Kehoe said, “Clayton sometimes helps me clean up so I tip him. But the owners don’t know. And don’t think I do that for everyone.”
“If you did, we wouldn’t think less of you, Marty.”
“Whatever.”
“Marty, you’re obviously a stand-up guy with a big heart. You roomed with Paul and now he’s been murdered. No one suspects you of anything. We need people to give us information. Without that, we’re screwed, and so far on Paul’s case we’re super-screwed.”
Kehoe’s lips folded inward, emphasizing the size of his chin.
He said, “Whatever, okay. But it’s no big deal.”
“Thanks, Marty. Now what did you want to tell us?”
“Paul,” said Kehoe. “He wasn’t a good person.”
We coaxed Kehoe from behind the bar and over to one of the tables and sat down facing him.
Milo smiled and said, “Go on, Marty.”
“We used to room together,” said Kehoe. “At first it was okay, then I learned about him and knew I had to get out of there. Problem was I couldn’t afford my own place. But as soon as I could, I was out of there.”
Milo said, “How long ago are we talking?”
Kehoe gave the question serious consideration. “I think... we started... like four years ago? I left like two years ago?”
“And he’s owed you money all that time.”
“Yes, sir.”
“May I ask how much?”
“A lot,” said Kehoe. “Like eighteen hundred dollars. Actually, seventeen hundred eighty-five.”
“That is a lot,” said Milo.
“Not in one bunch, he’d ask for twenty, fifty at a time, then a hundred, then fifty, even ten. That kind of thing. When I’d ask him for it back he’d tell me to keep a record so we’d both know. So I did. That’s how I know.”
“He pay any of it back?”
Kehoe shook his head.
“So how’d you guys meet?”
“We were both at the Roxy, working the door. Then we found out we had both done stunt work. I stopped because I tore my ACL but Paul did a little more. He was even in a couple of movies but he didn’t get paid much.”
“You do any acting?”
“Nah,” said Kehoe. “I don’t like being looked at. After my ACL surgery, I started doing this and that’s what I still do.”
“Tending bar.”
“And waiting tables. Busing and maintenance when there’s nothing else. Here I work the bar and do maintenance. Caitlin says I should go to school and study landscaping.”
“You like plants?”
“Those orchids you get at the supermarket?” said Kehoe. “I get a lot of them to rebloom. Caitlin can’t do it, she says I’ve got a knack.”
“Sounds like you’ve got a green thumb, Marty.”
Kehoe shrugged.
“So where’d you and Paul live when you were rooming together?”
“Culver City. We got a sublet near Fox Hills, some old guy whose family put him in a home and they wanted rent money. Two bedrooms, two baths.”
“Nice.”
“Not really,” said Kehoe. “Actually it was a dump but we could afford it. I still live there. Not in the apartment, near Culver City. Mar Vista, me and Caitlin have a nice place. She’s a massage therapist.”
“Sounds great,” said Milo. “So what bothered you about Paul?”
“A lot, sir. But not all at once. It was like...”
I said, “It took time to get the whole picture.”
“Exactly, yes, sir.”
“Paul could behave badly.”
“Oh yes,” said Kehoe. “Real bad... okay... it was like this... We both liked girls. We met them at the Roxy or the Viper Club, any other doors we’d work and sometimes... nothing weird, sometimes someone would like you and you got to... recreate.”
“Sure,” I said. “Makes total sense.”
“So that was it. For me. A couple of dates, one of them, a nice girl named Jacqui, we dated for like half a year. But Paul... how do I say this... Paul liked the girls too much.”
His eyes dropped to the tabletop. He’d left the rag on the bar, looked at his hand and used it to simulate wiping. Faster and faster.
I said, “Paul came on too strong?”
“Yeah. Yes, sir. You could say that.”
Milo pulled out his pad and wrote.
Kehoe said, “You need to do that?”
“I do, Marty, but don’t worry, it won’t mention you. So how did Paul come on strong?”
“It was...” said Kehoe. “Okay. Like, we’d be working a door? And after closing there’d be some girls hanging around? Mostly I’d be tired and want to go home. Not Paul, he was always looking. He’d... sometimes bring them home.”
His lips folded inward again, pumping the big chin upward. It lowered as he released his lips. Press, release, over and over, like a die-stamping machine.
I said, “Paul would bring them home and...”
Final release. Trembling lips.
Marty Kehoe said, “Sometimes they wouldn’t be awake.”
“When he brought them home?”
“Both times,” said Kehoe. “Bringing them in and bringing them out. He’d carry them out. If I saw it, I’d say what’s going on, dude, and he’d laugh and say, ‘I did her so good she fell asleep.’ ”
One hand kept frantically wiping. The other covered his eyes.
I said, “They didn’t just look asleep.”
“They looked... okay, yes, sir, they looked out of it. If I saw it I’d say, ‘Is she okay?’ and Paul would laugh and say, ‘She’s fine, what’re you, a fucking EMT?’ Then he’d carry her out.”
“Did you ever find out what happened to them?”
Kehoe lowered the shielding hand but avoided eye contact. “I should have. When I read what he did to that girl, it hit me. I was like one of those... people who pretend to be moral but they don’t go the extra step, you know? Caitlin says it wasn’t my fault, what could I do? But maybe I could’ve. I don’t know.”
Milo said, “Any idea where Paul would take them?”
“I mean it didn’t happen all the time, some of them were okay,” said Kehoe. “They’d come out in the morning and he’d give them an energy bar or something and call them an Uber.”
“But others got carried out in the middle of the night.”
Slow nod. “Yes, sir.”
“Those women,” said Milo, “where did he take them?”
“I don’t know, sir. Honestly. If I asked, he’d laugh. One time, it was bugging me, seeing him carry them and they’re looking so out of it, I kind of demanded it. ‘Where are you taking her, dude?’ His face got all red, he put her down on the couch — more like dropped her — and he was in my face and his fists were up. I put mine up and told him, ‘Go ahead, dude, that won’t change the question.’ I knew I could handle him, had taken him down in an arm wrestle plus I knew some mixed martial arts. And he knew it, too. So he laughed — he laughed a lot, he was always laughing but not at things I thought were funny — he laughed and said, ‘You worry like an old woman. I’m taking her home, okay? Door-to-door service. Now shut the fuck up and go back to bed.’ So I did.”
Milo said, “How old were the women he brought home?”
“Young,” said Kehoe. “What you get in clubs.”
“Did he have any racial preferences?”
“Did he dig Asians or something like that? No, sir, they were all types. He’d laugh — he’d tell me, ‘I’m the fucking United Nations. They’ve got pussies, they get membership.’ ”
I said, “You suspected he was drugging them.”
“Why would they be knocked out like that just from... no way. Doing it doesn’t do that to you.”
“What drugs did you see in Paul’s possession?”
“Just weed. We both smoked. A lot. We drank also. I don’t do any of that anymore.” He glanced at the bar. “Makes my job easier.”