“I told her she should, but Eleanor refused. Maybe she thought he was going to come back to her, as if he ever would. He was a thorough scoundrel. I could see that from the first.”
“And she never had him declared dead?”
“Oh, I forgot that part. He left her a letter at his lodgings in Brazil. They kept the letter all that time and gave it to her when she arrived. I guess Nathaniel paid them to do it. He told her of his plans to vanish and start anew. So she had no grounds to declare him dead, because he wasn’t. Makes my blood boil to this day.”
“Did he give a reason for wanting out?”
“If he did, she never shared it with me. I imagine he believed the grass would be greener somewhere else. Maybe he found some young senorita to tango with. As I said, over a decade older than Eleanor. He probably needed young women around him to boost his ego. A scoundrel through and through.”
“When was the last time you heard from your daughter?”
“She sent me a Christmas card and a check.”
“A check?”
“Yes. She sends me a check every month. And the amounts have gone dramatically up over the last eighteen months or so. She explained that she had gotten a huge raise. I suppose writers in Hollywood make a great deal of money. And it is certainly very welcome to me. Mr. Lamb served his country honorably, but he never made much money.”
“Would you mind telling me how much she sends you each month now?”
“I suppose it doesn’t matter. A thousand dollars, just like clockwork.”
“So twelve thousand a year?”
“Yes, as I said, she’s done very well out there.”
“Yes, she has. Better than most, in fact. When was the last time you spoke with her on the phone?”
“Oh, about two weeks ago.”
“She seemed okay?”
“Oh, yes, fine. Now, will you please tell me what’s going on out there?”
“I would if I knew. But I promise as soon as I find out anything I will let you know.”
“Have I told you anything helpful?”
“You can’t even begin to imagine how helpful you’ve been.”
Archer hung up the phone and leaned back against the wall. He took the picture out of his pocket and looked down at it. An older Nathaniel Sommers stared back at him.
So, Eleanor Lamb and Peter Bonham were married. And apparently still are.
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.”