Time Bomb

“Even though you’re not legal.”

She smiled, “But I’m good, chief. I can be real patient- real therapeutic when I have to.”

“I’ll just bet you can, Cheri. What other politicians did Dobbs send you besides Assemblyman Massengil?”

“Just him,” she said. “It’s like they were special buddies.”

“What kind of special buddies?”

“Not fags or anything. Sometimes a couple of closet fags will use me to get into theirselves- doing a double and then accidentally one of their things brushes up against the other thing and we got a brand-new picture. But not them. They just used to show up, together. Like Sam needed Fatso to lead the way, and Fatso got off on setting things up.”

“He never sent anyone else to you?”

“Not down here.”

“What about Sacramento?”

“Okay, a couple. But after I did a little business with him, I didn’t want to do any more.”

“Why not?”

“He was a pig is why not. With Lorraine he’d taken fifty-five percent. With me he was wanting sixty. Finder’s fee. He said I needed him- his being involved made it legal. Threatening me.” She shook her head and rubbed one knee. “I went indy to get greedy pigs off my back. Told him bullshit, my being involved made it illegal for him and he had a lot more to lose than I did if the shit hit the fan. So we settled on twenty percent. Couple of months later, I had enough of my own business going, anyway. Taking a hundred percent. Didn’t want none of his, even with twenty percent, and told him so.”

“How’d he react to that?”

“Made a face but didn’t argue. And kept seeing me. With Sam. Sam had a thing for me.”

“Was he ever a client himself?”

“Once in a while.”

“Tyer or tyee?”

She shook her head. “All he wanted was wham-bam, Oh Jesus, oh Jesus!, roll his fat butt off, and fall asleep. Mostly he was a watcher- couple of times I caught him peeking through the door when I was with Sam. That gave me the creeps, but I didn’t say a thing. Didn’t cost me anything.”

“Where’s your trick book?”

“No trick book.” She tapped her coiffure. “Everything’s in here.”

“How about your calendar?”

“No calendar either. Each day passes I tear it up in little pieces and flush it down.”

“We’re gonna tear the place apart, Cheri.”

“Tear all you want. There’s no book. And don’t ask me to give you names- otherwise I will go downtown and suck AIDS breath.”

“Who knew Massengil was coming here?”

“No one knew. No one knew about anybody. That’s my specialty- discreetness. And with him I was extra- careful, ’cause he was so nervous about being caught, wouldn’t even leave his car out on the street. When he had an appointment, I cleared my calendar all day so they wouldn’t be running into anyone.”

“Considerate.”

“Fuck considerate,” she said. “I charged ’em for time lost.”

“Speaking of that, what kind of tariff are we talking about?”

“Four hundred an hour.” Wide smile. “More than my lawyer makes and I didn’t have to pass any bar tests.”

“Cash?”

“Nothing but.”

“How often did Massengil see you?”

“Three or four times a month.”

“What was the schedule?”

“What I told you- tying up, nuzzling bubbies, sometimes I’d feed them dinner. Then they’d leave and I had the whole night to myself, watch Johnny Carson.”

Milo said, “That’s not what I meant by schedule, Cheri. Which days of the week did they show up? What routine?”

“No routine. I’d get a call from Sam- or from Fatso- day or two before. Clear the calendar and they’d come by and we’d have a little party.”

“Always the two of them?”

“Always.” She turned thoughtful. “Maybe they were fags, really wanting to do a little dick-rubbing… I don’t know. I just know they never got into that here.”

“No schedule,” said Milo.

“No.”

“So how’d anyone know they were here?”

“Beats me. Maybe somebody followed ’em.”

“Followed ’em here and just waited, huh?”

She shrugged.

Milo said, “How’d the shooter know to wait for them to come out- know that the two of them wouldn’t be spending the night?”

“Not my thing,” she said, “spending the night. No one spends the night.”

“Who’d know that, besides you and your tricks?”

She was silent.

He said, “You’re gonna have to give us that book, Cheri.”

“I keep telling you there is no book.”

Milo sat back and crossed his legs. She smoked, touched her hair, rocked her foot. Finally she said, “I give you that, I’m finished.”

He said, “C’mon, Cheri. Two bodies out in back, one of them a public figure? You’re finished anyway.”

She smoked in silence some more. Pulled something out of an eyelash.

“Book’s in the bank. Safe deposit box.”

“Which bank?”

“I give it to you, you gonna help me move? Get me outa here safe, help me get my equity out of the building, plus keep my kid safe?”

“Where’s the kid?”

“Inglewood, with my mom.”

“How old?”

“Nine. Real smart, gotta great voice, sings in church.”

“What’s his name?”

“Andre.”

“Andre. I’ll do what I can for you and Andre.”

“Do what you can, huh? That’s politician talk, chief- just another way of saying fuck you.”

“Got a place to move?”

“Somewhere conservative. Uptight. Conservative folks get the horniest. Need an outlet.”

“Like the folks up in Sacramento.”

“Just like.”

“Why’d you move from there to L.A.?”

“We’re back asking questions?”

“That’s right. Why the move, Cheri?”

“It was his idea.”

“Dobbs’s or Massengil’s?”