walked out.
For once Sam's TV was dark. He sat on the floor, knees poked up into his T-shirt like he was cold. Walker paused at his doorway. Looked back. Gave him a little nod.
Sam nodded back.
Chapter 45
Through the humid night air, Tim and Bear could hear the popping of ammo and the strained shouts of hunters stalking prey. Darkness had settled over the Ballona Wetlands, the largest habitat of its kind in Los Angeles. A decades-old struggle between developers and environmentalists had resolved for the time being with the city relinquishing a few scattered parcels to environmentally friendly businesses. Industry's encroachment was nothing new; the Spruce Goose had been constructed on these very wetlands back when Howard Hughes held the deed.
An Olds Cutlass Supreme from the seventies was parked by the awning, looking postcard pristine with its broad, smooth hood, a sparkling powder blue coat, and a restored white soft top devoid of bird shit-no small feat in the wetlands. The license plate inquired provocatively, RUGAME?
Behind the building, green netting enclosed the fifteen-acre preserve. Tim and Bear walked along the perimeter, peering in, their shoes sinking in mud. The hunt-zone motif was Disneyland jungle-wide fronds, pump waterfalls, mud wallows, camo-splattered boxing heavy bags feathered with leaves and swinging like mini-golf distractions. Tim caught a flash of flesh deep in the foliage, the frenzied run of the outgunned, and then the chuffing of four men, hunting in pairs, closing the distance.
By the time he and Bear retraced their steps to the entrance, his cuffs clung wetly to his ankles. They stepped into the lounge and took a moment getting their bearings, Bear readjusting the star on his belt like an old- school deppity. The roomful of men hummed with the locker-room and private-club glee of the unsupervised. A focused gentleman at the bar practiced a spin move into the holster, dropped his paintball gun, and patiently set up for another try. Thumbtacked to the bamboo wainscoting were flyers advertising used equipment, martial arts classes, and car pools to gun shows and paintball tournaments.
'Car pools?' Tim read incredulously.
Bear said, 'Hard to get around when you live with your mom.'
Three middle-aged guys with aggressive sideburns were oohing and aahing over a new scope, ignoring the woman with porn-star dimensions nestling into the lap of a self-satisfied gentleman. Evidently hard feelings didn't persist after the pursuit. Not when there was recompense for making nice.
One of the lap dancee's clean-cut cohorts did a double take at Tim.
Tim offered him a curt nod. 'Your Honor.'
The justice hastened for the exit, reseating his tie and frowning severely as if on to weighty matters. Tim and Bear pressed on past the tiki zone. An undulating gauze curtain led back to the preserve. In the rear office, which doubled as a staging area, a group of eager weeknight warriors, tacked up from camo socks to face paint, endured an orientation; their group hunt was about to kick off.
Someone was streaming an MPEG from Iraq on his PalmPilot, sharing the footage with a cluster of onlookers. Tim recognized the distinctive percussion of twenty mike-mike rounds, the whooping blades of either an Apache attack helo or a Cobra Gunship. 'Check it out,' the ringleader said. 'The terrorist pops back into view and'-assorted cries and exclamations drowned him out-'just disintegrates.'
From all sides carried snatches of other conversations, rife with buzzwords.
'— got a new Violent bolt for his Intimidator. The bad boy's Teflon, so the internal diameter stays nice and smooth-'
One voice, notable for its high tenor, stood out from the cacophony. The hefty presenter in the staging area paced in front of the rookie shooters like a drill sergeant. 'No shooting under five meters. No head shots. Don't aim for the genitalia. Bouncers don't count-only bursts. Everyone sign your waivers?'
A price board behind the counter announced the fifteen-hundred-dollar entry fee. To the side a video tech gone bulky with elbow and knee pads adjusted the settings on his digital camera.
Tim knew before he saw the name on the speaker's nickel badge. Wes Dieter's discerning gaze snagged on one of his charges. 'Get your barrel plug in, pal. This isn't a game.'
Bear couldn't stifle a guffaw, and five pairs of night-vision goggles swiveled toward them. 'Hey, man,' one of the paintballers said, gesturing at Tim, 'it's the Troubleshooter.' A few of the guys offered waves, and one chucked Tim's shoulder. Tim caught Wes staring, too-that odd blend of reverence and disquiet.
Good to know his fame had reached such rarefied circles.
Wes returned his focus to the men before him. 'You boys ready to hunt some pussy?' A chorus of cheers. 'Candy Racer, you're on!'
A side door banged open, and out paraded an Asian woman with flawless tanned skin and breasts too high and hard to have been factory equipment. She wore goggles, low-cut tennis socks with lime-green poofs at the heels, black Pumas, and that was it.
Bear's mouth finally got the better of him. 'Can't you at least give the girl a helmet?'
Wes cast a know-it-all gaze in his direction. 'Deers don't wear helmets, do they?'
'I believe it's 'deer.''
'What?'
'The plural of 'deer' is 'deer.''
'I said 'deer.''
A couple of the men nodded in agreement, eager to get on the range. Bear looked to Tim, and Tim shrugged. Bear pretended to be peeved, blowing a jet of air where his bangs would be if he didn't have cropped Polish hair.
Wes walked over and stroked Candy Racer's well-toned flank, then administered it a jockey's smack. To whoops and cheers, she sprinted off into the preserve, the gauze curtain whistling around her. 'Remember, boys, she gets a two-minute lead.'
'Last I checked,' Bear said, as it became increasingly clear who was going to have to play good cop this round, 'deer don't wear goggles either.'
'You're a perceptive guy and a shrewd grammarian,' Wes said, minding his stopwatch. 'But city business services came down on me. We used to be able to shoot the girls anywhere on their bods, too, but then we had to add regs. We still do our best to simulate natural conditions.'
'Of what?' Bear said. 'Berserking Vikings in the Amazon Basin?'
'We're an environmentally sound business.'
'Jungle orchids being indigenous to the Ballona Wetlands.'
'Hey, they like green, they got green.' Wes clicked his stopwatch ahead of schedule and said, with a tough- guy delivery, 'Game on.' He waved on the paintballers, who shuffled eagerly off into the preserve, barking code words. 'It's bad enough the fuckin' Christians are cracking down. I don't need Johnny Law harassing me in front of my clients. You here on official business, or just to express your personal views on the morality of leisure?'
Before Bear decided to wax poetic with synonyms for 'clients,' Tim said, 'We're working a murder investigation that points here.' He flashed a picture of Tess without asking a follow-up question, just to see what he could read in Wes's face.
Wes's eyes snagged on the photograph an instant, and then he shuffled back behind the counter and plugged a few paintball guns into an automatic washer, seating the water nozzles into the gun barrels. A fat tabby leapt up from a hidden crouch, purring and parading across his shoulders. 'What pointed you here?'
'Paint. My guy traced it to your place. You make your own paint-balls?'
'Have 'em made, sure. I need to, place like this, bare flesh and all. Besides, hard-shell mishaps can get expensive. A paintball ricochets around enough, it hits the guy with the most expensive lawyer.'
The cat's face spread in a hiss that made Bear take a step back. Wes smiled and glanced down at his clipboard. He clicked on a loudspeaker, and his high-pitched voice echoed through the building: 'Santa Monica Blood Warriors on deck. Start suiting up at the half hour. Tunnel Rat, you're in the hole.' He hefted himself onto a barstool,
