the secret and lived with it. Gave birth to a
beautiful little red-headed daughter who’s now
grown up into a wild young teenager. Lover Boy’s
still around, too, busy enforcing the .!aw. But he’s
no longer a deputy. He’s the. head honcho. The man
BLOOD TEST 333
“Sleazy little people with thetr stinking-little
intrigues, he snarled.:-Laboring .under the de uson
that there s some meamng to their h es.
“You sent him a copy-of the file, invited him-to
Beverly Hills for a chat, half-expecting him to ignore
you or tell you to go to hell. What’s the worst
that would have happened? A minor scandal ? Early
pension? But he was there the next day, wasn’t
he?”
Matthias laughed out loud. It wasn’t a pleasant
sound.
“Bright and early,” he shid, nodding, “in that
ridiculous cowboy costume. Trying to look macho
but quaking in his boots–the fool/’
–
He reveled cruelly in the memory.
”
‘
”
‘ ue “tha
‘
You knew, right away, Icontm d,.. t you d
touched on something ‘f.:Of’ course,-it, wasn’t
until the following summer, when the girl worked
for you, that you figured it out, butyou didn’t have
to understand the fear to capitalize on it.”
“He was a yokel,” said Matthias. “A sUCker for a
bluff.”
“That summer,” I said, “must have been an interesting
one. Your brand-new social structure
threatened by a sixteen-year-old girl.”
“She was a litflenympho,” he said contemptuously,
“Had a thing f6r older men. Went after them
like a vacuum-cleaner. I heard rumors from the
time she got here. One day I discovered her blow-
everyone lOOks up to. So powerful he sets’ the emotional
tone of the town. With him. in your pocket
you’ll have a free ride.” – .
All traces of serenity had passed from the long
bearded face. He touched his beard and stained it
green, tasted grass and spat.
Jonathan-Kellerman
ing a sixty-year old in, the pantry Pulled her off
and c&lled Houten. The way they looked ateach
other tipped me off as to why the file had turned
him to jelly. He’d been screwing his own daughter
without knowingit. I knew then that his balls were
in my pocket. Forever. From that point on I presSe, d
him into service.”
“Must have come in handy.”
“Exceedingly,” he grinned. “Before elections,
when the Border Patrol came down hard, he’d go
into Mexico and 4k up the cargo for us. Nothing
tike a personal police escort.”
“It’s a hell of a nice setup,” I said. “Well worth
preserving. If I were you I’d view the hundred and
fifty as a bargain.”
He shifted his weight. I took the opportunity to
recross my legs. One foot had fallen asleep and i.
shook it gently to restore circulation.
“All I’ve heard up to this point is pure supposition,”
he said coolly. “Nothing Worth trading for.”
“There’s more. Let’s talk about Dr. August Val-croix.
A refugee from the sixties .anda devotee of
situational ethics. I’m not sure how the two of you
got together but he’d probably been dealing up in
Canada and knew some of your partners. He became
one of your salesmen, handling the hospital
trade. What better cover for it than a bona fide
M.D.?
“The way I see it, he could have gotten h01d of
the stuff in two ways. Sometimes he came down
here to collect, hnder the guise of attending a seminar-.
When that was inconvenient, you sent it up to
him. Which is what Graffius and Delilah were doing
in L.A. the day they visited the Swopes. A courtesy
call after a dope transfer. They had-nothing to do
BLOOD TEST 335
with the Swopes’ reluctance to treat Woody or the-
alxluction
“Valcroix waSn’t
knew how to listen to patients and
up. He
to heal. He developed
Swopehe’s the
other than
knew something about her no one else
“The diagnosis of Cancer in a child can throw a
,,tfiy off-kilter, disrupt old patterns of behavior.
-i ye Seen it happen plenty of times. For the Swopes,
the’ stress waS crushing; it turned Garland into a
pompous jester and caused Emma to sit and brood
about the paSt. No doubt Valcroix caught her at a