'What can you tell me?'
'Anything I want. I'm not licensed or anything. I know something about gender identity issues. I just talk to people.'
'What do you want to tell me about Wyatt?' I said.
'He's fighting it,' Sapp said. 'Something I know a little about. He wants to be straight and rich and have nice teeth.'
'Man's reach must exceed his grasp…' I said.
'So he sits on the feelings and sits on them and finally he can't sit on them anymore and he goes off the wagon, so to speak.'
'Kids?' I said.
Sapp nodded.
'Prostitutes mostly,' Sapp said. 'In Augusta.'
'He ever get in trouble about it?'
'Yeah. Augusta Vice got him in a street sweep once, Clive got him off. He moved on a kid here in Lamarr once. Kid's mother called the cops.'
'Clive get it buried?' I said.
'Yep.'
'Money?'
'And fear. Delroy does it for him.'
'I don't see Becker taking a bribe.'
'Nope, but his boss will.'
'Delroy the bagman?'
'Yep.'
'What about the fear?'
'Delroy offers money to the kid's family. They don't take it, he tells them that something bad will happen to the kid.'
'Wyatt tell you this?' I said.
'No.'
'You talked with the kid,' I said.
'Couple years afterwards,' he said.
'He came to you?'
'Yeah,' Sapp said. 'He was afraid he was gay. I told him I thought he'd been exploited by Wyatt. I told him if anyone threatened him again he was to come right straight to me and we'd see about it.'
'Anyone threaten him again?'
'No.'
'Is he gay?' I said.
'I don't think so,' Sapp said.
'You tell him that?'
'I'm not looking for converts,' Sapp said. 'I told him it's not important to be straight or gay. It's important to be what you are.'
'Like you,' I said.
Sapp grinned at me.
'I'm queer, and I'm here,' he said.
'Know anything else about the Clive family that would interest me?' I said.
'Not much. I got a friend might be able to help you out, though. She's done some business with the other son- in-law. Whatsisname, Pud.'
'How's she know Pud?' I said.
'She's a madame.'
'In Lamarr?'
'In Lamarr.'
'And how does she know you?'
'She's a member of the gay community,' Sapp said.
