You're nobody 'til somebody kills you

Thirty-nine

We stopped at a pay phone before we went back to the guesthouse so I could call Penny, who proceeded to read me the riot act for taking so long to get back to her. I didn’t bother mentioning that Jerry and I had stopped for pancakes. That really would have set her off.

I told her what we had been doing and who we’d hired to help us.

“Fred Otash?” she asked. “Danny hates him.”

“He knows him?”

“No, he knows of him and doesn’t like him one bit,” she said.

“Jealous?”

She made a noise into the phone. “You know Danny. That’s not it. The guy has a reputation and it ain’t all good. Why don’t you let me give you some names?”

“I think I’ll stick with Otash for now, Penny.”

“By the way,” she asked, “how is Miss Monroe?”

“She’s in Palm Springs, and I’m in L.A.”

“Where are you staying?”

“In her guesthouse.”

“Let me have the number so I can get in touch with you.”

“Are you still not goin’ back to the office?” I asked.

“I don’t think so,” she said. “It’s … too depressing. I’ll just close the office and wait for you to call me.”

“Okay, Penny. As soon as I know something.”

“And say hi to Jerry for me. I’m glad he’s there with you.”

“So am I.”

I hung up and looked at Jerry. “She says hi.”

“Cute kid,” he said.

“Yeah.”

“So,” he said, “now that we got this guy Otash workin’ on it, what do we do? Go back to Vegas?”

“No,” I said, “I’m thinkin’ we go out to Palm Springs to see Marilyn.”

“Bring her back here?”

“I don’t think so,” I said. “I mean, we haven’t done a thing about finding out who’s watchin’ her. We’ve been spendin’ all our time tryin’ to find Danny.”

“Same thing, ain’t it?” he asked. “Find out who’s watchin’ her we find out who disappeared Danny.”

“Yeah, maybe.”

“You don’t think so?”

“Danny’s worked on a lot of cases, Jerry,” I said. “What if somebody from one of those spotted him here in L.A. and waylaid him.”

“That’d be a helluva coincidence, Mr. G.,” Jerry said. “I think we’re better off figurin’ it’s all connected. But hey, you’re the brains, I’m just the muscle.”

“Yeah,” I said, “I’m the brains, that’s why I didn’t think of calling Penny at home sooner.”

“Hey, I didn’t think of it either, Mr. G.”

“Yeah, but you’re just muscle,” I said. “You said it yourself.”

“I was jus’ tryin’ ta make you feel better, Mr. G.,” he said, straight-faced.

“Speaking of calling, I better call Marilyn and make sure she’s okay,” I said. “Maybe we won’t need to drive out there.”

Luckily, I had started carrying a lot of change.

“Sinatra residence,” George said.

“Hey, George, it’s Eddie G. How’s it goin’ there?” I asked.

“We’ve had some excitement here, sir.”

“What kind of excitement, George?”

“I better let Mr. Sinatra tell you himself.”

I heard him put the phone down, and moments later Frank picked it up.

“Hey, Eddie.”

“What’s goin’ on, Frank?”

“We had somebody on the grounds last night,” Frank said. “A couple of my guys saw him near the house and chased him.”

“Catch him?”

“No, he got away.”

“How’s Marilyn?”

“She was a little shook up, but I convinced her that it had more to do with JFK’s visit than with her,” he said.

“Did she buy it?”

“I think so.”

“Do you buy it?”

“Not sure about that, buddy boy,” he said.

“Okay, I think Jerry and I will take a ride out there so I can talk to her.”

“That’s a good idea,” he said. “She depends on you a lot, Eddie. And when Marilyn starts depending on you, you’ve really got your hands full. Believe me, I know.”

“Okay, Frank. We should be there in a couple of hours.”

“Plan on eatin’ and spendin’ the night, pal,” Frank said. “No arguments.”

“Sure, Frank,” I said. “No arguments.”