I left my car down the block in the dirty parking lot behind a Pioneer Chicken so it wouldn’t be seen. As I walked to Flamingo Photo, I considered the fact that the Rudy who had called Cathy Vega’s agent had left, instead of his real phone number, that of a Pioneer Chicken place. How was Rudy involved with Monica and Cathy? Flamingo Photo’s front door was wide open because it had no air conditioning. Was he more dangerous than I had originally guessed? It was too late to worry about that now, I decided as I stepped into the studio. At the opposite end of the room Rudy bent over a counter with a light box.

I knocked on the door.

He looked up from the negatives he had been examining. His yellow T-shirt advertised a Mexican restaurant in Montebello. Was he chicano? I wondered. His name didn’t sound like it to me. His distinctive speech pattern—could it be called an accent? The agent had been sure the Rudy who called to hire Cathy Vega as a model had an accent. When Rudy looked at me, his eyes didn’t register that I was a person he had met.

“Remember me from the other night?”

“Sure, sure. Never forget a face. Part of the business.”

He probably remembered Lupe’s ass much better than my face.

“I’d like to get in touch with Monica Fullbright.”

“Who? Monica Fullbright? You mean Monica Farley?”

So she’d given me a phony name. Was I surprised? Only that her first name was real. Maybe she’d had a sudden failure of imagination on the way up the stairs to my office. “Yeah, your makeup artist.”

He put down the red grease pencil he’d been using to mark the negatives. “You thinking of getting some pictures done?”

“Thinking about it,” I replied evenly. “You can get her?”

“I could make you look great. Soft lighting, that’s the key.” He turned off the light box and hastened to pull a chair from the table for me.

I didn’t sit down. “How about Monica?”

“The makeup? Don’t worry. It’ll be fabulous.”

“When’s the last time you saw her?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t talked to her for a couple of days, but it’s no problem. Let’s make an appointment. I’ll get her.” He started pacing around excitedly. “I’ll make you some great pictures with my Hasselblad, but I’ll need fifty bucks up front for the film and all.”