“It’s about your wife,” he said.
Penza seemed surprised by what Morris had said. Scared also in a way. “Did you hear something?” he asked.
“Not a word. But I’ve been a detective almost as long as you’ve been a criminal. I may not have been a math major in college, but I can figure things out, especially what one and one adds up to. I can’t be a party to you hurting Chandler.”
Penza deflated right then. Not a lot, but enough to make his face craggier, so that he looked every bit his sixty years. If anything, his full head of yellow hair only made him look older.
“I’ll level with you,” he said. “When I first heard about that scumbag and Melanie, I wanted to disfigure him so no woman would ever again look at him as pretty.” Penza’s eyes wavered, and something close to fear showed in them. “But now I just want to talk to him. I swear that’s all. It can even be someplace public. I don’t care.”
Morris understood him. A frightened, aging man who desperately wanted to hold on to his much younger wife, even if it meant debasing himself. He said, “If I find him, you’ll have to agree to safeguards so that no one gets hurt.”
“Yeah, sure.” Penza jutted out his chin as he regained some of his bluster. He pointed a thick, heavy index finger at Morris. “But Brick, if I find him before you do, the deal’s off and the information I got stays bottled up for good. So you better do your bulldog trick and be fast about it.”
Parker let out an annoyed grunt as if he’d just been insulted.
Morris asked, “How do I get in touch with you?”
“Hand over your phone.”
Morris did as asked, and Penza keyed a phone number into Morris’s contacts.
“That’s for a burner, so don’t be cute and give the number to organized crime. It won’t do them any good.”
Morris took the phone back. “How come you’re so hard to find?” he asked. “I had my computer guy try to get a home address or phone number for you, and he came up empty. He never came up empty before.”
Penza smiled. “A secret,” he said. “Maybe I’ll tell you if you bring me that actor.”
For a reason he couldn’t explain, that annoyed Morris. “Want my advice about the suit?” he asked.
Penza gave him a quick look up and down. “Fashion advice from someone dressed like you? I don’t think so.”
He turned back to the three-panel mirror. As far as he was concerned, they were done. That was just fine for Morris also. Given the way Parker grunted, it was just fine with him too.
Chapter 16
In Bobby Gallo’s opinion, the redheaded chick who answered the door could’ve used a few pounds on her. That was the problem with Los Angeles: all these skinny-assed broads who preferred to look like sticks instead of real women. She had a pretty face, though. He had to give her credit for that, especially with how scared she was looking. He couldn’t blame her for that even though he hadn’t done anything yet to frighten her. A minnow should be scared when a shark approaches. Before she could say a word, Gallo had a hand covering her mouth and was walking her back into the Venice townhouse. Tommy Stanton closed the door as he followed them inside.
Gallo whispered into the woman’s ear, “Unless you want me to break your neck, you don’t make a sound, understand?”
She understood. Tears welled up in her eyes. It was quite a trick the way she seemed nearly weightless, putting up no resistance as he walked her into the living room and sat her down on an expensive-looking mauve-colored satin sofa. She was proving herself smarter than some of them, at least so far. This was the seventh place he had gone looking for Chandler, and while he hadn’t killed any of the others he had to get violent with three of them to shut them up.
He kept her company on the sofa while Stanton searched the townhouse. She refused to look at him and sat stiffly tugging at her fingers like she was trying to pull them off. Her face had crumpled badly, and her lips were quivering up a storm. She didn’t make a sound, though. Smart girl. She had a nice set of pearly-white teeth, and it would be a shame if he had to slap them out of her mouth. He looked her over more carefully and appreciated better why she was one of Chandler’s fuck buddies. She might’ve been skinny, but she also had nice, long legs that looked like they could wrap tightly around a man. Pert breasts also. He thought briefly about taking off her clothes and giving her a try to see if she deserved the comments Chandler had written about her in his little black book, but he quickly shot down that idea. He didn’t have time for fun and games. He needed to find the pretty boy actor before Big Joe did. What a mess this was becoming. But to be fair, it could’ve been so much worse.
He was lucky Vinnie Scalise made such a bonehead play. After he used Scalise’s own knife on him, he and Stanton took Scalise to a private location where he had all the necessary tools to make Scalise talk. It took some work, but in the end he was able to make Scalise spill his guts, both figuratively and literally. He found out about that sneaky prick Rothman taking pictures of him and Melanie outside the Santa Monica bungalow. He had no idea anyone had followed them there. The thought of Rothman selling those photos to Big Joe still made him shiver, but fortunately that lowlife scumbag had other plans for them—plans he never got to put into motion. He also found out about Scalise killing Rothman and Frank Colgan and burying their bodies, and he gave a version of that story to Big Joe so he could justify killing Scalise to him. The version he gave Big Joe was that Scalise killed Rothman and Colgan so he could steal twenty grand he got off of Rothman. Big Joe was skeptical since the story made little sense—in order to believe it you’d have to believe Scalise was a complete idiot, but Gallo was able to tell him where the bodies were buried and hand over to Big Joe the twenty grand he had gotten from a hidden cache Scalise had told him about while his guts were spilling out and he was begging to be put out of his misery.
It helped that he didn’t just tell Big Joe his story about Scalise but also showed him a photo with Chandler expertly photoshopped into it so that it looked as if Melanie was heading into the bungalow with the actor. Melanie was furious when he warned her about his plans, but she quieted down once he got her to listen to reason. They’d been sneaking around together for six months, and she’d been anxious for the last few weeks about Big Joe suspecting something. So why not give him Chandler? Penza had become a lovesick fool willing to humiliate himself to keep from losing a dish like Melanie. He wasn’t going to hurt her. All he really wanted was to be convinced that the cheating was over. If Gallo was wrong and Big Joe hurt Melanie, or worse, well that would be a shame. She might not have had as much meat on her as he usually liked, but she was a hot piece of ass and a lot of fun in the sack. He might have even developed feelings for her. But he wanted more than just her. He wanted everything Big Joe had, and piece by piece he was putting his plans in place so he could take it all.
Stanton came into the room shaking his head. The actor wasn’t hiding out there. Gallo took hold of the redhead’s delicate chin and turned it so she had to look at him.
“I’m going to ask you questions, and don’t lie to me, because if you do I’ll know it and it won’t be good for you. Do you understand me?”
“Yes.”
Gallo smiled thinly, seeing a spark of defiance in her eyes. She was tougher than she looked.
“When did you last see Ben Chandler?”
The question surprised her. “Over a week ago,” she said, her voice halting.
“How about texts or phone calls from him?”
Her eyes went distant as if she were giving the question intense thought. “The same,” she said.
Gallo snapped his fingers. “Your phone.”
“It’s on the countertop in the kitchen.”
Without Gallo having to ask, Stanton retrieved it while the woman stayed under Gallo’s watchful