Manifesto for the Dead by Domenic Stansberry Page B

pleasures.
    â€œNow, this is what I want you to do. Send me a copy of the deal you have with Miracle.”
    â€œAll right.”
    â€œYou haven’t signed it yet, have you?”
    â€œNo,” Thompson lied.
    â€œGood. Because I want to protect the rights on this. Send me the deal memo now, and the chapters as you write them. I’ll forward the chapters to Hector. Meantime, I’ll call my movie contacts. That way, if things fall through with Miracle, you’ll still have the book, and maybe we can build something on that.”
    â€œAll right.”
    Despite everything, Thompson enjoyed having Roach on the line. While he had him, he felt connected. He could smell Manhattan: the gray buildings and the grime, the perfumed blouses in elevators that never stopped rising, the presses inked up and ready to roll.
    â€œSo the place must be buzzing with it?” Roach sounded again as he had sounded when he first called, his voice heavy with insinuation.
    â€œBuzzing with what?”
    â€œWhat happened to Jack. Everybody must be talking. A dirty business like that.”
    â€œWhat dirty business?”
    â€œYou don’t know?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œLombard was murdered.”
    Thompson felt his heart in his throat. “Murdered?”
    â€œIn Beverly Hills. In that big ass house of his. Someone beat him to death with a baseball bat.”
    â€œI didn’t know.”
    â€œThey found him upstairs. Whoever it was, they made a mess of it. Chased him all over the house.”
    â€œJesus.”
    â€œIt wasn’t what you would call a clean kill. The man really suffered.”
    Thompson felt that big blackness inside him again, and he tried to remember what had happened the night before. He saw himself climbing out of Miracle’s car, stumbling about those tables, and then he was inside the car again, heading into the hills.
    After awhile, Roach got off the phone. Thompson sat himself in front of the typewriter, but it was hopeless. He went down to the newsstand and bought himself a copy of the Herald.
    HOLLYWOOD MOGUL MURDERED
    Bloody Crime Shocks Tinseltown
    The body of movie mogul Jack Lombard was found early this morning beaten and bloodied almost beyond recognition in the foyer of his Beverly Hills mansion.
    The body was discovered by Lombard’s maid, Julia Alveraz, about 11:30 yesterday morning, according to Los Angeles police.
    Mrs. Alvarez told police that the back door of Lombard’s downstairs office was ajar, and there were signs a violent struggle had taken place.
    Lombard was known to meet with producers, writers and directors at all hours of the night in his famed downstairs room, where some of the most celebrated movies in Hollywood history were conceived.
    Though details at this time are sketchy, police said it appears the struggle began downstairs. Papers and household fixtures had been knocked on the floor, and a chair overturned.
    After the initial attack, Lombard then fled his attacker, going upstairs into the mansion’s large and spacious living room, which itself resembles a Hollywood stage set, filled as it is with props, costumes, antique cameras, and other memorabilia.
    Here, Lombard apparently put up a fierce struggle for his life. Investigators say the room was in shambles, with much of the memorabilia broken and smashed.
    Lombard’s body was found just a few steps from the front door.
    There were bloody hand prints on the vestibule walls, suggesting he had been on the verge of escape when the assailant cornered him at the entrance.
    His head had been struck repeatedly with a blunt item. A bloody baseball bat was found nearby.
    As there was no evidence of forced entry, investigators suspect the attacker may have been someone known to Lombard.
    Lombard was a controversial figure who made and broke many careers in Hollywood. He was someone about whom people often felt passionately.
    â€œAt this point, we’re following every lead we