my inheritance and put a down payment on it. I figured I could run it and, even if Don never had a steady job, we’d always have a place to sleep.”
“The Starlight Motel?”
“How did you know?” Her eyes went wide with genuine surprise.
I said, “I’ve seen some old pictures of it.” But I was thinking about the film.
“Where?” she asked, nostalgically.
“In Pete Stick’s office.”
Her expression soured. She shook her head and pursed her lips. “I never liked him. But that was no secret.” She kept shaking her head and added, “I was always amazed that he never seemed to go away. He’d disappear, but he’d always come back. He was a chronic disease.”
“You won’t have that problem anymore.” I didn’t smile as I said it, but she took it as a joke and grinned.
“So I’ve heard.” There was no sadness anywhere on her face. “It was Pete who got Don into pornography.”
“How so?”
“Around the time we bought the motel, Don met Pete working at one of the studios. I forget which one now. They were fast friends, and Pete was always hanging around. The two of them had a lot of big ideas about how they were going to make a fortune. Pete was the one who brought the idea of pornography up. The films were cheap and quick to make, and there was a real public market for them back then. You could get them shown in real theaters.”
I listened to her talk. I wanted to ask about Pete Stick, but I knew I needed to get the conversation around to Tiffany Vargas, sooner or later. I said, “What happened to Pete? One of the detectives I talked to said he was in and out of prison from the mid-70s on.”
“Pete was always looking for a way to make money fast. Pete wasn’t interested in hard work. Don became very successful very quickly, and Pete didn’t. With pornography, Don finally found something he could throw himself into and be his own boss. Don was a brilliant businessman with good instincts. Pete wasn’t. So Pete looked for other ways to make money.”
“He was convicted of insurance fraud.”
“A skill he became adept at, I’m afraid, under Don’s tutelage.”
“How’s that?”
She shrugged and smiled. “Well,” she said, “I don’t know anything for sure. In late 1978, the motel burned in a fire. It was terrible. Two guests were killed. I was very shaken by it.”
“Pete didn’t mention that.”
“No, he wouldn’t.” Her smile was flat and cold. “I always assumed, like everyone else, that it was a tragic accident. And it might have been. The upside was that Malibu had become very expensive during those years. Don had taken out a huge policy on the motel. When it was destroyed, Don was in business. Flush with cash. He jumped right into high-end movies. Pete was still broke and working for Don. A few years later, when Pete was arrested for insurance fraud, I put two and two together.”
“Did you ever ask Don about it?”
“Not directly. But when it finally occurred to me, I was just sick about the two people who were killed. It was a young couple. I remember them. I checked them into the motel. They were just getting away for a few days. They’d left their kids with a friend. It was just terrible. Sometimes I’d mention the fire, or that couple, and Don would get very quiet and dismissive of it. You know, it was just a tragic accident, he’d say.”
She let the memories smolder inside her for a moment, and then added, “I was never convinced.”
“No one ever suspected anything? The insurance company?”
“They investigated. They didn’t turn anything up. Besides, to determine it was arson would also have been to determine two murders had been committed. Most arsonists are more careful than that. But then, Don and Pete weren’t professionals.” She smiled and shrugged it off. “Who knows? They determined it was an accident. Maybe it was.”
“So then Pete took up crime and Don made his fortune?”
“I guess. There were a lot of good years after that. Don poured the insurance money into the business. He worked nonstop. I lived a very comfortable life.” She made a gesture at her back yard. “I still do, thanks to my share from the divorce. Every few years, Pete would drift back into our lives. Don would do something to put some money in his pockets. But Pete would always end up back in jail again.”