Christopher wiped blood from his nose. He said, “Felix didn’t want me to talk to you about it,” no whimper, no defiance, no nothing in his voice.
“Do you do everything Felix tells you to do?”
“Yes.”
“So you saw a man like that?”
Christopher got to his feet and leaned over the railing with his head bowed. “The man had really beautiful hair, like movie star hair. I do file work at the agency, and I’ve seen him out at the bus stop on Sunset a lot the last few days.”
Danny worked the kinks out of his knuckles, rubbing them on his jacket sleeve. “Who is he?”
“I don’t know.”
“Have you seen him with a car?”
“No.”
“Have you seen anybody talking to him?”
“No.”
“But you told Felix about him?”
“Y-yes.”
“And how did he react?”
Christopher shrugged. “I don’t know. He didn’t react much at all.”
Danny leaned over the railing, fists cocked. “Yes, he fucking did, so you fucking tell me.”
“Felix wouldn’t like me to tell.”
“No, but you tell me, or I’ll hurt you.”
The boy pulled away, gulped and spoke fast, a fresh-turned snitch anxious to get it over with. “At first he seemed scared, then he seemed to be thinking, and he told me I should point the man out from the window the next time I saw him.”
“Did you see him again?”
“No. No, I really didn’t.”
Danny thought: and you never will, now that he knows I’m wise to his stakeout. He said, “Does Gordean keep records for his introduction service?”
“No. No, he’s afraid of it.”
Danny shot the boy an elbow. “You people like playing games, so here’s a good one. I tell you something, you put it together with Gordean, who I’m sure you know real well. And you look at me, so I can tell if you’re lying.”
The kid turned, profile to full face, pretty to beaten and slackfeatured. Danny tried to evil-eye him; trembly lips made him look at the ocean instead. “Does Gordean know any jazz musicians, guys who hang at the jazz clubs down in darktown?”
“I don’t think so, that’s not Felix’s style.”
“Think fast. Zoot stick. That’s a stick with razor blades at the end, a weapon.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“A man who looks like the one you saw by the bus stop, a man who uses Gordean’s service.”
“No. I’d never seen that man by the bus stop before, and I don’t know any–”
“Dentists, dental workers, men who can make dentures.”
“No. Too chintzy for Felix. Oh God, this is so strange.”
“Heroin. Guys who push it, guys who like it, guys who can get it.
“No, no, no. Felix hates needle fiends, he thinks they’re vulgar. Can we please hurry up? I never stay out on my walks this long, and Felix might get worried.”
Danny got the urge to hit again; he stared harder at the water, imagining shark fins cutting the waves. “Shut up and just answer. Now the service. Felix gets his kicks bringing guys out, right?”
“Oh Jesus–yes.”
“Were any of those four men I mentioned queers that he brought out?”
“I–I don’t know.”
“Queers in general?”
“Donald and Augie, yes. Tim Costigan and Al Marks are just clients.”
“Did Augie or Don ever turn tricks for the service?”
“Augie did, that’s all I know.”
“Christopher! Did you fall in and drown!”
Danny shifted his gaze, wave churn to beach. Felix Gordean was standing on his back porch, a tiny figure lit by a string of paper lanterns. A glass door stood half open behind him; the two musclemen, barely visible, were entwined on the floor inside. Christopher said, “Please, can I go now?”
Danny looked back at his sharks. “Don’t you tell Gordean about this.”
“What should I tell him about my nose?”
“Tell him a fucking shark bit you.”
“Christopher! Are you coming!”
o o o
Danny drove back to La Paloma Drive. An arclight was shining down on the abandoned Pontiac; Mike Breuning was sitting on the hood of an LAPD unmarked, watching a print man dust for latents. Danny killed his engine and beeped the horn; Breuning walked over and leaned in the window. “No prints except the shine the car belongs to–we eliminated him from a gun registration set he had on file at the station. No records on those four names you gave Shortell, and he’s out canvassing now. What happened? Jack said you said the killer was tailing you.”