You're nobody 'til somebody kills you

Forty-three

I sat on the sofa in the guesthouse, waiting for the phone to ring. I wasn’t looking forward to driving to Encino to see Kay Gable. It had been many months since Clark’s death, but that still didn’t mean she would easily talk about it. And what if she did blame Marilyn? How would I tell Marilyn that?

The phone rang at that point, making me jump. At least I could stop thinking about Gable and Marilyn for a while.

“Mr. Gianelli?” Otash asked.

“Just call me Eddie,” I said. “It’ll be easier.”

“Well, I don’t know how much of this is going to be easy, Eddie.”

“What do you mean?”

“We’ve got a dead body on our hands.”

“What? Who?”

“That desk clerk,” Otash said. “Max Johnson?”

“He’s dead?”

“Yes.”

“How?”

“He was strangled in his apartment.”

“That dive we looked at?”

“No, his real apartment-at least, the one where he was sleeping.”

“How did you find him?”

“I’m a detective, remember?”

“I’ll need a little more than that, Mr. Otash.”

“Call me Fred.”

“You can explain the whole thing to me when I see you, Fred. I should move to a pay phone.”

“We’re not going to talk any state secrets here.”

“Okay, what’s next?”

“Well, I’m going to have to call that detective buddy of yours, Stanze.”

“You haven’t called the police yet?”

“No, I called you first, Mr.-Eddie. You’re my client. My first duty is to you.”

“Okay, so call Stanze,” I said. “Will you be telling him that you called me?”

“Of course, and as soon as I tell him I’m working for you, he’s going to want to see you.”

“I’ll be ready,” I said.

“How are things going with Miss Monroe?”

“She’d like to come home.”

“Well, in light of this I’d say she should wait a little while longer.”

“I agree. Have you found out anything else?”

“When I located Mr. Johnson I thought he would lead me to your friend,” Otash said. “It looks like I’ll have to start all over again.”

“From where?”

“That’s the question,” he said. “Look, Stanze will have you in after he talks to me. Might be tonight, might be tomorrow. We’ll talk again after that.”

“Okay.”

“Meanwhile, watch your backs. Somebody out there is not afraid to kill.”

“Thanks,” I said. “I’ll talk to you soon.”

“Make sure you don’t hold anything back from the police,” he added.

“That’ll be easy,” I said. “I don’t know anything.”

When Jerry came back in he looked like he had something on his mind. I must have looked the same way.

“You go first, Mr. G.”

“Let’s step outside.”

When we were behind the guesthouse I told him about Otash’s call.

“I guess he must be pretty good if he found the guy,” Jerry said. “Too bad he found him dead.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “What’d you find?”

“Some gouges on the back door lock,” Jerry said. “Somebody got in, or tried to get in.”

“None on the front?”

“No.”

“What about this building?”

“No, nothin’ here.”

“Those scratches weren’t there before, Jerry?” I asked.

He looked embarrassed. “I can’t say, Mr. G.,” he replied. “I didn’t look before.”

“That’s okay,” I said.

I hadn’t cleared the table yet. Jerry’s cardboard container had one French fry left in it that he must have somehow missed. He snagged it, then started cleaning the table.

“What are we gonna do now?” he asked.

“I guess we better wait for Detective Stanze to call after he talks to Otash.”

“What are we gonna tell ‘im?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “Maybe we’ll just wait for him to ask some questions, see what he wants to know. About the only thing I don’t want to tell him is where Marilyn is.”

We didn’t even talk about that in the guesthouse, just in case.