Part 20 (1/2)
Magenta pursed his lips and blew a kiss ”Love to, darling”
”I think he recognized me,” I said e'd pulled away
”He won't tell” Labeck turned into the narrow alleyway behind his building, which was built up against the Oriental's back wall ”I keep his secrets, he keeps mine”
Boney babes?
Labeck parked the Volks between two du very hard, you'd never see it there Expecting Jong and Custer to burst out with switchblades and flarabbed , and rocketed up the stairs Labeck clu the locker loot He retrieved a key from the top of the doorframe
”Handy for burglars,” I co to wordlessly convey the fact that he'd trusted me with his apartment key, a key now in the possession of two very nasty professional killers or possibly incinerated along with the brewery
I set otten over his Labeck issues and ar rose further when he opened his refrigerator and scrounged er patty I hoped there was so in there for o
Labeck took ed me toward his bathroom ”First we play doctor”
I sat on the toilet while he sat on the bathtub rinore the sexual frisson set up by the body contact Labeck had large, coently washed the wound, took a tube of antiseptic salve out of his medicine cabinet, uncapped it, and looked atto be a baby about the antiseptic this ti close to the surface He began spreading the strong-serly over azed at Labeck instead His head was bent, exposing the back of his neck There was soly little boy about his nape, with its small stray curls; it made him seem vulnerable I could understand the appeal of vaainst his nape, just there
He looked up at thata question There was definitely che
No! Nein, non, nyet, ixnay, not bonding! No hanky-panky!
”This cut is really deep,” he said, turning his attention back to et it That's my Girdle of Venus”
”I would have put your Girdle of Venus a bit lower, but then, I didn't go to med school”
”I learned the parts of the hand in a book on pal to uess, but I'd bet you didn't ood pal his left hand in mine, I peered at it ”H with mustard for lunch” I turned his hand over Wide calloused pal Heart line that swooped upward toward the Jupiter finger, indicating a passionate nature Stay the heck away from that one
”What else?” he pro life and have fifteen children”
”Not what I wanted to hear Is there anything in there about who's going to win the Stanley Cup this year?”
”Yes, but the palmist doesn't work for free” I shoved his hand back
He pressed a wad of gauze over the gash in my palauze down ”That's the best I can do for now,” he said ”Take two aspirin and stay away frohtly touched the singed ends of my hair and ran his hand down ot to breathe If this hat his hands could do with oing to make a fool out of , or fricasseeing me I stood up quickly, which was a mistake, because I suddenly felt dizzy
Labeck steadied irl”
”Nothing wrong with girly-girl I like girly-girl” He kept his hands on ainst hi that the front of his jeans, the part that contained his Tower of Eros, see some seisht looking down, and foundat Labeck's mouth Why hadn't I noticed before what full lips he had? They were a little chapped, the lips of a guy as outdoors a lot, but they looked as though they would be veryniceto
He sazed intoto kiss h an awful lot in the past twenty-four hours and I deserved a reward, damn it! One little closed- his head, Labeck lowered his mouth toward
”What's this?” He touched the angry red blotch on the side of uisher forhair ”This looks serious, Mazie I think it's a second-degree burn-”
”It's nothing! It doesn't hurt, it's no worse than a bad sunburn A little aloe vera and it'll be as good as new,” I babbled ”And another short of that Bushmills stuff wouldn't hurt”
Labeck shook his head ”You're a walking disaster, Mazie Maybe I ought to kidnap a doctor and force hiunpoint”
”Don't be ridiculous!”
”Then I guess it's going to have to be rand-mere's famous burn remedy,” he said ”We'll need the kitchen”
The kissable moment had passed, and I wasn't sure whether I felt disappointed or relieved Labeck pried ice out of his freezer trays, tossed the cubes into a large bowl, added water, and stirred the stuff until it was the consistency of a soda fountain drink He dipped a towel into the icy water and ordered ainst my face
”Better?” he asked after a enius”
Then we both turned our attention to Luis Ruiz's backpack Labeck set it on the table, took out the 7-Eleven bag, unsnapped the rubber band that held it closed, and reached into the bag My heart was beating ridiculously fast A blackened banana peel would be inside the bag, I told enerations of fruit flies were about to burst out
No fruit flies Photos Instaerly, as though ere crime scene technicians, we studied thehtly blurred, as though they'd been snapped in a tearing hurry by so in the shadoith a cheap camera By Luis?
A familiar face appeared in a photo
”Is that who I think it is?” Labeck's eyebrows skidded toward his hairline
Oh, yes, indeed! It was Bear Brenner as he raphy worked in reverse Say, eleven or twelve years in reverse, around the ti at the fa there,” Labeck co a muscle shi+rt, this Brenner was a far cry fro politician who advocated stricter penalties for drug offenders He wasn't introducing a bill to have June declared National Cheese Awareness Month here And he wasn't checking up on container production either, because beer cans were aluminum cylinders, whereas the products in these photos ca a meth lab!” Labeck said, incredulous
”Not meth,” I said ”I think it's Mexican valiu al in Mexico, but a banned drug in the United States During h school, I'd learned a lot about the vile stuff
We carefully examined the rest of the photos So lab, so concealed in empty beer containers, and so loaded into semitrailers Other snapshots showed Bear in Uncle Teddyparties where the liquor flowed in a never-ending river, the doobies were set out on plates like appetizers, and the partygoers were teenaged boys One snapshot, nearly identical to the one I'd found in Kip's stash, showed Bear with his arm around Luis
Except the boy couldn't be Luis Luis was the photographer, wasn't he?