“Now?” Maxine said. “I couldn’t possibly.”
“We have to, Maxine. There are bodies up there. We don’t want to be accused of murder.”
“They’re going to think we’re all crazy,” Maxine commented.
“Well, that’s easily solved,” Jerry said. “We’ll bring them up here, and they can see it all for themselves. That’ll change their minds.”
“Suppose they do think we’re responsible?” Maxine said. “People like to point fingers in this damn town.”
“Well they won’t be pointing any fingers at us,” Tammy said. We’ll explain.”
“Explain?” Maxine said, “How the hell will we ever explain?”
“We’ll start at the beginning and go on until we’re done. We’ve got nothing to hide.”
“There’ll be no end to it,” Maxine said. “Now Todd’s dead, the press is going to be all over us. They’re going to be digging up every sordid little story about him, whether it’s true or not. They’ll print any piece of garbage that floats down the sewer. It’s going to go on for months. And you think in the middle of all this the truth is going to be heard? Forget it. It’s going to be a circus.”
“You don’t have to be a part of the circus,” Jerry said. “None of us do. We can just say no, and walk away. Let them write whatever they want to write. They’re going to do it anyway.”
“True enough,” Maxine sighed. “I just wanted to try and guard his reputation.”
“Maybe if you’d guarded him a little better when he was still around we wouldn’t be in this mess,” Tammy said. She caught Maxine’s reflection in the mirror; the corners of her mouth turned down in misery. “I’m sorry,” Tammy said. “Maybe that was a bit sharp.”
“No,” Maxine replied. “I let him down. He needed me and I walked in the opposite direction. Mea culpa.”
“What does that mean?”
“I’m responsible?” Maxine said. “And I am. Don’t think I don’t know it.”
Her reply brought an end to the exchange. They drove on in silence until they reached Langley Road, which in turn brought them on to Doheny Drive, and finally down onto Sunset Boulevard.
It was a busy intersection, the lights slow. They had to wait through three changes, creeping closer to the main tide of traffic; but there was a simple contentment for all three in sitting in the car and watching the buses and the messenger bikes and the Beverly Hills’ Rolls Royces drive on past. Life going on, in other words, in its usual way. People going east, people going west, all oblivious to the fact that just a short drive from this loud, bright place was a cleft in the rock of the City of Angels which was deep enough to conceal miracles.