The nearest I could come was a little white Maltese. It had a pink bow in the hair on top of its head. It was prancing along at the end of a leash, stopping at every tree and bush. Such a cute little thing. But not half as cute as its masters.
They were a matching set, slim and pushing forty, with hair as short as Marines. One had a mustache and one didn"t. They both wore tan walking shorts with cuffs turned up. And sandals. One wore a fishnet shirt. You could see his hairy chest through its netting. The other didn"t wear any shirt at all. He had a pierced nipple with a gold ring in it.
Of course, I didn"t see all this from the car. At first glance, all I noticed was the little Maltese being walked by a couple of fruits. I didn"t get a good close look at them till after I"d driven around the block, parked and got out and met them on the sidewalk.
I squatted down and intercepted the dog.
He liked me. He wagged his tail and licked my hands. "Oh, he"s such a little cutie," I said. I smiled up at the boys. "What"s his name?"
The one with the shirt answered, "Henry Wadsworth Long-fellow the Third."
"Well, h.e.l.lo, Henry, h.e.l.lo." I rubbed him under the chin.
They both watched me. They looked wary.
I picked up the dog and cradled him against my bosom and kept on petting him. "My name"s Simone," I told the boys.
Ring-in-the-t.i.t folded his arms across his chest, made muscles and c.o.c.ked an eyebrow at me. "Isn"t it a trifle early for Halloween, guy?"
"Are you looking for tricks or for treats?" the other one asked me. Then he smiled at his friend. "What do you think?"
"Most a.s.suredly straight."
"Straight but definitely warped. More than slightly askew."
"A cop?" asked Ring t.i.t.
"Oh, don"t I wish. I adore cops. He"s not one."
"No, I"m sure you"re right. He doesn"t have the eyes. Cops have such marvelous eyes. So cynical, and yet amused."
"You boys are funny," I said.
Ring t.i.t lowered his arms but kept his muscles bunched. "Put Henry down now," he told me. "We"ve got to be on our way."
"We don"t want any trouble," said Net Shirt.
"Me neither. I"ll pay you for Henry," I said. Holding the dog against me with one hand, I reached into my purse.
"He"s not for sale."
"You"re giving him to me? Why, thank you so much!"
Ring t.i.t reached behind his back. His hand came forward with something in it that turned out to be a flick knife. The skinny blade snapped out and locked.
"There"s no need for that," I said, and looked around. n.o.body was nearby.
"Put down Henry right this instant," Ring t.i.t warned.
Out came my Colt. I jammed it at his chest and pulled the trigger. Man, you should"ve heard that gun go off. A huge BOOM, and down he went. He hit the sidewalk flat on his back and skidded. His pal in the net shirt had time to look shocked and let go of Henry"s leash before I put a slug in his chest. He flopped on the sidewalk, too.
They were stretched out next to each other, and Net Shirt had enough oomph left in him to take hold of his buddy"s hand. How very touching.
I shoved the pistol into my purse and bent down and helped myself to Ring t.i.t"s ring. It wasn"t so much that I wanted the ring. It was just something I wanted to do, you know? I slipped my finger through the hoop and pulled. You should"ve seen how it stretched out his nipple before the flesh split open and let it go.
People gotta be careful what they go around and pierce.
This was my first pierced nipple, but I"ve ripped rings out of lots of earlobes, a few out of nostrils, and even an eyebrow once. Can you believe someone piercing her eyebrow? h.e.l.l, can you believe a guy piercing his nipple? I"d sure like to find myself a gal with a ring in her nipple. Or a t.w.a.t ring. I"ve seen stuff like that in pictures, but not in real life. Not yet.
Gives me something to look forward to.
Anyway, I stuck the ring on one of my fingers and ran for the car. I could hear some people yelling.
Needless to say, I didn"t get caught.
Something was wrong with the pooch, though. I knew he was limp even before I got to the car and tossed him onto the pa.s.senger seat. While I sped away, I worried he might be dead. Like maybe his ticker had quit on him.
But pretty soon he came to.
The d.a.m.n thing must"ve fainted when I plugged the pretty boys.
I"ve never heard of a dog fainting. It happens, though. You can take my word for it.
I was a couple of blocks away from the scene of the shooting before Henry came to. A minute after that, a cop car raced by with its siren blaring and lights flashing. The two cops in the front seat didn"t even glance at me.
It"s easy to get away with murder.
I"m telling you, it"s easy.
All you"ve gotta do is leave before the cops show up. And only kill strangers. And try not to leave incriminating evidence behind, like a driver"s license. One, two, three. Rules to kill by.
I know, I know, I"m oversimplifying.
But you know what? Most of the high-tech forensic s.h.i.t that scares everyone to death (my former friend Tom included) is of d.a.m.n near no use at all unless the cops have a suspect to match things up with. Which means they"ve gotta know who you are in the first place.
Follow my three rules, and you"ll be home free.
Anyway, the dog was okay and the cops weren"t on my tail, so I went on and headed for Jody"s house over on Castleview. That"s about a twenty-minute drive from Hollywood.
Chapter Twenty-eight.
It was on a quiet street full of one-story stucco houses that had probably been built in the twenties or thirties. They were kept up, though. This looked like a nice, middle-cla.s.s neighborhood. Not half as nice as the section where I"d grown up, but not bad.
It was three or four miles from Avalon Heights. Jody must"ve gone to school with shish-ka-sister, and that"s how she knew her and ended up at the house Friday night. Just like I went to school with Tom and spent so much time at his mansion, even though we lived pretty far away from each other.
That"s one of those things about L.A. You don"t make friends with your neighbors. If you"ve got friends, they live five or ten-or maybe thirty-mites away. Which isn"t so bad if you"re a grownup with a car. When you"re a kid, though, it means you spend a lot of time by yourself.
Where was I, anyway?
Oh.
Okay, I was driving past Jody"s house. I did it without slowing down.
In fact, I couldn"t even be sure which house was hers. I caught an address on the block before I got there, then again on the block afterward. So I could tell that I"d gone past it.
I hadn"t slowed down to look for the exact address because I didn"t want to appear suspicious. What I did look for was evidence of cops.
Cars were parked on both sides of the street and in some of the driveways. None of them looked much like a cop car. You never can be too sure, though.
I turned onto a sidestreet and parked at a curb in front of a dark house. Then Henry and I took a walk.
Henry was such a character! He pranced along, all dainty and chipper at the end of his leash, just as if he didn"t have a care in the world. But each time he hoisted his hind leg by a bush or tree, he stared over his shoulder at me. He never peed, just raised his leg and gave me a dirty look before prancing off again.
With all the stops he made, I had plenty of time to check around.
I checked inside most of the cars parked on our side of the street to make sure they weren"t occupied. Also, I watched out for vans or service trucks that cops might be using to stake out Jody"s house.
The area looked safe.
Jody"s house was in the middle of the block. Its porch light was on, but its windows were dark. No cars at all were parked in its driveway or at the curb directly in front. n.o.body seemed to be peering out any of the windows.
If the place was under surveillance, though, I was being watched whether I knew it or not.
So I tripped and fell. Henry had to scoot, or I would"ve mashed him. Unfortunately, I went down harder than I"d planned. I"d wanted it to look good, but I hadn"t wanted to crash my d.a.m.n knee against the sidewalk. It hurt like a son-of-a-b.i.t.c.h, and I let go of the leash.
You know how it feels to bang your knee? It hurts. It"s almost as bad as catching a shot to the nuts. Well, maybe that"s going overboard. But it"s sure no picnic.
So I rolled onto my back and grabbed my knee with both hands.
Even with all my pain, there was a part of me that was glad I"d taken such a bad fall. It was bound to do the trick. If cops were watching, they would"ve seen this gorgeous blond babe strolling along the sidewalk with her cute little dog. Maybe just when they were starting to worry about her-it being after midnight, after all, and no place in L.A. is safe for anyone, much less a sweetie like me, all alone late at night-just when they were starting to worry along those lines, they would"ve seen me stumble and nail my knee. Then would come a delicious view of my bare legs and panties while I"m squirming on my back.
Cops are all a bunch of h.o.r.n.y b.a.s.t.a.r.ds.
They also think they"re G.o.d"s gift to the safety of mankind.
I"m a beautiful babe and in need of help. In other words, for any normal cops, I"m irresistible.
They"d have been on me like Boy Scouts on a blind cheer-leader stumbling across a freeway.
But n.o.body came to my a.s.sistance.
While I was still on my back, Henry came sniffing up to my face. It seemed very sweet of him. I was touched. I thought to myself, This dog is all right.
Then the f.u.c.ker bit my cheek and ran like h.e.l.l, his little leash dragging behind him.
I"ll kill him if I ever get my hands on him. I"ll gouge out his eyes and chop off his little feet and skin him alive and barbecue him and eat him.
I would"ve shot him on the spot, but that would"ve been stupid. By then, I was pretty sure no cops were watching me. But firing off my Colt would"ve blown any chance of getting my hands on Jody.
Anyway, my face was bleeding!
The f.u.c.king little f.a.ggot dog broke my skin, would you believe it?
Blood was getting all over me.
I sat up and held on to my cheek and had a real strong urge just to limp on back to my car and drive to the motel and forget about Jody. Call it a night, you know? Maybe hit the road tomorrow for parts unknown, the h.e.l.l with Jody, the h.e.l.l with Lisa, the h.e.l.l with Tom and the guys.
It"s hard to care about much of anything when you"ve just bashed your knee and gotten bit in the face. All you want to do is quit. Quit and go home.
I no sooner made it to my feet, though, than I suddenly realized the dog had given me exactly what I needed-an excuse to go to Jody"s door!
I"d thought for sure that a cop or two would come running out when they saw me fall, and I"d take it from there-either talk my way into the house or shoot them down, then run in and s.n.a.t.c.h Jody. Maybe use her family car for our getaway.
But no cops had shown up.
Which meant none had seen me fall or get bitten.
Which meant Jody and her family weren"t being guarded at all.
Which meant all I had to do was go through the door.
Who could resist opening the door to a woman with blood all over her?
n.o.body, that"s who.
And n.o.body is just who opened the door.
I stood under the porch light for about five minutes, ringing the doorbell. I could hear it ringing inside, so it wasn"t broken. But n.o.body came.
Were they just heavy sleepers, or were they in there listening and lying low?
Maybe n.o.body was home. They might"ve decided to split after Dusty"s m.u.f.fed try at sniping the girl. It"d be a natural reaction: somebody takes pot shots at you, you go someplace where maybe they can"t find you.
Anyway, I didn"t know. But I wasn"t about to leave.
There were gla.s.s panels on both sides of the door. All I had to do was bash one, reach inside and unfasten the locks. I didn"t do it, though. I didn"t want there to be busted gla.s.s right out in front where anyone could see it.
So I went around to the back of the house. It had a nice concrete patio with lounges and a barbecue. On my way to the door, I had to step over some dark gobs. No telling what they were. There wasn"t enough light to see much. I didn"t see the broken gla.s.s, so I ended up walking through it. I crunched some pieces and kicked others, making them skitter and clink across the concrete. Made a real racket. A dog started barking, but it was far away and it sounded too big to be Henry.
Walking through the mess, I realized somebody must"ve dropped plates or something back here. The dark gobs were probably food.
Then I came to the screen door. It was just an aluminum frame without any screening in it.