Spiral

some old rock fens—and blacks, whatever—might not channel-surf past a video station, they saw us on it. But Very was the... the wild card, like. She appealed to everybody else.” Queen leaned forward on his stool. ”You got your junior high boys, want to get into her pants. You got your senior high boys, want the same with a younger chick they figure will look up to them. You got your junior high girls, want to look like somebody the senior high boys want to get into the pants of. You got your pedophiles, want to drool over any little scorcher. Finally, you got your thirty-something daddies, married to their beastoid breeders but fantasizing about what it’d be like to bang the baby-sitter.”
    ”I can’t argue with you, Ricky. I just don’t see it.”
    ”Sure you do, John. It’s like with some men, they feel those homosexual urges, but they can’t come out of the closet. Doesn’t mean they don’t take a peek around the door, though.”
    I wondered if that was payback for my question about Freddie Mercury earlier. ”So, you think Veronica was killed because of her sexuality?”
    ”Because of what she was showing, and maybe because she wasn’t sharing.”
    A prostitute from a prior case once said something like that to me. ”So you don’t think Veronica was sexually active.”
    ”I’m probably the one guy at that party who wasn’t in a position to care.” Queen looked at me. ”Very was a pain in the ass, dude. A prima donna who knew she was the center of some people’s universe. Her daddy’s, on account of the band’s comeback. Her granddaddy’s, on account of after his stroke, I don’t think he had much else going for him. Kalil…”
    Queen stopped.
    ”Go on,” I said.
    He shook his head. ”Very wasn’t growing up normal. I mean, your father’s a washed-up rocker and your mom’s ‘guided’ by a ‘spiritual advisor,’ you probably can’t be normal anyway.”
    ”Wait a minute. Jeanette Held was seeing Malinda Dujong before Veronica’s death?”
    Queen looked surprised. ”Yeah, dude. For, I don’t know, long as I’ve been around here.”
    I filed that. ”You were saying about Veronica and a normal childhood?”
    ”I know what it’s like, not having exactly what folks back home would call a ‘normal’ one myself, and I felt kind of sorry for her, some ways.”
    ”Like what, Ricky?”
    Queen blew out a breath. ”Like the way she got cut off from the kids she used to go to school with. Very had to take, like, tutoring for the state to buy her not going to regular classes anymore.”
    ”Tutoring by Duy Tranh.”
    ”Yeah, dude. And her uncle some, too.”
    ”Her uncle David?”
    ”A sick puppy, but the guy’s supposed to know computers inside and out. Flowers, too, I think.”
    ”Any trouble with either one of them?”
    ”You mean, like Very telling me stories?”
    ”Yes”
    ”Not that she ever said.”
    ”Did you tutor her at all?”
    ”No,” a little quickly, then Queen backpedaled. ”More like... counseling, maybe?”
    ”How do you mean?”
    ”Well, Very knew I was gay, so maybe she figured I was safe enough to ask. Or that I’d just know more about them, given the Epidemic and all.”
    ”Knew more about what, Ricky?”
    ”Condoms.”
    ”Veronica asked you about using condoms?”
    ”Which ones were the best.” Queen grew serious. ”Look, John. Put yourself in her position for a minute. Very had her world—at least the heterosexual part of it—by the balls, and she knew it. But Very also sensed she had to, like, stay above it, she wanted to keep her leverage over the others.”
    Mitch Eisen’s term. ”Veronica could advertise sex, but not engage in it?”
    ”Kind of. Plus, even though she was a hellion, Very was still just thirteen, and somewhere inside her, she was understandably scared of it.”
    ”Of sex, now?”
    ”That’s my take, anyway.”
    ”Ricky, she ever ask you about drugs?”
    ”The cocaine the cops found inside her?”
    I paused. ”The Medical Examiner and the lab, actually.”
    ”Ugh. Not a pretty picture, dude.”
    ”Well, did she?”
    ”Ask me about drugs? No, but then, she had her father’s generation as the experts there.”
    I turned over what Queen had told me. ”When did Veronica ask you about condoms?”
    No smile at all now. ”About a week before somebody killed her.”
    ”Who?”
    Queen spread his hands, the helpless gesture. ”Like I said, John, I don’t know. Very appealed to a real wide