Winter Moon

azaleas laden with clusters of red flowers, and impatients in pinks and purples. There was no gnme, no litter. The portico covering the pumps was supported by brick columns, and the whole station had a quaint colonial appearance.
        In any age, the station would have seemed misplaced in Los Angeles.
        Freshly painted and clean, it was doubly out of place in the grunge that had been spreading like a malignancy through the city during the nineties.
        "Come on, come look, look," Arkadian said, and headed toward the south end of the building.
        "Poor guy's gonna blow out an artery in the brain over this," Luther said.
        "Somebody should tell him it's not fashionable to give a damn these days," Jack said.
        A low and menacing rumble of thunder rolled through the distended sky.
        Looking at the dark clouds, Luther said, "Weatherman predicted it wouldn't rain today."
        "Maybe it wasn't thunder. Maybe somebody finally blew up city hall."
        "You think? Well, if the place was full of politicians," Luther said,
        "we should take the rest of the day off, find a bar, do some celebrating."
        "Come on, officers," Arkadian called to them. He had reached the south corner of the building, near where they had parked their patrol car.
        "Look at this, I want you to see this, I want you to see my bathrooms."
        "His bathrooms?" Luther said.
        Jack laughed. "Hell, you got anything better to do?"."A lot safer than chasing bad guys," Luther said, following Arkadian.
        Jack glanced at the Lexus again. Nice machine. Zero to sixty in how many seconds? Eight? Seven? Must handle like a dream.
        The driver had gotten out of the car and was standing beside it. Jack noticed little about the guy, only that he was wearing a loose-fitting, double-breasted Armani suit.
        The Lexus, on the other hand, had wire wheels and chrome guards around the wheel wells. Reflections of storm clouds moved slowly across its windshield and made mysterious smoky patterns in the depths of its jewel-green finish.
        Sighing, Jack followed Luther past the two open bays of the repair garage. The first stall was empty, but a gray BMW was on the hydraulic lift in the second space. A young Asian man in mechanic's coveralls was at work on the car. Tools and supplies were neatly racked along the walls, floor to ceiling, and the two bays looked cleaner than the average kitchen in a fourstar restaurant.
        At the corner of the building stood a pair of softdrink vending machines. They purred and clinked as if formulating and bottling the beverages within their own guts.
        Around the corner were the men's and women's rest rooms, where Arkadian had opened both doors. "Take a look, go ahead-I want you to see my bathrooms."
        Both small rooms had white ceramic-tile floors and walls, white commodes, white swing-top waste cans, white sinks, gleaming chrome fixtures, and large mirrors above the sinks.
        "Spotless," Arkadian said, talking fast, running his sentences together in his quiet anger. "No streaks on the mirrors, no stains in the sinks, we check them after every customer uses them, disinfect them every day, you could eat off those floors and it would be as safe as eating off the plates from your own mother's kitchen."
        Looking at Jack over Arkadian's head, Luther smiled and said, "I think I'll have a steak and baked potato. What about you?"
        "Just a salad," Jack said. "I'm trying to lose a few pounds."
        Even if he had been listening to them, Mr. Arkadian couldn't have been joked out of his bleak mood. He jangled a ring of keys.
        "I keep them locked, give the keys only to customers. City inspector stops around, he tells me a new rule says these are public facilities, so you've got to let them open for the public, whether they buy anything at your place or not."
        He jangled the keys again, harder, more angrily, then harder still.
        Neither Jack nor Luther tried to comment above the strident ring and raffle.."Let them fine me. I'll pay the fine. When these are unlocked, the drunks and junkie bums who live in alleys and parks, they use my bathrooms, urinate on the floor, vomit in the sinks. You wouldn't believe the mess they make, disgusting, things I'd be embarrassed to talk about."
        Arkadian was actually blushing at the thought of what he could have told them.
        He waved the