Sex, drugs and magazines

[StealThisCorn]

Could someone please be so kind as to refresh my memory, or perhaps connect the dots for me, on some of the clues in the early parts of the show, such as the Pilot and Season 1 and how these details relate to the film Fire Walk With Me.

Namely, where did the $10,000 dollars Laura had in her safety deposit box come from exactly? I know Bobby gave it to Laura for safekeeping and Mike Nelson says something about owing that to Leo for the cocaine I think? But I thought Jacques set up a drug deal for Bobby with Deer Meadow Deputy Cliff Howard, which turns out to be nothing but baby laxative. So where does the $10,000 come in? What did Bobby sell to get that money? How do you make $10,000 off coke in a high school (I guess it's a remote small town so Bobby and Laura can jack up the prices).

How did Leo call Shelly from Butte, Montana, which is why Bobby and Shelly think its ok to go have sex at Leo's house the morning of Laura's murder, when he had actually spent the night at the cabin with Jacques, Ronnette and Laura? Bobby also says Leo called him from Butte in the jail cell with Mike Nelson. I guess maybe Leo just *said* on the phone that he was in Butte to have an alibi in case anything went wrong the night at the cabin? And he must have parked his truck somewhere else too.

What, exactly, was Laura's purpose for Fleshworld magazine? I know she convinced Ronnette to place the ads there and placed ads there herself, photographed at Jacques' cabin. And in Episode 5, we learn Jacques Renault had a P.O. Box where readers of the magazine were writing letters and sending picture of themselves to Ronnette and Laura. Why were they sending letters and pictures of themselves in ugly lingerie to them? What was Laura getting out of this? Were the letters and pictures to set up a time and place to pay the girls for sex services, since it's a "swinger's" magazine right? In the original script for Episode 7, Jacques Renault explains to Cooper and Harry that the bit with Fleshworld "was a scam. Takin' these horny old guys, sending money in for dirty pictures, underwear", though this dialogue didn't make it into the filmed version of the episode, perhaps in anticipation of Cooper having Andy and Lucy later look through old issues of Fleshworld to see if there was an ad by Teresa Banks, which we know there was, since that's where Leland found her (and also where he cut off letters to place under the fingernails of his victims I believe). And speaking of which the Pilot implies that Laura found Ronnette through Fleshworld and solicited her services or something, because she has a copy of the magazine with Ronnette's picture circled in her safety deposit box, yet we later learn that they knew each other for a while, both worked Horne's perfume counter, One-Eyed Jacks, small time prostitution with Teresa and Jacques. So why would she have her picture circled like she was targeting her or something and in her bank?

Much appreciation to whoever can help remind me or connect the dots on these.

[BOB1]

I will share your appreciation as these are really great questions... but I am unable to answer any of them now!

[CooperDog]

I always felt like Laura's Fleshworld activities were just part of her deepening descent into the darkness, sparked by Leland's sexual abuse. If I recall correctly, in the Secret Diary book (my goodness-it's been almost 25 years since I read that!) Laura writes frequently about her trysts, alternating between feelings of guilt and a sort of twisted enjoyment she gets from making people like her.

Butte calls=alibis.

As for the money, Laura may have profited handsomely from her "dates"