She paused to smoke. “Where do you think he is? Rudy, I mean.”

“I don’t know. I was going to ask you the very same question.”

“I don’t know anything about his personal life. When I met Primo, he and Rudy had already been involved in a number of lawsuits, mostly for money that Rudy owed Primo when they produced together.”

“How did they meet?”

“They were in the L.A. music scene together. Two rebel guys just hanging and doing a lot of drugs. Then they met Ryan and Liam. The personalities meshed and the band clicked—meteoric rise, meteoric fall. Ryan freaked, Liam faded into obscurity, and Rudy and Primo tried to parlay their fame into something a little longer lasting.”

“They worked together on a couple of projects before the partnership went south,” Decker said. “What happened?”

“Rudy’s a psycho, that’s what happened.” She shrugged. “A band is one thing. Business partnerships are quite another. See, what I don’t understand is why would Rudy suddenly kill Primo if they’ve been involved in lawsuits for years?”

“Maybe the opportunity? In the form of Travis Martel?” Decker smiled. “I’ve got a dandy supposition but nothing to back it up. That’s why I wanted to look through Primo’s papers and find out if he ever produced the kid. But it looks like you threw away most of Primo’s old papers.”

“I shredded them to little strips. About a quarter of the pieces are in my mulch pile at home. You’re welcome to dig through it, but I must warn you it’s a bit stinky and about four feet high.”

“A mulch pile.” Decker chuckled. “My wife has one. She’s into gardening in a big way.”

“Flowers?”

“Everything.”

“Tell her they have a new variety of tea rose: lemon kiss. It’s bright yellow and has a pungent citrus smell. It’s gorgeous.”

“I’ll pass it on to her. And, no, I don’t want to dig through your mulch pile. But if you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to go through the demo CDs and old tapes just to see if I can find something by Travis Martel.”

“Be my guest. Lots of them have photo pictures on the covers so that may help.”

“Thank you very much for being so cooperative.” Decker gave her a closed-mouth smile. “It’ll probably take me a while. Is that going to be a problem?”

“Nah, just close the door when you leave.” She stubbed out her cigarette. “Why don’t I do this? I’ll bring out some boxes. After you’re finished with the cases that you don’t need, instead of putting them back on the shelves, just pack them up. As long as I’m being so cooperative, you might as well help me clean up.”

CHAPTER 32