"She came along the alley and up the back stairs the way she always used to." "Doc hadn't seen her in over a year." "Nobody had." "Back then it was always sandals bottom half of a flower-print bikini and a faded Country Joe and the Fish T-shirt." "Tonight, she was all in flatland gear hair a lot shorter than he remembered looking just like she swore she would never look." "Psst." "That you, Shasta?" "Thinks he's hallucinating." "No, just a new package, I guess." "I need your help, Doc." "You know I have an office now?" "It's like a day job and everything." "I looked in the phone book and almost went over there." "Then I thought better for everyone if this looks like a secret rendezvous." "Is somebody keeping a close eye?" "Just spent an hour on surface streets trying to make it look good." "Uh..." "You want a beer?" "How about a beer?" "You want a beer?" "Yeah." "Uh..." "There's this guy." "Gentleman of the straight-world persuasion?" "Okay, Doc." "He's married." "Some, uh, money situation?" "And the wife, uh, she knows about you?" "She's seeing somebody too." "But it's not just the usual." "I think they're working on some creepy, little scheme." "To make off with the hubby's fortune?" "Yeah, I think I've heard of that happening once or twice." "And you want me to do, uh, what exactly?" "Is they want me in on it." "They think I'm the one who can reach him when he's vulnerable." "Or as much as he ever gets." "Bare-ass and asleep." "I knew you'd understand." "Are you still trying to figure out if it's right or wrong?" "Worse than that." "How much loyalty I owe him." "Groovy." "All right emotions aside, let's look at the rent." "How much of, uh, your rent's he been picking up?" " All of it." " Pretty, uh, hefty?" "For Hancock Park?" "You're giving him IOUs for everything, of course." "You fucker." "If I had known you were still this bitter..." "Me?" "I'm trying to be professional, is all." "All right." "How much have the, uh, wifey and boyfriend offered to cut you in for?" "It isn't what you're thinking." "Don't worry." "Thinking comes later." "What else?" "I'm not sure." "It sounds like they wanna commit him to a loony bin." "Back when they were together she could go weeks without anything more complicated than a pout." "Now she was laying some heavy combination of face ingredients on Doc that he couldn't read at all." "Argh." "Fuck." "Come to think of it, there'd never been this much sorrow in her voice." "Heard you're seeing someone downtown?" "Penny?" "Some kind of junior DA?" "Yeah, you think, uh, somebody down there could stop this before it happens?" "Not too many places I could go with this, Doc." "I'll talk to Penny." "See what we can see." "Your happy couple, they have names?" "It's Mickey Wolfmann." "Who's always in the paper?" "The real-estate big shot?" "Yeah." "Can't tell anyone about this, Doc." "Oh." "Huh." "Deaf and dumb, part of my job." "How do I reach you?" "You don't." "I moved out of my old place." "Staying where I can anymore." "Don't ask." "There's room here." "Walk me down to my car?" "Someone might be watching." " You never did let me down, Doc." " Don't worry." "I'll..." "No, I mean, really." "Ever." "Sure I did." "No." "You were always true." "You know, you don't have to go." "Watch your toes." "Vroom." "Doc ran through all the things he hadn't asked Shasta." "Like how much she'd come to depend on..." "Wolfmann's guaranteed level of ease and power." "And least askable of all:" "How passionately did she really feel about old Mickey?" " Hey, what's up, Doc?" " Hey, Denis." "What's up, man?" "What's going on?" "Doing all right?" "Doc knew the likely reply:" ""I love him." "What else?"" "With the unspoken footnote that the word these days was being way too overused." "What you looking at?" "You hungry?" "Like Godzilla says to Mothra, man:" ""Let's go eat someplace."" "So when Doc and Denis came in that night it wasn't just the usual hungry doper thing." "It was something else." "And with Neptune moving at last out of the Scorpio death-trip and rising into the Sagittarian light of the higher mind it was bound to be something love-related." "And I thought I knew what it was." "So...?" "She stuck her head in for a minute." "You feeling broken up?" "Kind of weird seeing her again, you know?" "Yeah, I figured next time I saw her, it'd be on the tube." "Not in person." " Well, you'd better do something about this." " Heh." "Yeah, again?" "Can't tell you enough:" "Change your hair, change your life." "Mm." "Mm." "Well, what do you recommend?" "It's up to you." "Follow your intuition." "Hello?" "Hey, Aunt Reet?" " Hello?" " Yes, honey." "Make it quick." "I got a live one tonight, and I totally fucked up my face." "Aw." "Oh, okay." "Mickey Wolfmann, what can you tell me?" "Powerhouse in L.A. real estate." "From the desert to the sea." "Technically Jewish, but wants to be a Nazi." "What's he to you?" "Possible case." "Let's say I wanted to hang out and rap with this Wolfmann." "Say it's a really bad idea." "He goes around with a dozen bikers, mostly Aryan Brotherhood alumni." "Whoa, whoa, whoa." "Wait." "I flunked Social Studies but, uh, Jews and Aryan Brotherhood isn't there something about hatred?" "No." "Mickey's eccentric." "More and more lately." "I'd say, stoned out of his fucking mind since he discovered drugs." "No offense to you, Doc." "So where would I, uh, find him?" "Like accidentally?" "Try the Channel View Estates, his latest insult to the environment." "The one that Bigfoot Bjornsen does the commercials for?" " That's the one." " Uh-huh." "Maybe your old cop buddy's the one who should be taking care of your case." "Yeah, well, I did think about going to Bigfoot with this but just as I reached for the phone, history and all, I thought:" "Mm..." " Well, maybe you're better off with the Nazis." " Heh." "All right, all right." "I got major liquid-liner issues." "I gotta get off now, Larry." "All right." "Morning, Sam." "Hey, man." "I don't want you paying rent." "Rent's a hassle." "I wanna see you in your own pad..." "Howdy, Bigfoot." "...at Channel View Estates Artesia's newest and grooviest residential housing development." "No buzzkill credit checks." "No rip-off minimum down payments." "That's not your bag." "But check this out:" "Fully-equipped kitchen with automatic self-cleaning oven and breakfast nook." "Out of sight." "Attached one-car and available two-car garage." "And best of all a view of the Dominguez Flood Control Channel that can only be described in two words:" "Right on." "So, what's all this now?" "What's up, Doc?" "What...?" ""Michael Wolfmann, one of Los Angeles's most prominent real estate developers announced at a press conference he's proceeding with construction of several housing developments the most immediate to be Channel View Estates." " Hey, Doc." " Howdy." "Cop came around last night looking for you again." " Bigfoot?" " Yeah." "That's the one." "Huh." "I wonder why he didn't kick in my door like usual." "He might've been thinking about it, but said something like, "Tomorrow's another day."" "Which would be today, right?" "Not if I can help it." "All right, "Wolfmann, known for his outlandish advertising and aggressive style, has been involved in the Southern California real estate market..."" "...for the past 23 fucking years, you know." " Morning, Doc." " Hey." "Morning, Petunia." " I love your Afro." "Uh-huh." " Oh, yeah?" "Thank you." "Oh, Doc." "You have someone waiting in your office." " Doctor." " Doctor." "Hey, man." "Sorry to, uh, keep you waiting." " Dr. Sportello?" " That's right." "What it is, my brother." "Peace." "I'm Tariq Khalil." "Cool." "Sit down." "What's up, man?" "How can I help you today?" "There's this white boy I was in the joint with." "Aryan Brotherhood." "We did some business, and, uh, now we're both out and he still owes me." "I can't tell you the details, but it's a whole lot of money." "Mm." "How about his name?" "Glen Charlock." "Mm-hm." "And, urn, you know where he's staying now?" "I know where he works." "He's a bodyguard for this builder named Wolfmann." "If you don't mind my asking, Mr. Khalil, how'd you hear about me?" "Sledge." "Sledge Poteet." "Wow." "Blast from the past." "Far out." "Yeah." "He said you helped him out of a situation back in '67." "First time I got shot at." "If you don't mind an obvious question you, uh, know where this Glen Charlock works." "Why not, uh, just go over there and look him up directly?" "Well, because Wolfmann likes to surround himself with the Aryan Brotherhood." "Day and night." "And, see, outside of Glen, I ain't never liked the company of Nazis." "Mm-hm." "So, uh, send some white guy to get his head hammered?" " More or less." " Mm." "Now when you were inside, were you in a gang?" "The Black Guerrilla Family." "And you say you did business with who now?" "The Aryan Brotherhood?" "Listen we found we share some of the similar opinions about the U.S. government." "That's all." "I can dig." "There's something else?" "Matter of fact, there is." "My old street gang." "The Artesia Crips." "See, when I came home from Chino I looked for them and found it ain't just them gone but the whole damn turf itself." "What do you mean "gone"?" "Man, I'm talking not there." "Ground up into little pieces." "Seagulls picking all over it." "Man, I thought I was tripping." "Got in my car, I drove around, came back, still gone." "Nothing." "Nobody." "Just a ghost town." "With a big sign that said, Corning to this site soon." " With a big-ass ugly picture of some houses." " Mm-hm." " And guess who the builder is?" " Let me guess..." "Wolfmann again." "Okay." "Can you show me up here on the map?" "Long, sad history of L.A. land use." "Mexican families bounced out of Chavez Ravine to build Dodger Stadium." "American Indians swept out of Bunker Hill for the Music Center." "And now Tariq's neighborhood bulldozed aside for Channel View Estates." "Hello?" "Hi." "I'm Jade." "Welcome to Chick Planet Massage." "Take note of today's Pussy Eater's Special, which is good all day till closing time." " How much is it?" " Fourteen ninety-five." "Well, not that 14.95 ain't a totally groovy price but I'm trying to locate this guy who works for Mr. Wolfmann." "Oh, does he eat pussy?" "Fella named Glen Charlock?" "Oh, sure, Glen." "He comes in here." "He eats pussy." "Well, Glen and I were in Chino around the same time." "You seen him today?" "Are you a cop?" "Nope." "The reason I ask is if you were a cop you'd be entitled to a free preview of our special." "Well, how about a licensed Pl?" "Hey, Bambi!" "Oh, my..." "Oh, do...?" "Um..." "Where do we, um...?" "Not you, Bong Brain." "See, I thought here, where it says Pussy Eater's Special is what that means is..." "That's groovy." "Congratulations, hippie scum." "And welcome to a world of inconvenience." "Well, morning, Sam." "Like a bad luck planet in today's horoscope..." "Where's the old hippie-hating mad dog himself in the flesh:" "Lieutenant Detective Christian F. Bigfoot Bjornsen." "SAG member, John Wayne walk, flattop of Flintstone proportions and that little evil-shit twinkle in his eye that says "civil rights violations."" "What's up, Doc?" "How about your ex-girlfriend?" "Shasta Fay Hepworth." "Shasta Fay Hepworth." "She is a known intimate of Glen's employer, Mickey Wolfmann." "But do you think that Glen and Shasta were F-U-C-K-I-N-G-ing?" "Fucking-ing?" "Is that why you killed him?" " Bigfoot..." " How does it make you feel?" "Here you are still carrying the torch and there she is in the company of all those Nazi lowlifes?" "Keep doing that, Bigfoot." "You're giving me a hard-on." "Tough little wop monkey, as my friend Fatso Judson always says." "So while suspect, that's you is having alleged midday nap so necessary to the hippie lifestyle some sort of incident occurs in the vicinity of Channel View Estates." "Firearms are discharged." "When the dust settles, we find one Glen Charlock deceased." "But more compellingly for L.A.P.D. is the man Charlock was supposed to be guarding." "Michael Z. Wolfmann has vanished giving local law enforcement less than 24 hours before the Feds call it a kidnapping and come in to fuck everything up." "So perhaps, Sportello, you can help forestall this by providing the names of the other members of your cult." "Cult?" "No one would be stupid enough to attempt this alone which suggests some kind of Mansonoid conspiracy." "Agree?" "No." "Look, I've been referred to more than one time by the L.A. Times as a Renaissance detective." "Okay?" "Which means I am many things." "One thing I am not is stupid so purely out of noblesse oblige, I extend this assumption to cover you as well." "What the fuck?" "Hey, Saunch." "What's up, Doc?" "You know you have no case here." "So if you're gonna charge him, you better." "Otherwise, you have to let him go." "Remember who this is you're talking to." "That's Bigfoot Bjornsen." "Renaissance cop." "I know who he is." "So, what's the beef here, exactly?" "It doesn't have much to do with your specialty, which I understand is marine law?" "We got plenty of crime on the high seas." "Okay, well, so far, we have murder." "And kidnapping." "We can work in pirates if it would make you more comfortable." "Either way, it's high-profile." "Yeah, but, um given your history of harassment with my client, this'll never make it to trial." "No, I think we could take this to trial but with our luck, you know, the jury pool will be 99 percent hippie." "Unless you change the venue to, like, Orange County." "Not as many hippies there, you know?" "Saunch, who you working for?" "Clients pay me for work, Doc." "Clients pay me for work, Doc." "So?" "I've decided I'm gonna kick Mr. Sportello." "You're gonna kick him?" "Well, that's assault." "I think it's police slang, Saunch." "It means "out me loose."" "I'll release the suspect at the impound garage." "Promise?" "I promise." "Apparently, a party of civilians on some training exercise in anti-guerrilla warfare." "They assumed that this construction site not yet open for occupancy was deserted enough to provide a realistic setting for what we must assume was only a harmless patriotic scenario." "Tragically, however, live ammunition somehow found its way into these war games and tonight, one ex-prison inmate lies slain while prominent construction mogul Michael Wolfmann has vanished." " Hello?" " Hey, it's me." "Hey." "Listen, we, uh..." "We sent a police academy hotshot over to the last known address of Shasta Fay Hepworth." "Oh, fuck." "No, not this." "Yeah, they got there, and it was, uh..." " They looked in the window and..." " What?" "What?" "They tried to open the door, and she's just, uh..." "They went in and, you know." "Phew." "You know, she's gone." "Sportello, she's gone." "She's out there, man." " Out there?" " Yeah." "What does that mean?" "She's disappeared, just like Mickey." "Maybe you'd think there was a connection." " She's disappeared?" " Yeah, she's gone, man." "Baby." "She's gone." "She disappeared." "What...?" "She went all groovy on us." "You know, Bigfoot, man." "Can we just try to be fucking professional?" "I mean, just pretend to be professional." "Shasta Fay Hepworth." "She's gone." "Fuck you." "Doc could never figure out what Shasta might've seen in him besides being just about the only doper she knew who didn't use heroin freeing up a lot of time for both of them." "And it wasn't any clearer about what had driven them apart either." "They each gradually located a different karmic thermal watching the other glide away into different fates." "Does it ever end?" "Of course it does." "It did." "Hello?" "Hello?" " Mr. Sportello?" " Mm-hm." "I got your number from the head shop." "Down in Gordita Beach." "I'm calling about my husband." "He was a close friend of a friend of yours." "Shasta Fay Hepworth." "Uh-huh." "And, um, your name is...?" " Hope Harlingen." " Mm-hm." "And your husband is...?" "Dead." "I'm sorry to hear that." " Do you want a cookie?" " I'm all right." "So you never heard of him or his music?" "Mm..." "Inside the surf-sax category he was this towering figure because he improvised once in a while." "Instead of repeating the second and third chorus note for note." "Mm-hm." "Mm-hm." "Coy and I should've met cute, but we actually met squalid." "Down at Oscar's in San Ysidro." "Oh, boy." "I had just run into this bathroom stall without checking first and I already had my finger down my throat to vomit up this big balloon of dope I had just scored and there Coy sat, gringo digestion, about to take this giant shit." "And we both let go at the same time and there's just vomit and shit all over the place and with my head in his lap." "And to complicate things, he had this hard-on." "Sure." "One thing leads to another and..." "We pretty much started shooting up together on a regular basis." "Then along comes little Amethyst." "I don't know if you have the stomach for it, but..." "This is what we had her looking like." "Everybody helpfully pointed out how the heroin was actually coming through my breast milk..." "Mm-hm." "...but who could afford formula, you know?" "It's a long way from where we are now." "Yeah, no, seems like you're doing real good." "I'm a drug counselor." " Sorry?" " A drug counselor." "Uh-huh." "Trying to talk kids into sensible drug use." " What do you think of my chompers?" " Hmm." "You like them?" "No..." "I..." "Yes." "Yeah." "No, I hadn't noticed." "Heroin sucks the calcium out of your body like a vampire." "If you use it for any length of time, your teeth just go all to hell." "And that's the good part." "So listen, this thing that happened to your husband, how can I help you?" "Mr. Sportello, I don't think Coy is really dead." "Well, did you ID his body?" "No." "Whoever it was that called just said that one of his band members did that." "What do you mean "whoever called"?" "The police?" "I mean, it's, uh, supposed to be next of kin." "And then this deposit shows up." "Close to his disappearance." "Interesting sum." "Why would this big deposit just suddenly appear in my account?" "I went to the bank." "I talked to the bank manager." "He kept saying:" ""You just lost your deposit slip."" ""You just lost your deposit slip."" "And I don't lose deposit slips this big." "Do you have a picture of Coy I could borrow?" "That, I do have." "These were perilous times, astrologically speaking, for dopers especially those of high school age." "Who'd been born, most of them, under a 90-degree aspect the unluckiest angle possible between Neptune, the doper's planet and Uranus, the planet of rude surprises." "Doc had known it to happen that those left behind would refuse to believe that people they loved or even took the same classes with, were really dead." "They came up with all kinds of alternate stories so it wouldn't have to be true." " Yeah." " How did Coy and Shasta know each other?" "She picked us up hitchhiking once." "I think Coy and her stayed in touch somehow." "I don't really know for sure." "All right, well, uh, I'll call you when I know something." "Thank you." "See you." "Shasta had mentioned a possible laughing academy angle to Mickey Wolfmann's matrimonial drama." "And Doc thought it might be interesting to see how society-page superstar Mrs. Sloane Wolfmann would react when somebody brought up the topic." "If Mickey was currently being held against his will in some private nuthouse then Doc's immediate chore would be to try and find out which one." "Do you like the lighting?" "Uh-huh." "Jimmy Wong Howe did it for us." "Years ago." "Luz!" "The midday refrescos now, if you wouldn't mind." "Shall we sit?" "Now, your husband was planning to endow a new wing for our facility." "He actually tendered us a sum in advance." "Somehow, it didn't seem right to keep the money while little was known of his whereabouts." "So we'd like to refund you the sum." "And if, and as we all pray when Mr. Wolfmann is heard from again, why then, perhaps the process can resume again." "We did recently endow another facility." "In Ojai." " In Ojai?" " The Chryskylodon Institute." "Kriskleddone?" "It's an ancient Indian word that means "serenity."" "Ah, of course." "Are you somehow a subsidiary?" "Perhaps one of our Sister Sanatoria?" "Mr. Riggs Warbling." "My spiritual coach." " How do you do?" " Pleasurable." "If you tell us where to send the refund and what form you'd like it in..." "Small bills!" "With nonconsecutive serial numbers." "Riggs!" "Enough." "He's always making these terrible jokes." "I'm so sorry." "Perhaps if a company officer simply endorsed Michael's check back to one of his accounts." "Of course." "Let us know the account number and it's as good as in the mail." " Let me find you a deposit form." " Wonderful." "So this is Riggs." "The spiritual advisor." "And there's Sloane." "Maybe not so much English rose as English daffodil." "And this is L.A.P.D., busy as ever." "Protecting and sewing." "Getting in some last-minute free catering before the Feds show up." "And there's Luz, the sexy Chicana housekeeper." "Or pretending to be?" "Some kidnapping." "Doc would bet an ounce of seedless Hawaiian and throw in a pack of Zig-Zags that Sloane and old Riggs here were fucking regularly." "And that this was the BF Shasta had mentioned." "Did Shasta have a room of her own here?" "Or did they all just cozy up together?" "Holy shit!" "I'm ticklish, babe." "Oh, I like that." "Keep looking." "I'm in there somewhere." " Oh, yeah?" " Yeah." "On, Vicky." "Oh, Roxy." "Carol, Sloane..." "Cute, huh?" "My tits aren't really that big, but it's the thought that counts." "Now, did, uh, all of you ladies pose for these?" "A guy over in North Hollywood does custom work." "And what about that, uh, girl that's gone missing?" "Shasta?" " Yeah, she's in there someplace." " Yeah?" "You know Mickey used to take me in the shower to fuck?" "Oh, yeah?" "Uh-huh." "And I never got to do anything on that groovy bed in there." "Luz!" " Ah." "Another time, perhaps?" " Mm-hm." "Ooh." "Black girl." "Bigfoot." "Something had been puzzling Doc now for a while." "Namely, what, exactly, the fuck, was with Bigfoot here?" "As much as he'd like to stay and chat he had a lunch date to keep with part-time squeeze Deputy DA Penny Kimball." "It was only because someone else had canceled that she was able to pencil him in." "And Doc didn't wanna fuck up her act, considering they were meeting in public." "Hi." "This Wolfmann-Charlock case..." "Apparently, one of your girlfriends is a principal." "I just heard that she skipped." "Let me put it to you like this:" "How close were you with Shasta Fay Hepworth?" "I've been asking myself that very question." "It was all over years ago." " Months?" "I don't know." " Years?" "If you hadn't come along, who knows how bad it might've got?" " True." "You were a mess when I met you." " And how about now?" "Old times aside, have you had any contact with her in the last, say, week or so?" "Well, funny you should ask." "She called me up a couple days ago before Mickey Wolfmann disappeared." "Told me how his wife and her boyfriend were plotting to hustle Mickey and grab all his money." "So I sure hope that you guys or the cops or whoever are looking into that." "With your years of experience as a Pl, would you call that a reliable lead?" "I've known worse." "Oh, I can dig." "You're just gonna ignore that?" "Some hippie chick with boyfriend trouble, brains mushed up with dope and sex?" "I've never seen you so emotional." "The lights are out." "Never seen you during the day." "You didn't tell Bjornsen any of this when he pulled you in at the crime scene." "That's because I promised Shasta I'd come talk to you first, right?" "See if anybody at the DA could help out with this." "I tried to call you." " Day and night." "No reply." " You tried to call me." "Really?" "Yeah." "Look, I forgot." "I don't know." "Look, all know is the next thing Shasta's missing, Wolfmann's gone and, uh, Glen Charlock's dead." "Bjornsen seems to think you're as good a suspect as any." ""Seems to"?" "Wait a minute." "You been talking to Bigfoot about me?" "Doc, please." "Besides, maybe you did it." "Has that crossed your mind?" " Maybe you just forgot?" " What?" "Did do what?" "Killed Glen Charlock." " Kill him?" " Yeah." "What?" "How would I forget something like that?" " Grass, and who knows what else." " I'm only a light smoker." " How many joints have you had today?" " Check the logbook." "Can't remember?" "I don't see how my smoking has any link to the Wolfmann-Charlock-Shasta case." "No?" "Then how come Miss Hepworth dismantled your relationship?" "She had other fish to fry." " Would you say you're still in love with her?" " Mm." "No." "Take off your glasses." "No." "I'm not..." "Wait." "What is this?" "Hectic week ahead for me, so unless things heat up dramatically, I hope you understand." "Walk me back to work?" "I'm Agent Flatweed." "This is Agent Borderline." "FBI." " I'm with..." " I have to use the bathroom." "It's been brought to our attention you had a visit from a black prison militant calling himself Tariq Khalil." "We naturally became curious." "Let's talk upstairs, Larry." "Did I miss an episode?" "I love you guys every Sunday night, 8 p.m." "We like investigating and spending energy on Black Nationalist Hate Groups." "It's the chronology, really." "Khalil visits your place of business." "The next day, a known prison acquaintance of his, Glen Charlock, is slain Michael Wolfmann disappears and you get arrested on suspicion and, somewhat mysteriously, let go again." "Yeah." "Well, have you talked to Bigfoot Bjornsen about this?" "He's real intelligent about this kind of shit." "Mr. Bjornsen's antipathy at the federal level is well known." "Heh." "Ah, some guys are like that." " Mm." " So, what is it you want with me?" "Ordinarily, we're the ones asking the questions here." "Sure thing, fellas." "But aren't we all in the same business?" "There's no need to be insulting." "Why don't you just tell us what Mr. Khalil had to say when he visited you the other day." "Because he's privileged and I'm a client is why." "If it has a bearing on the Wolfmann case, then we may have to disagree." "Look, I really wish I could help you guys out, but if you're so focused on the Black Panthers then what's with your interest in Mickey Wolfmann?" "Is somebody playing Monopoly, uh, with federal housing money?" "Are you figuring Mickey's kidnapping is a Black Panther operation?" "They put the snatch on Mickey, trying to prove a political point or maybe a nice shot at some ransom money?" "Maybe you've thought of putting that forward as a cover story for whatever did happen." "Do you realize how thoroughly we can fuck your life up?" "Huh." "Uh-huh." "Right." "Can I be frank a minute?" " Why stop now?" " Please." "All right." "You be Dino." "You be the other guy." "And tell Penny Davis, Jr." "What a lovely day we had." "Thank you." "As a COINTELPRO informant, you could be making up to $300 a month, Larry." "Just consider that." "U.S. dollars?" "And we'll throw in a Book of Mormon." "Free." "Doc, a mysterious, young oriental cutie just dropped off a package for you at the front desk." "Well it's dark and lonely work, but somebody's gotta do it, right?" "Heard they cut you loose." "Need to see you about something." "I'm working weeknights at Club Asiatique in San Pedro." "Love and peace, Jade." "P.S. Beware the Golden Fang!" "I can't stay out here long." "This is Golden Fang territory." "A girl don't necessarily wanna get into difficulties with those folks." "What is it?" "A band?" "You wish." "I just wanted to say how sorry I was." "I felt shitty about what I did." " Which was what again?" " I'm not a snitch." "The cops said they'd drop charges if we put you in the scene which they already knew you were." " I'm, like, so sorry, Larry." " Call me Doc." "It's cool, Jade." " That copper?" " Mm, Bigfoot?" "He's a warped sheet of plastic." "Mm." "So was it Bigfoot who put me on the Buenos Noches Express or did he subcontract it?" "I missed all that, man." "Last thing I remember was eating Bambi's pussy and Puck Beaverton's tattoo, like, it was pulsating." "Puck...?" "What's a Puck Beaverton?" "He's a baldheaded asshole with a swastika tattoo you don't wanna meet." "We were so freaked with the badass Brigade stomping in there, we didn't stick around." "There's somebody who wants to talk to you." "He thinks you can help each other out." "He's a new face." "I'm not sure of his name, but I know he's in some trouble." "I would've come by your office, man but I thought there might be unfriendly eyeballs." "Hi." "Well, is this safe enough for you out here?" "Let's light this and pretend we came out to smoke." " All right." " I'm supposed to be dead." "There's also a rumor that you're not." "That don't come as such great news." "Being dead is part of my job image." "Like what I do." "You working for these people at the club?" "I don't know." "Maybe." "It's where I pick up my paycheck." "Where are you staying?" "House in Topanga Canyon." "Band I used to play for, The Boards." "But none of them know it's me." "How can they not know it's you?" "Even when I was alive, they didn't know it was me." " The sax player." "The session guy." " Mm." "Plus, over the years, there's been a big turnover in personnel." "Like, The Boards I played with most of them have gone off and formed other bands." "Only one or two of the old crew left and, luckily, they're suffering from heavy Doper's Memory." "Mm." "Story is you came to grief behind some bad smack." "You still into that?" "No." "No." "I'm clean these days." "I spent my time rehabilitating up in..." " You know, I..." " It's okay." "How can I talk about what I don't hear?" "Yeah." "The thing I wanted to see you about I was wondering if you could check on people." "A lady and a little girl." "See if they're okay, without bringing me into it." "It's down in Torrance." "Just see if they're still living there." "See what's in the driveway." "Law enforcement in the picture, any details you find interesting." "All right, I'm on it." "I can't pay you right now." "When you can." "Unless you believe information is money in which case, I could ask you something." "Bearing in mind that either I don't know or it's my ass if I tell you what is it?" "Ever heard of the Golden Fang?" "Sure." "It's a boat." " A boat?" " A big schooner, somebody said." "Brings stuff in and out of the country, but no one wants to talk about it." "Because?" "That was it." "How do you know?" "Saw it sail in when I got here tonight." "I don't know what I just saw." "Me neither." "Fact, I don't even wanna know." " Okay." " Coy." "Doc figured it might have been easier to let Coy know that Hope and little Amethyst were doing just fine." "But he had a rule against getting involved in matrimonials which had just gone up in smoke like the Asian indica in the joint they'd been smoking creating an extra layer of fog on top of the one Doc was already standing inside of." "Meet the schooner Golden Fang, out of Charlotte Amalie." " Where is that?" " U.S. Virgin Islands." " Bermuda Triangle?" " Close enough." "Sizable vessel." "She has a tendency to show up here in the middle of the night no running lights no radio traffic." "See, the problem with this vessel is trying to find out anything." "People back off, change the subject and get real creepy." "The owners are listed as a consortium in the Bahamas." "Her real name isn't really the Golden Fang." "She was originally a fishing boat named Preserved." "Then after World War ll, she was bought by Burke Stodger." "Burke Stodger." "Burke Stodger the actor?" ".45-Caliber Kissoff Burke Stodger?" "The movie star." "What?" "He gets blacklisted because of his politics and branded a communist." "So he takes the boat, splits the country which is where your Bermuda Triangle comes in." "Hi." "I'm Chlorinda." "How can I help you?" "Uh, well, I'm gonna have the house anchovy loaf to start and, um, the devil ray filet." "Can I get that deep-fried in beer batter?" "It's your stomach." "What can I get for you, little buddy?" "Mm, I'll take the jellyfish teriyaki croquettes and the eel Trovatore, please." "Okay." "And to drink, gentlemen?" "You'll wanna get fucked up before this meal." "That's for sure." "I have some recommendations." "Maybe the, uh, Tequila Zombie." " Make it two." " All right." "Thank you." "So Burke's blacklisted, takes the boat, splits the country." "Somewhere between San Pedro and Papeete, the boat disappears till one day a couple years later the boat and the owner suddenly reappear." " You dig?" " Mm-hm." "The Preserved is in the opposite ocean, off of Cuba and Burke Stodger on the front page of the Daily Variety in an article reporting his return to pictures in a major motion picture called Commie Confidential." "Whoa." "So Burke's working again." "And his politics have miraculously changed." "And the ship?" "Man, they removed any traces of soul that she once had." "It's a horror story." "Are you emotionally involved?" "With the boat?" "She's not just a boat, Doc." "She's much more than that." "All right." "Well, I know why I'm so interested." "But why are you?" "A story I heard the other night, something about a smuggling angle." "And the story you heard did it happen to include Mickey Wolfmann?" "Not so far." "Why?" "According to scuttlebutt, shortly before he disappeared Mickey Wolfmann was seen taking the Golden Fang out for a three-hour tour." "Or should I say:" "A three-hour tour" "And, uh, was he accompanied by his lovely companion?" "Okay." " My fucking ex, old Shasta Fay?" " I know." "I know who she is." "But, Doc, I thought you were done with all that sad bullshit." "Listen, did everybody make it back okay?" "Nobody was pushed overboard, nothing like that?" "Actually, the word I'm hearing is that Mickey Wolfmann might not be as missing as we think." "Like gone but not gone?" "Man, you're gonna love this." "The rumor is that the Department of Justice is trying to broker..." " Uh-uh-uh." " Here you go." "Thank you." "I'm hearing that the Department of Justice is trying to broker a Vegas deal for him." "Doesn't compute." "Say again." "Vegas." "Wolfmann." "FBI stuff." "They need somebody else on the Strip who's not Italian." "You dig?" "Like Howard Hughes when he bought the Desert Inn." "Howard Hughes was Italian?" "No." "They want white people." "They want white, Anglo owners on the Strip." "Who better than Mickey Wolfmann?" "Hello?" "Hello?" "All right, Doc." "So she just departed San Pedro on board the Golden Fang." " Who?" " Your ex, Shasta Fay." "Shasta's on the Golden Fang?" "My friend in the DOJ just called me, yeah." " All right, where's it going?" " Out at sea some place." " Huh?" " Out at sea some place and..." "Yeah, where?" "Not known." "Not known." "Hang tight." "I'm gonna get back to you." "All right, cool." "Call me..." "Penny Kimball, Deputy DA." "Hey." "Who is this?" "It's me." "Where did you get this number?" "It's Doc." "Oh." "I thought you'd never want to speak to me again." "Mm." "Didn't, uh..." "I didn't mind talking to the FBI." "Am I in trouble?" "I don't know." "Are you?" "It's an awful nice night out here at the beach." "Hmm." "But you're a dirty, filthy hippie." "What would a nice clean girl like me do with you?" "Well, you could, uh bring your soap and clean my feet." "Ew." "No, thank you." "But then again, I could bring you a pizza." "I can hear your pants growing." "So...?" "I'll be there in an hour." "And wash your feet first." "...Problems for which government has..." "Freedom." "Heavy on the "dumb."" "" "The moral and spiritual crisis in the universities would still exist." "The destructive activists of our universities..." "That's the best thing I've heard all day." "You want one?" "Nixon downplayed the antiwar message inherent in the New Year's bombers' attack." "When he called on the vigilant California to take back cities and universities he was interrupted by a heckler." "Hey!" "Tricky Dick!" "Fuck you!" "You listen to me when I say that to you!" "Fuck you!" "Fuck everybody in the family!" "Now, what the fuck?" "He's identified as unemployed UCLA student Rick Doppel." " Who?" " Oh, Doppler?" "That's no hippie." "That's Chucky." "Yeah?" "Is it a friend of yours?" "Secret Service took the man for questioning..." "Everybody knows Chucky." "If he's not at the Hall of Justice, he's down at the Glass House." "A snitch?" "An informant, please." "And he only works with the Red Squad." "Whoa." "So, what's he...?" "Why is he screaming and yelling like that at Nixon again?" "Now that he's been on TV, he has instant and wide credibility." "Police can infiltrate him into any group they want to." "Bastards." " Do you love me?" " Any group." "Hmm..." "A snitch." "A spy." "A weasel." "And dang if it ain't a resurrected tenor sax player, working undercover." "But for who?" "These patriotic pals of President Nixon called Vigilant California?" "Some other unseen hand?" "Now, who am I again?" "You're the photographer." " And the name of the magazine is...?" " Stone Turntable." "Mm-hm." "Coy's band, The Boards, were currently renting a place in Topanga Canyon from a bass player turned record company executive which trend watchers took as further evidence of the end of Hollywood if not the world, as they had known it." "Doc and Denis hadn't dropped acid for years in this town without picking up some kind of extrasensory chops." "And truth was, since crossing the doorsill of this place they couldn't help noticing what you would call an atmosphere." "Thank you." "Ooh." "What are you doing here?" "I drove up with Bambi." "She heard Spotted Dick were here so I had to come along and keep her out of trouble." "She's possessed." "She's got Spotted Dick posters on the walls sheets and pillow cases, T-shirts, souvenir roach clips." "All right, she's keen on the Dick." "It's 24 hours a day." "She's got Spotted Dick albums on stereo." "Okay, yeah, now listen." "I'm looking for that guy that I met at Club Asiatique the other night." " He's here." " Yeah?" "Where?" " He's in the kitchen." " The kitchen?" "Hey, before you leave." "Can I get a ride with you?" " This place is freaking me out." " Mm..." "Okay." "Good evening, Larry Sportello, Stone Turntable magazine." " Smedley, Spotted Dick, keyboards." " Mm-hm." "Was it possible that at every gathering..." "Concert, peace rally, love-in, be-in and freak-in here, up North, back East, wherever." "...some dark crews had been busy all along reclaiming the music, the resistance to power the sexual desire from epic to everyday all they could sweep up, for the ancient forces of greed and fear." ""Gee," he thought, "I don't know."" "Hey." "Hi." "Hi there." "Remember me, Larry Sportello?" "Stone Turntable magazine?" "You, um, asked me to, uh, look into that, um vehicle." " What?" " The vehicle?" "Yeah, what was the make and model that you looked at again?" "You were asking about that older type VW with the hearts and blue birds and..." "Any replacement parts?" "None I could see." "What about street legal?" "Was it any hassles with registration?" "Didn't seem to be any..." " You saw Hope?" " Yeah, for a minute." "She's okay." "Looks like she's been staying clean too." "How'd she do it?" "I don't know." "She's, uh, back teaching is all she said." "You know, public health, drug awareness, something like that." " Where?" " Where?" "I don't know." "She didn't say." "It doesn't matter." "No way I could ever go back to them." "All right, man." "Look, you can't go back to them?" "Who?" "Because what?" "Why?" "Because it would be my ass and my family's too." "It's like a gang." "It's like once you're in, you're in for life." "Did you know that when you signed up?" "All I knew was we couldn't do each other any good staying together." "The baby looked like shit, getting worse every day." "We were just getting fucked up and sitting there and saying:" ""Well, we gotta do something." "You're dragging us down, and..."" "Listen, I'm not asking you to give away any secrets here." "But I think I saw you on the tube at a rally for Nixon." "And your question is, Which side am I on?" "Yes." "Well, you know, these people here have money." "It's not like those Bible freaks that go up and down the beach, like, screaming at you." "They really wanna help." "I thought it was something good to do for my country." "Stupid as that sounds." "But what I really found out was they just wanna, like, use us and keep the membership in line." ""My country, right or wrong" with Vietnam going on it's just fucking crazy." "Suppose your mom was on smack." "My mom?" "Yeah, what would you do?" " You know, wouldn't you try to help her?" " Yeah." "I think..." "Are you saying that the U.S. is somebody's mom?" "And she's, um, strung out?" " I'm trying to..." " On what?" "On sending people off to die in jungles for no reason." "Something wrong and suicidal about that that she can't stop." "Mm..." "And Vigilant California, or whoever it is you're working for, wouldn't buy that?" "I don't belong here, man." "I do get the feeling you'd rather be someplace else." "Yeah." "Back where I was would be nice." "See, if I did just run a fast check and happened to find some angle that you haven't thought of..." "Listen, nothing personal, but there's too much you haven't thought of." "Man, I can dig." "You're trying to chase me off of this." "Whatever it is that you're caught inside, I'm out here on the outside of it." "And I can, you know, move in ways that you may not be able to." "Shh." "How'd the baby look?" "Amethyst." "Oh, man." "A sweetie pie." " She looked good?" " Yeah." " No sign of them little kid blues?" " "Little kid blues"?" "No, that happens." "They get that." "Yeah." "No, none I could see..." "You saw it a little bit." "I blew this solo, man." "Listen, who set you up with these people?" "Where did it come from?" "I mean, come on." "Gimme a glimpse here, man." "Who set you up with these people?" "When I first started snitching I realized how often people asked questions they already know the answers to." "They just wanna hear it from another voice." "Like one outside their head." "You better find Shasta Fay." "Shasta Fay." "Thanks for the lift, boys." "See you around." "Jade." "Jade." "You said in your note, "Beware of the Golden Fang."" "Why am I supposed to beware of a boat?" "They're an Indochinese heroin cartel." "A vertical package." "They grow it, bring it in, step on it, run stateside networks of local street dealers and take a separate percentage off of each operation." "So you're dealing smack?" "No, but they use Chick Planet as a front to launder money." "See you around." "Reluctant, maybe even a little desperate Doc figured he had to go visit Bigfoot now." "On principle, he tried to spend as tittie time around the Glass House as possible." "All this strange alternate cop history and cop politics..." "Cop dynasties, cop heroes and evildoers saintly cops and psycho cops cops too stupid to live and cops too smart for their own good." "" "Insulated by secret loyalties and codes of silence from the world they'd all been given to control." "Bigfoot's native element." "The air he breathed." "The big time he'd been so crazy to get away from the beach and be promoted into." "Then why so grumpy, Bigfoot?" "Doc remembered dimly a story from tong past." "A rumor about a partner of Bigfoot's who'd been shot and killed a while back in the line of duty." "And ever since then, the story went Bigfoot had worked alone." "I hope this won't be another one of those unabridged paranoid hippie monologues I seem obliged to sit through." "So, what if someone dies, but is resurrected?" "Not, at first glance, a matter for Homicide." "So who around here handles resurrections?" "Bunco Squad, usually." "Does that mean the L.A.P.D. believes every, uh, return from the dead is some kind of con?" "You're dead, you're dead." "Are we talking philosophy?" "That there is Coy Harlingen, the stiff in question." "That was taken last night." "Remind me why I give a shit again?" "He worked for the department as a snitch not to mention some patriotic badasses known as Vigilant California." "They may have been in on the raid at Channel View Estates." "Remember that place, Bigfoot?" "All right." "All right, I'll look into it personally." "Sometimes, it's just about doing the right thing." "Who are you?" "Clancy Charlock." "Glen Charlock's sister, mother, sis..." "Sister." ""Saster." Ha, ha." "I'm so sorry about your, um, brother." "Glen was a shit." "Bound to have his series canceled sometime." "That don't keep me from wanting to know who his killer is." "Goodness." "Did you talk to the police?" "They talked to me." "Some smart-ass named Bigfoot." "He seemed less concerned with Glen's murder than Mickey Wolfmann's disappearance." "But he's a fan of yours all right." "Said you might be able to help." "Did he now?" "Did you hear the Wolfmann's working on a way to give away all his money?" "Why would he wanna do that?" "He was on a guilt trip, man." "Doing tons of acid and peyote and..." "Just got to a point." "He felt bad about making people pay for cheap houses." "Are you gonna keep holding on to that tank or you gonna marry it?" "He wanted to build this place in the desert where people could come and live for free, called the Arrepentimiento." "Uh-huh." "Arrepentimiento." "And now, what's that mean again?" "Spanish for "sorry about that."" "Uh-huh." "Um..." "Do you think that, um you know, maybe your brother was just, um you know, doing his job to try to prevent, um whoever it was from putting the snatch on Mickey?" "That's way too fucking sentimental." "Sounds like somebody objected to Mickey's big giveaway." "Mm." "The, uh, wife?" "Business partners?" "Um..." "Puck Beaverton." "He had the duty that day to guard Mickey." "But changed shifts with Glen at the last minute." "Puck Beaverton." "Interesting fellow, I hear." "He's a major-league asshole." "Mm." "Sounds like you dated." "Him and his roommate." "Two at a time?" "That's my preference." "Well, you know where I might be able to find this, uh, Puck fella?" "Dropped out of sight after Glen's murder." "Set sail." "Heh. "Set sail"?" "Like on a boat?" " I don't know." "Maybe." " Mm-hm." "If you find him, you'll let me know?" "Well, um, perhaps we should continue this conversación someplace else." "I've got a date." "Thank you." "Oh, and Miss Charlock." "I just need your contact information from you." " Sure." " Okay." "Here's a pen." "Hey, Clance did Glen ever mention one of Mickey's ladies who goes by the name of Shasta?" "The girl who's gone missing?" " That's her." " Yeah." "She was in love with him." "Deeply in love." "Oh, Shasta and Doc lived together for a short while." "Oh." "Bummer." "Well, as someone who's been down this particular exit ramp:" "You can only cruise the boulevards of regret so far." "Then you gotta get back up onto the freeway again." "Yeah." "Good luck." " See you." " Bye now." "I wish you could see these waves." "It's one more of these places a voice from somewhere else tells you you have to be." "Remember that day with the Ouija board?" "I miss those days and I miss you." "Nothing was supposed to happen this way, Doc." "I'm so sorry." "You don't remember the Ouija board, do you, Doc?" "It had been one of those prolonged times of no dope." "You think it knows where we can score?" "Ask." "Just do it by yourself like that." "Nobody had any." "Everybody was desperate and suffering lapses of judgment." "Eight-4-2-9-3." " It's a phone number!" " One-2-5-0-1." "It's ringing." "Howdy, dopers." "We've got whatever you need." "And remember: the sooner you get over here, the more there 'll be left for you." "So come on down to 4723 Sunset Boulevard." "You better hurry." "Okay, I'm sorry, who is it that I'm talking to?" " She hung up." " Let's go!" "She's screaming at you:" ""Stay away!" "I'm a police trap!"" "Aw, there's a problem with Ouija boards." "Shasta!" "That board sure did its work." "They didn't score any dope that day, but somehow, suddenly, it didn't matter." "It was weird that in the limited space of a postcard Shasta should have chosen to remember that one day in the rain." "It had stuck with Doc too even though it was late in their time together when she was already halfway out the door." "Hey, Denis?" "Denis, I'm-a go look around." "Wanna wait in the car or come cover my back?" "I was gonna try to go find a pizza." "Is that okay?" "Now you recall this is stick shift, not automatic and so forth?" "It's easy as pie, Doc." "Mm." "Good afternoon." "Mm..." "This is the address they gave me at Club Asiatique in San Pedro." "Just here to pick up a package for the management." "Hello, this is Xandra from front desk." "We have a pickup for management." "Follow me." "Dr. Blatnoyd will see you in a moment." "So you have some ID, I imagine?" "Mm-hm." "I don't know what this is." "What is it?" "It's oriental or something." "Is it Chinese?" "Well, I figured, uh, you being Chinese..." "What?" "What are you talking about?" "The Golden Fang?" "It's a syndicate." "Most of us happen to be dentists." "A syndicate of dentists set up long ago for tax purposes." "All legit." "Where did you tell Xandra you were from again?" "Uh..." "Oh..." "Why, you're another one of those hippie dope fiends, aren't you?" "My goodness." "My goodness me." "Here for a little perking up, are we?" "Dig it." "It's from Darmstadt." "Lab quality." "I try not to do any dope I can't pay for, is what it is." "No, no, on the house!" "In fact, maybe I'm gonna even join you for one little moment." "Well, just to be sociable." "There you go." "Doctor, I think there's a problem with the couch in your office." "And bring that bottle." "What do you think of my chompers?" "Heroin sucks the calcium out of your body like a vampire." "If you use it for any length of time, your teeth go all to hell." "And that's just the good part." "Doc!" "Doc?" "Dr. Rudy, I'm back." "You're not Dr. Rudy." "You're not Dr. Rudy." "That's at Japonica, ain't it?" "Japonica Fenway?" "Imagine meeting you here." "Doc rooted through the city dump that was his memory recalling that Japonica here had been a pretty open-and-shut runaway daughter case." "Hardly worth daily scale let alone the extravagant bonus her father, Crocker Fenway had insisted on paying when Doc finally brought Japonica back home." "So, what have you been up to?" "Escaping, mostly." "And I escape real good." "Escaping what?" "Chryskylodon." "This, like, booby hatch my parents keep sending me to." ""Booby hatch"?" " Up in Ojai?" " You know it?" "Shakes a tambourine." " Ooh." " Aah!" "Dr. Rudy!" "Okay." "All right." "Japonica, you promised me." "Did you not promise me?" " What are you doing here?" " I escaped again for you." "Oof!" "Woo-hoo!" "Look at the greedy little hippie." "Snorting away, are you?" " Your parents know you're here?" " No." "The Fenways?" "They were heavy-duty South Bay money and led lives of unusually high density and often incoherence." "Her father, Crocker, also known as the Dark Prince of Palos Verdes was a lead lawyer at the office of Voorhees-Krueger who had given Doc his first paying gig as a PI." "Man, like, I'm sorry." "Denis, what is it this time?" "That's my steering wheel?" " I don't know how to drive." " Aw, man, I thought you said you..." "Hey." "Smile Maintenance Chick." "How lovely." "Miss Fenway may appear a little psychotic today." "Groovy." " What?" " It's groovy being insane, man." "Where you at?" "It's not groovy to be insane." "Japonica here has been institutionalized for it." "Okay, come on now, Denis." "We've gotta figure out a way back to the beach." "If you need a ride, I'm heading that way." "Huh?" "Uh..." "Cop friendly, everything cool with your ride?" "Brake lights, license plate, so forth?" "A-okay." "Mind if I tag along with you guys?" "Contingencies of the road and so forth?" "That's a good idea." "Maybe we should do more of that, tsk, tsk, for the road?" "Yes." "Yeah." "You want some?" "Excuse me." "Come on." "What's in that bag you're stuffing under Doc's seat?" "Pay no attention to that bag." "It'll only make everybody paranoid." "Though he may have rescued Japonica from a life of dark and unspecified hippie horror apparently restoration to the bosom of her family had been enough to really drive her around the bend." "Oh, fuck!" " Fucking assholes!" " Easy, easy." "Fuck!" "Fuck!" "Fuck!" "I can't..." " Okay, we are so fucked!" "I got..." " Nice and easy." "Christ, Christ." "Some..." "Are you the Great Beast?" "No, no, that's a policeman." "You were driving without your headlights." "But I can see in the dark." "Perhaps you shouldn't be driving, then." " I'm gonna need to see all your IDs." " What is this all about, sir?" "Any gathering of three or more civilians is considered a possible cult." "What?" "It's Charlie Manson again?" "Criteria includes reference to the Book of Revelation males with shoulder-length hair and endangerment through inattentive driving all of which has been exhibited." " Oh, I don't think so." " Man, listen." "This is a Mercedes." "It's only painted one color." " Y'all hang tight." " That should count for something." " Good point." " Okay." "All right." "Okay, okay." "Oh, God, I'm actually gonna have a heart attack." "Actually my heart is racing like a little..." " What?" " Yes, sir?" "I'm gonna hand these in and as long as there aren't any wants or warrants you won't hear any more about this." " Thank you, officer." " Thank you, sir." " Drive safely." " Here you go, Blat." "Dr. Rudy." " No, that's yours." " And Japonica here." " That's beautiful." "Denis, take this." "This one is Denis's." "Idiots Unlimited." "Oh, yeah, I'm in an evil mood myself tonight." "What can I do?" "Dr. Rudy Blatnoyd, DDS has perpetrated his last root canal, I'm afraid." "Hablo inglés, man." "What's that...?" "He's dead?" "They found him next to a trampoline in Bel Air with a fatal neck injury." "So far no witnesses, no motives, no suspects apart from you." "Mm, not me." "Why me?" "You were observed in Blatnoyd's company." "Both of you riding in a vehicle full of drug-crazed hippies." "Yeah, well, you know the owner of that vehicle is a very well-respected, um, you know, lawyer down in Palos Verdes." "And his daughter was driving." "She offered me a ride." "And cops didn't even give her a ticket." "You know, Blatnoyd was her friend, not mine." "Go to bed." "I'm working." "Why am I gonna go to bed?" "I think it's time we had one of our chats." "Uh..." "All right." "Yup." "So with this Coy Harlingen matter on the face of it it's one more OD, one less junkie, case cleared." "And on the not face of it?" "Why, what do we have here?" "Why don't you pick a card?" "Any card." "These are field interrogation reports." "See if you find anything that looks familiar." "Card tricks." "No." "Mm." "Puck Beaverton." "Excellent choice." "One of Mickey Wolfmann's bodyguards." "Interesting fellow, I hear." "Sheriff's people ran into him at the Venice home of the dealer that sold Harlingen the smack that killed him." "Or didn't kill him." "Wait, so, what was Puck doing at Coy's dealer's place?" "The interesting thing about this overdose is that Leonard James Loosemeat a.k.a. El Drano was known for this 3 percent product yet the report says what killed him was pure China White Number Four." "Like, from the whole-seller?" "Whoever's bringing it in?" "I seem to recall that some years ago, just before he went into Folsom Beaverton used to work for this loan shark Adrian Prussia." "Fucking zoinks!" "I know Adrian Prussia." "I know him from my skip-tracing days." "He's a bad man." "Used a baseball bat." "You know, he's sick." "And Coy's dealer, El Drano also happened to be Prussia's steady customer." "So maybe Puck was there on Adrian's behalf." "What do you think?" "I think you and Adrian have a history you're not sharing with me." "Got it, lieutenant!" "You got it, lieutenant." "Pancakes aren't quite as good as my mother's, but what I really go for here is the respect." "Respect." "You didn't get enough of that from your mom." "You probably imagine that I have a lot of status up in Robbery-Homicide." "I mean, who could blame you for thinking that." "The reality, however no Cielo Drive for Bigfoot." "No TV movie rights or book deals for Bigfoot." "I mean, even the extra work is drying up." "God help us all." "Dentists on trampolines." "You know, Dr. Blatnoyd had puncture wounds on his throat consistent with bites from canines of a midsize wild animal." "That's what the coroner told me!" "Swallow that!" "Listen, that's mighty weird, Bigfoot." "Okay?" "Because Blatnoyd was a partner in a tax dodge that calls itself The Golden Fang Enterprises." "You didn't happen to get the, uh, SID to test those neck punctures for gold or nothing?" "I shouldn't think there'd be much trace." "Gold is all but chemically inactive, as you might have learned in chemistry class if you hadn't been ditching all the time to score dope, Sportello." "Every contact leaves traces." "It would sure be ironic, is all I'm saying if Blatnoyd was bit to death by a golden fang or, like, even better, like, two golden fangs?" "I don't see why any of this would be material." "Because it's the Golden Fang." " It's the decedent's tax shelter." "So, what?" " No, man, it's not a tax shelter." "It's something, Bigfoot, man, much more, more vast." "This wouldn't be just more of your paranoid hippie bullshit, would it?" "Look, have the lab check for traces of copper." "Not the kind that goes stumbling all over the crime scene contaminating evidence." "More like copper the metal." "You see, gold teeth are never made with pure gold." "Dentists like to alloy it with copper." "If you hadn't ditched forensics class to go steal hubcaps to plant on some innocent hippie you might have known that." "Oh, you feel like a cop almost, don't you?" "Good day." "Okay, it's coming!" "So where to?" "A place up in Ojai called Chryskylodon." "Chryskylodon?" ""Animal tooth."" "Ancient Indian word, Sortilège?" "It means "serenity."" "I minored in the Classics." "It's not Indian, it's Ancient Greek." "It means "animal tooth made out of gold."" "You're doing good, Doc." " Thanks, Lège." " Okay." "Owing to Governor Reagan's shutdown of most of the state mental facilities the private sector had been given carte blanche to pick up the stack." "Soon, in fact, becoming a standard California child-rearing resource for kids like that old Japonica Fenway." " Mr. Sportello." " Mm." " Dr. Aubrey Threeply." " Oh, how do you do?" " So good to see you." " Nice to see you." " Welcome." "Welcome." " Thank you." "Would you...?" "Sorry." "Would you like to use the facilities?" "You already used the bathroom?" "Before we take a tour of the facility?" "This is my colleague Dr. Lily Hammer." " Mr. Sportello." " How do you do?" "Thank you." "Please join us." "This is our administrative lounge." "Our Chenin blanc comes from the institute's own vineyard." "Hands steady as a rock today I see, Kimberly." "So happy you noticed, Dr. Threeply." " More soup?" " Yes, if you know what's good for you." "Have you been with us before, Mr. Sportello?" "I know I've seen your face." "Mm." "First time I've been down here." "Normally, I don't get much south of South City." "And abnormally?" "What?" "Well, I only meant that with any number of qualified facilities in the Bay Area why even bother coming all the way down here to us?" "Mm..." "My clients believe that Ojai is a planetary chakra." "Chryskylodon's motion picture palace." "Now showing the Burke Stodger marathon." "All Burke, all day, 24 hours of Stodger." "...people's museum." "And I warn you once more..." "This place is a lie." "This is particularly popular with the patients." "These marvels?" "This!" "This was not invented by a Russian." "The man's name was Bell!" "Alexander Graham Bell!" "And he was an American!" "Get that, comrade." "Everything on this table is as phony as the town." "The rotten system you call communism." "It was occurring to Doc now something Jade said once about vertical integration that if the Golden Fang can get its customers strung out why not turn around and sell them a program to help kick?" "Get them coming and going." "Twice as much revenue." "As long as American life was something to be escaped from the cartel could always be sure of a bottomless pool of new customers." "Any questions?" "Is that a swastika on that man's face?" "Um, no, it isn't." "That's an ancient Hindu symbol meaning "All is well."" " It brings good fortune, luck and well-being." " Oh." "What do you mean?" "Only that it looked like a swastika to me." "Well, he isn't a regular employee of the Institute." "Perhaps you should pay no attention to that man." "What the fuck?" "...encapsulated in the charming phrase:" "Which means, of course, "You must be very tired."" "Which brings us to the institute's own Zen garden imported from Kyoto." "But each textured pebble, each grain of white sand was transported and reassembled here exactly in place by a team of some of our more obsessive patients." "Mickey." "Mickey." "Mickey." "Hello, little hippie." "How are you?" "Uh..." "What are you doing here?" "They're helping me." "They're helping me wake up from my bad hippie dream." "Well, what'd you dream about?" "I dreamed I gave away all my money." "Yeah." "Who brought you here?" "My friends." "Who are your friends?" "The FBI?" "I spent my whole life..." "I spent my whole life making people pay for shelter." "And all along, I didn't realize..." "I didn't realize it was supposed to be for free." "For free." "Where's Shasta?" "What?" "Tell me, did she come with you?" "Is she here?" "Mickey, where the fuck is Shasta?" "Go away, little hippie." "Go away." ""A new casino, a hotel, 25,000 square feet nine dining places, race and sport booking shopping, a spa, local swimming pools and a wedding chapel." "Wolfmann hopes to attract many Hollywood celebrities."" "1-Adam-12, handle code 3." "We don't have much to go on." "Just the broadcast Barrett put out." "He was ambushed by two male Negroes, possibly on foot." "He thinks he wounded both of them, but we can't be sure." "Far as I know, we have two units, code 100." "Aw, Bigfoot, you're adorable." "I'm sure I got them." "Both of them." "The rest of us can shake the area on foot." "Johnson, you and your partner stay here and preserve the scene for the investigators." "Let's go." "Hi, Shasta." "Hi, Doc." "Well, either I'm on the time machine or you're back." "I've been away." " Where you been?" " Up north." "Family stuff." "Anything been happening down here?" "Your friend in the, uh, construction business?" "Oh, that's all over." "He's back with Sloane and the kids." "And so what?" "Mm-hm." "You know you got a load of people out looking for you, Shasta." "Well, here I am." "C'est la vie." ""C'est la vie."" "Que se fucking sera sera." "Something like that." "Well, I like your necklace." "Can't be good." "Mm-hm." "Yeah, word is your girl's back in town." "Oh, yeah?" "Well, that's news to me." "Where you been?" "No place I'd recommend." "Any developments on the Coy Harlingen matter?" "Like you give a shit?" "Any of them include Prussia or Beaverton or any of the fuckers that I've given you?" "All right, forget that." "Listen, listen." "Any results on those fang marks?" "Coroner's people got very upset with me for suggesting more lab work." "Well, I just thought it'd be a helpful tip to a fellow professional." " You know?" " Oh, really?" "How's that, Sportello?" "Yeah, when your own, um, hearing comes up." "What are you suggesting?" "One county supervisor with a bug up his ass is all it takes to bring you down, Bigfoot." "This is Mrs. Chastity Bjornsen and if that is one more sociopathic "special employee" of my husband I will thank you to stop harassing him on his day off." "It's Sportello." "Oh, Sportello." "Doc Sportello?" "The Doc Sportello?" "So we meet at last." "Mr. Moral Fucking Turpitude himself!" "Have you any idea of the therapist bills around here for which you are directly responsible?" " The department picks up a little." " Oh, the department?" "Yeah, after a deductible that would choke a fucking horse." "All right, you know, he called me." "I fail to understand your spineless response to that dirty, hippie piece of shit." "Would you get the fuck up?" "Get the fuck up, Christian." "Christian, get the fuck up!" " Now, Christian, please!" " Okay." "And would you stop acting like a beaten dog." "I ask you for one fucking day a week." "No..." "What kind of girl do you need, Doc?" "Maybe a thing for one of those Manson chicks?" "Well, thing is that depends on what..." "Are you sure you wanna be doing that?" "Submissive, brainwashed, horny, little teeners who do exactly what you want before you even know what that is." "You don't have to say a word out loud." "They get it all by ESP." "Your kind of chick, Doc?" "You the one that's been stealing my magazines?" "What would Charlie do?" "Well, probably not this." "Listen, I'm sorry about Mickey." "Mickey." "Mickey could have taught all you swinging beach bums a thing or two." "He was just so powerful." "Sometimes he could almost make you feel invisible." "Fast" "Brutal." "Not what you'd call a considerate lover." "But we adored it about him." "Me and Sloane and Luz." "It's so nice to be made to feel invisible that way sometimes." "Mm." "And guys just love to hear shit like this." "He'd bring me to lunch in Beverly Hills." "One big hand wrapped around my bare arm steering me blind down those bright streets into some space where it was dark and cool." "You couldn't smell any food, only alcohol." "He had tables full of them." "They'd all be drinking in a room that could have been any size." "And they all knew Mickey." "They wanted, some of them to be Mickey." "He might as well have been bringing me in on a leash." "He kept me in those micro-minidresses never allowing me to wear anything underneath." "Just offering me up to whoever wanted to stare or grab." "Sometimes, he'd fix me up with some of his friends and I'd have to do whatever they wanted." "Why are you telling me this?" "I'm sorry, Doc." "Do you want me to stop?" "If my girlfriend had run off to be the bought-and-sold whore of some scumbag developer..." "I'd just be so angry, I don't know what I'd do." "No." "I'm even lying about that." "I know what I'd do." "If I had the faithless little bitch over my lap like this..." "This doesn't mean we're back together." "Mm." "Of course not." "You didn't get this necklace up North, hmm?" "I went on a boat ride." "Like a three-hour tour?" "They told me I was precious cargo that couldn't be insured because of inherent vice." "What's that?" "I don't know." " Hmm?" " Kiss me." ""Inherent vice," in a marine insurance policy is anything that you can't avoid." "Eggs break chocolate melts glass shatters and Doc wondered what that meant when it applied to ex-old ladies." "What's on your mind, Doc?" "Besides the usual?" "I don't know." "I'm like, you know working myself into a brain freeze here, Lège." "Well, put it another way:" "What's gonna nag at you in the middle of the night?" "What's gonna nag at me in the middle of the night?" "Little kid blues?" "Saxophone players?" "You know, whatever he meant to do..." "Coy, you know, mistakes aside, and..." "Nobody deserves to go through life without seeing their daughter." "That don't sit well with me." "Then go get them." " Put it on your desk." " Thank you." " Whoa." "What are you doing here?" "Yeah." " "Whoa"?" "Wanted to see if you were free for dinner." "I didn't mean to freak you out." "Are you all right?" " Am I?" " Are you?" "Should I call security?" " No, Rhus." " I don't think we need..." "This is the one I was telling you about." "Yeah?" "You know your pals have Mickey Wolfmann?" "What?" "The FBI?" "I mean, we suspected, but we couldn't prove it." "Well, I saw him in their custody." " You saw him?" " Yeah." "Would you be willing to let me depone you?" " Sure would." " You would?" "What is it?" "You, me, a tape machine, maybe another DDA to witness it." " All right, I need something from you though." " What?" "I need to look up somebody's jacket." "That's it?" "That's no big deal." "We do that all the time." "What, you break into officially sealed records all the time?" "Grow up." "What's the name on the file?" "Adrian Prussia." "As if looking for something he didn't want to find it became clear as vodka you keep in the icebox that, whatever the connection between the L.A.P.D. and Adrian Prussia he might as well have been working for them as a contract killer doing deeds for them they couldn't do for themselves." "Time after time, he was pulled in, questioned, arraigned, indicted, no matter." "Somehow the cases never quite got to trial each being bargained down in the interest of justice not to mention Adrian, who invariably walked." "And one of those deeds appeared to be labeled  "the justifiable homicide" of one of the L.A.P.D.'s very own:" "Vincent indelicato." "Otherwise known as Bigfoot's partner." "Bigfoot." "Bigfoot's partner?" "Fucking Bigfoot's partner?" "Oh, fuck." "Bigfoot's air of possessed melancholy now began to make sense." "This was mourning, all right." "And it was deep." "This your new partner, Bigfoot?" "Want a banana, Adrian?" "Bend over and I'll stick it in for you." "Fuck you and fuck your banana." "Oh, man, oh, man." "Never be surprised at the levels of disrespect within the L.A.P.D." "But this was downright nasty, not to mention unprofessional." "This bond between partners was nearly the only thing Doc had ever found to admire about the L.A.P.D." "You know, there's places you don't wanna go, Doc." "Go back to the beach." "You smell like a patchouli fart." "So here's Doc." "Midnight, pitch-dark. .." "...can't remember whether they drained the pool or not but, hey, what the fuck's it matter?" "He bounced once, twice and then off the end of the board in a blind cannonball down into old karma with Adrian Prussia who had not only shot at him once but threatened him with a Carl Yastrzemski Special baseball bat." "All this leaving Doc to wonder:" ""Where's the partner to watch my back?"" "Far out, man." "Right." "Psychedelic." "Done." "So you're here about...?" "Good question." "Uh..." "Wait a minute." "This is bullshit." "I remember you." "You're that kid from Fritz's shop out in Santa Monica, right?" "Yeah." "So, what you up to these days?" "Skip tracing?" "Or did you go into the priesthood?" "PI." "Heh." "They gave you a license?" "So who sent you here?" " Mm." "Uh..." " Who are you working for today?" "All on spec." "All on my own time." "Wrong answer." "How much of your own time do you think you got left, kid?" "I was just about to ask." "Howdy, Puck." "Do I know you?" "I don't think I do." "I don't know, you must remind me of someone I ran into someplace." "My mistake." "I have a busy day ahead and I know nothing of any of this." "What are you doing here?" "I was just, uh, talking to Adrian." "Mm." "It's these, uh various cases I'm working on." "And, uh mm, Glen Charlock and, uh, Vincent indelicato and, uh where'd you get that-?" "That necklace it looks funny on you." "Big man, small necklace." "Acid invites you through a door." "PCP opens that door shoves you through it slams the door behind you and locks it." "Special treat for you today, doper." "Just got it in a shipment of pure Number 4." "Ain't a white guy's finger laid on it between the Golden Triangle and your own throbbing vein." "Just let me step out here and I'll go get you some." "Don't go away now." "Puck!" "Pucky!" "Did I hit you?" "Bigfoot?" "What the fuck?" "Did you take care of them okay, Doc?" "You fucking lunatic!" "What is this?" "I'm in enough shit personally with the captain and I've seen you on the range." "Nice work." "What are you...?" "And that there, is that what I think it is?" "Huh?" "There's one of or two of them." "There's more." "Enough left for evidence." "Man, Bigfoot, I saw the movie." "As I recall, that character comes to a bad end." "Put the gun away, Doc." " What?" " The gun." "Put it away." "This is the Golden Fang you're about to rip off, man." "The fully fucking weird outfit that kills people." "That's according to your own delusional system." "Get in the car." "Get in the car!" "Where are we going?" "We had to impound your car again." "It was parked illegally in front of Adrian's." "Psst." "Doper's ESP, Doc." "Doper's ESP." "Oh, no." "Bigfoot, you motherfucker." "Okay, Doc, you have what looks to be a 20-kilo inconvenience in your trunk." "And Bigfoot, no doubt, putting out word to that effect." "And once again, you're the bait." "Hello?" "It's sure been a long time." "And your name was?" "This is Crocker Fenway." "Japonica's dad?" "Oh..." "What happened this time?" "You have something that belongs to some people I represent, and they'd like it back." "Oh." "So you're a principal in all this?" "It's only because of me and our small transaction over Japonica that you're still alive." "Ever so grateful, sir." "So, what do we do?" "I suppose someone wants their, uh back?" "Why don't we meet this evening at 6:00 at my club, The Portola, in Elysian Park." "Mm-hm. ls there a dress code?" "A jacket and tie, if possible." "I'll see you then." "Mr. Sportello." "Mr. Fenway." "To a peaceful resolution." "How's the family?" "Japonica's doing fine, if that's what you mean." "You know I think I saw old Japonica the other day at my doctor's office." "You ever run across a dentist named Rudy Blatnoyd?" "The son of a bitch who until recently was corrupting my daughter?" "Yes, I do seem to recall the name." "He perished in a trampoline accident, didn't he?" "L.A.P.D. aren't so sure it was an accident." "And you'd like to know if I did it?" "What possible motive would I have?" "Just because the man preyed on an emotionally vulnerable child?" "Forced her to engage in sexual practices that might appall even a sophisticate like yourself?" "Does that mean I'd have any reason to see his miserable pedophile career come to an end?" "What a vindictive person you must imagine me." "Mm..." "Mm, I did suspect he was fucking his receptionist, but what dentist doesn't?" "It's some oath they all take in dentist school." "Anyhow, it's a long way from strange and weird sex, isn't it?" "What about when he forced my girl to listen to original cast albums of Broadway musicals while he had his way with her?" "Or the tastelessness of the decor of resort hotel rooms he took her to during endodontist conventions." "The wallpaper." "The lamps." "Japonica's of legal age now, isn't she?" "In a father's eye, they're always too young." "To the matter at hand." "Those I represent are prepared to offer you a generous compensation package for the safe return of their property." "Suppose it didn't have to be in the form of money." "Well, money would be a lot easier." "There's a saxophone player named Coy Harlingen." "He's been working undercover for different anti-subversive outfits, including the L.A.P.D." "And he's come to feel lately that he made the wrong career choice." "It lost him his family, his freedom." "And like you, he only has one daughter." "Please." "Okay." "Well, he wants out." "And I think I can square it with the heat." "But there's this other bunch, Vigilant California." "And, well, whoever's running them, of course..." "My guess is they'd prefer he not disclose any confidential information." "Last thing he'd ever do." "Your personal guarantee?" "I'll go after him myself if he tries anything." "Then we have a deal." "That's all you wanted?" "No money now?" "Are you sure?" "Well, now, how much money would I have to take from you so I wouldn't lose your respect?" "It's a bit late for that, Mr. Sportello." "People like you lose all claim to respect the first time they pay anybody rent." "Well, I may not be as well-connected and for sure, not as much into revenge as you folks are but if you're jiving with me, my man I say to you:" "Hmm?" "So where we gonna do this handoff?" "Don't know much about history" "Don't know much biology" "Don't know much about science books" "Golden Fang operatives, 12 o'clock." "Fast approaching." "Look sharp." "And I know that if you love me too" "What a wonderful world it would be" "Don't know much about geography" "Don't know much trigonometry" "All right, you got the keys in here?" "Don't know what a slide rule is for" "But I do know, one and one is two" "And if this world could be with you" "What a wonderful world this would be" "Now, what's all this?" "It's a credit card." "Don't hippies have them?" "Yeah, I must've meant that why is your mother handing me this?" " It's not for you." " Ah." "Uh..." "You're supposed to tell him: "Well done." "Welcome back to the main herd." "Safe journeys."" "That's journeys, plural." ""Well done." "Welcome back to the herd." "Safe journeys."" "Okay, I guess I can remember that." " What are you looking at?" " Huh?" "What?" "So you guys been working for the Golden Fang long?" "Okay." "Sassy, little girl." "Nasty." "Mean." "There's nothing?" "All right." "Everything's cool." "I'm officially off everybody's payroll." "Burke Stodger just called me." "You're a dangerous hombre." "Drive." "You all right?" "I'm nervous." "Yeah." "You know what the Indians say." " You saved my life..." " Ugh now you're responsible for it." "No, man." "No, that's not true." "Some hippie made that up, man." "You saved your own life, man." "Now you get to live it." "Baby!" "Yet there is no avoiding time." "The sea of time." "The sea of memory and forgetfulness." "The years of promise gone and unrecoverable." "Of the land almost allowed to claim its better destiny only to have that claim jumped by evildoers known all too well and taken instead and held hostage to the future we must live in now, forever." "So who got her?" "Department of Justice." "So, like, uh, justice was served?" "That's exactly right, Doc." "That's exactly right." "May we trust this blessed ship is bound for some better shore." "Risen and redeemed." "Where the American fate mercifully fatted to transpire." "Don't get up." "Bigfoot." "Man..." "You smashed down my door?" "Come on." "After a long and busy day of civil rights violations I found myself in the neighborhood and compelled to drop in." "Just to check and see the current state of affairs of my old stomping grounds." "Seeing as your effort to keep lines of communication had been limited." "To say the least." "Well, I've been busy." "Trying to figure out which side of the Zig-Zag paper's the sticky side?" "Give it to me." "Listen." " I'm sorry about last night." " I'm sorry about last night" " You?" " You?" "Why should you be sorry?" "Weird." "Uh..." "Are you okay, brother?" "I'm not your brother." "No, but you could use a keeper." "Remember that day?" "The Ouija board set us off into that big storm?" "This feels the same way tonight." "Just us." "Together." "Almost like being underwater." "The world everything gone someplace else." "Just figured it was Sortilége setting us up." "No." "Her Ouija board and..." " She knows things, Doc." " Mm." "Maybe about us that we don't know." "This don't mean we're back together." "Of course not."