36

(Las Vegas, 9/14/68)

How suite it is.

His killer pals lived in hotel suites. Freddy O. had the Cavern. The Frogman had new Fontainebleau digs. Wayne Tedrow had this spread at the Stardust. Dwight Holly crashed in suites nationwide.

Crutch waited for Wayne T. His suite featured four rooms and a chemistry lab. His killer pals had college degrees. He got expelled from high school. He snapped that pic of Gail Miller’s bush and blitzed his shot at a higher education.

Crutch waited. The foyer was velvet-flocked and gilt-mirrored. Caustic fumes wafted from the next room. The Vegas paper sat on a table. Wayne made the headline, secondhand.

The LVPD hung a posthumous beef on a shine named Pappy Dawkins. Said beef: the Wayne Senior snuff. “Heart attack”-bullshit. It was a sop to appease the family.

His killer pals made headlines. His killer pals rigged headlines. The inside rumor: Wayne offed his old man.

Crutch leaned against the wall. The flocking made him sneeze. Wayne and Froggy let him live. Yeah, he bluffed them. Yeah, he built the fail-safes. But, he had to spill.

He’d spilled partial. He spilled that Dr. Fred Hiltz hired him. Go, kid- goose Farlan Brown and Count Dracula. It’s a thieving girlfriend gig. They grokked that part of it and believed him. He did not spill on Gretchen Farr as Celia Reyes or on Joan Rosen Klein. He did not reveal the foreign passports or Sam G.’s calls to Gretchen/Celia or the dead woman in Horror House.

Wayne opened the door and walked past him. No nod, fuck you, you’re this bug I don’t see. Crutch chased his shadow. A stink announced the chem lab. It was all vats and beakers on shelves.

Crutch hovered in the doorway. Wayne pressed a beaker up to his hairline. It was a Shit, I’ve got a headache thing.

“You wanted in. Okay, you’re in. If you do what Mesplede and I tell you to do, you may survive. If you lie to us or steal from us or double-deal us or withhold information from us, we will kill you and bluff our way out of the jeopardy that you placed us in.”

Crutch gulped. His Adam’s apple popped. He stretched out his tie. Let those little 2’s show.

“I’ve killed two men. I’m committed to the Cuban Freedom Cause.”

Wayne gave him This Look. “The ‘Cuban Freedom Cause’ is right-wing bullshit. Mesplede is a deluded firebrand, I am not, and I would advise you not to become one. If indeed you did kill two men, it was out of your kid desire to suck up to Mesplede or your fear that he would kill you if you disobeyed him. Don’t jerk my chain with your kid bullshit. Don’t give me a reason to kill you.”

Crutch said, “Okay.” He smirked like Scotty B. He willed his voice octaves deep.

Wayne said, “You work with Mesplede. Your job is to disrupt Hubert Humphrey’s campaign rallies, for three hundred dollars a week. Humphrey’s travel schedule is coming, so you talk to Clyde Duber, get a left-wing front list and find some politically motivated fools to help you out. You do not indulge your extracurricular kid activities on my time card. Do you understand me?”

Powder fumes swirled. The lab felt toxic. Crutch wiped his nose. Wayne laughed at him.

“I talked to Farlan Brown this morning. He’s willing to forgive you for any kid shit you might have pulled while you were working for Fred Hiltz. He told me to tell you that Gretchen Farr took him for $25,000, and you can keep half if you find her and make restitution. He told me that at one point he bribed an alcoholic chum of yours off the case with an anonymous payment, because he feared unfavorable publicity, but now that you’re working for me, you might as well stick with it, on a contingency basis.”

Crutch grinned. Wayne revived This Look. Crutch un-grinned quick.

Wayne swallowed three aspirin. “Brown told me to forward this information to you. He said he got suspicious of Gretchen once and went through her closet. He saw an airline stewardess’ uniform, with no airline designation and a name tag with the first name Janet. That’s all he told me, and now I’ll tell you. Do what you want with this, on your own time. Do not neglect your duties for me, and tell Dr. Fred and Clyde Duber that you’re withdrawing from this idiot ‘case’ as of now.”

Crutch held off a sneeze. Wayne said, “Get out of here. Common sense keeps telling me to kill you.”

“Work F.B.’s stewardess lead.”

“Giancana bootleg #-???”

“To date: no viable police paperwork on GF. Can’t ask Scotty B. about JRK’s (‘51 amp; ‘53) armed-robbery arrsts (no #s to indicate convictions) without alerting Clyde. Likewise, can’t request JRK Fed file. Per GF/CR: check nationwide birth recs or assume foreign parentage?”

“GF/CR amp; victim: check local PD Intelligence, Vice amp; missing person files while on campaign trip.”

Crutch drew on his wall graph. His head bounced-L.A. to Vegas and back in four hours. His nose still itched. Wayne dismissed him with “Good-bye, Dipshit.”

He needed more graph paper. He needed more file boxes. He might need a third file pad. Wayne warned him: do not withhold information. His case was high-risk now.

Crutch scanned the graph. Words swam. Through lines and clue nuggets cohered. He studied Joan’s mug shots. He pulled a floor lamp up and made her gray streaks glow.

Brainstorm.

He got out his sketch pad. He drew a facial likeness of Gretchen Farr/Celia Reyes. He added an airline stew’s outfit with the Janet name tag.

The Yellow Pages-there by the phone.

Airlines. Compile a list. Canvassing duty on tap.

Something was fucked. It was Beverly Hills, it was 2:00 p.m., it vibed major grief,

A bottleneck in Fat City. BHPD black amp; whites peeling out, lights and sirens. Two K-cars, two meat wagons, two news vans.

Crutch followed the cop cars. They peeled up through the biz district and hit the rare-air zone. The grief vibe intensified: more K-cars, choppers, cops with leashed bloodhounds. He cut west on Elevado. Traffic was dead-stalled. He saw a big bluesuit swarm outside Hate House.

He ditched his car and ran there. He dodged stalled cars and cut across front lawns. He sprinted down the neighbor’s driveway and monkey-climbed the fence. The bluesuit swarm expanded. There’s the statues and the bomb shelter and Dr. Fred. He’s on a blood-soaked gurney. He’s got shotgun pellets and scorched bone for a face.

The bluesuits saw him. He recognized some guys. Someone yelled, “Crutchfield, go to the station!”

Clyde was there. Ditto Phil Irwin. Ditto Phil and Clyde’s Jew lawyer, Chick Weiss.

The Detective Bureau hall was packed. BHPD murders ran one per decade. It was a roundup. The fuzz were hauling in Dr. Fred’s KAs.

Clyde said, “It’s just routine. They saw my name, Phil’s name and Crutch’s name in Dr. Fred’s appointment book.”

Chick said, “It’s got to be one of his ex-wives. He was married seven times. I did all his divorces. He was the biggest alimony defaulter on the planet.”

Phil said, “Live by the sword, die by the sword. I think it’s black militants. He wrote all these anti-coon tracts, so the coons waxed his hate-monger ass.”

Crutch flashed on Gretchen/Celia. Crutch flashed on Joan. Crutch flashed on the cash-stuffed clothes bin.

Clyde said, “Nix on the militants, but it plays like a shine caper. I talked to the watch commander. He thinks it’s that boogie heist team that robbed those people in Brentwood.”

Chick said, “I’m a boogie art connoisseur. I dig Caribbean statuary. That doesn’t mean I dig boogie 211 PC’s.”

Phil said, “Live by the sword, die by the sword.”