White Jazz Part 54

Light bulb: Richie "Peeper" Herrick--Chino inmate/bugging know-how. Fred Turentine, drunk driver--Chino teaching gigs.

"Freddy, when were you teaching that electronics cla.s.s up at Chino?"

"Early '57 up till I got bored and hung up my probation maybe six months ago. Why? What's that got to do with--"

"Did a kid named Richie Herrick take the cla.s.s?"

Light bulb--dim--juicer Freddy. "Riiiight, Richie Herrick. He escaped, and some psycho chopped his family."

"So, did he take your cla.s.s?"

"Sure did. I remember him, because he was a shy kid and he played these jazz records while the cla.s.s worked on their projects."

"And?"

"And that's it. There was this other white guy that he palled with, and he took the cla.s.s with Herrick. He stuck close to him, but I don't think it was a queer thing."

"Do you remember his name?"

"Nooo, I can't place it."

"Description?"

"s.h.i.+t, I don't know. Just your average white-trash inmate with a duck's-a.s.s haircut. I don't even remember what he was in for."

Something?/nothing?--tough call. Chino files missing-- "Dave, what's this all ab--"

Pete: "Leave Klein alone, you're getting paid for this."

Band 7: Tommy mobile--Chinatown.

Lucille mobile--Chinatown near Chavez Ravine.

I doused the volume and grabbed a chair. Chick edged his chair back.

In his face: "DUDLEY SMITH."

"Davey, please"--raspy dry.

"He's behind all the trouble in n.i.g.g.e.rtown, and he just sent Mike Breuning out to die. Spill on him, and I'll cut you loose and give you some money."

"Suppose I don't?"

"Then I'll kill you."

"Davey . . ."

Pete signaled me: feed him liquor.

"Davey . . . Davey. . . please."

I handed him Freddy's gla.s.s.

"You guys don't know Dudley. You don't know the kind of stuff he'd do to me."

Bonded sour mash--three fingers. "Drink it, you'll feel better."

"Davey . . ."

"_Drink_."

Chick guzzled it down. Grab the gla.s.s, refill it, watch him swill.

Instant booze panache: "So what kind of money are you talking about? I've got expensive tastes, you know."

"Twenty grand"--pure bulls.h.i.+t.

"That plays lowball to me."

Pete said, "Talk to Klein or _I'll_ f.u.c.king kill you."

"Okay, okay, okay"--refill gestures.

I filled the gla.s.s. "Chick, _give_."

"Okay okay okay"--sipping slow.

I propped the tape rig up by his chair and hit Record.

"_Dudley_, Chick. The furs, Duhamel, the Kafesjians, the whole takeover story."

"I guess I know most of it. Feature Dudley likes to talk, 'cause he figures everybody's too scared of him to tattle."

"_Get to it_."

Booze-brave: "I say Domenico 'Chick' Vecchio knows when to talk and when to shut up. I say f.u.c.k 'em all except six, and save them for the pallbearers."

Pete said, "Will you _please_ f.u.c.king give?"

"Okay okay, feature Dudley, he was the boss at Robbery Division. Exley, he had this hard-on for him, because he made Dud for lots of stuff over the years--"

"Like the Nite Owl job?"

"Yeah, like the Nite Owl. Anyway, Dudley always took the most interesting robbery cases for himself, 'cause that's just the way he is. So Exley shot the Hurwitz Fur case to Robbery, and Dud grabbed it, and he got some leads that he later on figured out were planted by Exley, and those f.u.c.king leads led him to his very own so-called protege, Johnny Duhamel."

Freddy and Pete nos.h.i.+ng spareribs--rapt.

"Keep going."

"Okay, now Dudley, he'd recruited Schoolboy Johnny for the Mobster Squad. You know how he drools for tough boys, and when Johnny was in the LAPD Academy he showed some meanness that Dud really liked. So he stayed mean on the Mobster Squad, and now Dudley sees that he's a f.u.c.king bada.s.s heist guy, which, being Dudley, pleases him no f.u.c.king end. So, Dud called Johnny on the heist, and Johnny admitted it, but he refused to snitch his partners, which also impressed Dud. So, feature, Dudley gave Johnny a skate on the fur job and confided some of his own crime gigs to him, which meant that so far Exley's trap was working."

Tape hiss. Chick, snitching nice and loose now: "So feature that Dudley bagged Johnny's furs and stored them at a storage locker joint. A couple got out, 'cause Dudley told Johnny to get next to Lucille Kafesjian when Exley a.s.signed you and that punk Stemmons to that burglary job. Johnny, he got a little lightweight b.o.n.e.r for Lucille and gave her one."

"Dudley told Johnny to become intimate with Lucille?"

"Yeah, sort of like a safeguard if you started leaning on the Kafesjians too hard."

"Then what?"

"Then that G.o.dd.a.m.n Stemmons blundered in. He was Johnny's teacher at the Academy, and Johnny made him for a closet fruit back then. So Junior, he saw this striptease that Lucille did with this mink Johnny gave her, I think he was working Bido Lito's on the burglary job. Johnny was there, and him and Junior talked, which resparked this f.u.c.king f.a.ggot torch Stemmons had for Johnny."

"So at first Junior came on like a pal."

"Right, and feature that all that Mobster Squad strongarm stuff wasn't really Johnny's style, it was just this role Exley had him playing. Anyway, Johnny, he was stretched pretty thin and feeling pretty bad about it, and he told Stemmons about how brutal the work was, and Junior started figuring out that somebody was running him undercover. Johnny never flatout snitched Dudley to him, but he told him about these 'auditions' Dudley was doing without naming no names."

"What 'auditions'?"

"Dud was bringing these out-of-town guys in. He needed them to work the Southside coin, and he _wanted_ the Feds to see them. Dud said later that Johnny figured out the guys were going to get clipped when Mickey went public with his Fed witness bit."

Haverford Wash--four dead. "But Johnny didn't confide _that_ to Junior."

"Right."

"And the coin men were just pigeons set up to get clipped later?"

"Right."

"What about the 'auditions' themselves?"

"Dudley told the out-of-town guys they had to earn the right to work for him. He said that meant enduring pain. He paid them money to let Johnny hurt them while he watched and talked this philosophical s.h.i.+t to them. d.i.c.k Carlisle said Dud broke their spirits and made them G.o.dd.a.m.n slaves."

Pete said, "Holy s.h.i.+t."

Freddy said, "I don't believe this."

"Who clipped the slot guys?"

"Carlisle and Breuning. You want to hear a nice Dudley touch? He had them soak their buckshot in rat poison, then repack the sh.e.l.ls."

"Get back to Johnny."

Chick stretched--his cuff chain rattled. "Dud had Johnny monitoring the slot guys--you know, watching them service the machines. He was doing that one night or something, and d.i.c.k Carlisle saw Junior come up to him and start talking this nutso rebop. Carlisle got this feeling that Johnny might be a plant, so he told Dudley, and Dud had Carlisle and Breuning keep this loose tail on him. Now, I don't know who killed Stemmons--probably Tommy or J.C. Kafesj ian--but around the time Carlisle got hinky, J.C. told Dudley that Stemmons was acting crazy, shaking down pushers, shaking down him and Tommy and telling them he could monkey-wrench your burglary investigation. So, this nutty f.a.ggot Junior, he's talking up his own n.i.g.g.e.rtown takeover stuff, and in my opinion Dud would have clipped him himself, if he hadn't of OD'd or got snuffed by the Kafesjians."

"Then what?"

"Then Dud got a tip that Johnny called you to set up a meet--_and I didn't tell him_. So now he _knew_ Johnny was a f.u.c.king traitor or decoy or something."

The meet: Chick knew. Bob Gallaudet knew.

"Then what?"

"So Johnny told you to meet him at that pad in Lynwood. Dud used to own it years ago, so I guess Johnny just wanted to meet you someplace close to the bungalow where.. . you know."

Change-up: "Phillip Herrick."

"Who's that?"

"He was murdered in Hanc.o.c.k Park last week. Dudley co-owned 4980 Spindrift with him."

"So?"

Easy call: no Herrick knowledge.

"So Johnny told me to meet him there, and your little movie set was close by. What do you figure he wanted to show me?"

"Maybe the s.m.u.t-movie setup."

"Maybe, but you told me Sid Frizell wasn't connected to any of Dudley's plans."

"He's not, but Dud _loves_ stag stuff, and when he got tight with Mickey, Mickey told him about this bats.h.i.+t horror movie he was bankrolling and how Sid Frizell wanted to shoot s.m.u.t films, but he couldn't find a spot. Dud told Mickey to tell Frizell to use one of the rooms in that court, so down the line Sid did, but feature I know for a fact that he doesn't even know Dudley."

SOMETHING--some CONNECTION--knifing me.

"Does Dudley own those bungalows?"

"Feature yes he does, through dummy partners. Feature he owns about twenty other abandoned dives, just bought dirt f.u.c.king cheap off the Lynwood City Council."

"And?"

Leering at me ugly drunk: "And feature Dudley Liam Smith does not get his rocks off on girls, boys or Airedale terriers. Feature he likes to watch. Feature the mirror walls in that flop where you rousted me and feature he's got a s.h.i.+tload of other flops just like it. Feature he's got this idea to film these on-the-sly s.m.u.t movies where the f.u.c.kers and f.u.c.kees don't even know they're being watched. Feature he's got bids in with the Bureau of Land and Way to house the spics evicted from Chavez Ravine in those pads and that dump on Spindrift. Feature Dudley's going to film all these taco benders f.u.c.king and sell the movies to geeks like himself who dig all that voyeuristic horses.h.i.+t."

Rumors: Sid Frizell shooting LYNWOOD stag films.

LYNWOOD spic relocation maybe looming.

That SOMETHING--click: _Atomic Vampire_.

Movie gore: incest/eye poking/blinding.

Kafesjian 459-dogs blinded.

Herrick 187--three victims eye socket blasted.

Ski Frizell--ex-con type.

Non-Dudley-connected--Chick convinced me.

Non-click: SOMETHING missing.