Tightrope (Burning Cove #3)(33)

She laughed. “I know. And when your next film comes out, you will once again be invited to all the best parties and clubs. More to the point, you will once again become a valuable source for me.”

Vincent chuckled. “Be careful, my dear, or I will start to suspect that your ultimate goal is to use me.”

“Of course that’s my objective.” She touched her glass lightly against his. “Just as your goal is to use me. I need a constant flow of film world secrets and you require a constant series of films. We do understand each other, don’t we, Vincent?”

He gave her his best Mad Doctor X smile. “We do, indeed, my love.”

She watched with satisfaction as he downed half the contents of the martini glass.

“Let’s go outside onto the patio,” she said, leading the way across the living room. “We have a lot to discuss, Vincent.”

Promptly at six Jasper returned to pick up Vincent. Five minutes after her first visitor had departed, Lorraine’s second one arrived. Ray Thorpe did not pull up in a flashy limo. He was at the wheel of an unremarkable Ford sedan. Nor did he stop at the front of the villa. He parked in the back and let himself in via the kitchen door.

“I thought Hyde was never going to leave,” Ray said.

If Jasper Calloway was playing the role of Hollywood bodyguard, Ray Thorpe was the real deal. He had worked security for various studios over the years. The job description covered a lot of territory.

Thorpe was one of the hard guys that the studio fixers sent out when they found it necessary to recover incriminating photos or to ensure that people who might be considering assault or rape charges against an actor stayed quiet.

He was in his mid-forties and some of the muscle had gone soft, but everything else about him was tough and dangerous. He wore a holstered gun under his rumpled jacket.

Lorraine lit a cigarette.

“I told you that Hyde would be here until six today,” she said. “What’s the matter, Ray?”

“We’ve got a problem,” Ray said.

“Are you talking about Matthias Jones? We already know he’s a problem. We’ll deal with it.”

“I don’t like the feel of this job,” Ray said. “Too many things have gone wrong. I still say we should walk away.”

“I understand your concerns but it’s too early to abandon the project. There’s still a chance that we can make it happen.”

“What makes you sure of that?”

She smiled. “The same thing that has you so worried. Matthias Jones.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“You said it yourself—Jones has moved into the Hidden Beach Inn.”

“So?”

“It’s obvious now that Jones and Pell are after the Ares machine,” Lorraine said, striving for patience. “Logically they should have assumed that it vanished the night Pickwell was shot onstage. Yet not only is Jones still in town, he just checked into the very same inn that Pickwell checked into the day of the robot demonstration. What does that tell us?”

“Damned if I know.”

Lorraine stifled a sigh. Ray Thorpe had his uses but he was not the sharpest of tools.

“It tells us that he knows something that we don’t know and that he has a reason to believe he might find whatever he’s looking for at the Hidden Beach Inn,” she said.

“How did Jones and Pell find out about the Ares machine, let alone figure out that it would turn up in Burning Cove?” Ray demanded.

Lorraine blew out a lungful of smoke and flicked the ashes of her cigarette into a glass ashtray while she thought about that.

“Obviously the Broker double-crossed us,” she said. “We had a deal but evidently the bastard decided to turn what was supposed to be a straightforward sale into an auction. He must have concluded he could greatly increase his commission if he invited Luther Pell to bid. Pell brought in Jones.”

“I’ll take care of the Broker when this thing is over,” Ray vowed.

“Good luck with that. No one knows his real identity and no smart person goes looking for him. He’s dangerous and he’s very well protected. Forget him. We need to stay focused.”

Ray snorted. “What, exactly, are we supposed to focus on? We’ve got a cipher machine that’s missing some key parts, and the only man who knows where they are is dead.”

“Pickwell must have brought the missing parts to Burning Cove. That means they could still be in the vicinity. For now we keep an eye on Jones. Word is, he’s a freelance agent who is currently working for Pell. There’s only one reason he would have moved in to the Hidden Beach Inn—he’s got a lead. We’ll give him some room to run.”

“We can’t hang around Burning Cove indefinitely.”

Lorraine thought about the scheduled rendezvous at the L.A. docks. The clock was ticking. Her number one client would not be happy if she failed to deliver, and the client did not take failure well. If she did not come up with the complete cipher machine by the end of the week, she would be well advised to disappear.

It wouldn’t be the first time. A woman on her own had to be creative.

“You’re right,” she said. “We won’t be here indefinitely.”





Chapter 20