“No, it’s a nickname. It’s short for gonorrhea, which I’ve had for almost ten years. Really, really awful illness.” Mary pushed out the chair next to her. “Want to sit with me for a while there Killer?”
“Um, I don’t know….Gonnie.”
The annoying guy had moved around in front of Mary and now she couldn’t see the stage.
“I might take a rain check,” he said. “But are you going to stay for my set? It’s hot, I guarantee you that.”
“Sounds lovely,” Mary said. “But I actually have to go see my urologist for a pressure wash. You know, the thing they use to clean patio decks?”
Mary leaned over to the side to get a look at the stage, but the comedian moved with her.
“Well tell your friends about me…” Killer said.
Mary abruptly stood up and saw that Claudine had left the stage and the big guy was gone, too.
“Shit,” she said, then stood and pushed ‘Killer’ out of her way and hurried toward the stage. She immediately saw a short hallway to the office and dressing rooms, probably. There was also an exit door. She debated for just a moment. If the big guy had been following Miss Leather Pants around, he’d probably been barred from the dressing room. Mary hit the exit door and banged it open, then spilled out into an alley. The big guy was at the end, near a street.
“Hey!” she shouted.
The man turned, then immediately turned left and disappeared from view.
“Shit,” Mary said. And then she started running. If I can’t catch this guy, I’m going to hang it up once and for all, she thought.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
The big man could move, Mary had to admit. Maybe he was in good shape from chasing down taco trucks. By the time she had gotten to the mouth of the alley and turned left, she barely caught sight of his freak ass baseball cap turning left on the next block up. Mary decided to turn left immediately and cut across the front lawn of an insurance company. She took a peek down an alley as she passed it, but she didn’t see the big guy. However, she saw a pedestrian, an Asian woman with a Crate & Barrel shopping bag looking back over her shoulder as if she’d just seen the ghost of Shelley Winters skateboarding down the street.
By the time Mary hit the sidewalk and looked up toward the street ahead, Big Suit had hit the intersection and was turning right. He glanced over his shoulder and looked for her. Which was perfect, because by now she was right behind him and gaining.
He ran forward but Mary closed the gap quickly. Christ, I hope he doesn’t have a cardiac before I get some information out of him, she thought.
Mary’s breath started to come in gasps and she made a mental note to get back to her workouts.
Another block went by and she was within ten feet of him. He looked back over his shoulder and Mary saw his face, a pale mess covered with a thick sheen of sweat.
“Stop,” she yelled. But he lowered his head and bulled his way ahead. Mary unleashed a burst of speed and jumped onto his back and rode him to the ground.
The.45 was in her hand and she put it in his face.
“Hey Mr. Happy Feet, how you doing?” she said.
The fat man gasped for air and now Mary really did worry that he would go into cardiac arrest. She felt his sweat seep into her shirt and a shiver ran down her back.
“Don’t,” he said.
“Oh, sure,” she said. “Tell me what to do and I’ll follow your every command. Just like you did when I told you to stop,” Mary said through clenched teeth. This guy was a piece of work.
A couple walking down the sidewalk stopped at the sight of Mary holding a gun on the guy. The woman pulled a cell phone out of her purse. Mary didn’t need the police right now.
“Pedophile,” she said to them, nodding her head toward the big boy. “He would pretend to be a parade float to lure kids in. Trust me, he’s gonna have a lot of boyfriends in prison.”
The woman slid her cell phone back into her purse and the couple kept walking. Mary didn’t even have to whip out her p.i. badge. Still, she would have to keep this quick.
“Get up, Slim,” she said and pulled on the guy’s big arm. He heaved to his feet and Mary pulled him up against the wall. To the right was a picture window of a little art studio. A sculpture of a creature that seemed to be half dolphin and half woman looked down on them.
Mary stood slightly behind the big man, putting the.45 directly against his spine, just below his neck. To the casual passerby, it looked like she had her arm around him. A couple. Not the world’s most attractive couple, but a couple nonetheless.
“Brent Cooper,” Mary said. “Tell me what you know about his murder and I’ll buy you a box of Twinkies. Tell me everything, right away, and I’ll even throw in some Pop-Tarts.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Still heaving from the exertion, the big boy’s voice was high and girlish. Mary knew it would be.
Mary pressed the muzzle of the.45 harder against his spine, although she couldn’t actually find any vertebrae beneath the Serta mattress-type padding. But she did the best she could do.
“Nice try, Bones,” she said. “Are you a struggling actor? You do method, don’t you?”
“What?”
“Let me see your SAG card. Or don’t you have one yet? Because I have to tell you, that lie about not knowing anything, you didn’t pull it off very well. Do you need me to give you your motivation?”
The man breathed in ragged gasps as an answer.
“Listen Hambone,” Mary said. “Tell me what you know about Brent Cooper’s murder or you won’t make it to that big cardiac arrest you’re heading toward.”
“I don’t know who the hell you’re talking about.”
“The guy who got murdered behind the Leg Pull? The guy who ripped you to shreds in front of a whole bunch of people who can easily identify you? Ring any bells?”
The big man sighed, his breath had slowed and he mopped his face with a forearm. The dark material of his suit came away slick with sweat. “Oh, that. Well, we had some words and I left. That’s it. End of story.”
“You left? You didn’t wait for him outside? You didn’t cut him open because he’d ripped you to shreds?”
“No! I don’t like violence. I don’t fight. I run. Or try to.”
“But you’re fighting me now. Lying to me.”
“Listen, I didn’t do anything.”
“That’s not what people are saying at the Leg Pull. They’re saying you two had words and that…”
“Who’s saying that?”
“Everyone.”
He suddenly looked worried and Mary saw an opening so she went full bore right through it.
“They’ve told me. But they haven’t told the cops.”
“You’re not a cop?”
“You’re so perceptive. I love that.”
“What are you?”
“A concerned family member. And a strong believer in revenge. The cops are the least of your worries. I may just leave your brains all over Ocean Avenue. Sound good?”
His eyes flashed wildly around, panic behind them.
“Look at it this way, you can either tell me,” she said. “Or you’ve had your last In-N-Out burger.”
He let out a long breath that smelled like onion rings. It doesn’t matter how big they are, Mary thought. They all break, eventually.
“This guy said he was a friend of Brent Cooper’s,” the man said. “I’d never heard of this Cooper guy. I was there to see Claudine — did you see her? She’s great…” His eyes got all dreamy and Mary could see the beginning of another fantasy come into his brain.