(Tape #1 with Detective Lieutenant Emil Lamp of the L.A.P.D. Recorded by the pool of the Sonny Day estate, March 7.)
HOAG: SURE YOU DON’T mind my taping this? It’ll make it easier for me to remember the details.
Lamp: (garbled)
Hoag: Could you please sit a little closer? I’m not sure how strong this mike is.
Lamp: I said, it makes me feel like I’m the one being interviewed. Lost the other recorder in the fire, huh?
Hoag: Yes. Had to buy all new clothes this morning, too. Wanda took me down to Lew Ritter, along with my police protection and about fifty assorted members of the press. I felt like a Kennedy. They followed me right up to the underwear counter. One of them even asked me whether I wear boxers or briefs.
Lamp: Which do you?
Hoag: Hey, you want to know, buy a newspaper. They … they practically have Vic strapped in the electric chair. Any sign of him?
Lamp: None. He’s flat out disappeared. And doing himself no good either.
Hoag: Orange juice? Fresh squeezed. No chemicals.
Lamp: Thanks. Where’s Miss Day?
Hoag: Real estate class. She should be back any minute.
Lamp: I’m surprised she went back to school so soon.
Hoag: Said she wanted to get things back to normal. Or what passes for it around here.
Lamp: And you? Back to work?
Hoag: My publisher is express-mailing me a copy of everything that burned. I have to rent another typewriter. Be back into it tomorrow. Your men find anything yet?
Lamp: Ashes. You must be a pretty sound sleeper.
Hoag: Very.
Lamp: I asked around at the parking garage where Mr. Day found the dummy. The attendant remembers him, of course, but not anything unusual about that day—nobody asking about the car or placing a life-size Sonny Day doll in it or anything.
Hoag: I suppose that would be too easy.
Lamp: Never hurts to ask. I don’t suppose he told you where in Topanga Canyon he stopped to burn it. There might be some remains.
Hoag: Just a fire road.
Lamp: A million of those. We could look a year and not find it.
Hoag: Assuming it’s there at all.
Lamp: What’s that mean?
Hoag: His ex-partner told me the man was not above spinning yarns to get attention. He also said he was paranoid.
Lamp: Think he could have actually made up something that screwy?
Hoag: With one hand tied behind his back.
Lamp: Do you think he did?
Hoag: No, I don’t. He was genuinely scared. But I thought you should know that it is a possibility.
Lamp: When did you speak to Mr. Knight?
Hoag: That day—Sonny’s birthday. And again last night. He’s extremely interested in the outcome of the book, what with the Chasen’s thing and all.
Lamp: I probably shouldn’t be telling you this, but the department is very interested in seeing Knight not get dragged into the investigation.
Hoag: Heavy political muscle?
Lamp: Same with the agent, Wright.
Hoag: If you’re real nice to me, I’ll tell you some very interesting stories about Wright someday over a beer. You do drink beer, don’t you?
Lamp: I’ve been known to.
Hoag: Hard to believe anyone would sell it to you. How much influence does all of that muscle have on you and your investigation?
Lamp: (laughs) If you’re real nice to me, I’ll tell you some very interesting stories about that someday over a beer.
Hoag: That’s not exactly a straight answer.
Lamp: That’s not exactly a straight question.
Hoag: (silence) Ah, here’s Wanda now.
Day: Hi. Hello, Lieutenant.
Lamp: Miss Day.
Day: Don’t get up, please.
Hoag: What’s in the box?
Day: A present.
Hoag: For me?
Day: Open it.
Hoag: Maybe later?
Day: Right now.
Hoag: Okay. (silence) Hey, a new pair of mukluks. Now I can really get back to work. Thank you. You’re very thoughtful. Wait, what’s this underneath? … It’s a shirt. My god, it’s a suede shirt.
Day: I saw it in the window of the Banana Republic on Little Santa Monica. It’ll go so well with those khakis, don’t you think?
Hoag: Wanda, you shouldn’t have.
Day: That’s not what you said last night.
Hoag: Well, thanks.
Day: I want a proper thank-you.
Hoag: Later.
Day: Promise?
Hoag: Yes.
Day: I’ll hold you to it. And now I’ll leave you. Bye, Lieutenant.
Lamp: Yes. Bye.
Hoag: (silence) I take it you don’t approve.
Lamp: None of my beeswax, Hoagy.
Hoag: Then why the look?
Lamp: I don’t know what you mean.
Hoag: Go ahead. Say it.
Lamp: Oh, heck, I’m just not sure I’ve figured you out yet.
Hoag: Nothing much to figure. Sometimes circumstance brings two people together.
Lamp: You told me …
Hoag: What I told you was the truth. Then.
Lamp: I see.
Hoag: So what’s on your mind? Vic?
Lamp: Yes. Still think he didn’t do it?
Hoag: Sonny could have been murdered by anyone who was here last night. Anyone who has an interest in keeping Knight and Day’s secret from seeing print.
Lamp: Could be. But I have to tell you—I’ve cooled off on that theory. My job is to go by what I see. I see a guy with violent tendencies. I see a guy who was here at the time of the murder, and who knew where the murder weapon was hidden.
Hoag: That doesn’t mean anything. I knew where it was, too. Half a dozen people did.
Lamp: Maybe so. But none of them escaped from police custody. None of them were fugitives when that fire was set. Early’s escape suggests guilt. It gives me a focus, something concrete. My job now is to build a case against him. You were around, Hoagy. Can you think of any possible reason why Early would have wanted his boss dead?
Hoag: It’s inconceivable. The man’s total orientation was to protect Sonny, not to harm him. Besides, he’s a guy who loses control. You saw him when he went for me. If he had killed Sonny, he wouldn’t have gone into the study and gotten a gun. He’d have torn his head off. Like he did to me. Like he did to that sleaze in Vegas. You know, you ought to check that guy out. I mean, he really got creamed. You never know.
Lamp: I did. He hasn’t been out of Las Vegas in the past two weeks. Strictly a local man. Good thought, though. I wanted to check out something with you, Hoagy. Seems in 1972 Early was linked with the beating of a guy at the Daisy Club. Guy almost died. The charges were later dropped. Know anything about that? Come up at all?
Hoag: You are good.
Lamp: Routine police work. Well?
Hoag: Sonny wanted to mention it in the book. He got some bad press over it at the time. Vic was … I guess you’d say upset about it coming up again. Sonny and I discussed it. He said he’d talk to Vic about it, that Vic would understand.
Lamp: I see.
Hoag: Now wait, I know how that looks. …
Lamp: Like a motive.
Hoag: It can’t be Vic.
Lamp: Why not?
Hoag: For starters, he was with me the day Sonny found the dummy.
Lamp: Are you sure about that?
Hoag: We were together at UCLA. Then we were both here at the estate.
Lamp: Where were you?
Hoag: Working in the guesthouse.
Lamp: Where was he?
Hoag: In the main house.
Lamp: Doing what?
Hoag: How should I know?
Lamp: What if he went out?
Hoag: He’d have told me.
Lamp: What if he didn’t want you to know?
Hoag: (silence) Forget it. That’s not what happened.
Lamp: He could have gone out for half an hour without you or the housekeeper knowing. It’s possible, isn’t it?
Hoag: Vic Early didn’t do it.
Lamp: How can you be so sure?
Hoag: I have a reason to believe it.
Lamp: What reason?
Hoag: Call it a hunch.
Lamp: I see. You going to share this particular hunch with me?
Hoag: I’m not ready to.
Lamp: I didn’t think so. That’s okay. That’s fine. But understand my position. I’m not going to sit around and wait for you. I can’t, simply on the strength of some hunch you’ve got. I have to go with the facts. You’re speculating. Speculating can take you anywhere.
Hoag: Like where?
Lamp: Like … to you.
Hoag: Me?
Lamp: You. You’re awfully at home here all of the sudden. You and Miss Day. Mighty nice set-up. Hugs and kisses. Expensive shirts. I checked up on you, you know. You’ve been kind of down on your luck lately. Broke. A drinking problem. Famous wife divorced you. …
Hoag: Wait, are you suggesting /killed Sonny?
Lamp: No, no, no. I’m speculating, remember? Face it, you really stand to clean up on this book now. You’re already back in the limelight. Plus you’ve got Miss Day. I assume the house will go to her. Place must be worth, what, five million? More?
Hoag: Ten or twelve, I’d say. I was on the plane at the time Sonny died, remember?
Lamp: So maybe you didn’t act alone. Maybe you’ve been plotting this a long time. Maybe you set Early up. Hmm. Very interesting.
Hoag: And total bullshit.
Lamp: Precisely my point.
Hoag: It is?
Lamp: Yes. See, that’s what happens when you speculate. You reshape the picture, recolor it, make it look any darned way you want. That’s why I go with facts.
Hoag: You’re a lot sneakier than you look, Lamp.
Lamp: Just trying to prove a point.
Hoag: Pick another way next time.
Lamp: Didn’t mean to upset you.
Hoag: Let me ask you something, Lieutenant. Is there any category under the law for what I am?
Lamp: I’m not following you.
Hoag: I’m being realistic, like you want. See, any way you color that picture, I’m somehow responsible. Even if you say it’s Vic. I could have put my foot down. Told Sonny flat out no, we leave the Daisy anecdote out.
Lamp: Oh, heck, you can’t blame yourself for what somebody else does. Whatever happened, Hoagy, it happened around you, not because of you. It’s not your fault if Vic Early shot Sonny Day. Or if Joe Blow did. Go easier on yourself. Now, do you have any idea where Early might have gone?
Hoag: No. No family or friends that he mentioned. You could try the UCLA athletic department. He seemed to know people there.
Lamp: Okay. That’s a start. Thanks for your time, Hoagy. I suggest you relax, finish your book, take care of Miss Day. Let me do my job. Okay?
Hoag: So much for your little Chasen’s theory then?
Lamp: So much for my theory. That’s speculation. Early is concrete. It’s Early—until and unless the facts show otherwise.
(end tape)