The early morning sun woke me up. But I didn’t get up. For the first time in a very long time. I stayed in bed. Laying next to Brenda I closed my eyes and let my mind go back over the course of the last week and half.
I could clearly see the open door in the bar, and the the body of Willie Black. For a second the terror of Brenda missing came back. But reaching out and finding her next to me quickly quenched that. But other thoughts weren't so easily dismissed. The sight and smell of a dead Lisa Mayor, came back. And the the incident with Manny came back. Shit, had I really smashed a two foot long Socket wrench on his hands and burned that dump of a garage to the ground ? Yep, I had. Other people and places raced through my mind the lady editor of Variety Magazine and her sketchy bio on Ben Roberts. Oh the rewrite they would have to when it all came out over the next few weeks.
Eventually mind returned to the present. I decided I didn’t need to get up early today. Rolling back over, I found Brenda and slept again.
The sound of the doorbell buzzing had finely cut through the fog of sleep. I realized it was someone at the front door. I shook my head to clear the cobwebs as I got up and put on my bathrobe, and headed for the front door . On the way out of our room, I picked up the revolver,, hiding it under the folds of the bathrobe, I approached the front door.
Through the frosted glass I could see the shape of a person. Not entirely sure of what was on the other side of the door, I approached it carefully.
“Jim, its me Walt.!” came the announcement through the door. Once I heard Walt’s voice I quickly opened the door and let him in.
Stepping back I let Walt in from the already hot sun.
The fans in the house hadn’t been off for months. The ceiling fan managed to move some air, and a couple of smaller wire-framed table fans were placed to move air throughout the house. While I hated the noise of the fans, they were necessary to keep the house livable. Walt was dressed in his usual navy suit and tie. Glancing me over, he grinned.
“I didn't interrupt something did I?” he joked.
“Noo, Noo, this is the first time in months I was able to sleep in is all. Brenda’s still sleeping.” I told him as I headed to the bathroom, Coming out a few minutes later, I found Walt making coffee. We sat and talked about everything from the weather, to fixing my car, and the bill for it, for quite some time. Soon the coffee was ready, the smell of fresh brewed coffee seeped through the house. As soon as the coffee was ready, I took a cup into Brenda. Coming out, Walt had poured me a cup and was fixing his.
The rest of the morning was spent with the three of us going over exactly what we did and when, all the time taking notes. When we had everything did lined out, I typed it up and made four copies. One for my files, and the rest for each of us to read over and sign for Bob. While there were slight variations between our individual copies the were all basically the same.
By this time it was almost noon. So Brenda made us a light lunch. After eating and getting dressed the three of us headed for the police station.
Walt drove his big mercury, and We took the ford coupe. It was nice to drive my old car again.
When we arrived at the station, Bob was on his way out of his office. Tossing our reports on his desk, we followed him down to the holding cells, and interogrations rooms.
He nodded to the door next to the one he entered. Going in we found it had a one way glass, and a long narrow table in front of it. And several hard wooden chairs, and a dim light to see by. It was also insufferably hot. We ignored the heat, and sat down to watch Bob integrate Ben Roberts for the first time.
Through the one way glass we could see Ben Roberts sitting opposite of Bob in the interrogation room. Sitting next to Brenda in the dark little room I felt almost nothing. I was drained.
***
The heat in the the small dark room didn't help my disposition any.
Ben Roberts looked almost as tired as I felt. The bare bulb that hung from the ceiling over the table cast shadows into the corners.
Bob opened a folder. While I couldn’t see what was in it, I had a pretty good idea, I’d seen the folder not long before.
“Start at the beginning. Tell me about Lisa.” He indicated the publicity photo.” What happened ?”
Ben picked up the photo. Looking at it at an angle he put it down on the table between them.
Looking at me over Bob’s shoulder, he closed his eyes. I watched and listened carefully. The little speaker box on the table in front of the window was set to full volume.
**
Opening his eyes again, Ben began to speak;
“Lisa was an angel. The camera loved her, and she made everything I asked to try look good.” he picked up the picture and looked at it again.
“What happened?”
“After the first movie, which did so well. I thought we were getting along so great. So I asked her to move in with me. She said no. I tried to tell her how I felt about her. But she wasn’t having it. The only time she was nice to me was in public. The Rest of the time she ignored me. Got to where she hardly ever showed up on time at the studio. I still tried to tell her how I felt. Yeah, she was being a bitch, but I still loved her.”
“What happened at the Junk shop the day Brenda was there?”
“We were in one of the back rooms. I was trying to tell her I’d do whatever she wanted. At some point she swore at me. I got mad, and I grabbed her, ann ann I hit. Yeah I hit hard, knocked her down and I reached to pick her up and she twisted and her top came half off in the process. She was crying and I tried to hold her. And she twisted out of my arms just as Brenda opened the door. That's what she saw. I never thought much about it until later when I remembered hearing the airplane over the block. And remembered seeing it one of the ones with cameras on it. Several days later Lisa made the rape charge. I denied it of course. But the damage was done. No one would talk to me. And the second film with her was a bomb. Suddenly I was out in the cold. Professionally speaking I couldn’t get a job directing a radio show much less a movie.
I ran into Lisa again several days after she’d charged me, and I gotten out of it by saying I wasn’t there, and denying it. She turned mean. Real mean. She teased me and told me I would never have her. She opened her top and showed me her bra. Told me I would never touch them. I lost control.
I grabbed her and yanked her top off and beat her, When she was half out of it I raped her. Then I panicked. Hit her some more, and choked her with my bare hands. She was dead. Now no one would have the bitch.”
“Then what?”
“I really panicked. I called the movie theater couple and the junk shop guy. Who wasn’t there at the time. Between the bunch of is I hid her in the old abandoned storeroom behind the closed up store next to the junk shop. I figured she’d be safe there, and no one would find her. I was going to move her again to somewhere better, But I just never got around to it.”
So that's it. How Lisa Mayor died. In a fit of lust induced rage. Mixed with something like love.
I leaned back in the chair pulling Brenda next to me, Put my arm around her shoulders. There it was the truth. Or at least his version of it. We’ll never know her side of it.
Bob stayed in the little room with Ben Roberts for the next couple of hours. Over the time little by little He dragged out the details of how he found out how much money could be made in porn, and decided to use his studio for filming and photo work. The junk shop guy became his distributor for the 8mm films he sold, along with the odd still picture. He started out treating the girls nice, they each had their own room at his estate, and could do pretty much what they liked as long as they did his films and pictures. He said it worked out nice for quite a while. He “auditioned” each of the girls personally. After awhile he became obsessed with the idea that it could be proved that he was there the day Lisa said he attacked her. It took him most of the six months to rack down Brenda.
“Why Bother ? Lisa was dead, she couldn’t hurt you anymore?”
“I just had to know what she saw. If she was going to say anything...”
“You wanted to get rid of any loose ends that could remotely tie you to Lisa” Bob interrupted Ben.
“Noo It wasn’t like that.”
“Bullshit. You wanted her dead, so there was no way to tie you to her.” Bob thundered.
“So once you found her, and knew where she’d be. You sent three goons to go kill her.Right?”
“Only she got the better of your idiots. Killed Willie Black outright.”
With that he pulled out the picture of him laying on the floor in our back rooms.
“Look at him. He died because you couldn’t leave well enough alone.” He held Willie's picture up in front of Ben’s face.
“You were so afraid of Her remembering and talking you tried to have her killed.”
“Then there's Roberts Incorporated. You company to pay all your bills, and laundry the money from the films and pictures.”
Bob picked up the copy of bank statements and invoices. Vice will enjoy going every inch of their books.”
Bob read from his notes;
“Thursday August 14, in the early morning three men broke into James St.James house. Before it was over two were dead.
Tell me about it.”
“Oh right, Now I remember. I sent them to see if she had anything written down about Lisa and me. And To see if she had any pictures.”
Bob held up a copy of the picture of the bar from the air.
“This was the only picture she had. It had nothing to do with you or Lisa or anything else for that matter. It was taken months before you and Lisa. For that you got two more killed.”
Bob stretched and stood up.
“I've had it for a while. You go back to your cell and rot some more.”
With that he banged on the door. It opened and and uniformed officer came in and pulled Ben from the chair and manhandled him out of the room.
Within a minute Bob opened the door to the hall .
In the relatively bright hall, I had trouble seeing or a second as the lights from the hanging bulbs cast shadows and made weird outlines against the walls where the sun wasn’t hitting from the windows. We followed Bob back to his office. No one said anything I held Brenda’s hand as we entered.
“I could use a beer.” I commented mostly to myself. Bob reached into one of the big bottom drawers of his desk. Producing several dirty coffee cups, and a bottle.
Without saying a word he poured each of us a mug full of scotch. Downing his first he handed one to each of us. Brenda drank hers ,and I followed suit. Walt swallowed his whole. As he sat down Bob refilled our mugs.
Again we emptied them.
***
It had been awhile since I’d had any hard liquor. The effects of the two mugs of Scotch working their way down my my throat and into my system. Soon hit me.
“Manny.” I asked no one in particular.
“Due to go home any day now. Still won’t say it was you who smashed his hands and burned his garage down.”
“I’ll go see him. And Ted whats is name?”
"Being charged with your attempted murder, and several other charges related to Ben Roberts. And involving the girls. He’s not going anywhere.”
“Good, he needs to rot in jail next to Roberts.” I declared bitterly. Bob nodded his head in agreement.
“Come on Brenda I need air, I’ll see you later tonight at the bar?” I asked Walt as I found my hat and trench coat.
Walt said he’d be there,
On my way out the station I suddenly felt the need for open spaces.
Once in the car, I hugged Brenda and told her I needed to leave town for awhile. She looked at me like I’d lost my mind.
“NOOO Not like that, I just need to get out of LA for a while and drive.” I told her how during the war, I cleared my head after a battle by commandeering the nearest car I could, sometimes a general's car, and taking off and diving through the countryside. I always came back. I usually caught hell when I got back, but it worth it. A couple of times I’d seen enemy forces they didn’t know about, so they didn't say much when I took off. This time there was no danger of spotting hostile forces. So we filled the car up and took off. It been a long time since I’d taken the old ford coupe out and pushed it. Once we got out on the back roads, I opened it up. Hitting speeds much too fast for the back winding roads along the coast. We dove for several hours. Several times we stopped and sat and talked. And enjoyed the view of the ocean crashing against the coast of California.
All the time my mind kept going back over the events of the last few days. How I’d almost lost Brenda. And the fact that Ben Roberts’s need to find out what she remembered or saw had put me in a position that I had to maime two men, and kill several others. I didn’t feel anything for them. They had taken jobs that they knew could involve they’re getting shot at or getting shot. They were big boys, and supposedly knew what they were getting into. But it made me mad that it had to happen to begin with.
At about 5pm We decided it time to head back. Stopping at a small gas station I filled up again, and called the bar. Walt was already there. He had opened it and was waiting for us. I told we’d be late getting back
We each grabbed a cold sandwich and soft drink and we headed back to LA.
I could clearly see the open door in the bar, and the the body of Willie Black. For a second the terror of Brenda missing came back. But reaching out and finding her next to me quickly quenched that. But other thoughts weren't so easily dismissed. The sight and smell of a dead Lisa Mayor, came back. And the the incident with Manny came back. Shit, had I really smashed a two foot long Socket wrench on his hands and burned that dump of a garage to the ground ? Yep, I had. Other people and places raced through my mind the lady editor of Variety Magazine and her sketchy bio on Ben Roberts. Oh the rewrite they would have to when it all came out over the next few weeks.
Eventually mind returned to the present. I decided I didn’t need to get up early today. Rolling back over, I found Brenda and slept again.
The sound of the doorbell buzzing had finely cut through the fog of sleep. I realized it was someone at the front door. I shook my head to clear the cobwebs as I got up and put on my bathrobe, and headed for the front door . On the way out of our room, I picked up the revolver,, hiding it under the folds of the bathrobe, I approached the front door.
Through the frosted glass I could see the shape of a person. Not entirely sure of what was on the other side of the door, I approached it carefully.
“Jim, its me Walt.!” came the announcement through the door. Once I heard Walt’s voice I quickly opened the door and let him in.
Stepping back I let Walt in from the already hot sun.
The fans in the house hadn’t been off for months. The ceiling fan managed to move some air, and a couple of smaller wire-framed table fans were placed to move air throughout the house. While I hated the noise of the fans, they were necessary to keep the house livable. Walt was dressed in his usual navy suit and tie. Glancing me over, he grinned.
“I didn't interrupt something did I?” he joked.
“Noo, Noo, this is the first time in months I was able to sleep in is all. Brenda’s still sleeping.” I told him as I headed to the bathroom, Coming out a few minutes later, I found Walt making coffee. We sat and talked about everything from the weather, to fixing my car, and the bill for it, for quite some time. Soon the coffee was ready, the smell of fresh brewed coffee seeped through the house. As soon as the coffee was ready, I took a cup into Brenda. Coming out, Walt had poured me a cup and was fixing his.
The rest of the morning was spent with the three of us going over exactly what we did and when, all the time taking notes. When we had everything did lined out, I typed it up and made four copies. One for my files, and the rest for each of us to read over and sign for Bob. While there were slight variations between our individual copies the were all basically the same.
By this time it was almost noon. So Brenda made us a light lunch. After eating and getting dressed the three of us headed for the police station.
Walt drove his big mercury, and We took the ford coupe. It was nice to drive my old car again.
When we arrived at the station, Bob was on his way out of his office. Tossing our reports on his desk, we followed him down to the holding cells, and interogrations rooms.
He nodded to the door next to the one he entered. Going in we found it had a one way glass, and a long narrow table in front of it. And several hard wooden chairs, and a dim light to see by. It was also insufferably hot. We ignored the heat, and sat down to watch Bob integrate Ben Roberts for the first time.
Through the one way glass we could see Ben Roberts sitting opposite of Bob in the interrogation room. Sitting next to Brenda in the dark little room I felt almost nothing. I was drained.
***
The heat in the the small dark room didn't help my disposition any.
Ben Roberts looked almost as tired as I felt. The bare bulb that hung from the ceiling over the table cast shadows into the corners.
Bob opened a folder. While I couldn’t see what was in it, I had a pretty good idea, I’d seen the folder not long before.
“Start at the beginning. Tell me about Lisa.” He indicated the publicity photo.” What happened ?”
Ben picked up the photo. Looking at it at an angle he put it down on the table between them.
Looking at me over Bob’s shoulder, he closed his eyes. I watched and listened carefully. The little speaker box on the table in front of the window was set to full volume.
**
Opening his eyes again, Ben began to speak;
“Lisa was an angel. The camera loved her, and she made everything I asked to try look good.” he picked up the picture and looked at it again.
“What happened?”
“After the first movie, which did so well. I thought we were getting along so great. So I asked her to move in with me. She said no. I tried to tell her how I felt about her. But she wasn’t having it. The only time she was nice to me was in public. The Rest of the time she ignored me. Got to where she hardly ever showed up on time at the studio. I still tried to tell her how I felt. Yeah, she was being a bitch, but I still loved her.”
“What happened at the Junk shop the day Brenda was there?”
“We were in one of the back rooms. I was trying to tell her I’d do whatever she wanted. At some point she swore at me. I got mad, and I grabbed her, ann ann I hit. Yeah I hit hard, knocked her down and I reached to pick her up and she twisted and her top came half off in the process. She was crying and I tried to hold her. And she twisted out of my arms just as Brenda opened the door. That's what she saw. I never thought much about it until later when I remembered hearing the airplane over the block. And remembered seeing it one of the ones with cameras on it. Several days later Lisa made the rape charge. I denied it of course. But the damage was done. No one would talk to me. And the second film with her was a bomb. Suddenly I was out in the cold. Professionally speaking I couldn’t get a job directing a radio show much less a movie.
I ran into Lisa again several days after she’d charged me, and I gotten out of it by saying I wasn’t there, and denying it. She turned mean. Real mean. She teased me and told me I would never have her. She opened her top and showed me her bra. Told me I would never touch them. I lost control.
I grabbed her and yanked her top off and beat her, When she was half out of it I raped her. Then I panicked. Hit her some more, and choked her with my bare hands. She was dead. Now no one would have the bitch.”
“Then what?”
“I really panicked. I called the movie theater couple and the junk shop guy. Who wasn’t there at the time. Between the bunch of is I hid her in the old abandoned storeroom behind the closed up store next to the junk shop. I figured she’d be safe there, and no one would find her. I was going to move her again to somewhere better, But I just never got around to it.”
So that's it. How Lisa Mayor died. In a fit of lust induced rage. Mixed with something like love.
I leaned back in the chair pulling Brenda next to me, Put my arm around her shoulders. There it was the truth. Or at least his version of it. We’ll never know her side of it.
Bob stayed in the little room with Ben Roberts for the next couple of hours. Over the time little by little He dragged out the details of how he found out how much money could be made in porn, and decided to use his studio for filming and photo work. The junk shop guy became his distributor for the 8mm films he sold, along with the odd still picture. He started out treating the girls nice, they each had their own room at his estate, and could do pretty much what they liked as long as they did his films and pictures. He said it worked out nice for quite a while. He “auditioned” each of the girls personally. After awhile he became obsessed with the idea that it could be proved that he was there the day Lisa said he attacked her. It took him most of the six months to rack down Brenda.
“Why Bother ? Lisa was dead, she couldn’t hurt you anymore?”
“I just had to know what she saw. If she was going to say anything...”
“You wanted to get rid of any loose ends that could remotely tie you to Lisa” Bob interrupted Ben.
“Noo It wasn’t like that.”
“Bullshit. You wanted her dead, so there was no way to tie you to her.” Bob thundered.
“So once you found her, and knew where she’d be. You sent three goons to go kill her.Right?”
“Only she got the better of your idiots. Killed Willie Black outright.”
With that he pulled out the picture of him laying on the floor in our back rooms.
“Look at him. He died because you couldn’t leave well enough alone.” He held Willie's picture up in front of Ben’s face.
“You were so afraid of Her remembering and talking you tried to have her killed.”
“Then there's Roberts Incorporated. You company to pay all your bills, and laundry the money from the films and pictures.”
Bob picked up the copy of bank statements and invoices. Vice will enjoy going every inch of their books.”
Bob read from his notes;
“Thursday August 14, in the early morning three men broke into James St.James house. Before it was over two were dead.
Tell me about it.”
“Oh right, Now I remember. I sent them to see if she had anything written down about Lisa and me. And To see if she had any pictures.”
Bob held up a copy of the picture of the bar from the air.
“This was the only picture she had. It had nothing to do with you or Lisa or anything else for that matter. It was taken months before you and Lisa. For that you got two more killed.”
Bob stretched and stood up.
“I've had it for a while. You go back to your cell and rot some more.”
With that he banged on the door. It opened and and uniformed officer came in and pulled Ben from the chair and manhandled him out of the room.
Within a minute Bob opened the door to the hall .
In the relatively bright hall, I had trouble seeing or a second as the lights from the hanging bulbs cast shadows and made weird outlines against the walls where the sun wasn’t hitting from the windows. We followed Bob back to his office. No one said anything I held Brenda’s hand as we entered.
“I could use a beer.” I commented mostly to myself. Bob reached into one of the big bottom drawers of his desk. Producing several dirty coffee cups, and a bottle.
Without saying a word he poured each of us a mug full of scotch. Downing his first he handed one to each of us. Brenda drank hers ,and I followed suit. Walt swallowed his whole. As he sat down Bob refilled our mugs.
Again we emptied them.
***
It had been awhile since I’d had any hard liquor. The effects of the two mugs of Scotch working their way down my my throat and into my system. Soon hit me.
“Manny.” I asked no one in particular.
“Due to go home any day now. Still won’t say it was you who smashed his hands and burned his garage down.”
“I’ll go see him. And Ted whats is name?”
"Being charged with your attempted murder, and several other charges related to Ben Roberts. And involving the girls. He’s not going anywhere.”
“Good, he needs to rot in jail next to Roberts.” I declared bitterly. Bob nodded his head in agreement.
“Come on Brenda I need air, I’ll see you later tonight at the bar?” I asked Walt as I found my hat and trench coat.
Walt said he’d be there,
On my way out the station I suddenly felt the need for open spaces.
Once in the car, I hugged Brenda and told her I needed to leave town for awhile. She looked at me like I’d lost my mind.
“NOOO Not like that, I just need to get out of LA for a while and drive.” I told her how during the war, I cleared my head after a battle by commandeering the nearest car I could, sometimes a general's car, and taking off and diving through the countryside. I always came back. I usually caught hell when I got back, but it worth it. A couple of times I’d seen enemy forces they didn’t know about, so they didn't say much when I took off. This time there was no danger of spotting hostile forces. So we filled the car up and took off. It been a long time since I’d taken the old ford coupe out and pushed it. Once we got out on the back roads, I opened it up. Hitting speeds much too fast for the back winding roads along the coast. We dove for several hours. Several times we stopped and sat and talked. And enjoyed the view of the ocean crashing against the coast of California.
All the time my mind kept going back over the events of the last few days. How I’d almost lost Brenda. And the fact that Ben Roberts’s need to find out what she remembered or saw had put me in a position that I had to maime two men, and kill several others. I didn’t feel anything for them. They had taken jobs that they knew could involve they’re getting shot at or getting shot. They were big boys, and supposedly knew what they were getting into. But it made me mad that it had to happen to begin with.
At about 5pm We decided it time to head back. Stopping at a small gas station I filled up again, and called the bar. Walt was already there. He had opened it and was waiting for us. I told we’d be late getting back
We each grabbed a cold sandwich and soft drink and we headed back to LA.