Dream Town

Chapter 66

Archer next called Jake Nichols and filled him in on all recent developments with Bender, his widow, and what he had learned from Alice Jacoby about the Jade. Nichols also had some information for him.

“Peter Bonham is in the import business. On the surface it’s antiquities from South America and Mexico and Guatemala, places like that.”

“And underneath the surface, dope,” added Archer.

Nichols said, “His company is private, so there’re no dollar amounts I could find, but he has no deadbeat debts hanging out there, and his home alone is worth a small fortune and has no mortgage. He has accounts at about a dozen different banks. He’s also got interests in a string of hotels and restaurants around LA. And he has his fingers in local card clubs and even has a small stake in Hollywood Park Racetrack. So that’s how he cleans his dirty dope money. The business address listed is his home in Malibu, where I guess he maintains an office. He also has a big warehouse near the airport, probably where his legit business is run out of.”

“But you didn’t look in his backyard. He has a bomb shelter. That’s where he keeps the dope, and the people he’s selling.”

“A bomb shelter, huh? Okay, first time for everything. Funny thing was I couldn’t dig up anything on the guy past ten years ago.”

“Yeah, I think I know why.” Archer filled him in on what Margaret Lamb had told him about Bonham’s past.

“So, Lamb and Bonham sitting in a tree all those years ago?”

“He was the ‘friend’ she moved to Malibu to be closer to. I thought it was Bernadette, but it was Peter Bonham. Bernadette and Lamb also knew each other back east. My hunch is Bonham might have met Bernadette back then, too, while he was courting Lamb. Bernadette told me her father and Lamb’s father were both diplomats, the families were friends, and that she and Lamb went to school together as young girls. But they met up again in Washington, after college. Bonham married Lamb in France and years later he did the same with Bernadette. He ditched Lamb, changed his name, and put together a new identity.”

“You think Lamb was blackmailing him? I mean, she’s got the goods. He’s a bigamist. You can go to jail for that. Not to mention being quite the bad surprise for his current wife.”

Archer said, “That actually makes sense. Bernadette knew he was married before, but she said the first wife died, at least that’s what Bonham probably told her. And then Bernadette might have introduced Peter to her old flame Paley. And with Peter’s overseas connections and Paley’s mob ties in this country, a match was made in hell for selling people and dope.”

“But then Bart Green and Peter Bonham start playing footsie and cutting Paley out of some of his shipment and transporting it in Green’s Beechcraft. How do you figure that happened?” asked Nichols.

“I don’t know, but it did. Bonham really had to walk a fine line there. I mean, if his wife was chummy with Paley, he had to keep her in the dark about all of this, or else she’d run to Paley and spill the beans.”

“And then Peter Bonham gets dumped in the Pacific,” said Nichols.

“And I’m betting Lamb stumbled onto this arrangement some time before she moved to Malibu. Her mother told me Lamb started sending her a grand a month about eighteen months ago, so that timeline fits.”

Nichols let out a sharp whistle. “Twelve grand a year to her mother? Makes you wonder what Eleanor Lamb is pulling in from Bonham to keep her mouth shut.”

“And that would explain what they were arguing about at that party. She was probably demanding more money. And then Bonham gets tired of paying, a body ends up in Lamb’s house, and she goes on the run.” Archer stared off for a moment. “Although, I did find something down in Anaheim that points a finger in another direction.”

“What was that?”

“Bender had no files on his work for Mallory Green.”

“Maybe someone stole them. You said the safe had been broken into.”

“Yeah, but why would they take that stuff? And there was no Wheeldex card for Green, either. And Mallory had already volunteered to me that she had hired him previously. So why would someone want to try and hide a fact that the lady freely admits is true? And his calendar was taken, too. Why?”

“You’re right. Something doesn’t add up. You have a theory?”

“I don’t think there was ever a Wheeldex card or a file on Mallory Green because Bender never worked for her. I think she was lying about the whole thing.”

“Come again?”

“I think Green staged the ‘robbery’ at Bender’s to make it look like someone had cleaned out any record of her having hired Bender. But there wasn’t any record because she didn’t hire him to investigate her husband’s allegedly adulterous behavior, not before and not now. So if I went there and found no record of that, I’d come back to her with a lot of questions. So she had to take action. The robbery was how she covered her tracks.”

“But, Archer, what possible reason would she have to lie about hiring a PI?”

“It could be she’s covering for her husband. If he’s mixed up in smuggling dope with Bonham, she may be trying to protect him. See, that money is the only thing keeping Bart Green safe from the mob. And while it’s clear Mallory Green does not love her husband anymore, she told me that she needs old Bart around, or her career goes kaput. So they might be working this thing together.”

“So if she didn’t hire Bender, who did? Because Bender was clearly investigating something that ended up getting him killed.”

“I found a Wheeldex with a curious name on it, a company called PID. And I discovered from looking at his bank records that Bender had gotten several large payments from PID. Large enough for him to pay off his mortgage of five grand.”

“PID? Did that ring a bell with you?”

“Maybe, but I needed confirmation. So I phoned the number on the Wheeldex card. Can you guess whose number it is?”

“Tell me.”

“The Jade Lion.”

“The Jade! But where does PID come in?”

“What’s Paley’s middle name? Do you know?”

“I know everything about the guy. It’s Isaac.”

“So his initials are DIP. Now flip that around.”

“Damn. DIP becomes PID. So he hired Bender. But why?”

“Bender must’ve known Paley was bad news, but he was hard up for money. So he was a good guy who made a deal with the devil. And Paley paid way above the going rate. So Bender’s widow is going to be okay.”

“But what did Paley hire him to do, Archer?”

“Bender was hired by Paley to find out who was drinking out of his dope trough. And Bender found out it was Bonham selling to Green.”

“Okay, I see where this is going, all right,” said Nichols.

Archer continued, “If Bonham learned that Bender was investigating him and might finger him to Paley, it would be a motive for Bonham to kill the guy. Bender was beaten up pretty badly. They probably worked him over to make him talk. And then Bonham kills him and dumps the body in Lamb’s house, not only to throw suspicion off him, but also to scare the blackmailing Lamb into going on the run and getting off his back.”

“Rings true to me, Archer. Nice bit of deduction.”

“Yeah, only now I just have to prove it.”