I keep thinking about that horrible man with a child, Alice said. He deserves to die.
She didn’t want Tripp Donovan dead, and she might not have wanted Klerke dead either if he’d stuck to girls who were seventeen or sixteen, maybe even fifteen. She would have wanted him to pay a price, yes, but not the ultimate one. Only Klerke didn’t stick to those. Klerke had wanted to see what it was like.
Billy sits with his hands on his knees and growing numb at the fingertips, his breath frosting the air with each exhale. He thinks of a girl not much older than Shanice Ackerman brought to that little house in Tijuana. He thinks of her holding a stuffed animal for comfort, probably a teddy bear instead of a pink flamingo. He thinks of her hearing heavy footsteps coming down the hall. He doesn’t want to think about those things, but he does. Maybe he needs to. And maybe this haunted room with its haunted picture on the wall helps him do it.
He takes out his wallet and finds the slip of paper he wrote Giorgio’s phone number on. He makes the call knowing the chances of actually reaching the man are small. He may be in the gym of his fat farm prison, or in the pool, or dead of a heart attack. But Giorgio answers on the second ring.
‘Hello?’
‘Hello, Mr New York Agent. It’s Dave Lockridge. Guess what? I finished my book.’
‘Billy, Jesus Christ! You might not believe this but I’m glad you’re alive.’
Damned if he doesn’t sound younger, Billy thinks. And stronger, too.
‘I’m also glad I’m alive,’ Billy says.
‘I didn’t want to screw you over that way. You have to believe that. But I—’
‘You had to make a choice and you made it,’ Billy says. ‘Did I like being fucked over by someone I trusted? Do I now? No. But I told Nick it was water under the bridge and I meant it. Only you owe me something and I’m hoping you’re man enough to pay up. I need some information.’
There’s a brief pause. Then, ‘My phone’s secure. How about yours?’
‘It’s okay.’
‘I’ll trust you on that. We’re talking about Klerke, right?’
‘Yes. Do you know where he is?’
‘He doesn’t come to Vegas anymore, so it’ll be either Los Angeles or New York. I could find out. He’s not hard to keep track of.’
‘Do you know who supplies him with girls in LA and NYC?’
‘I used to do it with Judy before I retired.’ He says it with no discomfort that Billy can detect.
‘Judy Blatner? Nick says she doesn’t touch jailbait.’
‘She doesn’t. Nothing under eighteen. And that used to be good enough for Klerke. Then he wanted younger. He’d call. Say he wanted dumplings. That was the code word.’
Dumplings, Billy thinks. Jesus.
‘Judy knows guys that are willing to find girls like that. Sometimes I’d deal with Klerke. Sometimes she would do it herself.’
‘Does Judy also know guys in Tijuana?’
Giorgio lowers his voice even though his phone is secure. ‘You’re thinking of the little girl. That didn’t have anything to do with Judy, or Nick, or me. That was something the cartel arranged. At Klerke’s request.’
‘Let me be sure I have it straight. If he’s in LA and got the itch for a dumpling, he’d call you or Judy and one of you would put him in touch with someone there. Except what we’re really talking about is a pimp.’ Billy hunts for the phrase he wants. It goes with dumplings, which isn’t surprising. ‘A chicken-rancher.’
‘Right. And if he’s on the east coast at his place in Montauk Point, he’d get the guy from New York. How many dates Klerke’s arranged since I left I don’t know.’
Dates, Billy thinks. ‘He actually gets concierge service?’
‘You could call it that. It’s what he pays for. Much money changes hands, Billy.’
Now comes the big question. ‘Does Judy ever call him? Like if she’s heard about someone who’d be in his sweet spot?’
‘It happens from time to time, sure. More often now that he’s reached an age when getting his noodle to stand up is a little more difficult.’
‘If you called Judy and said you had a girl he’d like, someone really special, would she pass it on?’
There’s silence while Giorgio thinks it over. Then he says, ‘She would. She’d smell a rat – her nose is what you’d call exquisite – but she’d do it. She hates that guy because of what he did in TJ and if she thought someone was trying to fuck him up, maybe even arrange a hit on him, she’d shout hooray. I feel about the same.’