Nathan Eisler had hunched himself up, elbows to knees, clasped hands to chin, head down. Tears rolled off his face. Dudley cracked his knuckles and said, “A simple yes or no answer will suffice.”
Eisler nodded; Dudley said, “Grand.” Mal got out his pen and notepad. “I know the answer, but tell me anyway. Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party, U.S.A.?”
Eisler bobbed his head; Mal said, “Yes or no answers, this is for the record.”
A weak “Yes.”
“Good. Where was your Party unit or cell located?”
“I–I went to meetings in Beverly Hills, West Los Angeles and Hollywood.
We–we met at the homes of different members.”
Side 100
Ellroy, James – Big Nowhere, The Mal wrote the information down–verbatim shorthand. “During what years were you a Party member?”
“April ’36 until Stalin proved him–”
Dudley cut in. “Don’t justify yourself, just answer.”
Eisler pulled a Kleenex from his shirt pocket and wiped his nose. “Until early in ’40.”
Mal said, “Here are some names. You tell me which of these people were known to you as Communist Party members. Claire De Haven, Reynolds Loftis, Chaz Minear, Morton Ziffkin, Armando Lopez, Samuel Benavides and Juan Duarte.”
Eisler said, “All of them.” Mal heard the kids tromping through the living room and raised his voice. “You and Chaz Minear wrote the scripts for _Dawn of the Righteous_, _Eastern Front_, _Storm Over Leningrad_ and _The Heroes of Yakustok_. All those films espoused nationalistic Russian sentiment. Were you told by Communist Party higher-ups to insert pro-Russian propaganda in them?”
Eisler said, “That is a naive question”; Dudley slapped the coffee table. “Don’t comment, just answer.”
Eisler moved his chair closer to Mal. “No. No, I was not told that.”
Mal flashed Dudley two fingers of his necktie–_he’s mine_. “Mr. Eisler, do you deny that those films contain pro-Russian propaganda?”
“No.”
“Did you and Chaz Minear arrive at the decision to disseminate that propaganda yourselves?”
Eisler squirmed in his chair. “Chaz was responsible for the philosophizing, while I held that the story line spoke most eloquently for the points he wanted to make.”
Mal said, “We have copies of those scripts, with the obvious propaganda passages annotated. We’ll be back to have you initial the dialogue you attribute to Minear’s disseminating of the Party line.”
No response. Mal said, “Mr. Eisler, would you say that you have a good memory?”
“Yes, I would say that.”
“And did you and Minear work together in the same room on your scripts?”
“Yes.”
“And were there times when he said things along the lines of ‘This is great propaganda’ or ‘This is for the Party’?”
Eisler kept squirming, shifting his arms and legs. “Yes, but he was just being satirical, poking fun. He did not–”
Dudley shouted, “Don’t interpret, just answer!”
Eisler shouted back, “Yes! Yes! Yes! Goddamn you, yes!”
Mal gave Dudley the cut-off sign; he gave Eisler his most soothing voice. “Mr. Eisler, did you keep a journal during the time you worked with Chaz Minear?”
The man was wringing his hands, Kleenex shredding between fingers pumped blue-white. “Yes.”
“Did it contain entries pertaining to your Communist Party activities and your script work with Chaz Minear?”
“Oh God, yes.”
Mal thought of the report from Satterlee’s PIs: Eisler coupling with Claire De Haven circa ’38–’39. “And entries pertaining to your personal life?”
“Oh, Gott in himm . . . yes, yes!”
“And do you still have that journal?”
Silence, then, “I don’t know.”
Mal slapped the table. “Yes, you do, and you’ll have to let us see it.
Only the germane political entries will be placed in the official transcript.”
Nathan Eisler sobbed quietly. Dudley said, “You will give us that journal, or we will subpoena it and uniformed officers will tear your quaint little abode apart, gravely upsetting your quaint little family, I fear.”
Eisler gave a sharp little yes nod; Dudley eased back in his chair, the legs creaking under his weight. Mal saw a Kleenex box on the windowsill, grabbed it and placed it on Eisler’s lap. Eisler cradled the box; Mal said, “We’ll take the journal with us, and we’ll put Minear aside for now. Here’s a general question. Have you ever heard any of the people we’re interested in advocate the armed overthrow of the United States government?”