"Who, Essie?"
"Her and that daughter."
"Oh come on, Lovella. He couldn't have left them enough to worry about."
"More than he left me," she said. "If I'd known about the money, I might have talked him out of some."
"Yeah, right. As generous as he was," I said drily. "If you'd gotten your hands on it, you might be dead now instead of him. Unless Billy's been lying to me about the punks from San Luis who were after him." I'd never really taken that story seriously, but maybe it was time I did.
She was silent. I could practically hear her shifting gears. "All I know is I think you're a shit and he was too."
"I'm sorry you feel that way, Lovella. John hired me, and my first loyalty was to him… misguided, as it turned out, but that's where I was coming from. You want to vent a little more on the subject before we turn to something else?"
"Yeah. I should have got the money, not someone else. I was the one who got banged around. I still got two cracked ribs and an eye looks like it's all sunk in on one side from the bruise."
"Is that why you freaked out at the funeral?"
Her tone of voice became tempered with sheepish-ness. "I'm sorry I did that, but I couldn't help myself. I'd been sittin' in some bar drinkin' Bloody Marys since ten o'clock and I guess I got outta hand. But it bugged me, all that Bible talk. Daggett never went to church a day in his life and it didn't seem right. And that old fat-ass claimed she was married to him? I couldn't believe my eyes. She looked like a bulldog."
I had to laugh. "Maybe he didn't marry her for her looks," I said.
"Well, I hope not."
"When did you see him last?"
"At the funeral home, where else?"
"Before that, I mean."
"Day he left L.A.," she said. "Week ago Monday. I never saw him after he took off."
"I thought maybe you hopped a bus on Thursday after I left."
"Well, I didn't."
"But you could have, couldn't you?"
"What for? I didn't even know where he went."
"But Billy did. You could have come up to Coral's last week. You might have met him at the Hub Friday night and bought him a couple of drinks."
Her laugh was sour. "You can't pin that on me. If that was me, how come Coral didn't recognize me, huh?"
"For all I know, she did. You're friends. Maybe she just kept her mouth shut."
"Why would she do that?"
"Maybe she wanted to help you out."
"Coral doesn't even like me. She thinks I'm a slut so why would she help me?"
"She might've had reasons of her own."
"I didn't kill him, Kinsey, if that's what you're getting at."
"That's what everyone says. You're all wide-eyed and innocent. Daggett was murdered and nobody's guilty. Amazing."
"You don't have to take my word for it. Ask Billy. Once he gets back, he can tell you who it was for sure, anyway."
"Oh hey, sounds great. How's he going to manage that?"
There was a pause, as if she'd said something she really wasn't authorized to say. "He thought he recognized somebody at the funeral and then he figured out where he'd seen 'em before," she said reluctantly.
I blinked at the telephone receiver. In a quick flash, I remembered Billy's staring at the little group formed by the Westfalls, Barbara Daggett, and the Smiths. "I don't understand. What's he up to?"
"He set up a meeting," she said. "He wants to find out if his theory's right and then he said he'd call you."
"He's going to meet with her?"
"That's what I said, isn't it?"
"He shouldn't be doing that by himself. Why didn't he notify the police?"
"Because he doesn't want to make a fool of himself in front of them. Suppose he's wrong? He doesn't have any proof, anyway. Just a hunch is all and even that's not a hundred percent."
"Do you have any idea who he was talking about?"
"Uh-uh. He wouldn't tell, but he was pretty happy with himself. He said we might get some money after all."
Oh God, I thought, not blackmail. I could feel my heart sink. Billy Polo wasn't smart enough to pull that off. He'd blow it like he did every other crime he tried. "Where's the meeting taking place?"