goddam things give off bad vibes-literally. Electromagnetic crap,
probably slowly destroying this perfect body.” A burst of static
washed over the tail end of the sentence.
“Where are you calling from?” I said.
“Car phone. Wrapping up a job.”
“Rick’s car?”
“Mine. My phone too. It’s a new age, Doctor. Rapid communication and
even faster decay. Anyway, what’s up?”
“I wanted to ask your advice on something-a case I’m working on-” “Say
no more-” “I-” “I mean it, Alex. Say. No. More. Cellular and
privacy don’t mix.
Anyone can listen in. Hold tight.”
He cut the line. My doorbell rang twenty minutes later.
“I was close,” he said, tramping into my kitchen. “Wilshire near
Barrington, paranoid lover surveillance.”
In his left hand was an LAPD note pad and a black mobile phone the size
of a bar of soap. He was dressed for undercover work: navyblue Members
Only jacket over a shirt of the same color, gray twill pants, brown
desert boots. Maybe five pounds lighter than the last time I’d seen
him but that still added up to at least 250 of them distributed
unevenly over 75 inches: long thin legs, protruberant gut, jowls
surrendering to gravity and crowding his collar.
His hair had been recently cut-clipped short at back and sides, left
full at the top. The black thatch hanging over his forehead showed a
few strands of white. His sideburns reached the bottom of his ear
lobes, a good inch longer than department regulations-but that was the
least of the department’s problems with him.
Milo was oblivious to fashion. He’d had the same look since I’d known
him. Now Melrose trendies were adopting it; I doubted he’d noticed.
His big, pockmarked face was night-shift pale. But his startling green
eyes seemed clearer than usual.
He said, “You look wired.”
Opening the refrigerator, he bypassed the bottles of Grolsch, removed
an unopened quart jar of grapefruit juice, and uncapped it with a quick
twist of two thick fingers.
I handed him a glass. He filled it, drained it, filled again and
drank.
“Vitamin C, free enterprise, snappy-sounding business titleyou’re
moving too fast for me, Milo.”
Putting the glass down, he licked his lips. Actually,” he said “Blue’s
an acronym. Big Lug’s Uneasy Enterprise-Rick’s idea of wit.
Though I admit it was accurate at the time-jumping into the private
sector wasn’t exactly your smooth transition. But I’m glad I did it,
because of the bread. I’ve become serious about financial security in
my old age.”
“What do you charge?”
“Fifty to eighty per hour, depending. Not as good as a shrink but I’m
not complaining. City wants to waste what it taught me, have me sit in
front of a screen all day, it’s their loss. By night, I’m getting my
detective exercise.
Any interesting cases?”
“Nah, mostly petty bullshit surveillance to keep the paranoids happy.
But at least it gets me out on the street.”
He poured more juice and drank. “I don’t know how long I can take
it-the day job.”
He rubbed his face, as if washing without water. Suddenly, he looked
worn, stripped of entrepreneurial cheer.
I thought of all he’d been through during the last year. Breaking the
jaw of a superior who’d put his life in danger. Doing it on live
television. The police department settling with him because going
public could have proved embarrassing. No charges pressed, six months’
unpaid leave, then a return to West L. A. Robbery/Homicide with a
one-notch demotion to Detective II. Finding out, six months later,
that no detective jobs were open at West L. A or any other division,
due to “unforeseen” budget cuts.
They shunted him-“temporarily”-to a data-processing job at Parker
Center, where he was put under the tutelage of a flagrantly effeminate
civilian instructor and taught how to play with computers. The
department’s not-so-subtle reminder that assault was one thing, but
what he did in bed was neither forgotten nor forgiven.
“Still thinking of going to court?” I said.
“I don’t know. Rick wants me to fight to the death. Says the way they
reneged proves they’ll never give me a break. But I know ill take it
to court, that’s it for me in the department. Even if I” He removed