Pause. “A bit.”
“Unless,” I said, “she didn’t need a service because she wasn’t casting her net. Had one client who paid all the bills. Maybe someone who lives in Malibu, doesn’t want wifey-poo to hear Lauren’s call, so he uses the pay phone.”
“Fifty grand plus from one John? One helluva habit.”
“Lots of passion,” I said. “When those kinds of things go bad, they go very bad.”
“I’ll drive there today, see what kinds of shops are nearby—maybe someone noticed something. Maybe I’ll drop in on de Maartens on the way back. Where’s he live?”
“Don’t know, but his number’s a 310.”
“I’ll get it. Thanks for all the work, Alex.”
“However useless.”
“Hey,” he said, “you can never tell what’ll pan out.” Lying through his teeth. What else are friends for?
Just after one P.M. I got in the Seville and drove to Motivational Associates’ Brentwood office.
The building was one of a group of towers that had sprouted on Wilshire during one of the booms. Four stories for parking, eight for offices, zebra-striped walls of white aluminum and black glass. The packing carton a serious building came in.
I walked past an empty guard desk to the directory. No pattern to the tenant mix: computer consultants, insurance agents, lawyers, an occupational therapy brokerage, a few psychotherapists. Motivational Associates was Suite 717, a third of the way down a gray-walled, plum-carpeted hallway. Black doors with tiny chrome signage. Bugger’s was set between
E-WISDOM and THE LAW OFFICES OF NORMAN AND REBBIRQUE
No mail at or under the door, and when I peeked through the slot I saw an unlit waiting room, still no pile of letters. Either someone had collected or the post went to another location. I didn’t knock—the last thing I wanted was to have to explain myself.
I’d returned to the elevator, was waiting for it to ascend from the lobby when the door to 717 swung open and a man came out carrying a scuffed brown leather briefcase. Locking the dead bolt, he made his way in my direction, swinging his keys.
Thirty-five to forty, five-ten, one sixty. Dark hair trimmed close to the sides, thinning on top, freckled bald spot at the crown. He wore a shapeless oatmeal herringbone sport coat with brown-leather elbow patches, an open-necked white button-down shirt with blue stripes, faded beige cords that would’ve suited Milo had they been five waist sizes larger, and brown loafers with toes worn to gray gristle. A wadded selection from the morning’s Times was stuffed into a pocket of the jacket, weighing the garment down on one side and making him appear lopsided. Three black plastic pens were clipped to his handkerchief pocket. Tortoiseshell eyeglasses dangled from a chain around his neck.
He arrived at the lift just as the door opened, waited for me to step in, then followed and stood near the door. Placing the briefcase on the floor, he punched in P3 and said, “How about you?” in a pleasant voice.
Straight nose, straight mouth, smallish ears, firm chin. Nothing out of proportion, but something—a blurring of contours—kept it just shy of handsome. The lapel of his sportcoat was fuzzed where it met his shirt. Two white threads had come loose from his shirt collar.
I said, “Same, thanks.”
He turned, offering a view of his bald spot. I noticed a worn gold monogram above the clasp of the case. BJD. As we descended he began whistling, and his hands grew active—fingers drumming, tapping, stretching, curling. A shaving nick bottomed his right earlobe. Another cut flecked his jawline. He gave off the smell of soap and water.
He stopped whistling. Said, “Sorry.”
“No problem.”
“They used to play Muzak. Someone must’ve complained.”
“People tend to do that.”
“They do, indeed.”
No further exchange until we reached P3 and I hung back as he stepped out into the parking area. As he headed briskly toward a nearby aisle, I was watching from behind a concrete pillar.
His car was a white Volvo sedan, plain-wrap model, several years old. No alarm click, and he’d left the door unlocked. Tossing the briefcase across the seat, he slid in, started up, backed out blowing chalky smoke. I ran up the three flights to the lobby, was heading for the Seville when I saw him pull onto Wilshire, going west.