Spiral

he could be positive, too—it was fucking dangerous for her. But she wouldn’t stop, except when granddaddy was around.”
    ”Veronica didn’t vamp when Colonel Helides could see it?”
    ”Nah. She knew how to behave herself around the goose who laid the golden eggs. But everybody else? Open fucking season.”
    ”Everybody, meaning not just the members of the band.”
    ”You got it. Her mother drove her to granddaddy s house, Very’d sit behind the driver’s side so she could run her index finger down the cheek and throat of the gate guard.”
    ”Umberto Reyes.”
    ”Right, right. Delgis’s brother. But not just him, either. Mitch Eisen, Tranh, even that ‘Plan Nine from Outer Space’ David, though he’d just run away from her.”
    ”David Helides would run. Anybody else not run?”
    ”You mean, like, stick their fingers in the nookie jar?”
    ”Take advantage of Veronica’s attitude.”
    ”Not that I ever saw, man.” Lazar picked up his guitar again, reclipping the shoulder strap. ”I think granddaddy wouldn’t just cut off the money to somebody who did that, but cut off his balls as well. Or just have that Tranh do it while you’re sleeping sometime. The Chinaman may look okay, but myself, I think he’s scarier than David the Ghoul.”
    ”Vietnamese.”
    ”Huh?”
    ”Duy Tranh is Vietnamese, not Chinese.”
    The first chord on the guitar for a while. ”Whatever.”
    I shook my head.
    Lazar said, ”That it?”
    ”Not quite. Any reason you can think of why someone would want to kill Veronica Held?”
    ”Nada, man. For a whole bunch of other reasons.”
    ”Tell me.”
    Lazar let go of the guitar, which sagged down on its strap and then angled outward over his gut. ”One, she’s family to half the people at the party. Two, the rest of us get some edge, account of she asks granddaddy pretty-please to give the band money for this or that.” Lazar jerked his head up toward the ceiling. ”Spi may be writing crap, but it was crap that Very could put across, and she would have carried the rest of us burnouts with her. At least until some new flavor of the month got discovered by MTV or VH1.”
    Taking more Sprite, I thought about something else. ”You said Veronica didn’t turn on the floods for Colonel Helides.”
    ”Not the sex stuff, no.”
    ”Until his birthday party.”
    ”Hey, man. You don’t have to tell me. I was there.”
    I watched him a minute. ”Why would Veronica do that in front of her grandfather?”
    ”Beats me, unless it was the coke. All’s I can say is, she just about killed our fucking goose.”
    ”Meaning?”
    ”The old man looked like he was gonna have another stroke, maybe the big one. And Very pissed off our money supply before we could boogie without him.”
    ”So some people would have had a reason to kill her.”
    ”Some people were madder than shit at her, but we figured she could kiss and make up with her grandpa.”
    I watched Lazar a little longer. ”Last topic. Where were you after Veronica ran out of that living room?”
    ”At the party, you talking?”
    ”Yes.”
    Another shrug. ”I figured the old man would hit the roof, and he fucking started to, so I split.”
    ”You left the house?”
    ”Nah. Just figured to put a little distance between us, like help the guy forget he was paying for my room and board over here so he wouldn’t decide to cut us all off for what Very pulled on him with the lap-dance.”
    ”What kind of distance?”
    More stroking of the cheek scar. ”Just drifted around the place. It’s got kind of a flow-through pattern to it. Ended up with Delgis in the kitchen. At least for a little while.” The leer came back to Lazar’s voice and features. ”Though she might remember it as longer, the good time I was showing her in there.”
    I rose from the folding chair and ducked under the overhead mike. ”Thanks for your help, Gordo.”
    ”Hey, you’re welcome, man. And feel free, you want to tell any of the tour stories, especially that Minot one.”
    ”About the frogs.”
    ”Not frogs, man. Toads.” Gordo Lazar seemed indignant. ”Toads are particular. Frogs, they’ll fuck anybody.”

    ”Who’ll fuck anybody?”
    A man’s voice from the door to the studio, slight Southern accent. When I turned, I saw one of the others from the Skipper’s birthday video. Ricky Queen wore orange shorts and a green tank top, his body still young enough to be toned without having to work at it The left ear bore three rings