Cicero's Dead (3 page)

“Fear can be a powerful control mechanism.”

“Yeah. I knew there was more to this visit and
suddenly Arnold grabs his face and squeezes his mouth together. You know,
puckered it up?”

“Richie’s?”

He nodded. “It looked like it hurt, but he didn’t
move. It was scary, dude. Then Arnold locks eyes with me and says,
‘As you can see, I like handsome young men
with sensitive features,’
and squeezes the last remaining drops of blood
out of Richard’s mouth, and still he doesn’t pull away, even though his eyes
were watering. I knew I was way out of my depth. I got mad. The son of a bitch
had no right to hurt him like that, but at the same time, I felt this peculiar
terror. You ever felt that, anger and terror, all rolled into one?”

“All the time. Not a good feeling.” To my surprise
I realized I was sweating even though the night was breezy and mild. My tape
recorder was whirring away in my pocket and I wondered what Brad would think
when I played it back to him.

“No, it’s not,” said Ron, embarrassed. “I wanted
to get them outta my place, but I was too scared to do anything in case this
Arnold dude had a gun, or maybe was good with Richie’s knife.”

“Yeah, I would’ve been too.”

Ron looked grateful for the lie.

“‘
Mr. Cera,’
sez
 
Arnold.
‘What do you think of Jade Lamont?’

“‘She’s very pretty. Cool.’

“
‘Do you
like fucking her?’

“I said, ‘Hold on, Man. I haven’t even seen her in
weeks.’

“
‘It’s come
to my attention that Ms. Lamont is trying to hurt Richard.’

“I was lost and told Arnold he was going to have
to explain himself.

“He goes,
‘Certainly.
Ms. Lamont has told Richard that she is going to press rape charges against
him, based on that time in Malibu when you forced Richard’s face down between
her--’
He stopped and cleared his throat.
‘--Womanly parts and then watched while he fucked her.’
”

I shivered. Something about this reminded me of
what I’d always heard about Hitler. The Big Lie approach to power mongering.
Always tell the big lie and it keeps everyone guessing.”

“This is pretty weird. Who is this guy?”

“He’s the very incarnation of evil. You should’ve
seen him. All the while he’s telling me this, he’s talking like he’s
Christopher Walken in ‘True Romance.’ It was freaky.”

“Great movie.”

“Yeah, anyway, I knew I was being blackmailed to
help them get to Jade.”

“But that doesn’t make any sense.”

“That asshole, Arnold, then tells me that if I
don’t help them find her, Richard’s prepared to swear under oath that I raped
him one night. Right here, in my place.”

“What?”

“I know, crazy.”

“Why do that when Jade hired me to find Richie?”

“You’re not too smart, are you?”

“I have my moments.”

“Arnold doesn’t give a crap about her or him. He
wants the whole ball’a wax, man. The empire.”

“But Richard’s got plenty of money. All Arnold has
to do is get him to fork some over, or give him power of attorney.”

“Not exactly. See, Jade’s already got that over
Richard’s end of the trust fund. He gets a certain amount each month, but
that’s it until such time as Jade, and the family lawyer, decide he’s mature
enough to handle it on his own. Considering his current condition, it could be
a cold day in hell before that happens.”

“How much money’re we talking about?”

“Enough to offset the national debt of a small
country.”

“That’s a lotta motivation.”

“Yep.”

“How did it end?”

“Arnold let’s Richie go, and kisses him gently. So
weird, dude.”

“And Richie didn’t say or do anything?”

“No. Arnold heads for the door, holding his hand.
He stops and looks at me, giving me that psycho death stare.”

“That’s it?”

“And sez,
‘48
hours,’
and leaves.”

A cat hurtled past us, startling us out of the
intensity of the moment. “Shit,” is all I could croak out, somewhat
embarrassed.

Ron dragged a nervous hand across his mouth and
took several deep breaths. We sat there for a while in silence, and when we’d
sufficiently calmed, got in his Civic and headed back to Milford’s. By now the
streets had emptied out as we drove through the mist, neon and soft air that
seemed to promise things it could never deliver.

Ron pulled into the empty slot a few cars from
mine, and kept the motor running.

“You’ve burned 24 of the 48. What’re you gonna
do?”

“Move. Tonight.”

We shook hands and I got out. He gave me one last
look, and pulled away into the night.

As we drove east on Melrose, I played back the
tape for Brad. I dropped down to 3rd and hung a left, and we listened as we
passed through downtown and Skid Row. Tent City was flourishing with its army
of lost souls. Some pushed shopping carts full of woe, while others dragged
themselves across the stained and littered asphalt. We passed my office and the
warehouses that stretch east toward the river. There’s a restaurant on Traction
Street, Abel’s Market Diner, tucked in between a couple of abandoned
warehouses. No one would know it was there unless they knew the area. It opens
at three a.m. and caters to the early crowd: cops, working men and insomniacs
drinking coffee, eating eggs, hash browns and Abel’s legendary blueberry
pancakes. The booths were half-full, mostly tradesmen and a few homeless types
nursing cups of coffee.

Brad asked, “What if Jade turns out to be the bad
guy?”

“We’re all bad guys.
 
It’s only a question of degree.”

It was 5:00 a.m. when we got back to my office.
It’s pretty basic but it does have a few good features. Some soul with
foresight had installed a hot plate, a small refrigerator and a shower. I asked
Brad to answer the phone and check my email.

I took a long, hot shower, trying to rinse off the
mounting layers of weariness. About 15 minutes later, I dressed and went into
the office.

“You’ve got three emails. One is from a woman
named Audrey, who says you need therapy. She also says to call her immediately.
The second is from Tony, who says something stinks.”

“And the third?”

“It’s from Bobby Moore, the guy you want to
introduce me to. He wants to know when you’re coming over.”

I called Audrey. She sounded sleepy but as soon as
she recognized my voice, she perked up.

“Sorry to call so early. I had a long night
prowling around Hollywood, got back to the office and saw your email.”

“That’s all right. Ramona is still asleep and
Tim’s in the shower.”

“How did your meeting go?”

“I didn’t connect with Miss Jade until 10 last
night. She claimed that they’d put her on a rush case at Waldrop & Hemsley,
and kept her working ‘til nine.”

“Do you believe her?”

“Not exactly, but I don’t understand why she works
at all though if she’s so wealthy.”

“Maybe she’s industrious.”

“Maybe. Anyway, I met her at her condo on
Wilshire. During the course of our conversation, I made several specific
observations. One, Jade is beautiful. So beautiful she brings out the lez in
me. I’ve got some lez you know.”

“We all do.”

“Two, she dresses very well. And not just the
usual designer stuff. The girl has taste.”

“I’m aware of that.”

“I’m not so sure you are. I don’t believe you can
tell Ann Taylor from Dolce and Gabana.
 
Three, she probably spends more money in a week than I make in a year.
How much was the retainer?”

“$10 K. But I guarantee you there’s more where
that came from.”

“Nice. Can I have a raise?”

I grinned.

“Right. Number four; I feel she’s all right. She
really does love her brother, and she may have even loved her parents. She has
that stricken, helpless look and five, they’re very, very rich and no, Richard
doesn’t use credit cards. He did have one of Jade’s, but she took it back once
he’d maxed it out. So now he’s allowed to draw up to $30K a month.”

I whistled softly. “That’s as much as some people
make in a year.”

“Exactly. So about my raise--“

“--Who makes these decisions?”

“The administrator, James Halladay. He’s their
lawyer, but Jade is the trustee. Do you know him?”

“I know of him. He used to represent ‘made guys’
way back in the day, and now probably represents their replacements. Did she
say anything about having a boyfriend?”

“There’s no one currently, but I haven’t got to
the best part. There’s something weird about her father’s death. Maybe her
mother’s death too, but that’s harder to figure. When Cicero Lamont was run
down, Jade was on vacation with her friends in the Austrian Alps and here’s the
odd part, she wasn’t informed until three days after his death. She flew back
immediately, just in time for the memorial service, which was at Forest Grove.
Apparently Jade’s mother had Halladay’s office make all the arrangements. It
was a small service, family and close friends only.”

“Who contacted her?”

“Halladay.”

“Why not Richard or her mom?”

“You tell me. And, they had the body cremated
because it was mangled beyond recognition.”

“That’s strange. It’s usually easy to identify
hit-and-run victims.”

“Jade was contacted by two uniformed officers from
the Mission Hills Division the evening she returned. They informed her that
sometimes this type of accident is never solved.”

“Did she get their names and badge numbers?”

“Uh-huh. Jim Fishburne and Stanley Koncak. They
stayed in touch with her, daily reports at first, but it’s dwindled as there’s
nothing new to report.”

“Should be easy to trace, if they exist.”

“Nick, are you saying that Cicero was not killed
in a hit-and-run?”

“I have no reason to believe he wasn’t, but I just
had an interesting conversation with a witness who shed some new light on the
situation.”

“So what do you think happened?”

“I don’t think. I just collect evidence. Once I
have enough evidence, then I start thinking.”

“Okay, asshole. I just don’t believe it’s at all
surprising that Cicero would get whacked.
 
He was a major narcotics dealer and undoubtedly had enemies. Could be he
got popped first, and then they made it look like a hit-and-run.”

“Was there a coroner’s report?”

“I didn’t ask for it, but there has to be.”

“I’ll check on it.”

“What is suspect is that everyone waited to inform
her that her father was dead.”

“Correct.”

“When do you sleep?” Brad yawned.

I shrugged. “Gets pretty hectic sometimes,
especially at the beginning of a case, but it sure beats a real job.”

“Such as?”

“I dunno. Never had one.”

“In any event, you don’t happen to have a bed
around here, do you?”

We pulled an air mattress and a couple of blankets
out of the closet behind my desk, and Brad sacked out on the floor.

I called Tony, leaving a message that I was in the
office and available to meet, and then extracted a 24” by 36” inch piece of
white poster board from the closet. Clearing some desk space, I went to work
creating a red ink time line.

Late summer
2006: Ron Cera meets Richard and Jade Lamont.

Summer 2006
to July 2007: Ron and Jade engage in sexual relationship.

July 2007:
Jade disengages from Ron. Ron remains friends with Richard.

August 2007:
Ron spurns Richard’s advances.

August 16,
2007: Cicero Lamont killed in hit-and-run on Sepulveda Boulevard in Mission
Hills.

August 28,
2007: Dominique Dominguez Lamont commits suicide in San Francisco.

Late September/October
2007: Richard vanishes out of Jade’s life.

October 24,
2007: Richard and Arnold Clipper confront Ron. Jade contacts N.C.

I had just finished the dates when the phone rang.
It was Tony. “Nick, meet me at Philippe’s.”

“When?”

“In 30.”

“Okay.”

Brad was stretched out on the air mattress with
the blankets pulled over him but was apparently awake. “Where are we going?”

“I thought you were sleeping?”

“I was until the phone rang.”

For the next 25 minutes I wrote notes below each
date and connected them with arrows.

August 16,
2007: Cicero Lamont…

Obvious
Perps:

1)
Unconnected bad driver who panicked or didn’t want to be caught.

2) Rival
narcotics crew.

3)
Traitorous member(s) of Cicero’s crew.

4) Enemy
unconnected to drug trade.

Question:
Why was Jade not notified until three days after Cicero’s death? Why was Jade
contacted by Halladay, rather than by her mother or Richard?

There were lots of possible explanations but I
didn’t like any of them. A strong woman like Dominique would certainly have
contacted her daughter. Furthermore, someone had located Richard or he couldn’t
have been at Cicero’s memorial. I made a mental note to talk to James Halladay.
If it pointed at a cover-up, the question would be why? Arnold Clipper could
easily be involved with Richard, for any number of bad reasons, but might have
had nothing to do with Cicero’s death. The extreme mangling of the body,
though, was weird and could be the work of a psychotic.

I moved on to Dominique’s death.

August 28,
2007: Dominique: Suicide or murder? If suicide, why? Jade is skeptical of
suicide theory.

If murder,
why? Obvious motivation is “the money.” With Cicero out of the way, the list of
heirs grows shorter. Perp could be the same as in the death of Cicero. Could
Arnold be responsible for both deaths?
 
Seems unlikely. Psychotic killers, on the other hand, can be fiendishly
clever. No reason to believe Arnold is a psychotic killer, other than Ron
Cera’s observations. Where is Richie?