the time people talked it out. But sometimes it got
physical. I can recall at least one intern getting
slugged by a father. Plenty
who’d lost his leg in a hunting
before his daughter came down with kidney tumors
carried a couple of pistols into the hospital the day
after she died. It was usually the ones who denied
it and held it in and didn’t communicate with anyone
who were the most ‘explosive.” Which fit the
description Beverly had given me of Garland Swope.
I told him so.
“So that could be it,” he said uneasily.
“But you don’t think so.”.
The heavy shoulders shrugged.
“I don’t think anything at this point. Because
this is a crazy city, pal. More homicides each year
and folks are getting wasted for the weirdest reasons.
Last week, some old character’jammed a steak
knife in his neighbor’s chest because he was sure
the guy was killing his tomato plants with evil rays
from his navel. Deranged assholes walk into fast-food
joints and mow down kids eating burgers, for
chrissake. When I first went into Homicide things
seemed relatively logical, pretty simple, really. Most
of the stuff we used to catch was due to love or
jealousy or money, family feuds–your basic human
conflicts. Not now, compadre. Too many holes in
the Swiss cheese? Ice the deli man. Looney Tunes.”
“And this looks like the work of a crazy?”
“Who the hell knows, Alex? We’re not talking
hard science. Most probably we’ll find it was what
I said before. One of them–Probably the father–got
a good look at the shitty cards he’d been dealt
and tossed the room. They left the car behind so
it’s probably temporary.
“On the other hand, I can’t guarantee they didn’t
happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time,
with a nutcase who thought they
were Pluto Vampires out to take over his iver.” He
held the matchbook between thumb and forefinger
and waved it like a miniature flag.
“Right now,” he said, “all we’ve got is this. It’s
not in my ballpark but I’ll pay the place a visit and
follow it up for you, okay?”
“Thanks, Milo. Getting to the bottom of it would
calm a few people down. Want company ?”
“Sure, why not? Haven’t seen you in a good while.
If missing the lovely Ms. Castagna hasn’t made you
unbearably morose, you might even turn out to be
good company.”
THERE WAS a’phone..number on the matchbook but
no address, so Milo called Vice and got one, along
with some background on the Adam and Eve Messenger
Service.
“They know the operation,” he said, tooling onto
Pico and heading east. “Owned by a sweetheart
named Jan Rainbo, has her finger in a little bit of
everything. Daddy’s a mob biggie in Frisco. Little
Jan’s his pride and joy.”
“What is it, a cover for an outcall service?”
“That and a few other things. Vice thinks sometimes
the messengers transport dope, but that’s only
a sideline–impromptu, when someone needs a favor.
They do some relati,ely legit stuff -party gags,
like when it’s the boss’s birthday and a nubile young
thing shows up at the office party, strips and rubs
herself all over him. Mostly it’s sex for sale, one
way or another.”
“Which sheds new light on Norm SWope,” I said.
“Maybe. You said she was good looking?”
93
94
]onatha lllernu
“Gorgeous, Milo. Unusually so.”
“So she knows what she’s got and decides to
profit from it–it might be relevant, but what the
hell, when you get right down to it, this town was
built on the buying and selling of bodies, right?
Small town girl hits glitter-city, gets her head turned.
Happens every day.”
“That has got to be the most hackneyed soliloquy
-you’ve ever delivered.”
He broke out laughing and slapped the dashboard
with glee, then realized he’d been squinting into
the sun and put on a pair of mirrored shades.
“Oka-ay, time to play cop. What do you think ?”
“Very intimidating.”
Jan Bambo’s headquarters were on the tenth floor
of a flesh-colored high rise on Wilshire just west of
Barrington. The directory in the lobby listed about
a hundred businesses, most with names that told