Frenzy

'Yeah. Who's dis?'

'I'm a friend of a certain mutual friend of ours. He tol' me you might be able to put me onto a dude that don't ask too many questions about takin' pictures of pretty girls . . . You know what I'm talking' about?'

'Naw. I dunno what chew talking about.'

'Dat's awright. Listen. He said to mention Juan's name,' he gave it the heavy H-sound, 'and like if you could put me in touch wit' the Morales dude or somebody, there'd be a taste innit for you, comprende?'

'Oh.' The interest went out of the other voice. 'You talkin' about Morales. Which Morales you talkin' about?'

'Paco, man. Who you tink? Hey, how can I get in touch with him, I runnit by him.'

'I don't know fer sure. Who'd Jew say dis was?'

'A friend of a friend of Juan's — a good friend, you know? He said jew was cool, man. So what's the big deal? Paco still over in the trailer court?'

'Yeah. I don't got his number, tho.'

'Well, how, uh, where can I leave word for him? He's gonna get well on dis' shit, man.'

'Hell, I dunno. You might try d'Bacardi.'

'Huh?'

'Yeah. You could leave word at d'Bacardi. He hangs out dere sometime.' Pause. 'Shit — I dunno, man. I don' see him dat much.'

'What's the Bacardi?'

'A BAR, baby, d'Bacardi Bar's d' name of it, okay?'

'Hey, gracias, if you see him tell him Bob Long called. Okay?'

'Yeah. De nada' The line clicked.

Spain asked around a little very quietly. It took him about five minutes to locate the Bacardi Bar, which was a nameless cantina that took its local nickname from a big, neon BACARDI up on the roof of the building.

He spotted the mobile-home park across the road and cracked the door on the stolen van he'd picked up back on the Tex-ee-co side and waited for a few minutes. He didn't see much street activity. He got out and scouted around a little, looked at a couple of mail-boxes and saw Morales, walked up, and knocked on the door. Spain had very carefully tried the knob as he knocked. He'd learned many years ago that to his surprise half the doors you try are unlocked in the first place. This wasn't, but it had given easily. He wouldn't even need plastic. He turned around and walked away as if he was going back to the van, and when he didn't see any eyes, he made a little stutter-step like a double take, a bit of I-for-got-something pantomime with the hands, and walked back to the trailer.

It was an ordinary if rather long, used, singlewide. Spain figured it to be maybe a fourteen-by-seventy. Morales could be asleep in there back in a bedroom. He stuck the little piece of metal in and the door gave with a loud popping noise. No inside chain. Spain went in fast, closing it behind him and blinking in the semi-darkness of the interior. He waited a second listening. Heard nothing and started back into the long rectangular home, his weight shaking the flimsy particle board floor as he walked.

It was a pigsty. Nobody home. Stuff strewn everywhere. No dog. No caged bird. Nothing. Good. He went to work on the door immediately with some pocket tools, fixing the cheap frame so that when the owner came up to unlock his door, it wouldn't push in with the first touch and alert him. He superglued a metal strip in place to hold the latch plate, the plate he'd forced loose, and then darkened it with a fast-drying marker to make the metallic shine less conspicuous.

He waited and tried to keep from breathing any more than necessary. This punk must never bathe. What a hole, he thought. Just a punk who worked the camera on the stuff Jon Belmonte did locally. Rhapsody Video. What a name. Connected to the distribution arm of the kiddie-porn biz through the St. Louis people. The Freunds, Belmonte, all just punks. Pervert scum on the fringes of the sex industry. Spain shivered. Disgusted that the families would tolerate freaks like this. But then they used street hypes for dope salesmen, so what's the difference? The families would pay for their lack of discernment. He would make all these scum pay with their dust.

Almost two hours. A little car pulls up and two beanors get out, talking their fucking greaser talk, chattering away and laughing, and Spain moves back into the hallway as they come in, his piece out in one hand, a sap in the other, piece with a suppressor on, then that whole thing wrapped. A dipshit.22.

The door closes. They start to say something and he steps out of the darkened hall with the piece pointed. Tells them to freeze en espanol.

'Turn around, punks.' He motions.

'Whachew wan'?'

'SHUT THE FUCK UP,' he hisses. 'Morales, listen to me, punk. I need some information and I'll leave you be. You first — put your hands behind you.' One of them does, and that's cool. He didn't give a cucaracha which was which but he had to know who was who. He quickly sapped the other one lightly. Wired Morales' hands with a twist-em, stepped on the back of one of his knees, taking him down to the floor. Did a half-frisk. Slipped a billfold out and nodded. Gagged Morales, now that he'd seen the name on a card in the man's wallet and knew they weren't jiving with him, and quickly leaned over and fired a.22 Long Rifle round into the head of the man he'd sapped, placing the shot behind the left eye about one and a half inches from the ear and firing in an upward trajectory. The wrapped, suppressed.22 sounding like a loud, metallic fart.

'Fucked up that towel, didn't we?' He took the coat hanger he'd laid on top of the TV, all nicely straightened, and his pliers, and wired Morales hands nice and tight. The punk's eyes were as big as silver dollars.

'Si, si, senor. You're in a bit of trouble here, chinga chinga. What do you think?'

'Mmmmmfffffffff.' Morales struggled.

'Wass yo' name, amigo? Pace? Listen, douchebag, you really like taking pictures of the little kids, eh? You and your pal Juan,' he exaggerated the name, 'get off on the kiddie stuff. So I'm going to fix you up good.' A straight razor flashed open from nowhere and Spain showed it to the man. Then he pocketed it and wired Morales' ankles, pulled the razor out, slit the man's fly of his trousers, and picked up his pliers. The eyes were like golf balls now.

'Hey, I'm not going to hurt your pecker with this,' he said gently to the bound man. 'This, is jus' so I don't have to TOUCH your filthy excuse for a cocko, Paco.' He carefully pulled the limp brown penis from the man's pants and undershorts using the pliers. 'No, see, I'm not goin' to hurt you with this.' The razor flicked open again. 'I'm going to hurt you with THISSSSSSSSS,' he said, making the final cut on the last Morales scene.

'This is a little something my daughter wants you to have as a going away present, you spic greaseball garbage.' Smiling real big, he stuffs the thing in the man's mouth. 'You like the little kids so much, you motherfucker,' he says in his tight, fierce whisper, 'now you got yourself a little kid's pecker.' And he started wiping off prints, careful not to step in the blood.

He took a last look at the two on the floor and walked out to the stolen van, parked right there in broad damn daylight across the road from the Bacardi Bar. Fucking Reynosa.

'Adios, Taco, or Paco, or whatever your fucking slimebag name was.' Spain drove back the way he'd come. Driving calmly now. Driving past the back of the Vivir un Poco billboard and heading toward Jon Belmonte's. Five names were now lined through at the bottom of his long list: Greg Dawkins Roger Nunnaly Charles Freund Bobbie Freund Paco Morales

He picked up a sixth name back across the Mex-Tex border. The only one of the first six that was the least little bit tricky. Of course the Nunnaly punk had been a gift from God. But he couldn't just go up to La Bellamonde and gun his ass down in the street. He needed more names and corroboration of the way the Blue Kriegal thing worked. He didn't want to miss anybody because of an itchy trigger finger. Turned out he had to shoot him anyway.

The Mel Troxell people had been achingly explicit about the part Belmonte/La Bellamonde played in his daughter's torture and demise. Another insult on top of insult was the way nobody had even bothered to be very secretive about the snuff movie. Like it was so protected who'd bother them? The cops in Mexico are in with the beaner wise guys anyway, but you'd think Belmonte would at least have been a bit circumspect.

Spain knew he'd have to exercise the greatest degree of self-discipline to keep from whacking Belmonte out immediately.