WJL: I'm sorry, Sir. You understood my design, and the man does sound interesting.
JEH: He's quite useful and diversified. For example, he runs a hate-tract press covertly. He's planted a number of his subscribers as informants in Klan groups that the Bureau has targeted for mail-fraud indictments. He helps eliminate his hate-mail competition in that manner.
WJL: And he knew the late Officer Tippit.
JEH: Knew or knew of. Judged or did not judge as ideologically unsound and outrй. I'm always amusingly surprised by who knows who in which overall contexts. For example, the Dallas SAC told me that a former Bureau man named Guy Williams Banister is in town this weekend. Another agent told me, independently, that he's seen your friend Pierre Bondurant. Imaginative people might point to this confluence and try to link men like that to your mutual chum Carlos Marcello and his hatred of the Royal Family, but I am not disposed to such flights of fancy.
WJL: Yes, Sir.
JEH: Your tone tells me that you wish to ask a favor. For Mr. Hughes, perhaps?
WJL: Yes, Sir. I'd like to see the main Bureau file on the Las Vegas hotel-casino owners, along with the files on the Nevada Gaming Commission, Gaming Control Board, and the Clark County Liquor Board.
JEH: The answer is yes. Quid pro quo?
WJL: Certainly, Sir.
JEH: I would like to forestall potential talk on Mr. Tippit. If the Dallas Office has a separate file on him, I would like it to disappear before my less trusted colleagues get an urge to take the information public.
WJL: I'll take care of it tonight, Sir.
JEH: Do you think the single-gunman consensus will hold?
WJL: I'll do everything I can to insure it.
JEH: Good day, Mr. Littell.
WJL: Good day, Sir.
7
(Dallas, 11/23/63)
Glut. Waste. Bullshit.
The hotel copped pleas. The hotel blamed Lee Oswald.
The joint bulged-capacity-plus-newsmen shared rooms. They hogged the phone lines. They sapped the hot water. They swamped the room-service crew.
The hotel copped pleas. The hotel blamed Lee Oswald.
Our guests mourn. Our guests weep. Our guests watch TV. They stay in. They call home. They hash out The Show.
Wayne paced his suite. Wayne nursed an earache-that muzzle boom stuck.
Room service called. They said we're sorry-we're running late. Maynard Moore _didn't_ call. Durfee escaped. Moore let it ride.
Moore didn't issue warrants. Moore didn't issue holds. Moore wrote up the crap-game snafu. One guy lost a kneecap. One guy lost two pints of blood. One guy lost a toe.
Mr. Bowers lost a thumb. Wayne nursed the picture-all-nite reruns.
He tossed all night. He watched TV. He made phone calls. He called the Border Patrol. He issued crossing holds. Four units grabbed look-alikes and called him.
Wendell Durfee had knife scars-too fucking bad-the look-alikes had none.
He called Lynette. He called Wayne Senior. Lynette mourned JFK. Lynette said trite shit. Wayne Senior cracked jokes.
Jack's last word was "pussy." Jack groped a nurse and a nun.
Janice came on. Janice extolled Jack's style. Janice mourned Jack's hair. Wayne laughed. Wayne Senior was bald. Janice Tedrow-touchй!
Room service called. They said we're sorry. We know your supper's late.
Wayne watched TV. Wayne goosed the sound. Wayne caught a press gig.
Newsmen lobbed questions. One cop went wild. Oswald was a "lethal loner!" Wayne saw Jack Ruby. He carried his dog. He passed out dick pens and French ticklers.
The cop calmed down. He said we'll move Oswald tomorrow-late morning looks good.
The phone rang. Wayne killed the sound.
He picked up. "Who's this?"
"It's Buddy Fritsch, and it took me all day to get a call in to you."
"Sorry, Lieutenant. Things are a bit crazy here."
"So I gathered. I also gathered that you had a run-in with Wendell Durfee, and you let him get away."
Wayne made fists. "Who told you?"
"The Border Patrol. They were checking on your fugitive warrant."
"Do you want to hear my version?"
"I don't want to hear excuses. I don't want to know why you're enjoying your luxury hotel suite when you should be out shaking the trees."
Wayne kicked a footrest. It hit the TV.
"Do you know how _big_ the border is? Do you know how many crossing posts there are?"
Fritsch coughed. "I know you're sitting on your keester waiting for callbacks that won't come if that nigger went to ground in Dallas, and for all I know you're living it up with that six thousand dollars the casino boys gave you, without doing the job that they paid you for."
Wayne kicked a rug. "I didn't ask for that money."
"No, you sure didn't. And you didn't refuse it, either, 'cause you're the type of boy who likes to have things both ways, so don't-"
"Lieutenant-"
"Don't interrupt me until you outrank me, and let me tell you this now. You can go either way in the Department. There's boys who say Wayne Junior's a white man, and there's boys who say he's a weak sister. Now, if you take care of this, you'll shut the mouths on those latter boys and make everyone _real_ proud of you."
His eyes teared up. "Lieutenant…"
"That's better. That's the Wayne Junior I like to hear."
Wayne wiped his eyes. "He's down at the border. All my instincts tell me that."
Fritsch laughed. "I think your instincts are telling you lots of things, so I'll tell you this. That file I gave you was Sheriff's, so you see if DPD has a file. That nigger's got to know some other niggers in Dallas, or my name isn't Byron B. Fritsch."
Wayne grabbed his holster. His blocked ear popped.
"I'll give it my best."
"_No_. You find him and kill him."
o o o
A door guard let him in. Some Shriners tagged along. The stairs were jammed. The halls were crammed. The lifts were sardine-packed.
People bumped. People chomped hot dogs. People spilled coffee and Cokes. The Shriners pushed through. They wore funny hats. They waved pens and autograph books.
Wayne followed them. They plowed camera guys. They pushed their way upstairs.
They made floor 3. They made the squadroom. It was _double_-packed.
Cops. Newsmen. Misdemeanants cuffed to chairs. Pinned-out ID: shields/stars/press cards.
Wayne pinned his badge on. The noise hurt. His blocked ear repopped. He looked around. He saw the squad bay. He saw cubicles and office doors.
Burglary/Bunco. Auto Theft/Forgery. Homicide/Arson/Theft.
He walked over. He tripped on a wino. A newsman laughed. The wino shook his cuff chain. The wino soliloquized.
Jackie needs the big _braciole_. Widows crave it. _Playboy_ magazine says so.
Wayne hit a side hall. Wayne read door plates. Wayne saw Maynard Moore. Moore missed him. Moore stood in a storeroom. Moore cranked a mimeo press.
Wayne ducked by. Wayne passed a break room. Wayne heard a TV blare. A cop watched a press-room feed-live from downstairs.
Wayne checked doorways. Jack Ruby brushed by-leeched to a _very_ big cat. He hung on him. He bugged him. He kvetched:
"Pete, Pete, _pleeease_."
Wayne veered by a fish tank. Fish howled within. A perv stuck his dick through the mesh. He stroked it. He wiggled it. He sang "Some Enchanted Evening."
Wayne doubled back. Wayne found the file room. A stand-up space with twelve drawers-two marked "KAs."
He shut the door. He popped the "A to L" drawer. He found a blue sheet:
Durfee, Wendell (NMI).
He skimmed it. He got repeat shit and one new KA:
Rochelle Marie Freelon-DOB 10/3/39. Two kids by Whipout Wendell. 8819 Harvey Street/Dallas.
Two file notes:
12/8/56: Rochelle harbors Wendell/the Sheriff wants him/he's got nine bench warrants due. 7/5/62: Rochelle violates her parole.