That was why the folks down here had remained silent. And also why they had been stumbling the night Archer had seen them emerging from here. They must have been drugged during the day. At night there would be no one close enough to hear them.
He kept moving around until he reached the very back of the shelter. A bundle of blankets was on one of the benches. He moved closer and shone his light over it. He grabbed an edge of one blanket and pulled it away. And he did the same with another layer. Then he drew back.
Revealed was a pale hand, the veins underlying the skin waxy and still.
He knelt down and pulled away more coverings until a face was revealed. It was a mask of white and, like the hand, very much dead.
Well, somebody else had been driving the Bentley.
Because Peter Bonham was right here, in his own little chamber of horrors.
Archer pulled more of the blankets off him until the man’s fully clothed body was revealed. He had on a nice suit, the tie was blue, the shirt was white. And red.
Where the knife blade had gone in. Right into the heart, was Archer’s estimation. The hand wielding the blade knew just where to strike. Bonham’s death would have been pretty much immediate. A stopped heart halted everything else. Fast.
And Bernadette had gone off with her husband’s killer, Archer assumed. Of her own free will. Hell, she’d even gotten the garage door for the man. And it was a man, Archer knew. The knife wound was in the front. Bonham was a big, strong guy. Archer knew this; he’d fought the man on the beach. His wife hadn’t taken him like this. Archer knew one guy who could have.
And he had the scars to prove it.
He made his way out and over to the door into the house off the breezeway. He turned the knob and found it unlocked. He made a quick search and found that Bernadette’s closet had been largely emptied, as was a jewel case he found in a drawer.
He knew she had a valid passport because of the trip to France. Were they making for LA International right now?
He used the phone to call the LA County Sheriff’s Department and asked for Phil Oldham. Fortunately, he was on duty tonight. When he got on the phone Archer told him about finding the body.
“Jesus” was how Oldham broke the silence.
“Jesus isn’t going to help Peter Bonham. And I don’t care if you got pulled from the Bender case. You need to put out an all-points for the airport, train station, and bus depots, shipping ports, and all the highways. It’s Bernadette Bonham and Darren Paley you’re looking for.” He gave Oldham a description of them, the Bentley and the license plate. “I found out that they knew each other back in Reno. My take is that Paley hired Bender to find out if Bonham was cheating him on the dope supply spigot. Bender apparently did his job, only Bonham found out what he was up to and killed him. Paley then took his revenge on Bonham. Bonham’s wife showed her loyalties lay with Paley and not her dead hubby. Now they’re on the run together.”
“Okay, I’ll take care of all that, to hell with my pension.”
“You know Jake Nichols?”
“Yeah. He was a damn good PI. Real bad what happened to him.”
“He’s the reason Willie got on board this case. Jake and Willie are tight. And that SOB Darren Paley is really the guy who put Jake in that wheelchair.”
“That I didn’t know.”
“And Paley was the reason Willie almost died. So I want the guy real bad, Phil, real bad.”
“Okay, Archer, I hear you loud and clear. I can be there in about thirty minutes. You sit tight.”
“No, Phil. I can’t. I’ve got something else to check.”
“Archer, if you—”
“Now listen closely. On Bonham’s desk in his study I’m leaving a folder with pictures showing Bonham with the crates of dope and the hooded prisoners. Along with that is a lab report that analyzed some white powder I found in Bonham’s backyard. Turns out it was heroin. They probably dropped some of the stuff when they were bringing it in from the beach. Situated in the middle of the rear lawn is the bomb shelter. I left the hatch up so you can’t miss it. You’ll find more evidence down there along with Bonham’s body. And another thing — you need to do a raid on the Jade Lion in Chinatown.”
“That’s not my jurisdiction, Archer.”
“Which is why you need to get on the horn to LAPD, somebody you trust in narcotics and vice, and work with them. If the LA cops want some good ink in the dailies, this will do wonders. That truck was heading to the Jade. They sell dope out of there along with a lot of other rotten stuff that you boys in blue need to stop.”
“I can’t organize a raid tonight.”
“Then do it tomorrow night, but just do it. You’ll get a promotion and you can buy a new car and take the wife to Chasen’s all by yourself.”
He hung up before the detective could fire off another response.
Archer was in the Olds and down the canyon road in under three minutes.
He knew if he passed any prowlers they’d be looking for his Delahaye, not the dumpy Oldsmobile. Oldham would have assuredly told them that.
Sure enough, ten minutes later two county radio squad cars shot past him without even a look at the Olds as they headed to Las Flores.
Archer drove straight to the airport in LA, and was lucky enough to get a plane reservation that would deposit him in Reno around five in the morning. He made a call from an airport pay phone to Jake Nichols, who was fully awake, and told him about the latest developments. Then he filled the man in on exactly where he was going and why. He next called and woke up PI Jim Swinson in Reno and told him the same, and that he had booked a flight.
“Can you meet me at the airport?”
“I’ll be there,” said Swinson.
“What’s the word from your guy on the ground?”
“There’s activity, Archer. I’ll fill you in when you get here.”
Archer made one more call to a number that a certain someone had given him.
That certain someone answered in a sleepy voice, “Hello?”
“Sam?”
“Who is this?” asked Samantha Lourdes.
“Archer.”
“Archer! Do you have any idea what time it is?”
He could envision her sitting up in bed, in a lacy, sheer negligee maybe, and being all indignant. For some reason that made him smile. And he needed to smile right now or else he might pull his .38 and start shooting people. “Yeah, actually, I do. I’m feeling every minute of it.”
“What do you want?”
“Don’t go back to the Jade.”
“Did you really call to lecture me in the middle of the night about that?” she snapped at him. “Of all the crazy things—”
“I’m not generalizing, Sam. I’m being real specific. The cops are going to raid the Jade probably tomorrow night, just in case you were thinking of going. I wanted to warn you to stay away.”
She didn’t say anything for a few moments. “I actually was going tomorrow night.”
“Then you can stay home and read a detective novel instead of getting booked by LAPD for real.”
“What’s happened, Archer? Tell me.”
“That gal you pointed out in the photo?”
“The one who hooked up with Darren while we were married?”
“Yeah. She and Paley just murdered her husband in Malibu, and are right now legging it out of here.”
“Oh my God.”
“Yeah, I hear his name a lot lately, only he doesn’t seem to be showing up to do his job anymore. So don’t go back to the Jade, ever, okay? Paley has too much going on to worry about you anymore. You are off his gravy train, Sam.”
“All right, I promise, I won’t. And... thank you for the heads-up. What are you going to do now?”