Gumshoe Gorilla (41 page)

Linda and I had an awkward moment trying to get out of the bathroom: neither of us wanted to turn our back on the other. After a short staring contest, she left first. Walking out backward so that she could keep her eyes on me. I chalked it up as a symbolic victory.

Out in the living room, folks were gathering around the coffee table. Drew and Linda sitting in hardback chairs. Eddie standing in a corner. Charles on the couch next to Skye. I noticed that there was a good foot of empty space between the two of them. I pulled up the last chair, and our little meeting got started.

"Um... I've explained the situation to Skye," Charles said.

He glanced in her direction, trying to catch her eye, but she didn't respond.

"...and we've talked it over. It's kind of complicated, but... well, we were wondering if you and your associate would be willing to stay on the job, and help us out with our problem."

Drew studied him for a few seconds.

"If this is an attempt to buy our silence," Drew said, "you needn't bother. We take client confidentiality very seriously."

"No, it's nothing like that," Charles said. "It's just... well, Linda mentioned that she's worked with you before, and Skye says that you're pretty resourceful. And, to tell the truth, we haven't been making a lot of progress on our own. We could use some more help."

Drew rubbed his chin, as if thinking it over. He glanced at Linda, then at me, and raised an eyebrow. He was wondering if I could stand to work with a psycho like her. Silly boy. Charles was telling us that Linda couldn't hack it and needed our help. Did Drew really think that I'd miss an opportunity to rub her face in it? I scratched my ear in our symbol for
let's hear them out.

"My partner and I might consider it," Drew said slowly. "If we knew what the job entailed."

Over in the corner, Eddie turned away, and pretended to look out the window. Charles stared down at the coffee table, obviously uncomfortable. "Well," he said after a few seconds, "the meat of the matter is that Eddie is being blackmailed. He came to me for help a few weeks ago, and I hired Linda. You understand why we had to be so secretive about this, don't you? With the kind of fishbowl I live in, if anybody found out that I'd hired a detective, the press would know about it five minutes later, and..."

"...and the blackmailer would know about it five minutes after that," Drew said. "I understand your problem."

Well, I sure didn't. OK Charles, so you didn't want to tip off the blackmailer. Maybe that explains why you didn't tell your hairdresser or your trainer or your agent about all this. But the hell didn't you tell Skye? Did you really think that she'd betray you?

I looked at Skye. I couldn't see her eyes, what with her visor and all the words streaming by on it. But I could feel the energy coming off her. Anger, and confusion, and doubt. She was wondering why he would hide something like this from her. And she was about to have that epiphany that hits all women sooner or later. That moment when you realize that you've been in love with a mask and not a man. That you have only seen the part of him that he wanted you to see. That your lover has never trusted you with his real self, his real pain. I've been on that particular trip a few times myself. I can't say that I recommend it.

Men lie. It's one of the basic rules of the universe, like gravity and rising taxes. They lie, and then they say that it's to protect us. They lie, and put on masks, because they are scared little boys who think that they need to impress us. And because not a one of them can believe that we would love them if we actually knew them.

There was an awkward silence, as Charles worked up the nerve to go on with his explanation. I gave him ten seconds to blurt it out. When he didn't, I bit the bullet and dove in. Life's just too blessed short to waste sitting around waiting for people to get to the point.

"Excuse me," I said. "But did you actually say that Eddie is being
blackmailed
?"

"Yes," Charles mumbled, "I'm afraid that..."

I laughed. Everybody in the room looked at me like I was crazy, but at least it broke up that ugly feeling of dread that had descended over everything.

"You are kidding right?" I snorted.

"Uh... no. I'm quite serious."

I laughed again. OK, I was forcing it a little this time. But the statement was pretty absurd. And besides, somebody had to pull us out the negative energy spiral that the meeting had gone into.

"You think it's funny?" Charles asked.

"Well kind of," I said. "I mean, no offense to Eddie here, but we are talking about a guy with two convictions for drug possession, a guy who's appeared in porn videos... for Goddess sake, he's even done commercials for
cigarettes
! Just what could anybody possibly have on him that would threaten his reputation now?"

"It's not his reputation that we're trying to protect," Linda said, quietly. "It's his freedom."

Drew looked from Linda to Charles.

"Care to elaborate?"

Charles shrugged.

"It makes more sense just to show you."

Charles mumbled something into his watch. The drapes closed and the wall monitor came on.

We were looking at video of another hotel room. An expensive one from the look of it. White stucco walls with light blue furniture. It felt like the sort of place you might find near a beach. Everything in the room was a little distorted, and I realized that the video had been shot through a wide angle lens. Drew and I use them ourselves, when we set up surveillance cameras.

A woman in a black lace nightgown was lounging on the bed, watching CNN. Some story about Tibetan Cyber-terrorists hitting a Chinese owned bank. The woman looked to be in her mid-forties, with porcelain white skin, and hair a shade of red that Clairol holds the patent on.

There was a knock at the door, and she stood up in a hurry, rushing over to the mirror to check her hair and makeup. Then she switched off the TV and opened the door. Eddie was standing there, wearing jeans and a denim shirt. He looked at her, and then flashed a smile that almost melted my knees.

Woof. I'd almost forgotten how much heat these boys can pack when they turn on the charm.

"Glad to see me?" she asked.

He leaned in and gave her a kiss that seemed to answer the question. Then she led him into the room and closed the door.

I found myself looking back and forth, comparing the Eddie on the screen to the one standing in the corner, still pretending to stare out the window. The hair and the face were the same, but I couldn't get over the difference in the way they acted. Here in the room with me, he seemed shy and mortified. In the video though, he was a real little tiger. Confident. Cocky. And oozing sexual energy.

On screen, the woman and Eddie made some preliminary small talk. She nodded to the nightstand, where there was a stack of money. Eddie picked it up and stuffed it into the back pocket of his jeans without ever taking his eyes off her. As they moved towards the bed, she asked if he'd been able to get his hands on some Bliss.

"Oh yeah," he said, fishing a couple of tablets out of his pocket and handing them to her.

The woman put a leg up on the bed, and removed a hundred dollar bill that had been tucked into her garter. She held it up for Eddie to see, then slowly slid it into the front pocket of his jeans. Along with most of her hand.

Eddie's head rolled back and he let out a little gasp. With her free hand, the woman put one of the tablets on his tongue. He dry swallowed it like someone with a lot of practice.

"I've been wanting to try this," she said, putting the other tablet in her mouth. "They say it makes sex like..."

"Like the fucking Fourth of July," Eddie finished for her.

The woman took her hand out of his jeans, and began unbuttoning his shirt. Eddie flashed that killer smile again. He stepped in closer to her and...

...and Charles turned off the monitor.

I could have slugged him for it.

"It goes on for another hour, but that's the relevant part of it," Charles said. The color had drained out of his face, and he seemed embarrassed. As if we'd been watching him prostituting himself, not his brother.

Charles looked at Drew. Drew seemed confused. "

You see our problem?" Charles asked.

"Not really," Drew said. "I mean, Jen had a valid point with what she said earlier. This clip doesn't tell people anything about Eddie that they don't already suspect."

"Maybe not," Linda said. "But it does give them concrete proof of it. Among other things, Eddie is currently on probation for drug possession. If the court gets even a whiff that he's using Bliss, he goes in for the full sentence. And then there's the fact that he was actively selling the stuff in that clip, which brings in a whole new set of charges."

Drew shrugged it off.

"Yeah, but they would never get a conviction based on one clip. I mean, they don't have the tablets in their possession. They can't prove that what Eddie sold was bliss. All they have is an isolated video of someone asking him for Bliss and then him selling them a tablet. Once. OK, it doesn't look good, but it's just one clip, so..."

"It's not just one clip," Linda interrupted. "That's the problem."

Linda nodded to Charles, and he called up the next clip on the monitor.

Another expensive hotel room. This time decorated in Victorian style, with a canopy bed and hardwood furniture and gold leaf on the crown molding. Another woman, in another nightgown. This time she seemed to be in her fifties, with skin the color of caramel. Eddie at the door again, flashing that smile.

From there, it was a replay of the last scene. Small talk as they looked each other over. The woman asking Eddie if he'd brought some Bliss, then paying him for it. A slow kiss, as they fumbled with each other's clothing, then...

Cut to the next clip. Another hotel room, this time with industrial style furniture, all bright chrome and black surfaces. Another woman, this time a heavyset blond with a Russian accent.

Since I knew how the story went by now, I turned away from the monitor and watched everyone else's reactions. Drew studying the screen intently, his eyes darting about to take in all the details. Linda, also watching it, but with the slightly bored air of someone who'd already watched the clips a dozen times or so. Eddie, still pretending to look out the window, his face turning a deep crimson. Skye, her body stiff, her face unreadable behind the visor. And Charles...

I found myself staring at Charles. He kept glancing back and forth between Skye's face and the scene on the monitor. Trying to guess what she was thinking as she watched someone with his face selling drugs and sexual services. Now I knew the real reason why he hadn't told Skye about any of this. That was him up there on the monitor. Or at least, almost him. He didn't want Skye to start wondering if he and Eddie were really all that different. He didn't want her to look at his face, and think about this.

The last clip, featuring a short Asian woman, ended. The monitor switched off.

Drew ran a hand through his hair.

"I don't suppose you're gonna tell me that these were all faked," he asked.

Charles glanced at Eddie.

"Unfortunately, no."

"Then you have got a problem. One clip, a lawyer could probably explain away. Get an expert to find some minor inconsistency in the video and claim that the whole thing was fabricated. Maybe he could convince a jury. But four clips, with no evidence of tampering..."

"It gets worse," Linda said. "This would be Eddie's third conviction for possession. California has some rather nasty minimum sentencing requirements that kick in. And you don't even want to know how much time he would do for dealing."

"I'm not a dealer!" Eddie said, turning away from the window.

I'd been wondering when he was going to join the conversation.

"I was just... I'd seen these women a couple of times. They said that they wanted to try Bliss, and asked if I could bring some the next time. I was just doing them a favor."

"Yeah," I muttered, "just like helping little old ladies across the street."

"How was the video delivered?" Drew asked.

"By e-mail," Linda said. "It came along with a set of demands, on March 20th. Eddie told Charles about it on the 28th, and Charles brought me into the picture on April second. I've been working this thing every since."

"Do you have any idea who's behind it?" Drew asked.

"No," Linda admitted. "Every lead I run down hits a brick wall. The e-mail was sent from an anonymous account with a server in Hong Kong. No way to backtrack it, short of invading China. I've gone over each of the video clips with a fine-tooth comb, looking for any clue that might have accidentally wound up in the shot. Again, zilch. I've even tried putting together a list of Eddie's enemies."

"Any likely candidates?"

"Not really. There's a guy he owes money to. A couple of angry ex-girlfriends. The husbands of those angry ex-girlfriends. None of them the type to pull off something this elaborate. To tell the truth, I was hoping that you two were working for the blackmailer. You know, keeping an eye on Eddie to make sure he hadn't gone to the cops. At least then I would have a lead I could work with."