The Night Crew

'That's what you get,' she said, primly. She dumped the spent shells.

'How much longer are you going to do this?'

'I'm done,' she said. 'I could use a beer.'

As they walked back to the house, he said, 'I don't want to seem impolite, you know, but hanging around you for the last couple of days.'

'Yeah?'

'A

'I think we can fix that,' she said. And she looked around, at the hillside, the house, the perfect blue sky. 'And it's such a nice day for it.'

And they did fix it, and more than once; but the second time they made love, as Harper began to lose himself in her. A

And she thought again, Go

Chapter 19

Harper was driving down the narrow canyon road, through the night, occasional snapshots of the L.A. lights ahead of them. He was not happy with the trip: he wanted to spend the evening at his house, but A

'BJ's: that was the only time Jason and MacAllister were hooked into me, so the guy must've been at the party.'

'No,' Harper said, shaking his head. 'You don't know how many times they told that story.'

'What's the point of telling it if nobody sees the woman? It's no big deal being in a three-way anymore, you can get one for fifty bucks down on the strip.'

'Really?' he pretended to perk up.

She ignored it: '. so I figure what happened is, I show up at the party, ask around for him, he's a little unhappy when I blow him offhe was really a mess, but he thought he could still do it, he needed the moneyand so he starts spreading the story with his pal. Whoever it is saw me, and heard the story. Had to be.'

'Doesn't have to be.'

She sighed: 'Okay. Not technically: but that's all I've got, and I'm going with it.'

The party box was ru

The hulk was a redneck, a southern kid with a layer of hard fat in his face and under his Eat More SpamT-shirt. He nodded vaguely at A

Harper smiled a cop smile at him and said, 'I'm proud of you.'

'Have you got a warrant?'

Harper opened his mouth, but A

The hulk was doubtful: 'So what's he want? He don't fit here.'

'He's taking care of me,' A

A spark of interest lit in the hulk's eyes: 'I heard they're dead.'

'That's right. Now the guy who killed them is coming after me. We're trying to find out who it is.'

The hulk's forehead wrinkled as he thought about it, and then he said, 'You know who'd know? Trip what's-his-face. He hung with the guy. hang on one second.'

He stepped out of sight again, and a moment later was back: 'Come on,' he said.

Harper looked at A

The party room was actually four rooms: a bar area, a large tiled dance room, and two smaller rooms at the sides, with rickety plastic lawn tables and chairs. All four rooms stank of tobacco smoke, and an edge of something sharper: crack, A

The population dressed in black, both male and female. Harper, with his blue shirt and sport coat, looked like he'd just arrived from Iowa. The hulk led them to the second room, spotted a thin man in a black mock turtle, with oval gold-rimmed glasses, and held up a finger. The man tipped his head and the hulk led them over.

'This is a TV lady, used to work with Jason O'Brien.'

'A

'Jake Harper,' Harper said, and stuck out his hand. The man took it, warily, but Jake shook cheerfully and said, 'Is it Trip?'

'Yes, Trip.' He had a drawl, a very faint cultured hint of New Orleans. 'I heard about Jason and Sean. Not the details.'

'You don't seem surprised,' A

'From time to time,' Trip said, with faint amusement.

A

Trip pursed his lips, then said, 'Well, I suppose ninety percent of the people here are in film, one way or another. Writers or actors or directors, or trying to be. And you're actually doing some media, so. I don't know; maybe several people knew you, or of you.'

A

'Let me think.' Trip turned slightly away and closed his eyes, and then waited; and after a few seconds, opened them and turned slightly back to her and said, 'Were you? In a three-way?'

'No.'

Trip let his eyes drift to Harper: 'Too bad; they're kinda fun.'

'I keep telling her,' Harper said. 'I even got the other woman.'

'Shut up,' A

'MacAllister did some work in porno: acting work. Jason might've taken the pictures, I don't knowbut both were friends with the guy who produces them. Dick Harnett, Bu

'That's it?'

'Actually, no. You know who else used to hang with them? China Lake.'

'Who?'

'China Lake, the actress. She played a junkie girl on "90210" one week. She was up here with them a couple of times.'

'Bu

'Probably practising for her role as a junkie girl,' Trip drawled, letting the New Orleans out again. 'Look downstairs in the ladies' restroom. Dark-haired girl, shaved around the ears.'

The women's restroom was a sewer, four metal booths on an uneven concrete floor, everything a little damp, the stink of urine and vomit in the air: China was alone, staring at herself in a cracked mirror, her eyes underlined with gray rings of exhaustion, her shoulders not much more than bare bone. A

'China?'

She turned her head and looked first at A

'My name is A

'I heard he was dead, and Sean,' she said. She turned back to the mirror. 'You got anything good on you?' Without waiting for an answer, to Harper, 'Are you a cop?'

'No.' He shook his head: 'We're looking for whoever killed Jason; they're coming after A

'Really? You got anything good on you?'

A

'That's everybody I know,' China said. 'Except.'

'What?'

'Most of them are ski