I glared at Monica Fullbright. “Don’t bullshit me and don’t try the waterworks on me or I’ll rip the rest of your fucking fingernails off your hand.”

The sobs shook her body, and she dropped her face into her hands, sniffling. “I didn’t know she was dead. I swear it.”

I drummed my fingers impatiently on the steering wheel. “Oh yeah, I really believe you. How were you planning to get rid of the heroin? Were you going to get Rudy to unload it?”

“Heroin? Rudy?” she asked with an attempt at surprise, as though she could still pretend I didn’t know who he was. Daintily she wiped at her eyes. “Rudy?”

I turned and grabbed the front of her dress, pulling her toward me. “Yeah, Rudy, you bimbo.”

“No, not him.” She tried to squirm away from me, but I was stronger and I threw her back against the door. “All he did was get me the connection in Mexico. I was going to do it myself.” She panted, rubbing her elbow, which had hit the door.

I laughed in her face. “Sure you were. I can see you’re a real smooth operator.”

“It’s true! I know a lot of people. Industry people. It was all going to be very discreet. A quick one-time thing so I could get out of this town. Dogtown.” She swore, jerking her head and making ugly with her lips.

“Weren’t you afraid Cathy might rip you off?” How had the two of them made this bargain? I must have underrated Cathy Vega’s acting abilities.

An obscene smirk worked its way across Monica Fullbright’s face. “Cathy was stupid. Sure, I had to give her something, but she was stupid. No way she’d know the full value of what I’d get from the people I could sell to. You understand what I’m saying? The people who buy this stuff don’t go on the street for it. They’re not going to go down to Sixth and Alvarado to stand on the corner.”

“What made you think you could trust Cathy?” I forced myself to continue in the same stony enforcer voice I was using to anchor myself in this conversation.

Monica Fullbright sneered. “Not only was she stupid, she was ambitious. Starstruck. She didn’t want to be anywhere else. She had to come back to Hollywood. She knew I knew certain people. If she fucked me over, I’d fix it so she’d never get a job in this town. If she did a good job”—Monica Fullbright smoothed her dress over her bosom and arranged the fold of material at her hips—”I could make certain introductions for her.”