"He's white. He has a gun."
"That narrows it down."
"He has a tattoo of a woman on his chest — it's bleeding. He looks out a window and sees a motorcycle and a black car. That's all I know."
"Do you have any water on the mountain where your body is?"
"No. There's a little snow."
"I will help you," Coyote said. "Go now."
Suddenly Pokey was back in his body, sitting on the mountain. In his lap he found a package of dry Kool-Aid that had not been there before. He looked down at it and smiled, then fell forward into the dirt.
In the shower of the YWCA a naked aerobics instructor screamed and ran into the locker room when the loofah she was using turned into a raven. The bird circled the locker room twice and nipped her on the bottom with its beak before flying down the hall, into the lobby, and out an open skylight.
Across town, Calliope took the empty salad bowl from Sam and set it on the dresser next to a statue of Buddha. "More?" she asked.
"No, I'm full," Sam whispered. Grubb had fallen asleep in his crib and Sam didn't want to risk waking him. "Calliope," he said, "is this guy dangerous?"
"Lonnie? No. He thinks he's tough because he's in a biker club, but I don't think he's dangerous. His friends are a little scary, though. They take a lot of PCP and it makes them spiritually dense."
"I hate that," Sam said, proud because he was spiritually dense without the aid of drugs.
"I'm going to take the dishes out and check on J. Nigel. Why don't you light some candles? I don't think we should turn on the stereo, though. It might irritate Lonnie."
"We wouldn't want that," Sam said.
Outside, a raven landed on the hood of Sam's car. Lonnie Ray saw it from his window. "Shit on it. Shit on it," he said, but as he watched the raven seemed to disappear. Lonnie slammed the closet door until the doorframe splintered.
Coyote was a mosquito making his way through the air vents of the Mercedes. He flew out of the defroster vent and settled on the driver's seat, where he became a man. Sam's Rolodex was on the passenger seat next to his pack of cigarettes. Coyote lit a cigarette and flipped through the Rolodex until he found the card he was looking for. He removed it and tucked it into the waist of his buckskins.
Lonnie Ray was rattling through the kitchen cabinets, looking for liquor, when he heard the pounding at his front door. On his way through the living room he snatched the Python off the easy chair and shoved it in his jeans at the small of his back. He threw open the door and was nearly knocked down by the Indian who brushed him aside on the way into the room.
The Indian looked around the room and wheeled on Lonnie Ray. "Where is he? Where's the bastard hiding?"
Lonnie Ray recovered his balance and dropped his right hand to the grip of the Colt. "Who the fuck are you?"
"Don't worry about it. Where's the guy that drives that Mercedes?"
In spite of his own anger, Lonnie Ray was intrigued. "What do you want him for?"
"That's my business, but if he owes you money, you'd better get it back before I find him."
"You going to kill him?" Lonnie asked.
"If he's lucky," the Indian said.
"You got a gun?"
"I don't need a gun. Now where is he?"
"Chill, man, I might be able to help you out."
"I don't have time for this," the Indian said. "I'll just catch him at his house."
"You know where he lives?" Lonnie Ray asked. This was like a gift from heaven. He could send the Indian up to Calliope's to do the dirty work: no risk, no prison. If it didn't work, he and the boys could surprise the guy at his house tomorrow, no witnesses. Lonnie Ray hadn't really relished the idea of having to shoot Calliope, anyway.
"Yeah, I know where the bastard lives," the Indian said. "But he ain't there. He's somewhere around here."
"You give me his address, I'll tell you where he is."
"Fuck that," the Indian said, shoving Lonnie against the wall. "You'll tell me now."
Lonnie brought the barrel of the Python up under the Indian's chin. "I don't think so."
The Indian froze. "It's on a card in my pants."
Lonnie Ray held out his free hand. "Don't ever tell someone you don't have a gun, dipshit."
The Indian lifted his buckskin shirt, pulled a card from his waistband, and handed it to Lonnie Ray, who glanced at it and spun the Indian around by one shoulder, pointing him out the door.
Lonnie ground the barrel of the Python into the Indian's spine, stood on his toes, and whispered threateningly into the Indian's ear. "You didn't come here and you didn't see me. You understand?"
The Indian nodded.
"He's upstairs," Lonnie whispered. "Now go!" He shoved the Indian out the door. "And never, never fuck with a brother of the Guild." Lonnie closed the door. "Fucking A," he said with a giggle.
Upstairs, Calliope said, "Tell me what you know, Sam."
"About what?"
"About anything." She sat down next to him on the bed and brushed his hair back with her fingers. "Tell me what you know."
The silence that followed would have been awkward except Calliope seemed to expect it. She stroked his hair while he tried to think of what to say. He sorted through facts and figures and histories and strategies. Clever retorts, meaningless jokes, sophistries and non sequiturs rose in his mind and fell unspoken. She rubbed his neck and found a knot in the muscle that she worked her fingertips into.
"That feels good," Sam said.
"That's what you know?"
A smile rose to Sam's lips. "Yes," he said.
"What do you want?" she asked.
He shot her a sideways glance and saw the candlelight gleaming in her eyes. She was serious, waiting for an answer. "Is this a test?"
"No. What do you want?"
"Why don't you ask me what I do for a living? Where I live? Where I'm from? How old I am? You don't even know my last name."
"Would that stuff tell me who you are?"
Sam turned to face her and took her hand from his neck. He still had a niggling mistrust of her and he wanted to let it go. "The truth now — Calliope, are you part of something he cooked up? Some trick?"
"No. Who's he?"
"Never mind." Sam turned away from her again, stared at a candle flame on the dresser, and tried to think. She really didn't know about Coyote. What now?
"Well, what do you want?" she asked again.
He snapped, "Dammit, I don't know."
She didn't recoil or seem hurt, but began rubbing his neck again. "You came here because you wanted me, didn't you?"
"No. Yes, I guess I did." It wasn't bad enough that she had to keep telling the truth; now she was expecting it back, and he was out of practice.
"We've had sex. Do you want to go now?"
Christ, she was like some gorgeous New Age district attorney. "No, I…"
"Do you want a bowl of chocolate marshmallow ice cream?"
"That would be great!" Sam said. Off the hook, no further questions, Your Honor.
"See, it's not that hard to figure out what you want." She got up and left the room, heading for the kitchen again.
Sam sat back and waited, realizing that it had been some time since a door had slammed downstairs. Suddenly he was very uncomfortable with the silence. When he heard footfalls on the stairs outside he leapt to his feet and ran to the kitchen.
CHAPTER 17
A White Picket Fence Around Chaos
Santa Barbara
Sam hit the kitchen just as Yiffer stepped through the screenless section of the screen door.
"Cool! Ice cream!" Yiffer said, staggering to Calliope's side at the counter.
"Keep it down, Yiffer. I just got Grubb and J. Nigel down." Calliope picked up two full bowls of ice cream and nodded to the carton on the counter. "You can have the rest."