Leon sucked in his breath. His cheek twitched.
“First I think he’s listening, then suddenly, he swells up- I swear you could see him inflate, like he’s hooked up to a bicycle pump. All red in the face, veins bulging, screaming that I’m a murderer.”
A longer tremor, snakelike, coursed from Leon’s brow down to his chin. His lips trembled.
“That’s when I realize he’s nuts. Last summer he was freaking out because she was pregnant, couldn’t wait for her to get rid of it. Now he’s screaming for his kid. I try to calm him down, he grabs my hair, yanks my head back, suddenly he’s got a gun out and he’s jamming it against my throat, grinding. It hurt like hell. He starts talking in this insane whisper about how he’s going to blow my tongue out for lying. Finally, I manage to talk him down.”
“What deal did you make with him?” said Petra.
Leon didn’t answer.
“I’m sure you’re a persuasive fellow, Lyle, but charm alone wouldn’t talk a guy like Selden down.”
Leon stared straight ahead.
Mac said, “You did something you’re ashamed of. We can all live with that if this sad story leads somewhere.”
Leon tightened up again.
“The deal was,” he said, “that I’d let him have another go at Marcella. So he could knock her up again. Have his fucking baby.”
No one spoke. The Caddy felt hot and close. Leon’s cinnamon cologne had turned sour, polluted by fear-sweat.
He said, “I never intended to follow through. We made an appointment, for the following night, and the idiot left looking happy. The moment I was sure he was really gone, I packed all our stuff out of there, picked up the girls at the Troubador, and left.”
“Where’d you go?” said Petra.
“Another place.”
“Where?”
“We have places,” said Leon.
“What kind of places?”
“Houses, apartments, short-term rentals.”
“Give us an address, Mr. Leon, or face a Hindering an Investigation charge.”
Leon twisted to face her. “I call you and I’m hindering?”
“You call us and tell us a self-aggrandizing story.”
“I tell you how I screwed up and it’s self-aggrandizing?”
“Stop echoing.”
Leon said, “That’s what shrinks do and it works.”
Petra got in his face. “You’re not a shrink! Give us an address now!”
“Okay, okay… I took them to a place in Hollywood.” He recited an address on North McCadden. “If you go there, it’ll be vacant. I’m scared as hell, living out of my car.”
The sympathy ploy. She said, “Then I guess you shouldn’t drive too far.”
“Listen to me- ” He touched her wrist. She glared and he pulled back. “Selden won’t let go of this. You saw what he did to Marcella. To those other kids. On top of that, I don’t know where Sandy is. The day after Marcella was killed, she disappeared. All she had to do was stay put in the apartment for one day, but when I got back she was gone.”
“Back from where?”
“I had business to take care of.”
“What kind of business?”
“Getting some cash together, what’s the difference? The plan was for Sandy to wait and then we’d leave L.A. Instead, she split on her own.” Leon’s eyes shut. “I’m thinking, somehow she got spotted by Selden or one of his homeboys.”
“Selden’s everywhere?”
“He’s like a mad dog on scent. The thing that scares me is I don’t know how much Marcella told him. About where we stay, what we do.”
“Maybe Sandra figured it was smarter not to stick around with you.”
“No,” said Leon. “No way. She didn’t take anything with her. Not her clothes or her frog- she’s got a stuffed frog she sleeps with every night. I got it for her when she was little, told her it came from her mother. No way would she leave without it.”
“She have any money?”
“I always let her keep some in her purse. But not much. A hundred bucks, a hundred fifty.”
Enough for a bus ticket.
Leon said, “I’m scared she left for a short while, got abducted.”
“Left for what?”
Leon hesitated. “Sandra had gotten into stuff.”
“Drug stuff?”
He nodded. Downcast, every bit the failed parent. Then Petra remembered: The Players saw themselves as performers.
“Which drugs?”
“Weed, pills.”
Petra said, “So you’re figuring she went somewhere to score dope, got spotted by Selden.”
“Had to be. For all I know her source was someone who knew Selden and tipped him off.”
“You’re making him sound like the Godfather.”
“It had to go down that way,” Leon insisted. “There’s no other explanation.”
“Unless you killed Marcella. Sandra, too.”
The accusation didn’t ruffle Leon. “Why,” he said quietly, “would I do that?”
“Maybe there’s more to your relationship with the girls than you’ve told us.”
“Ask anyone,” he said. “Anyone who knows.”
“Should I ask Robert Leon?”
“You can try.”
“Meaning he won’t talk to me.”
“Robert will talk, but he won’t tell you anything.”
“You visited him six weeks ago,” said Petra. “Was that to give him a report on the state of the business? How well you were taking care of the girls?”
“We’re family. I visit.”
“What does Robert think about Marcella’s murder?”
“He’s not happy,” said Leon. “No one is.”
“That put you in additional danger?”
Leon shook his head. “Not physically. I told you, we’re not violent.”
“Not physically, but…”
Leon gazed at the Caddy’s dome light. “Financially. I’m screwed. I’m going to have to leave.”
“The Players.”
“I messed up too severely to be allowed to stay. That’s why I’m living out of my car. I can’t stay in any of their properties anymore. Which is fine, it’s time for a change. I don’t even want to be in California. Too crowded.”
Mac said, “You’re very much going to be in California. Right here in L.A., friend. Material witness.”
Leon nodded, dropped his head. “I knew this might happen but I had to come forward.”
“In the interests of justice,” said Petra.
“In the interest of getting the monster who murdered my niece and probably my cousin.”
Before he gets to you.
Leon said, “If you ever catch him and need a live witness, don’t lock me up.”
“Stop being so dramatic,” said Petra. “We’ll put you somewhere safe.” Winging that one, movie stuff. She had no authority to make the promise.
“Sure,” said Leon. “Sure, that makes me feel so comforted.”
Mac said, “Cut to the chase. Where can we find Selden?”
“Marcella told me he lived in the Valley. Panorama City. Went back and forth between there and Venice. If your gang people don’t have their heads totally up their asses, they’ll have files on him.”
The Valley to Venice route, and something else Leon had said early, tweaked something in Petra’s consciousness.
“Selden doesn’t look like a gangbanger. How so?”
“No tattoos and he’s a fat-boy- soft. He told Marcella he went to college for at least a year, some government-funded gang-rehab thing. Maybe he did, when you first meet him he comes across not-stupid.”
“He into photography?” said Petra.
Leon tensed up tighter than ever. Struggled to make eye contact with Petra. “You’ve got him?”
“Tell me about the photography.”
Leon licked his lips. “That’s him. Carries around a camera, claims to be taking pictures. That’s how he hooked up with Marcella in the first place. Told her she was beautiful, wanted her to model. If she’d had any self-awareness, she’d have known he was bullshitting her. Sandy, that would’ve been a different story. She’s got great bones. And with black and white you couldn’t see the yellow in her eyes.”