An elegant shrug. “Jack, I’m _très_ Hollywood. I dress up as a rodent to entertain children. Nothing in this town surprises me.”
“I’m not sure I buy that.”
“I’m telling you the truth. I don’t know any of the people in those pictures, and I haven’t seen those magazines before.”
“People of your type know people who know people. You know Bobby Inge, and he was in those pictures. I want to see your little black book.”
Timmy said, “No.”
Jack said, “Yes, or I give _Hush-Hush_ a little item on you and Billy Dieterling as soul sisters. _Badge of Honor_, the _Dream-a-Dream Hour_ and queers. You like that for a three-horse parlay?”
Timmy smiled. “Max Peltz would fire you for that. He wants you to be nice. _So be nice_.”
“You carry your book with you?”
“No, I don’t. Jack, remember who Billy’s father is. Remember all the money you can make in the Industry after you retire.”
Pissed now, almost seeing red. “Hand me your wallet. Do it or I’ll lose my temper and put you up against the wall.” Valburn shrugged, pulled out a billfold. Jack glommed what he wanted: calling cards, names and numbers on paper scraps. “I want those returned.”
Jack handed the wallet back light. “Sure, Timmy.”
“You are going to fuck up very auspiciously one day, Jack. Do you know that?”
“I already have, and I made money on the deal. Remember that if you decide to rat me to Max.”
Valburn walked out–elegant.
o o o
Fruit-bar pickings: first names, phone numbers. One card looked familiar: “Fleur-de-Lis. Twenty-four Hours a Day– Whatever You Desire. HO-01239.” No writing on the back– Jack racked his brain, couldn’t make a connection.
New plan: call the numbers, impersonate Bobby Inge, drop lines about stag books–see who bit. Stick at the pad, see who called or showed up: long-shot stuff.
Jack called “Ted–DU-6831”–busy signal; “Geoff–CR-9640”–no bite on a lisping “Hi, it’s Bobby Inge.” “Bing–AX-6005”–no answer; back to “Ted”–“Bobby who? I’m sorry, but I don’t think I know you.” “Jim,” “Nat,” “Otto”: no answers; he still couldn’t make the odd card. Last-ditch stuff: buzz the cop line at Pacific Coast Bell.
Ring, ring. “Miss Sutherland speaking.”
“This is Sergeant Vincennes, LAPD. I need a name and address on a phone number.”
“Don’t you have a reverse directory, Sergeant?”
“I’m in a phone booth, and the number I want checked is Hollywood 01239.”
“Very well. Please hold the line.”
Jack held; the woman came back on. “No such number is assigned. Bell is just beginning to assign five-digit numbers, and that one has not been assigned. Franldy, it may never be, the changeover is going so slow.”
“You’re sure about this?”
“Of course I’m sure.”
Jack hung up. First thoughts: bootleg line. Bookies had them–bent guys at P.C. Bell rigged the lines, kept the numbers from being assigned. Free phone service, no way police agencies could subpoena records, no make on incoming calls.
A reflex call: The DMV police line.
“Yes? Who’s requesting?”
“Sergeant Vincennes, LAPD. Address only on a Timothy V-A-L-B-U-R-N, white male, mid to late twenties. I think he lives in the Wilshire District.”
“I copy. Please hold.”
Jack held; the clerk returned. “Wilshire it is. 432 South Lucerne. Say, isn’t Valburn that mouse guy on the Dieterling show?”
“Yeah.”
“Well . . . uh . . . what are you after him for?”
“Possession of contraband cheese.”
o o o
Chez Mouse: an old French Provincial with new money accoutrements–floodlights, topiary bushes–Moochie, the rest of the Dieterling flock. Two cars in the driveway: the ragtop prowling Hamel, Billy Dieterling’s Packard Caribbean–a fixture on the _Badge of Honor_ lot.
Jack staked the pad spooked: the queers were too well connected to burn, his smut job stood dead-ended–“Whatever You Desire” some kind of dead-end tangent. He could level with Timmy and Billy, shake them down, squeeze their contacts: people who knew people who knew Bobby Inge–who knew who made the shit. He kept the radio tuned in low; a string of love songs helped him pin things down.
He wanted to track the filth because part of him wondered how something could be so ugly and so beautiful and part of him plain jazzed on it.