Indigo Slam

CHAPTER 20

KROK Television, Power Channel 8 (Personal News from Us to You – We take it personally!!), was housed in a large brick and steel building off Western Avenue in the east side of Hollywood. I parked in the little security lot they have next to the building, and found Tracy waiting for me in the reception area. I hadn't expected her to be waiting, but she was, and she looked anxious. I said, 'Guess you found something.'

'Let's talk in my office.'

Tracy Mannos was a tall, attractive woman in her early fifties. Her hair was streaked with gray and cut close, and she carried herself with an erect, no-nonsense corporate manner, every inch the authoritative station manager. Lucy and I had met her when I was working on the Theodore Martin murder case, and she had been impressed enough with Lucy's bearing and legal analysis to suggest to her bosses that Lucy be offered the job of on-air legal analyst.

She led me through a heavy glass security door and along a sterile hall, near deserted because of the time of day. She said, 'Stu Greenberg's our head of business affairs. I asked him about Lucy's negotiation, and he said that there was nothing unusual about it. In fact, he told me not to worry.'

'Did you ask Mr. Greenberg if perhaps he's had some association with Mr. Chenier?' We went into a sleek white office with comfortable chairs and a cluttered desk. Photographs of a man and three children dotted the walls.

Tracy settled back in the chair and smiled at me. 'A television station is a very political environment, Elvis. People are easily offended, and more than one back around here sports multiple knife wounds.'

I nodded. 'You're saying you couldn't ask him straight out.'

'We have to be very careful that we don't step on something that bites us.'

I nodded again.

'Though I did manage to gain a bit of intelligence when I was in Stu's office.'

'Ah.' I knew that she had. You could see that in her eyes, too. A kind of ferocious twinkle.

'Stuart began his career in Houston, at the home office of Benton, Meyers and Dane.' Richard's firm.

'How about that.' The old-boy network rears its ugly head.

'Yes, but that doesn't prove anything. Greenberg is still the head of business affairs, and how he runs that department is his prerogative.' Then the twinkle became a hard glint. 'Until it becomes an issue that transcends acceptable business practices.'

'Such as an ex-husband pulling strings to limit his former wife's career options.'

'Yes. Then it becomes a larger issue, one to which this corporation would be sensitive.' She spread her hands. 'After all, if such were the case, Lucy might sue.'

'If she had proof.'

'Yes. But proof in such a case is elusive and hard to find. Maybe impossible to find.'

'Um.'

Tracy Mannos leaned toward me. Pointedly. 'Recognizing that, it could be something that simply appears to be proof. After all, if what we're talking about here is an issue of gender politics, the appearance of wrongdoing is something to which this station would be sensitive. When I was in Stu's office, I had the distinct impression that something might be there.'

'Like what?'

She spread her hands. 'You're the detective.'

She stayed with the lean, and I knew it meant something. I thought that she might have a very clear idea of what might constitute that kind of leverage, and where I might find it. I said, 'You got this impression while you were in his office?'

'More like when I was leaving his office and saying good-bye to his secretary.' Ah.

'And has Mr. Greenberg gone home for the day?'

She smiled, like maybe the slow kid in class was coming along after all. 'I'm not sure, Elvis. He usually leaves much earlier than this, but he might still be here.'

'I think I'll go speak with him.'

She settled back in her chair and nodded. 'You do that. I'm sure you'll find it enlightening.'

She told me how to get to Stuart Greenberg's office, and I found my way through the empty halls to the business affairs division. The lower floors of the station were bustling with activity as they mounted the evening broadcasts, but the upper business floors were deserted except for the cleaning crews. No one was around to ask who I was or what I was doing.

Stuart Greenberg had a nice corner office, replete with diplomas and family photographs and plants that were healthier than mine, but I didn't need to go there. I had listened to Tracy closely, and read between the lines, and figured that if anything was to be found it wouldn't be in Greenberg's office, but at his secretary's desk, and if anyone was going to find it, it was going to be me, and not Tracy Mannos. She would go only so far, and no farther. The risk would be mine.

The phone log of Greenberg's outgoing and incoming calls was there, next to the phone. I nodded at the cleaning crew, then sat at the desk and flipped backward through the pages, and found exactly what Tracy Mannos had suggested I would. Three days ago Richard Chenier had phoned Stuart Greenberg twice. There wasn't anything to indicate the content of the conversations, but, as Tracy had also suggested, there didn't have to be. I took the log to a copy machine, copied the page reflecting Richard's calls, then put the log back and drove home.

The cat was sitting in the mouth of my carport when I eased up to the house, one ear up, one down, and his head canted to the side. He looked surly and out-of-sorts, and he did not move even though I nosed the car toward him. I had to park on the street. I said, 'This last week has been hell, hasn't it?'

He ignored me. Snubbed by my cat.

I let myself in through the kitchen and walked through the house to see what the feds had done. Four drawers had been dumped, others left open, and three empty Falstaff cans were sitting on the dining room table. Most of the search seemed to have been in the kitchen and my bedroom, but the mess was not as bad as the office. I guess Jasper had told them to take it easy. Or maybe they were too busy drinking my beer.

I put out a fresh bowl of food for the cat, then called Joe at the safe house. The phone rang twice, and Charles answered. 'We don't want any.' Then he hung up.

I took a deep breath, let it out, and rubbed at my eyes. I dialed again. This time Joe answered on the first ring. I said, 'Can the kids overhear us?'

'No.'

I told him about Reed Jasper and the feds having searched my house and office, and Wilson Brownell turning up dead. Pike said, 'I guess these Russians mean it.'

'They mean it.' I told him about finding the money and catalogs in Clark 's attic. 'We have to assume that they know what Brownell knew, where Clark was living and that Clark was using the name Haines. I think we're okay as long as we stay away from there.'

'Where are you now?'

I told him.

'What if Clark goes home?'

I had already thought it through and I didn't like where it led, but there weren't a lot of options. We could sit at the house and wait, but a proactive search seemed better. We could periodically check the house. I told Joe that I had other calls to make, and that I might not come by the safe house until morning 'Besides, my house has been searched by Richard's guy, and now by the feds. Maybe Dobcek and Sautin will come by next, and I can shoot them to death.'

Pike said, 'Take your fun where you find it.'

I hung up, then called Lucy at home. She answered as if she were perched by the phone. I said, 'It's me.'

'Let me change phones.' I waited. Ben was probably there.

When she came back on the line I told her about my conversation with Tracy Mannos, and what I had found in Stuart Greenberg's phone log. When I finished, she said, 'I'm coming out there.'

'Maybe you should talk to Tracy first. Tracy knows what you're up against, and I think she knows how to handle it, but this is pretty flimsy evidence.' In fact, it wasn't evidence at all, but I didn't want to be a defeatist.

She didn't say anything for a while, and then she said, 'I am not going to simply allow this to happen. Richard has no right to use his influence to affect my life. If I do nothing, and Tracy fails, then I'll feel all the worse.'

I didn't answer.

'I'm mad as hell, but I'm also a professional. Now that I know what I'm dealing with, I have no doubt that we can win. These are just two old-boy assholes trying to keep the little woman in her place.'

Pretty much what Tracy had said.

'Well, this is the wrong little woman.' She was quiet for a moment, but I guessed she was thinking. 'I don't care what Richard told you, it's not about Ben. Richard was a lousy father from day one, and he's still a lousy father. This is about me, and about power. That's why I divorced the sonofabitch.' She was mad, all right. 'He's an arrogant, self-involved prick, and if he thinks he can pull a stunt like this on me, I'll cut him a new asshole and stuff his head in it.' Whew.

I said, 'Luce?'

'What?' She almost shouted it.

'Please don't give yourself a stroke.'

She fell absolutely silent, and then she laughed. 'Wow. I'm really mad.'

'Glad I'm not on the receiving end.'

'Not you, Elvis. Not ever.' She laughed some more, and it was good to hear her laugh. Good to hear her sound so strong. 'I have to come out there and do this, even if it makes everything worse. Even if it costs me this job. You see that, don't you?'

'Sure.' I told her about the safe house, gave her the number there, and told her to call Joe with her flight information. After we hung up, I said, 'Richard, prepare to be sawed.'

It took me a little better than an hour to go through the house and put my things in order. I guess if I were a more accommodating person, I could find value in government agents doing such a thorough job.

After all, these were our tax dollars at work.