Skin Deep

On the way to the parking lot she leaned against me, and I put my arm around her shoulders. At the car, she put her arms around me. 'You asked me to tell you, and I told you,' she said. 'Did it help?'

'Maybe. Maybe Toby's just been waiting for some woman to fight back. I don't know, you don't know. Toby certainly doesn't know. I think Toby knows less about it than any of us.'

She shivered. 'Toby doesn't know anything,' she said. I gave her a squeeze and opened the door.

'Simeon the southern gentleman.' She tried a laugh, but it was a little shaky. I felt a little shaky myself.

On the way home, the chaos of Toby's childhood filled the car like soft cotton, muffling anything that might have been said. The night was clear above us, and Hollywood sparkled like a handful of rhinestones scattered over the hills. As usual at that hour, half the drivers were loaded on various misrepresented chemicals, and I drove carefully. Neither of us said anything, but as I turned left onto Vista, Nana slipped her hand into mine.

'Thanks, I guess,' she said.

'You'll sleep.'

'After a while.'

'But eventually.'

'Oh, sure. Everybody sleeps eventually.'

'There's no way to come out of it alive,' I said. 'Nobody has yet.'

'I wasn't being fancy. How about walking me to the door?'

Three-quarters of a moon clung tenaciously to its corner of the sky as we walked hand in hand through the courtyard. The all-night traffic of Hollywood was muted by the Spanish-style buildings that surrounded us. Poking out of dark green hedges, the needlessly extravagant flowers of copa de oro yawned eloquently around us, their rich russet orange washed to a muted beige, and big birds of paradise, planted close to the buildings, cawed silently in the moonlight. The air was luxurious with jasmine. Stretching high above our heads, palm trees cut hard black California silhouettes against the dimmed stars, and a birdbath in the center of the courtyard trickled an invitation to sleeping birds. We reached the door, and Nana looked up at me.

It felt like high school. 'May I kiss you good night?' I asked.

'Boy,' she said. 'What a stupid question.' She smiled up at me and raised herself onto tiptoe.

I kissed her, wondering what I was doing. It was a pretty good kiss, considering the circumstances. Then she stepped back abruptly and said, 'Oh, shoot.'

'Was it that bad?'

'No. It was sweet. It was the sweetest kiss I've had since I was twelve. But I forgot my damn cash caddy.'

'Your what?'

'My cash caddy. The thing I put my tips into after I finish dancing. I was in such a hurry to get you to myself that I left it at the club.'

'So?' I said. 'It'll keep.'

'Sure it will. It'll keep about as long as a hundred-dollar bill dropped in front of a Church of Scientology. That's my money, and I've got to go get it.'

'But the club's closed, isn't it?'

'I've got a key. I can get it. Listen. Go home. Call me tomorrow, if you feel like it.'

'For heaven's sake,' I said, 'I've got a car.'

'For heaven's sake?' She smiled. 'How dear. I'm not sure I ever heard anybody say that out loud before. You really want to take me?'

'Sure. Alice is warm. Even if she weren't, I'd carry you down to the club on my back. It's not that far.'

'Obibah,' she said.

'I beg your pardon?'

'Obibah. It's Korean for piggyback. Let's go, hero.'

'Okay,' I said. 'But obibah to the car.' I turned my back to her and bent down, waiting.

'You really are crazy, you know? Here goes.' She saddled up, her legs straddling my middle and her warm arms around my neck. 'Giddyup,' she said.

'I'll go at my own pace, thanks.' She hardly seemed to weigh anything at all. 'You forget that I'm aged.'

'You're drunk, too,' she said, 'but I want to see a good brisk trot here. Mush, senior citizen.' She dug her heels meaningfully into my back. I carried her across the courtyard toward Alice, who stood gleaming at the curb.

'Hey?' she said into my ear. 'I've always liked older men.'

I deposited her on the sidewalk next to Alice. The traffic noise was louder here. She opened the door and got in, and I went around and joined her.

I flipped the ignition halfway and released the brake. We coasted down the hill in silence until I turned the key the rest of the way and popped the clutch to bring Alice into consciousness. She sputtered and then caught, and I swung left onto some nameless little street, heading south and downhill toward Santa Monica Boulevard. Several minutes passed in silence. Nana leaned against me and exhaled warmly on my arm. I made the last turn and cut the engine. 'I'll come in with you,' I said. The club was dark. Even the fleshy light of the neon in front had been shut off. The area looked like a slum that had gone out of business.

'Fine, hero. Come on in.'

She yanked the car door open and got out, and I followed. The parking lot was empty, a black asphalt wasteland faintly striped by parking lines and littered with crumpled paper bags wrapped tightly around empty bottles. The late night lights of Hollywood glared and winked across the sky. I caught up with her and took her hand. She turned to me.

'One more kiss,' she said. 'I promise not to get possessive.'

'That's what they all say.' We kissed, and she chose a key and thrust it into the lock on the door.

'Dirty money, here I come,' she said. She pulled the door open, and we faced the hallway I had come through earlier with Toby. It was completely dark, but as my eyes adjusted I could see a narrow horizontal strip of light low down at the other end. Nana fumbled for a second and then flipped a switch that brought a naked electric bulb above us to attention, flooding the hallway into a sparkling dark red. My sixth sense kicked in like a flood of cold air.

'Turn it off,' I said.

'What?'

'Just turn it off. Now.' I reached past her and pushed the switch down. Light gleamed below the door at the other end. 'Why is that light on?' I said. Hairs bristled along my spine.

'How do I know?' She paused, then spoke more thoughtfully. 'It shouldn't be. Tiny always turns everything off when he closes up. This is not a boy who wastes electricity.'

'Well,' I said, 'it's on now.'

'It sure is. So what?'

'So stay here. I want to go in first.'

I groped my way down the corridor and found the handle of the door. It turned easily in my hand, and I pulled it open.

The club was dark except for the pink lights above the smallest stage, the one that hadn't been used while I was there earlier in the evening. Something was spread out on it.

'Stand right where you are,' I said over my shoulder. 'Don't come in unless I call you. Just stay the hell out of here.'

'What is it? What's wrong?'

'Keep your hand on the doorknob,' I said. 'Be ready to leave if I tell you to.'

I went into the club. The velvet nudes gazed imperturbably down from the walls. The thing on the stage was Amber.

She lay flat on her back, stark naked, staring sightlessly up into the lights. Her eyes couldn't have been any deader if they'd been marbles.

'Simeon?' Nana called.

'Quiet,' I said. 'Be quiet and stay there.'

Amber's face was battered and swollen, both lips split wide open. The blood hadn't caked yet, except where