The Narrows

was Tawny probably. I don't really remember."
    "Because it happened all the time."
    "Yeah."
    "But he hasn't been around in, what, a month?"
    "Yeah. Maybe more. Is that enough of a lead? I mean, what do you want?" She was looking at the second hundred in my hand.
    'Two things. You know Tom's last name?"
    "No."
    "Okay, how does somebody get a hold of him if they need a ride?"
    "Call him, I guess."
    "Can you get me the number?"
    "Just go over to the sports bar, that's where we call him. I don't know the number offhand. It's up there next to the phone in front."
    "The sports bar, okay."
    I didn't give her the money.
    "One last thing."
    "You keep saying that."
    "I know but I mean it this time."
    I showed her the six-pack of photos Rachel had brought of the missing men. These were better and much clearer than the photos that had run with the newspaper article. These were full-color candids given to Vegas Metro by their families and then turned over as a courtesy to the FBI.
    "Any of these guys your customers?"
    "Look, mister, we don't talk about customers. We're very discreet and don't give out that kind of information."
    "They're dead, Tammy. It doesn't matter."
    Her eyes widened and then lowered to the photos in my hand. These she took and she looked through them tike they made up a hand of cards. I could tell by the way her eyes flared that she'd been dealt an ace.
    "What?"
    "Well, this one guy looks like a guy that was here. He was with Mecca, I think. You could ask her." I heard a horn honk twice. I knew it was from my car. Rachel was getting impatient.
    "Go get Mecca and bring her back here. I'll give you the rest of the money then. Tell her I've got some money for her, too. Don't tell her what I want. Tell her I just want two girls at once."
    "All right, but that's it. You pay me."
    "I will."
    She left the room and I sat on the bed looking around while I waited. The walls were paneled with fake cherry wood. There was one window with a frilly curtain. I leaned across the bed and pulled the curtain open. The view was of nothing but barren desert. The bed and the trailer might as well be sitting on the moon.
    The door opened and I turned back, ready to give Tammy the rest of her money and to dive into my pocket for Mecca 's share. But there weren't two women in the doorway. There were two men. They were big-one larger than the other-and their arms below their black T-shirts were completely carved up with jailhouse ink. On the bigger man's bulging biceps was a skull with a halo above it and that told me who they were.
    "What's up, Doc?" said the bigger one.
    "You must be Tawny," I said.
    Without a word he reached down and grabbed two fistfuls of my jacket. He pulled me up off the bed and tossed me out into the hallway to the waiting arms of his partner. The new one shoved me down the hallway in the opposite direction I had come into the trailer from. I realized that the horn honk from Rachel had been a warning, not a sign of impatience. I was wishing I had read that right when Big and Little Steroid shoved me through a back door and onto the rocky terrain of the desert.
    I went down to my hands and knees and was gathering myself and getting up when one of them put his boot on my hip and shoved me down again. I tried to get up again and this time they let me.
    "I said, what's up, Doc? You got business here?"
    "I was just asking questions and I was willing to pay for the answers. I didn't think that was a problem."
    "Well, pal, that is a problem."
    They were advancing on me, the big man first. He was so big I couldn't even see his little brother behind him. I was taking a step backward for every one they took forward. And I had a bad feeling that that was what they wanted. They were backing me toward something, maybe a hole in the ground out there in the sand and rock.
    "Who are you, boy?"
    "I'm a private detective from L.A. I'm just looking for a missing man, that's all."
    "Yeah, well, people who come here don't want to be looked for."
    "I understand that now. I'll just clear out of here and you won't-"
    "Excuse me."
    We all stopped. It was Rachel's voice. The bigger man turned back toward the trailer and his shoulder lowered a few inches. I could see Rachel coming out the back door of the trailer. Her hands were at her sides.
    "What's this, you bring your mother?" Big Steroid said.
    "Something like that."
    While he was looking at Rachel I clasped my hands together and swung a sledgehammer into the back of his neck. He