any nasty surprises so far—apparently Moody’s crazy
but not stupid. But she’s mega-pissed about the
whole thing. She called the D.A. and ordered him
to get someone on it. He dumped it on Foothill
Division.”
“Who said they’d been looking for him already.”
“Right.” He looked surprised. I told him about
Milo’s call to Fordebrand.
“Very impressive, Alex. More?” He picked up
the bottle. I declined a refill. Good Scotch is hard
to resist but talking about Moody reminds me of
the importance of staying clear-headed.
“Anyway, Foothill claims to be looking for him
seriously but they think he’s gone into Angeles
Crest.”
“Wonderful.”
Angeles Crest National Forest is 600,000 acres of
wilderness bordering the city to the north. The
Moodys had lived in nearby Sunland, and the forest
would be familiar territory to Richard, a natural
.place to escape. Much of the acreage was
impenetrable except on foot and a man could stay
lost there for as long as he pleased. It was a haven
for hikers, campers, naturalists, and climbers; as
well as for packs of outlaw bikers who partied all
166 Jonathan Kel/erman
night and sacked out in caves And its ravines and
washes were favorite dumping spots for bodies.’
Just before we’d scuffled in the court parking lot,
Moody’d talked about surviving in the wilderness,
,clearly including his children in the ,fantasy. I let
Mai know that.
He nodded .grimly.
“I’ve instructed Darlene to take the kids and get
out of town for a while. Her folks have a farm up
near Davis. They’re leaving today.”
“Won’t he be able to figure that out?”
“If he comes out in the open. I’m hoping he
decides to play mountain man for a while.”
He threw up his arms.
“It’s the best I can do, Alex.”
The conversation was taking an unsettling turn. I
got up to go and we shook hands. At the door I
asked him if he’d ever heard of a lawyer named
Norman Matthews.
“Stormin’ Norman? That’s a golden oldie. I went
up against him at least a dozen times. Biggest
ballbreaker in Beverly Hills,”
“He was a divorce lawyer?”
-“The best. Super-aggressive, had a reputation for
getting his clients what they wanted no matter who
he offended in the process. Handled lots of Hollywood
dissolutions with big bucks at stake and got to
thinking of himself as a star. Very image conscious–an
Excalibur and a Corniche, conspicuous clothes,
blonds on each arm, blew Downhill latakia through a
thousand-dollar meerschaum.”
“He’s a bit more spiritual nowadays.”
“Yeah, I heard. Got a weird group down on the
border. Calls himself Grand Noble Poobah or something
like that.”
BLOOD Test
“Noble Matthias. Why’d he leave law?”
He laughed uneasilY.
“You might say it left him. This was five or six
years ago. It was in the papers. I’m surprised you
don’t remember. Matthews was representing the
wife of some playwright. The guy had just hit it
big–a smash on Broadway–after ten years of eating
air sandwiches. At that point the wife found
another loser to mother and filed. Matthews got her
everything–a huge chunk of royalties from the play
and a healthy percentage of everything the guy
would bring in for the next ten years. It was a
publicized case and there was a press conference
scheduled on the courtroom steps, Matthews and
the wife were headed there when hubby came out
of nowhere with a twenty-two. He shot them both
in the head. She died but Matthews squeaked by
after half a year of touch and go, Then he dropped
out of sight, resurfaced a couple of years later as a
maharishi. Your basic California story.”
I thanked him. for the information and turned to
leave.
“Hey,” he asked, “why the interest?”
“Nothing important. His name came up in conversation.”
“Stormin’ Norman,” he smiled. “Sanctification
through brain damage.”‘
13
THE NEXT morning, Milo knocked on my door and
woke me at six forty-five. The sky was alley-cat
gray. It had rained all night and the air smelled like
damp flannel. The glen harbored a relentless chill
that seeped into my bones the moment I opened the
door.
He wore a thin shiny black raincoat over a wrinkled