Mr. Klein, what are you going to do about this?”
Shelves packed tight–college texts. I opened one–comp stuff, doodling: a heart circling “G.B. & M.H.”
“Yes, I stole those. What are you going–”
“What happened to M.H.?”
_That_ smile. “He got another girl pregnant and died in Korea. David–”
“I don’t know. Maybe I’ll just pull out and set you up with an attorney. But the best you can hope for is a violated contract and no criminal charges.”
“And the worst?”
“Howard Hughes is Howard Hughes. One word to the DA gets you indicted for grand theft.”
“Mickey said you’re friends with the new DA.”
“Yeah, he used to study my crib sheets in law school, and Hughes put two hundred grand in his slush fund.”
“David–”
Side 84
Ellroy – White Jazz
“It’s Dave.”
“I like David better.”
“No, my sister calls me that.”
“So?”
“Let it rest.”
The phone rang–Glenda picked up. “Hello? … Yes, Mickey, I know I’m late….
No, I’ve got a cold…. Yes, but Sid and Wylie can shoot around my scenes….
No, I’ll try to come in this afternoon…. Yes, I won’t forget our dinner.. . .
No–goodbye, Mickey.”
She hung up. I said, “M.H. took off, but Mickey won’t.”
“Well, he’s lonely. Four of his men have disappeared, and I think he knows they’re dead. Business was business, but I think he misses them more than anything else.”
“He’s still got Chick and Touch.”
A breeze-Glenda shivered. “I don’t know why they stay. Mickey has this scheme to have them seduce famous people. It’s so un-Mickey it’s pathetic.”
“Pathetic”–Junior’s notes confirmed. Glenda–shivers, goosebumps.
I grabbed her raincoat and held it out–she stood up smiling.
Touching her.
She slid the coat on; I pulled it back and touched her scars. Glenda: this slow turn around to kiss me.
* * *
Day/night/morning–the phone off the hook, the radio low. Talk, music– soft ballads lulled Glenda sleepy. Losing her brought it ALL back.
She slept hard, stirred hungry. Yawns, smiles-open eyes caught me scared. Kisses kept her from asking; the whole no-payoff feel kept me breathless.
Pressed hard together–no thoughts. _Her_ breath peaking–no thoughts. Inside her when her eyes said don’t hold back–no queers, no peepers, no dope-peddler-daughter whores taunting me.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“. . . and they are out there, within our jurisdiction, superseding our jurisdiction. So far as we know, there are seventeen Federal agents and three Deputy U.S. Attorneys backstopping Welles Noonan. Noonan has not requested an LAPD liaison, so we must fully assume that this is a hostile investigation aimed at discrediting us.”
Chief William H. Parker speaking. Standing by: Bob Gallaudet, Ed Exley. Seated: all stationhouse commanders and Detective Division COs. Missing: Dan Wilhite, Dudley Smith–Mike Breuning and Dick Carlisle pinch-hitting.
Eerie–_no_ Narco men. Odd–no Dudley.
Exley at the mike: “The chief and I view this ‘investigation’ as conceived for political gain. Federal agents are not city policemen and certainly not conversant with the realities of maintaining order in Negro-inhabited sectors.
Welles Noonan wishes to discredit both the Department and our colleague Mr.
Gallaudet, and Chief Parker and I have agreed on measures to limit his success.
Side 85
Ellroy – White Jazz
I will be briefing each of you division heads individually, but before I commence I’ll hit some key points you should all be aware of.”
I yawned–bed-bruised, exhausted. Exley: “Division commanders should tell their men, both plainclothes and uniform: muscle and/or palm your informants and tell them not to cooperate with any Federal agents they might encounter. Along those lines, I want Southside club and bar owners visited. ‘Visited’ is a euphemism, gentlemen. ‘Visited’ means that the station COs at Newton, University and 77th Street should send intimidating plainclothesmen around to tell the owners that since we overlook certain infractions of theirs, they should overlook speaking candidly to the Feds. The Central Vagrant Squad will follow a parallel line: they will round up local derelicts to insure their silence vis-‡-vis enforcement measures that quasi-liberals like Noonan might consider overzealous. The 77th Squad is to politely muscle white swells out of the area–we want no well-connected people federally entrapped. Robbery and Homicide Division detectives are currently sifting through recent Negro-on-Negro unsolved homicides, with an eye toward presenting indictment-ready evidence to Mr.