Authors: Lynda La Plante
The office was a vast windowed room, with blinds cutting out the afternoon sunlight. An enormous black desk with black glass top dominated the room. The carpet was gray thick-pile, and soft leather bucket chairs formed a semicircle in front of the black monster. Expensive prints lined the walls, but there were no filing cabinets, no stray tables. Only a bronze sculpture of what looked like an elongated man on a plinth pointing to heaven was placed discreetly in a corner.
Robert Caley was speaking on one of the eight telephones lining his desk. The high back of his chair was facing Lorraine, so she couldn’t see him, but his assistant indicated one of the bucket seats.
“Fine, Bel Air, see you there.”
Caley eased around to face Lorraine as he replaced the phone.
“Excuse me one moment, Mrs. Page.”
He looked at his assistant.
“Call my five o’clock appointment and move him to sixI have to go out to the Bel Air for a while. And grovel some more to Dulay’s office, Mark, he’s really pissed off.”
“Yes, sir. Do you want any refreshments?”
“No, unless …”
Caley turned his attention to Lorraine.
“Nothing for me, thank you.”
Caley gave a curt nod and the doors were closed silently.
“You wanted to see me, Mrs. Page?”
He swiveled from side to side, and, not waiting for her to answer, tapped the phone he had used with his forefinger.
“That was trouble.”
“I’m sorry, if it is inconvenient…”
Caley smiled glumly and leaned on his elbows, cupping his chin in his hands.
“It is, but maybe I need something to take my mind off the fact I might go belly up. You want to see something?”
He sprang out of his chair and pressed a button at the side of the desk. Lorraine turned as part of the gray wall to her right slid back to display a large architect’s drawing.
“This is what might do me in. Come here, let me show you.”
He showed her the proposed casino site, hotels and shopping precinct, and told her about his plans, much as Rooney had outlined.
“Looks good, huh? As I owned the entire site, I would of course be the main shareholder. But I didn’t count on the state dawdling around for fucking years while they commission fifty reports on how gambling corrupts widows and orphans and makes you go blind, before they get around to deciding that actually it’s an emerging area of the leisure industry, a worthy new area of economic development, which provides employment, economic stimulation, just what the city needs. They realized all of that first time around up the coast. Five years of my life go into this plan, and my partners, who unlike myself have not laid out so much as a dollar, are getting cold feet, while a gang of other guys around town decide they might like a piece of the pie and get themselves into a little huddle too. So …”
Lorraine lodifed over the model.
“So if your partners pull out, what are you left with?”
“A lot of land, and no money. So you see, I need those partners, without them I couldn’t build myself a shed. That’s how deep in this mess I am.”
He clicked off the screen, pulled back the wall panel across the model and returned to his desk.
Lorraine sat back in her chair.
“Are your partners dumping you?”
“Yep, one gone and one just about ready to. He called in the last hourasked me what I propose to do to ensure this goes through, when he’s the one pushing the governor’s fucking golf cart for him every weekend. It’s only so long you can string people like Lloyd Dulaythe brewery magnate, if you don’t know who he is. When you have his kind of money, there are a lot of people like me dangling deals, and you know these megarich bastards are always intent on anything that’s gonna make them even richer, they just don’t want to wait.”
“You mind if I smoke?”
she asked.
“No, go ahead.”
He opened a drawer and placed an exquisite onyx-and-gold box on the table. She took a cigarette, and he clicked open the gold Cartier lighter from inside the box for her. As she inhaled she looked up and met his eyes. They stared at each other for a brief moment, then he let the cigarette-box lid close with a snap. He passed across a bkfcjc glass ashtray.
“I need a drink.”
f
She watched him cross the thick-pile carpet to yet another hidden section in the pale gray walls. Another panel slid aside to reveal a large bar. She could hear the clink of ice against the glass and her heart began to beat rapidly. Was he going to offer her a drink? More important, would she be able to refuse it?
Lorraine was there for a specific reasonto discover if Caley was financially in as much trouble over the casino deal as Rooney had surmised. Yet he had, without any prompting, told her. Either he was a consummate actor and had preempted her reason for being there, or he was being honest. He had confused her and she was at a loss as to how she should continue the meeting.
“This office is a bit crass, isn’t it?”
he chuckled.
“When I first took it over, I used to go down the corridor and down a back flight of stairs to the John. I didn’t know which button to press for my own private bathroom. Fucking nightmare of gray on gray, but it’s only rented.”
He placed a long crystal glass of sparkling water with ice and lemon on the desk. He had a small square cut-crystal glass with brandy.
“Thank you,”
she said softly.
Again he met her eyes, and this time he smiled.
“You didn’t think I’d offer you alcohol, did you?”
“For a moment I did.”
“I wouldn’t do that to you, I know you have a problem. I should, I live with a woman who has not one but a number. But then I think we have already discussed my wife’s situation.”
She nodded, wondering if one of the gray walls also slid back to reveal a bed. If it did and he revealed it, she wouldn’t know how she would react. She found him even more attractive today, liking everything about him; his hands were strong and tanned, his suit more casual than the floral-tied assistant’s, and he wore simple loafers. Everything about him was casual, apart from his blue eyes: they were as dangerous as his smile.
“As I told you, I have to go to New Orleanstomorrow maybe. You want to come with me?”
“Yes.”
She sipped the ice water.
“I guess you want to see what you can dig up there.”
He laughed.
“
‘Dig’ being the operative word. I might be digging ditches for the rest of my life if I don’t pull this deal off.”
“But surely your wife has a considerable amount”
He interrupted her.
“Let me make this very clear, Mrs. Page. My wife’s money is hers, I make my own. We have separate bank accounts, always have, and in case you haven’t unearthed it yet, I signed a prenuptial agreement. What is my wife’s is hers, what is mine is mine, for what it’s worth.”
“If she dies…”
Lorraine said quietly.
He glared.
“What?”
“You are her main beneficiary, aren’t you?”
“No, Mrs. Page, my daughter is”
“But if Anna Louise is dead?”
she said, keeping her voice soft.
“I hadn’t thought of that. Dear God, is that the reason you are here? What the fuck do you think I am, huh? We are talking about my daughter, what do you think I have done, killed her so that I can get my wife’s money? Do you think I’m making plans to kill my wife, is that it? What do you think I am?”
He shook his head.
“Jesus Christ, that is so sick.”
“I’m not here for that.”
“Well, I’m glad to hear it, because if you were I’d throw you out of here myself.”
“I’m looking for motives for Anna Louise’s disappearance, Mr. Caley. Maybe you’ve given me one.”
He glared again.
“You seriously think I would be capable of murdering my own daughter?”
“I don’t krt$w you, Mr. Caley, but as an investigator I have to look at all possibilities. You are, as far as I can see and in view of what you have just told me, the only person that, like it or not, would benefit from Anna Louise’s death.”
“And I’d benefit a whole lot more if my wife also died, yes?”
“Yes.”
“So you think I am arranging to kill her? Is that what you came here to discuss? To find out by what means I intend to murder my wife? Well,
in your capacity as a socalled investigator, maybe you could give me some
, ť
tips.
“I am not, Mr. Caley, a socalled investigator.”
“You weren’t much of a cop.”
She stood up and leaned toward him across the desk.
“You have no idea what I was and I am not prepared to sit here and be insulted.”
“But you can insult me? Anna Louise is my daughternow you get out of this office and do the job my wife hired you to do, because I did not kill my daughter and I have no intention of murdering my wife.”
Lorraine coughed, trying as best as she could to appear nonchalant.
“Perhaps one of your business associates may have a connection.”
He sat back in his chair and stared at her, then swiveled around so she could not see his face. His voice became deeper, quieter.
“Go on, Mrs.
Page…”
“Well, you’ve just made it perfectly cleaiwhere’s a lot of money to be made, there’s you and a rival consortium, ana things would be a lot easier for them if you were just suddenly to lose interest in this project. Plus there’s the riverboatspresumably a casino like yours would take a lot of their business, right? So there is a possibility that your daughter may have been part of some kind of plot.”
“Like what?”
he snapped.
“Well, someone may have kidnapped her to persuade you not to go ahead with your project. You own the land, and your partners haven’t put in a cent so far… .”
He remained silent for a moment and then slowly swiveled around in his chair to face her.
“Go on.”
“It’s just a theory, but someone may have been considering using her to make you back off. Has anyone approached you directly, warned you off personally?”
He stared, then shrugged.
“No, no, they have not. You mean hold her for a ransom?”
She nodded.
“Has anyone offered just to buy out your land?” He began to toy with his empty glass, moving it slowly along the desktop.
“No, but tell me this: why, if what you are saying was true, was there no ransom note, no request for a meeting, no contact whatsoever? The Doubloons consortium has so much muscle that I do not believe for one moment they would resort to kidnapping Anna Louise as a means of threatening me.”
“But they may have used some unsavory goons to pick her up, maybe hold her, and it went wrong.”
“You mean they killed her?”
There was that awful pain in his eyes, and she had to look away.
“Possibly, which would explain why there was no note or no contact with you. All the publicity surrounding your daughter’s disappearance must have had an adverse effect on the deal.”
Caley pushed his chair back and stood up.
“But they are successful enough at blocking any advancement of my development without my daughter, they didn’t need her. And if I continue to lose my partners, then”
“You’ve considered this, haven’t you?”
He nodded, sighing.
“Yes, briefly, but then I dismissed it because I truthfully do not think they would sink so low.”
“When millions are at stake you would be surprised how low people are prepared to sink, Mr. Caley. So, if you had even considered the possibility, then you must understand why I must also look into it and why I will need to know who all the other parties are, specifically your competitors. Then by a process of elimination”
“You won’t get anywhere with this socalled elimination.”
“Try me,”
Lorraine challenged.
“Okay, you want to talk to the opposition, yes?”
“Obviously.”
“Well, Mrs. Page, I think you will come up against the same brick wall that every other agent has met with, but far be it from me to dissuade you. In fact, I will do everything I can to assist you, as I have done throughout the inquiries. Now if you’ll excuse me …”
“Did the other agents and the LA police question you about these people?”
He strode toward the huge doors.
“Of course, and they also at one time suspected me.”
“I see.”
“No, Mrs. Page, I don’t think you do. I had expected, after we had talked, that you would have believed I could not have harmed a hair on my daughter’s head, let alone be the type of man who would put his wife through such torment. You have suggested nothing new, nothing that I
have not been subjected to before. Now excuse me, Mark will give you all the details you require.”
He walked#Sfut, closing the door behind him. A few moments later, the floral-tied assistant appeared with a thick file and crossed the office to Lorraine.
“Mr. Caley has asked me to give you these files, but please understand this is private and confidential information. You may make notes but not remove the file from the office. Mr. Caley’s secretary will give you every assistance if you need anything clarified
“
“So I remain in here?”
Lorraine took the files.
“Yes, Mr. Caley suggests you use his office so that if you require any assistance, or anything xeroxed that we agree to be released, his secretary or I will be on hand to help you. The file contains plans for the proposed casino development and”
Again he was interrupted as Lorraine moved around Robert Caley’s desk.
“Fine, thank you. I’m sorry, I didn’t actually catch your name.”
“Mark Riley, I am Mr. Caley’s personal assistant.”
She sat at Caley’s desk, opening the file.
“Thanks, Mark. If you could just show me what button I press to talk to you or”
“Margaret is on line five, I am on line two.”
She smiled.
“Thank you very much, Mark.”
He hesitated at the half-open door.
“I’ll leave you to it.”
“Did you know Anna Louise, Mark?”
He looked surprised.
“Yes, of course.”
“Did she come here a lot?”
ft-
“No, just occasionally for lunch with Mlf Caley.”