Devil's Waltz (34 page)

“I said you’ve got a bright future, James. This gig ever gets old, you can always run for Vice President.”

The room was big, harshly lit in a few spots, but mostly dark. The floors were cement; the walls that I could see, painted brick. A network of conduits, wheels, gears, and pipes adhered to the ceiling, ragged in places, as if ripped apart in a frenzy.

Off to the left was the bar — wooden doors on sawhorses fronting a metal rack full of bottles. Next to the rack were half a dozen white bowls filled with ice.

Shiny porcelain bowls. Raised lids.

Toilets.

Two men worked nonstop to service a thirsty throng of minors, filling and squirting and scooping cubes from the commodes. No faucets; the soda and water came from bottles.

The rest of the space was a dance floor. No boundary separated the bar crowd from pressure-packed bodies writhing and jerking like beached grunion. Up close, the music was even more formless. But loud enough to keep the Richter scale over at Cal Tech busy.

The geniuses creating it stood at the back, on a makeshift stage. Five hollow-cheeked, leotarded things who could have been junkies had they been healthier-looking. Marshall Stacks big as vacation cabins formed a black felt wall behind them. The bass drum bore the legend
OFFAL
.

High on the wall behind the amps was another B
AKER
F
ERTILIZER
sign, partially blocked by a hand-lettered banner tacked diagonally.

W
ELCOME TO THE SHIT HOUSE
.

The accompanying artwork was even more charming.

“Creative,” I said, loud enough to feel my palate vibrate, but inaudible.

Milo must have read my lips because he grinned and shook his head. Then he lowered it and charged through the dancers, toward the bar.

I dived in after him.

We arrived, battered but intact, at the front of the drinkers. Dishes of unshelled peanuts sat beside toilet paper squares improvising as napkins. The bartop needed wiping. The floor was carpeted with husks where it wasn’t wet and slick.

Milo managed to bull his way behind the bar. Both of the barkeeps were thin, dark, and bearded, wearing sleeveless gray undershirts and baggy white pajama bottoms. The one closer to Milo was bald. The other was Rapunzel in drag.

Milo went over to Baldy. The bartender jabbed one hand defensively while pouring Jolt Cola into a glass quarter-filled with rum. Milo’s hand fit all the way around this wrist. He gave it a short, sharp twist — not enough to cause injury, but the bartender’s eyes and mouth opened and he put the cola can down and tried to jerk away.

Milo held fast, doing the badge thing again, but discreetly. Keeping the ID at an angle that hid it from the drinkers. A hand from the crowd reached out and snared the rum and cola. Several others began slapping the bartop. A few mouths opened in soundless shouts.

Baldy gave Milo a panicked look.

Milo talked in his ear.

Baldy said something back.

Milo kept talking.

Baldy pointed at the other mix-master. Milo released his grip. Baldy went over to Rapunzel and the two of them conferred. Rapunzel nodded and Baldy returned to Milo, looking resigned.

I followed the two of them on a sweaty, buffeted trek through and around the dance floor. Slow going — part ballet, part jungle clearance. Finally we ended up at the back of the room, behind the band’s amps and a snarl of electric wires, and walked through a wooden door marked
TOILETS
.

On the other side was a long, cold, cement-floored hall littered with paper scraps and nasty-looking puddles. Several couples groped in the shadows. A few loners sat on the floor, heads lowered to laps. Marijuana and vomit fought for olfactory dominance. The sound level had sunk to jet-takeoff roar.

We passed doors stenciled
STANDERS
and
SQUATTERS
, stepped over legs, tried to skirt the garbage. Baldy was good at it, moving with a light, nimble gait, his pajama pants billowing. At the end of the hallway was yet another door, rusted metal, identical to the one the bouncer had guarded.

Baldy said, “Outside okay?” in a squeaky voice.

“What’s out there, Robert?”

The bartender shrugged and scratched his chin.

“The back.” He was anywhere from thirty-five to forty-five. The beard was little more than fuzz and didn’t conceal much of his face. It was a face worth concealing, skimpy and rattish and brooding and mean.

Milo pushed the door open, looked outside, and took hold of the bartender’s arm.

The three of us went outside to a small fenced parking lot. A U-Haul two-ton truck was parked there, along with three cars. Lots more trash was spread across the ground in clumps, a foot high in places, fluttering in the breeze. Beyond the fence was the fat moon.

Milo led the bald man to a relatively clean spot near the center of the lot, away from the cars.

“This is Robert Gabray,” he said to me. “Mixologist extraordinaire.” To the bartender: “You’ve got fast hands, Robert.”

The barkeep wiggled his fingers. “Gotta work.”

“The old Protestant ethic?”

Blank look.

“You like working, Robert?”

“Gotta. They keep a record a everything.”

“Who’s they?”

“The owners.”

“They in there watching you?”

“No. But they got eyes.”

“Sounds like the CIA, Robert.”

The bartender didn’t answer.

“Who pays your salary, Robert?”

“Some guys.”

“Which guys?”

“They own the building.”

“What’s the name on your payroll check?”

“Ain’t no checks.”

“Cash deal, Robert?”

Nod.

“You holding out on the Internal Revenue?”

Gabray crossed his arms and rubbed his shoulders. “C’mon, what’d I do?”

“You’d know that better than me, wouldn’t you, Robert?”

“Bunch a A-rabs, the owners.”

“Names.”

“Fahrizad, Nahrizhad, Nahrishit, whatever.”

“Sounds Iranian, not Arab.”

“Whatever.”

“How long you been working here?”

“Couple of months.”

Milo shook his head. “No, I don’t think so, Robert. Wanna give it another try?”

“What?” Gabray looked puzzled.

“Think back where you
really
were a couple of months ago, Robert.”

Gabray rubbed his shoulders some more.

“Cold, Robert?”

“I’m okay… Okay, yeah, it’s been a couple of
weeks
.”

“Ah,” said Milo, “that’s better.”

“Whatever.”

“Weeks, months, it’s all the same to you?”

Gabray didn’t answer.

“It just
seemed
like months?”

“Whatever.”

“Time goes quickly when you’re having fun?”

“Whatever.”

“Two weeks,” said Milo. “That makes a lot more sense, Robert. Probably what you meant to say. You wouldn’t think of giving me a hard time — you were just making an honest error, right?”

“Yeah.”

“You forgot that two months ago you weren’t working anywhere because you were at County lockup on a pissanty mary-joo-anna rap.”

The bartender shrugged.

“Really bright, Robert, running those red lights with that brick in the trunk of your car.”

“It wasn’t my stuff.”

“Ah.”

“It’s true, man.”

“You took the heat for someone else?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re just a nice guy, huh? Real hero.”

Shrug. Another rub of the shoulders. One of Gabray’s arms rose higher and he scratched the bare skin atop his head.

“Got an itch, Robert?”

“I’m fine, man.”

“Sure you’re not dope-chilled?”

“I’m okay, man.”

Milo looked at me. “Robert mixes powders as well as fluids. Quite an amateur chemist — isn’t that right, Robert?”

Another shrug.

“Got a day job, Robert?”

Shake of the head.

“Your P.O. know you’re working here?”

“Why shouldn’t I?”

Milo leaned in closer and smiled patiently. “Because you, as a habitual although petty felon, are supposed to stay away from bad influences, and those folks in there don’t look any too wholesome.”

Gabray sucked his teeth and looked at the ground. “Who told you I was here?”

Milo said, “Spare me the questions, Robert.”

“It was that bitch, wasn’t it?”

“What bitch is that?”

“You know.”

“Do I?”

“You musta — you knew I was here.”

“Angry at her, Robert?”

“Nah.”

“Not at all?”

“I don’t get mad.”

“What do you get?”

“Nothing.”

“You get even?”

Gabray said, “Can I smoke?”

“She paid your bail, Robert. In my book that makes
her
the hero.”

“I’ll marry her. Can I smoke?”

“Sure, Robert, you’re a free man. Least till your trial. ’Cause
the bitch
made your bail.”

Gabray pulled a pack of Kools out of his p.j. pants. Milo was ready with a match.

“Let’s talk about where you were
three
months ago, Robert.”

Gabray smoked and gave another foggy look.

“A month before you got busted, Robert. March.”

“What about it?”

“The Mayan Mortgage.”

Gabray smoked and looked at the sky.

“Remember it, Robert?”

“What about it?”

“This.”

Milo slid something out of his shirt pocket. Penlight and a color photo. He held the picture in front of Gabray’s eyes and shined the light on it. I stepped behind Gabray and peered over his shoulder.

Same face as in the snapshot the Murtaughs had given me. Below the hairline. Above it, the skull was flattened to something that was incapable of holding a brain. What was left of the hair was a matted red-black cloud. Eggshell-colored skin. A black-red necklace encircled the throat. The eyes were two purple eggplants.

Gabray looked at it, smoked, said, “So?”

“Remember her, Robert?”

“Should I?”

“Her name’s Dawn Herbert. She was offed near the Mayan and you told some detectives you saw her with some guy.”

Gabray flicked ashes and smiled. “
That’s
what this is about? Yeah, I told them. I guess.”

“You guess?”

“It was a long time ago, man.”

“Three months.”

“That’s a long time, man.”

Milo moved closer to Gabray and stared down at the smaller man. “You gonna help me on this? Yes or no?” Waving the homicide photo.

“What happened to the other cops? One a them was a beaner, I think.”

“They took early retirement.”

Gabray laughed. “Where? In Tia Wanna?”

“Talk to me, Robert.”

“I don’t know nothing.”

“You saw her with a guy.”

Shrug.

“Did you lie to those poor hardworking detectives, Robert?”

“Me? Never.” Smile. “Perish my thoughts.”

“Tell me what you told them.”

“Didn’t they write it down?”

“Tell me anyway.”

“It was a long time ago.”

“Three months.”

“That’s long, man.”

“Sure is, Robert. Ninety whole days, and think about this: Your record, even a little weed could put you away for two, three times that long. Think of three hundred cold days — that was a lot of grass in your trunk.”

Gabray looked at the photo, turned his head, and smoked.

“It wasn’t mine. The weed.”

Milo’s turn to laugh. “That gonna be your defense?”

Gabray frowned, pinched his cigarette, sucked smoke through it. “You’re saying you can help me?”

“Depends on what you come up with.”

“I seen her.”

“With a guy?”

Nod.

“Tell me the whole thing, Robert.”

“That’s it.”

“Tell it like a story. Once upon a time.”

Gabray snickered. “Yeah, sure. Once upon a time… I seen her with a guy. The end.”

“In the club?”

“Outside.”

“Where outside?”

“Like… a block away.”

“That the only time you saw her?”

Gabray contemplated. “Maybe I seen her another time, inside.”

“Was she a regular?”

“Whatever.”

Milo sighed and patted the barkeep’s shoulder. “Robert, Robert, Robert.”

Gabray flinched with each mention of his name. “What?”

“That’s not much of a story.”

Gabray ground out his cigarette and produced another. He waited for Milo to light it and when that didn’t happen, pulled out a book of matches and did it himself.

“I seen her maybe one more time,” he said. “That’s it. I only worked there a couple of weeks.”

“Trouble holding down a job, Robert?”

“I like to move around, man.”

“A ramblin’ guy.”

“Whatever.”

“Twice in a couple of weeks,” said Milo. “Sounds like she enjoyed the place.”

“Fuckheads,” said Gabray with sudden passion. “All a them, rich dumb fucks, coming down to play street-life, then running back to Rodeo Drive.”

“Dawn Herbert come across as a rich bitch?”

“They’re all the same, man.”

“Ever talk to her?”

Alarm in the barkeep’s eyes. “Nah. Like I said, I only seen her once, maybe twice. That’s it. I didn’t know her from shit — I had nothing to do with her and nothing to do with
that
.” Pointing at the photo.

“You’re sure about that.”

“Real sure.
Really
real sure, man. That is
not
my thing.”

“Tell me about seeing her with this guy.”

“Like I said, once upon a time I was working there and once upon a time I went to take a smoke and seen her. Only reason I remembered was ’cause a the guy. He wasn’t one a them.”

“One of who?”

“The fuckheads.
She
was, but not
him
. He, like, stood out.”

“Stood out how?”

“Straight.”

“Businessman?”

“Nah.”

“What then?”

Gabray shrugged.

“Was he wearing a suit, Robert?”

Gabray smoked hard and thought. “Nah. Kinda like you — Sears Roebuck, that kind of jacket.” Drawing his hands across his waist.

“A windbreaker?”

“Yeah.”

“What color?”