day and be dry as a bone with pupils that don’t go pop anymore.” She shot him a curious glance. “So, is Darren coming for you?”

“At some point he will. For now, he’s lying low after his boys blew the hit on me. It was close. They were already digging the grave and about to drill a bullet into my skull when the cavalry arrived and saved my butt.”

She reached out and took his hand, her features now full of sincere concern. “Archer, don’t mess with that psycho. He won’t miss again.”

“I’m not sure I have much choice in the matter.”

“You could hop a train or a plane and head east. Far, far east.”

“I can do a lot of things. But then Paley will still be here doing what he does to people. Like you. How does that make the world a better place?”

She sat back and gazed at him in wonderment. “What are you, a preacher or an idiot or both? Or is that just a line you throw out like I do my movie look?”

He pulled his license and showed her. “None of the above. Like I told you before, I’m a private detective.”

She didn’t look impressed. “Darren eats cops for breakfast. PIs are just a hiccup to him.”

“He might have met his match this time. I’m not in the fight alone.”

Her expression quickly changed. “You really think you can take him down?”

Archer knew exactly why she was asking. “If you can help me, I might. I’m sure you can see the personal benefits.”

“Is that why you’d be doing it?”

“I could lie and say yes, but until you told me of your connection, I didn’t know you had skin in the game. But I guess, in a way, I did. If the Jade goes down, you don’t have to go there and play the bad girl anymore.”

“You’re not a preacher. You’re a Boy Scout.”

“People keep saying that, doesn’t make it true. But do I want to make the world a better place? Yeah, because I live in the world, too. As do people I care about. Like you.”

Her face flushed beautifully when he said this, and she gave his fingers a squeeze before draining her Gibson. He finished his scotch and both seemed now to hunker down to business.

“How can I help you?” she said.

“Do you know where he gets his supply of dope?”

“No, but sometimes I’ve nosed around and seen the stuff coming in late at night. It’s at least once a week. Comes by truck.”

“Surprised he lets you roam the halls.”

“Darren doesn’t think I’m a threat, you see, because he has dirt on me. They put the empty crates behind that room divider in the entranceway. When the next shipment comes, the truck takes the empty crates away.”

“I also saw some smuggling going on in Malibu early on New Year’s Day. A boat with crates coming in to shore. I almost bought it then, too, on the beach. And I saw some of those sandy crates in the Jade behind that room divider, with what looked like heroin dust inside one. And I found a glass vial in one of the rooms with what I think is heroin, too. What I need to know, are his shipments coming from what I saw happening on that beach?”

“They could be, but I don’t know for sure.”

He pulled out the photo he had snagged from the Bonhams’ house. “Have you ever seen these people at the Jade?”

She looked at the picture and then smiled at Archer.

“What?”

“The woman Darren moved on to before he divorced me?”

“Yeah?”

She pressed her thumb against Bernadette Bonham’s elegant face. “That’s the bitch.”