Milo said, “Could we talk to your mom?”
“She’s gone. Four years ago, cancer. She was one of the ladies you see at the slots. Wheelchair-bound, smoking, and feeding nickels.”
I said, “Brad goes by ‘Dowd.’ Was he adopted legally?”
“Don’t know. Maybe Amelia let him use the name to avoid uncomfortable questions.”
“Or,” said Milo, “she wasn’t such a witch.”
“I guess,” said Marcia Peaty. “Mom could be intolerant.”
I said, “Captain Dowd didn’t mind another child?”
“Captain Dowd wasn’t a real tough guy. Just the opposite. Anything Amelia wanted, she got.”
“Did your mother ever say anything about how Brad fared psychologically?”
“Her name for him was ‘the Troublemaker’ and she warned me away from him, too. She said unlike Billy he was smart, but always lying and stealing. Amelia sent him away several times to boarding schools and military academies.”
Persimmons and more. Alfred Beamish had pegged Brad’s behavior but never uncovered the boy’s origins.
Mansions, country clubs, rented elephants at birthday parties. A mother who really wasn’t. Who fancied herself a performer.
I said, “How did Amelia Dowd channel her interest in acting?”
“What do you mean?”
“All those performance dreams that never came to pass. Sometimes people live through their kids.”
“Was she a stage-door mom? Brad did tell me she tried to get the kids on TV. As a group- singing and dancing. He said he could carry a tune but the others were tone-deaf.”
The photo-covered wall of the PlayHouse theater floated into my head. Among the famous faces, a band I hadn’t recognized.
Kiddy quartet of mop-haired youngsters…the Kolor Krew. “What was the name of the group?”
“He never said.”
“When did all this take place?”
“Let’s see…Brad was about fourteen when he told me, so it must’ve been right around then. He laughed about it but he sounded bitter. Said Amelia dragged them to talent agents, made them sit for photos, bought them guitars and drums they never learned to play, gave them voice lessons that were useless. Even before that she’d tried to get Nora and Billy Three jobs as actors.”
“Not Brad?”
“He told me Amelia only included him in the band because the other two were hopeless.”
“He call her that?” I said. “Amelia?”
She thought. “I never heard him call her ‘Mom.’ ”
“Nora and Billy have any success at all, individually?”
“I think Nora got some dinky modeling jobs, department store stuff, kiddy clothing. Bill Three got nothing. He wasn’t smart enough.”
“Brad told you all this,” said Milo. “You and he talk often?”
“Just during those parties.”
“What about as adults?”
“Except for one face-to-face twelve years ago, it’s been the phone and not often. Maybe once every couple of years.”
“Who calls who?”
“He calls me. Christmas greetings, that kind of thing. Mostly showing off how rich he is, telling me about some new car he bought.”
“Twelve years ago,” I said. “That’s pretty precise.”
Marcia Peaty fooled with her napkin. “There’s a reason for that and it might be important to you guys. Twelve years ago Brad got questioned on a Vegas case. I was doing hot cars, a D from headquarters calls me, says a person of interest is tossing my name around, claiming we’re kissing cousins. I find out who it is, call Brad. It’s been a while since we’ve talked but he turns on the charm like it’s yesterday, great to hear from you, cuz. He insists on taking me to a big dinner at Caesars. Turns out he’d been living in Vegas for a year, doing some kind of real estate investment, never thought to get in touch. And once he didn’t need me I didn’t hear from him for seven more years- Christmas, to brag.”
“About what?”
“Being back in L.A., living well and running the family real estate business. He invited me to visit, said he’d give me a spin in one of his cars. As in he has a lot of them.”
“Platonic invitation?” I said.
“Hard to say with Brad. I chose to take it as platonic.”
Milo said, “What kind of case was he questioned on?”
“Missing girl, dancer at the Dunes, never found. Brad had dated her, was the last person to see her.”
“He ever go beyond person of interest?”
“Nope. No evidence of a crime was ever uncovered. Brad said she told him she wanted to try for something better and left for L.A. That happens a lot in our town.”
I said, “Something better as in breaking into acting?”
Marcia Peaty smiled. “What else is new?”
“Remember this girl’s name?” said Milo.
“Julie something, I can get it for you- or you can call yourself. The primary D was Harold Fordebrand, he retired but he’s still in Vegas, listed in the book.”
“I used to work with an Ed Fordebrand.”
“Harold said he had a brother who did L.A. Homicide.”
“No evidence of a crime,” said Milo, “but what did Harold think about Brad?”
“Didn’t like him. Too slick. Called him ‘Mr. Hollywood.’ Brad wouldn’t take a polygraph but there’s no crime against that.”
“What was his reason?”
“Just didn’t want to.”
“He get lawyered up?”
“Nope,” she said. “Cooperated fully, real relaxed.”
“Mr. Hollywood,” I said. “Maybe some of Amelia’s aspirations rubbed off.”
“He actually learned how to act?” she said. “I never thought of it that way, but maybe. Bradley can definitely tell you what you want to hear.”
I said, “Those birthday parties Amelia threw. Were any of them for him?”
“Nope, just for Billy Three and Nora. That had to suck but he never showed any anger. They were great parties, rich kid parties, I always looked forward to them. We’d drive up from Downey with my mother complaining about ‘those people’ being vulgar and my father giving that little smile of his when he knew better than to argue.”
“Brad showed no resentment at all?”
“Just the opposite, he was always smiling and joking, would take me around that huge house, show me his hobbies, making wiseass comments about how lame the party was. He is a few years older than me, was cute in that blond surfer way. To be honest, back then I had a crush on him.”
“He ridiculed the parties,” I said.
“Mostly he poked fun at Amelia, how everything was a big production with her. She was always trying to time stuff precisely, like a stage show. She did tend to go over the top.”
“Rented elephant,” I said.
“That was something,” she said. “How’d you hear about it?”
“A neighbor told us.”
“The grumpy old guy?” She laughed. “Yeah, I can see why it would stick in his mind, the smell alone. It was for Billy Three’s thirteenth. I remember thinking this is baby stuff, he’s way too old for this. Except he was younger mentally and seemed to be digging it. All the kids were digging it, too, because the elephant was messing the street big time, we’re whooping and pointing at pounds of stuff coming out, holding our noses, you know? Meanwhile, Amelia’s looking ready to faint. Doing the whole Marilyn Monroe platinum-blond thing, tight silk dress, tons of makeup, running after the animal trainer on these gigantic spike heels, everyone’s waiting for her to step in elephant doo. Real tight dress, busting out of it. She was about twenty pounds past her prime.”
Milo took out the photos, showed her Michaela and Tori Giacomo’s head-shots.
“Nice-looking girls,” she said. “They still that cute or are we talking bad news?”