Thin Air

The sink was soapstone, and two shabby-looking refrigerators stood side by side against the left-hand wall. One of them had the condenser equipment on top of it. A big table occupied the middle of the room. It was the kind that hotels use to set up banquet rooms. It had a splintery plywood top, and folding metal legs. There were some flowers in a coffee can in the middle of the table, and five or six assorted straight chairs set around the table. Five small children, three girls and two boys, were playing in diapers and little else, on the floor under the table. The slim woman in the pink sweatshirt who had brought Lisa's food was there, and a fat woman in a tight lavender sweatsuit. They were sitting at the table, minding the children, eating occasionally from a large open bag of Vincent potato chips that lay on its side on the table.

Luis said something to them in Spanish. They stared at her and nodded.

'Lisa,' Luis said, 'this is my cousin Evangelista, and my friend Chita.'

'Do you know that he has kidnapped me?' Lisa said.

The two women looked at her without expression. 'That is a bad word to use here, Lisa,' Luis said. 'I have simply reclaimed what is mine. And, of course, they do not speak English.'

Beyond the women at the table a door led into the backyard. Through it she could see small children, somewhat older than the babies in the kitchen, playing in the courtyard formed by the enclosing tenements. He walked with her to the door. She went volitionlessly, and stood silently beside him on the back step. There was a bent and rusty metal swing set on one side o f the yard, and a pile of sand on the other. The grass had been worn away and the earth was bare and muddy from the rain. Each of the tenements had a back porch

on each floor and en masse they rose like balconies in a decrepit theater. On the first-floor back porch directly opposite her, seated among the pieces of wash hanging damp on the sagging clothesline, two young adolescent girls watched the children.

'We use the courtyard for the children,' he said. 'They are safe here.'

Lucky them, Lisa thought.

Chapter 17

Lucy's El Adobe is a very ordinary-looking restaurant in Hollywood, right across from the Paramount Gate. When we got there Samuelson was already in a booth drinking coffee and looking at nothing and seeing everything. He was a rangy guy with a square face and very little hair. He wore tinted glasses and his moustache was trimmed shorter since I'd seen him last. He nodded when he saw me come in and stood when he saw Susan. I introduced them.

'You're the one he went home to,' Samuelson said.

'I believe I am,' Susan said.

'Can't say I blame him,' Samuelson said.

Susan ordered a frozen margarita, with salt. I glanced at her and she smiled serenely. Samuelson had more coffee and I ordered decaf. Samuelson looked disgusted.

The waitress brought the drinks, took our food orders, and went away.

'You ever hear from Jill Joyce?' Samuelson said.

'No. Vincent del Rio still around?'

'Like death and taxes,' Samuelson said. 'I never figured how you didn't irritate him.'

'Same way I didn't irritate you,' I said.

'You did irritate me,' Samuelson said. 'But the consequences aren't so serious.'

The waitress brought the food. Samuelson had a taco salad, I had chicken fajitas. Susan had the combination special: chile rellenos, enchiladas, a beef burrito, refried beans, cheese, sour cream, guacamole. I stared at her.

Susan looked at her plate and said, 'Yum.'

'You going to be able to handle all that, little lady?' I said.

'I think so,' Susan said. She grinned at me. 'But thanks for asking, Peekaboo Boy.'

'Why you asking about del Rio?' Samuelson said.

'I need a favor from him.'

Samuelson said, 'Good luck,' and handed me a manila envelope from the seat beside him.

'Angela Richard,' he said. 'Hollywood Vice busted her twice, 1982, 1983. Sheriff's department got her once in '85. When the Sheriff's department got her they sent her out to detox in Pomona.'

'Pomona?' I said.

Samuelson nodded.

'Busted her pimp, too,' he said.

'That's unusual,' I said. 'LAPD or the Sheriff's guys?'

'Sheriff,' Samuelson said. 'I guess he hassled them while they were collaring her, so they hauled him in too.'

'What's his name?'

'Elwood Pontevecchio,' Samuelson said. 'How many wops you know with a name like Elwood?'

'Anybody named Vaughn involved?'