Deluski pulled his badge, gave Ang a quick wave.
Ang rolled his eyes while his friend dropped his jaw and swiveled burned eyes between Deluski and the smoldering herbstick. The punk tossed the frybread back onto the plate. “Um, I’m still hungry. I’m gonna get some more food.” He nudged the kid sleeping on the sofa. “C’mon, Jose.”
Jose’s lids slowly cranked open like the hotel’s elevator doors.
“Cops are here.” The punk shook Jose’s shoulders. “C’mon, we gotta go.”
Jose’s lids couldn’t hold, lashes dropping back down like they were weighted.
The punk ditched him and slunk out.
Ang took a seat. “You gonna tell me what you’re doing here?”
Maggie pointed at the herbstick. “Put that out.”
Ang leaned over and mashed the ashy end into the plate.
“Your brother was murdered.”
“Cops said he ODed.”
“Did he have a drug problem?”
“He ODed, didn’t he?”
“How long have you been living here?”
“About a year.”
“Why don’t you live at home?”
“I’m an adult. I do whatever the hell I want.”
Maggie moved in a step, getting close enough to brace him.
I passed his chair, posted myself directly behind it. People get nervous when they can’t see you. He looked over his shoulder to find me, and I nudged myself out of his view.
Maggie leaned down to him. “You reported a robbery at your house.”
“No. I reported that somebody broke in.”
Smartass.
“He didn’t take anything?”
“He didn’t take any of my stuff, but he tore up my brother’s room. My dad’s study too.”
“What did he take?”
“I don’t know. My father and brother didn’t say.”
Maggie’s eyes narrowed. “What does that mean?”
He twisted in his seat. “You’d have to know my father to understand. Man likes his secrets. My brother was just like him.”
Maggie gave him a long, appraising stare before deciding to let it pass. “Was anybody home when he broke in?”
“Miss Paulina was.”
“Who’s she?”
“Our housekeeper. She was in her living space downstairs. She never heard anything until I came home from school and found the mess.”
“How did the burglar break in?”
He shook his head. “Why are you asking me all this crap? Can’t you just read the police report?”
I booted his chair. That startled the shit out of him, hands and knees jumping. Over on the sofa, Jose’s eyelids flickered and went still. Ang torqued his body all the way around to look at me, his face part surprise, part fear. “What’s your problem?”
“She asked you a question.”
He faced forward again. “I don’t know how he got in.” His words were coming out quick now. “The police couldn’t figure it out. They said somebody must’ve left a door open.”
Deluski leaned against the arm of the sofa. “Ask him about the tattoo.”
“What tattoo?” asked Ang.
“Your brother had a tattoo on his face.”
“What about it?”
“What does it mean? Why two snakes?”
“It’s a gay thing.”
“Explain.”
“The snakes are eating each other’s tails. Get it?”
Maggie stared at him, her eyes processing.
“It’s like they’re sixty-nining,” said Ang, as if he thought he needed to explain things to us old people. “The snakes, they’re sucking each oth-”
Maggie put up a hand. “I get it.”
“My brother and his friends got their tats at the same time.”
“Like they were in a club?”
“I guess.”
I pressed myself into the back of his chair, my eyes looking straight down at the top of his head. “Who was in this club?”
He looked up at me, counted on his fingers. “My brother, the doctor, a couple cops.”
My thoughts braked on the word “doctor.” “What doctor?”
“I don’t know his name, but he’s an offworlder.”
“And the cops?” asked Maggie.
“I only met them a couple times, but they were tight, always holding hands and stuff.”
“Names.”
“One was called Froelich. Can’t say whether that’s a first or last name. The other name I don’t know. Everybody just called him Captain.”
“Good-looking?”
“I don’t swing that way.”
“Humor me.”
“I guess so. My brother sure had eyes for him.”
Froelich and Captain Mota. Together with Franz Samusaka and Doctor Tranny. Matching tats all around. All of them into the same shit. Froelich’s nongay partner must’ve gotten dragged in along the way. “Is that it? Just the four of them?”
“Far as I know. I saw each one of them come out of my brother’s bedroom at one point or another.”
“They do more than screw each other?”
“What do you mean?”
“They had a business going.”
“What kind of business?”
“You tell me.”
He shrugged. “My brother helped find patients for the doctor, if that’s what you mean. The doctor is a plastic surgeon. My brother would get a killer referral fee for all the rich friends he sent over.”
“Anything else?”
“Not that I know of.”
“Has your brother ever been to Yepala?”
“Sure. He went a few times to visit the doctor. The doc has a clinic up there, one here in the city and one up north.”
“What does the doctor do at this clinic?”
“I don’t know. I guess he does the same thing he does here.”
Maggie jumped in. “You have a job, Ang?”
“No.”
“You go to school?”
“Nope.”
“Who pays for this place, a nice suite like this?”
“My father.”
