Spiral

through the cartilage, the right ear two, and the left nostril one. Queen’s hair sprouted from his head, the roots dark brown, the mid-growth platinum, the tips the same orange as his shorts. He had a wide smile, with a single gold tooth in the bottom front.
    Gordo Lazar said, ”This here is John Cuddy, Rick. He’s the man we got to talk to.” Lazar set down his guitar and started walking empty-handed toward the door. ”I’m still hungry, so you both can stay here, you want.”
    I said, ”Gordo?”
    He stopped. ”Yeah?”
    ”I’d feel a lot better about Delgis having made me lunch if you could carry our tray back to her.”
    Lazar seemed to weigh something, then walked over, picked up the tray, and let Queen open the door for him. As the door closed again, the drummer crossed his arms and leaned casually against the wall. ”That was pretty good you know?”
    ”What was?”
    The wide smile as he walked toward me. ”Don’t try to bullshit the kid, okay? I ask a cavebear like Gordo to do something domestic for a woman, he’d bite my head off. You ask it as a favor, man-to-man, and he does it.” Queen extended his hand. ”I’m too young to hire lawyers and stuff, dude, but I think I’m gonna have to be a little careful around you.”
    We shook hands, him holding on a bit longer than I would have. ”Mr. Queen.”
    He let go of my hand. ”I prefer ‘Ricky,’ but Gordo has some trouble with that.”
    ”Why?”
    Queen moved over to the drum set, ran his hand lightly along the paired cymbals. ”Makes him feel less like he’s working with a gay man in the group, he calls me by a more masculine name.” Queen turned toward me. ”Especially given my last one.”
    ”You were born with it?”
    ”I was. In a part of Alabama where they didn’t get the irony. But my family was proud of their name, and I couldn’t see changing it, especially with the crossover to Freddie Mercury in the band Queen.”
    I said, ”Mercury died not too long ago, right?”
    Queen looked at me differently. ”One of the many taken by the Epidemic.” A pause. ”I guess you aren’t always quite the diplomat, are you?”
    ”Because?”
    Queen didn’t reply right away, instead easing gracefully down onto the little stool in the middle of the drums. ”John, I’m guessing you have to know by now that Buford Biggs is a person with AIDS.”
    ”So he told me.”
    A nod. ”Well, somebody grows up gay in the South like me, he develops pretty good antennae, but I don’t feel any homophobic vibes right now. So, what are you trying to do, just get a rise out of me?”
    I sat back in my folding chair. ”What I’m try to do is find out who killed Veronica Held and why.”
    Queen smiled, but without the teeth. ”I don’t know the ‘who,’ dude, but I maybe can help with the ‘why.’”
    ”I’m listening.”
    ”After Very stomped out of the birthday party, it must’ve been almost an hour till Tranh’s yelling brought us all to the pool.”
    ”I heard you got there first.”
    The smile never wavered. ”I’m the youngest, John, and the fleetest of foot.” Queen ran a finger lightly along the rim of a drum this time. ”Ever since, though, I’ve been thinking about—what do you call it, motive?”
    ”Motive will do.”
    ”Very was a hot young thing.” He looked up. ”You meet Spi yet?”
    ”Yes.”
    ”Then with Buford and Gordo, you’ve seen everybody in the band. Tell me what you think of our lineup.”
    I thought back to Biggs praising Mitch Eisen’s ”casting.” I said, ”A little of this and a little of that.”
    The wide smile. ”Pretty good, dude. We had Spi as the bad-boy/lead-guitar, Gordo as the paunchy-raunchy bass player, Buford for lightning-keyboard/racial-mix, and me as the pretty boy, appeal to most of the young girls and some of the young boys. But we had Very for the rest of the demographics.”
    ”Explain that to me.”
    ”Remember when I came in the room just before, and Gordo was telling you about somebody fucking everybody?”
    ”Frogs.”
    The smile went crooked. ”What?”
    ”Never mind. Go on with what you were about to say.” Queen paused, then shook his head. ”Very, she was what everybody wanted to fuck ”
    ”I saw a video of her, but I just don’t get that.”
    ”Maybe you’re too virtuous, John.” Queen stopped smiling altogether. ”Okay, let me spell it out for you. Music today is all demographics, like I mentioned before. You got the reasons I just gave why