Act of God

everything.”
    “Indulge me, Hack.”
    “Why should I? You gonna beat me up?”
    “Maybe we could just wake your dad, have him talk it over with you.”
    “He’s not—” Ling caught his voice rising, lowered it. “He’s my stepfather.”
    “Where’s your mother?”
    “Out buying him more booze so when he wakes up, he’ll drink some more and go back to sleep.”
    I took a breath. “I’m sorry.”
    Ling seemed to soften a little. “You don’t see it much in us. Drunks, I mean. Not a very ‘Chinese’ vice, you know?”
    “About that night.”
    “What night?”
    “When Teagle was killed. You guys had a gig, right?” Ling got more tired than soft. “Right.” He took another sip.
    “And Rush didn’t show.”
    “Right. But we didn’t like know he was dead.”
    “When’s the last time you saw him?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “You don’t remember the last time you saw your friend?”
    “No, man, I don’t.”
    “How many friends you have get killed?”
    Almost a smile, the kid’s face angelic. “Like Rush, just two. First was this crackhead, he smoked a pipe with the wrong dude. The other took a little speed one night, thought the Mass Pike was the Daytona 500, and crossed the median doing about a hundred and five.”
    I just looked at him.
    Ling said, “The rest of us, we’re just like waiting our turn.”
    “You ever figure Teagle’d be next?”
    “Never can tell.”
    “He ever talk with you about anything besides music?”
    “Sure. Rush, he never stopped talking, said it was important for his lyrics.”
    “His lyrics.”
    “Yeah, like he had to keep hearing the words out loud, not just in his head, make sure they sounded good together.”
    “What did you talk about?”
    “What difference does it make?”
    “It might help find who killed him.”
    A longer drink. “So what?”
    “You don’t care who killed your friend?”
    “Man, if it’s not the drugs, it’ll be the air or the water or microwaves or cellular phones. We’re all gonna die from this planet, you know?”
    “What if it was connected to the band?”
    “It wasn’t.”
    “How do you know?”
    “Rush said ..
    Ling bit on his lower lip, a pouting angel now.
    I said, “What did Rush say?”
    “Aw, man, he just said that the boss guy at his woman’s store got killed that way, so I like don’t see how him getting it is connected with us, all right?”
    “ ‘His woman’ meaning Darbra Proft.”
    “Yeah. She was old, but thought she wasn’t, you know?”
    “Tell me.”
    “Aw, she’d come to our gigs, like the one where you saw us?” Ling warmed to his subject. “Only she’d dress up like she thought she should, not real grunge, but kind of... Pseudo grunge, you know?”
    “Like she thought she was copying you, but didn’t really know how?”
    “Yeah. Yeah, like that.” Ling seemed to remember who he was talking to and dropped the warmth. “Only she was just another groupie lay, and kind of old for it.”
    “Teagle brag about that?” H
    “Rush, he liked to brag about a lot of things, man. That was Rush, what you need in a lead.”
    “Confidence?”
    “Flash and sizzle, dude. The stud on the come. The audience feels that, they’re with you, rocking. They don’t, you might as well be the Beatles.”
    Who didn’t fare too badly for themselves. “What else did Rush brag about?” :9S
    “Fuck, all kinds of shit. The time he was on tour opening for this group just got a major record deal, the convertible he got with the money from that, the other money he—” Dead stop. I said, “What money is that?”
    More Gatorade. “I don’t know, man.”
    “Hack, what money are we talking about now?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “Hack.”
    “Look, dude, I can’t tell you what I don’t know.”
    “How about telling me what you do know?”
    “Aw, Rush, he was bragging about what he was gonna do with this money he was getting.”
    “For what?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “How much was it supposed to be?”
    “I like just don’t know, man.”
    “Well, what was he bragging he’d do with it?”
    “Get a new guitar, upgrade some of our rack—the amps, that kind of thing.”
    “For the band, you mean.”
    “Yeah.”
    “So how much would all that cost?”
    “Depends.”
    “On what?”
    “Whether it’s new or used, what quality. The usual.”
    “Give me a ballpark.”
    “Couple, three thousand, maybe.”
    “You guys have anything planned that would bring in that kind of