"All right, then where did you meet him?"

"At a bar."

"Name the bar."

"Leo's Hideaway."

"Billy know you chase stuff behind his back?"

"Jack, don't be crude. I'm not some criminal you can slap around, I'm a citizen who can report you for breaking into this apartment."

Change-up. "Smut. Picture-book stuff, regular and homo. That your bent, Timmy?"

One little eye flicker-not quite a hink. "You get your kicks that way? You and Billy take skit like that to bed with you?"

No flinch. "Don't be vile, Jack. It's not your style, but be nice. Remember what I am to Billy, remember what Billy is to the show that gives you the celebrity you grovel for. Remember who Billy knows."

Jack moved extra slow: the smut mags and face sheets to a chair, a lamp pulled over for some light. "Look at those pictures. If you recognize anybody, tell me. That's all I want."

Valburn roiled his eyes, looked. The face sheets first: quizzical, curious. On to the costume skin books-nonchalant, a queer sophisticate. Jack stuck close, eyes on his eyes.

The orgy book last. Timmy saw inked-on blood and kept looking; Jack saw a neck vein working overtime.

Valburn shrugged. "No, I'm sorry."

A tough read-a skilled actor. "You didn't recognize anybody?"

"No, I didn't."

"But you did recognize Bobby."

"Of course, because I know him."

"But nobody else?"

"Jack, really."

"Nobody familiar? Nobody you've seen at the bars your type goes to?"

"«My type?» Jack, haven't you been sucking around the Industry long enough to call a spade a spade and still be nice about it?"

Let it pass. "Timmy, you keep your thoughts hidden. Maybe you've been playing Moochie Mouse too long."

"What kind of thoughts are you looking for? I'm an actor, so give me a cue."

"Not thoughts, «reactions». You didn't blink an eye at some of the strangest stuff I've seen in fifteen years as a cop. Arty-fatty red ink shooting out of a dozen people fucking and sucking. Is that everyday stuff to you?"

An elegant shrug. "Jack, I'm «très» Hollywood. I dress up as a rodent to entertain children. Nothing in this town surprises me."

"I'm not sure I buy that."

"I'm telling you the truth. I don't know any of the people in those pictures, and I haven't seen those magazines before."

"People of your type know people who know people. You know Bobby Inge, and he was in those pictures. I want to see your little black book."

Timmy said, "No."

Jack said, "Yes, or I give «Hush-Hush» a little item on you and Billy Dieterling as soul sisters. «Badge of Honor», the «Dream-a-Dream Hour» and queers. You like that for a three-horse parlay?"

Timmy smiled. "Max Peltz would fire you for that. He wants you to be nice. «So be nice»."

"You carry your book with you?"

"No, I don't. Jack, remember who Billy's father is. Remember all the money you can make in the Industry after you retire."

Pissed now, almost seeing red. "Hand me your wallet. Do it or I'll lose my temper and put you up against the wall." Valburn shrugged, pulled out a billfold. Jack glommed what he wanted: calling cards, names and numbers on paper scraps. "I want those returned."

Jack handed the wallet back light. "Sure, Timmy."

"You are going to fuck up very auspiciously one day, Jack. Do you know that?"

"I already have, and I made money on the deal. Remember that if you decide to rat me to Max."

Valburn walked out-elegant.

Fruit-bar pickings: first names, phone numbers. One card looked familiar: "Fleur-de-Lis. Twenty-four Hours a Day- Whatever You Desire. HO-01239." No writing on the back- Jack racked his brain, couldn't make a connection.

New plan: call the numbers, impersonate Bobby Inge, drop lines about stag books-see who bit. Stick at the pad, see who called or showed up: long-shot stuff.

Jack called "Ted-DU-6831"-busy signal; "Geoff-CR-9640"-no bite on a lisping "Hi, it's Bobby Inge." "Bing-AX-6005"-no answer; back to "Ted"-"Bobby who? I'm sorry, but I don't think I know you." "Jim," "Nat," "Otto": no answers; he still couldn't make the odd card. Last-ditch stuff: buzz the cop line at Pacific Coast Bell.

Ring, ring. "Miss Sutherland speaking."

"This is Sergeant Vincennes, LAPD. I need a name and address on a phone number."

"Don't you have a reverse directory, Sergeant?"

"I'm in a phone booth, and the number I want checked is Hollywood 01239."

"Very well. Please hold the line."

Jack held; the woman came back on. "No such number is assigned. Bell is just beginning to assign five-digit numbers, and that one has not been assigned. Franldy, it may never be, the changeover is going so slow."

"You're sure about this?"

"Of course I'm sure."

Jack hung up. First thoughts: bootleg line. Bookies had them-bent guys at P.C. Bell rigged the lines, kept the numbers from being assigned. Free phone service, no way police agencies could subpoena records, no make on incoming calls.

A reflex call: The DMV police line.

"Yes? Who's requesting?"

"Sergeant Vincennes, LAPD. Address only on a Timothy V-A-L-B-U-R-N, white male, mid to late twenties. I think he lives in the Wilshire District."

"I copy. Please hold."

Jack held; the clerk returned. "Wilshire it is. 432 South Lucerne. Say, isn't Valburn that mouse guy on the Dieterling show?"

"Yeah."

"Well… uh… what are you after him for?"

"Possession of contraband cheese."

Chez Mouse: an old French Provincial with new money accoutrements-floodlights, topiary bushes-Moochie, the rest of the Dieterling flock. Two cars in the driveway: the ragtop prowling Hamel, Billy Dieterling's Packard Caribbean-a fixture on the «Badge of Honor» lot.

Jack staked the pad spooked: the queers were too well connected to burn, his smut job stood dead-ended-"Whatever You Desire" some kind of dead-end tangent. He could level with Timmy and Billy, shake them down, squeeze their contacts: people who knew people who knew Bobby Inge-who knew who made the shit. He kept the radio tuned in low; a string of love songs helped him pin things down.

He wanted to track the filth because part of him wondered how something could be so ugly and so beautiful and part of him plain jazzed on it.

He got itchy, anxious to move. A throaty soprano pushed him out of the car.

Up the driveway, skirting the floodlights. Windows: closed, uncurtained. He looked in.

Moochie Mouse gimcracks in force, no Timmy and Billy. Bingo through the last window: the lovebirds in a panicky spat.

An ear to the glass-all he got was mumbles. A car door slammed; door chimes ting-tinged. A look-see in-Billy walking toward the front of the house.

Jack kept watching. Timmy pranced hands-on-hips; Billy brought a big muscle guy back. Muscles forked over goodies: pill vials, a glassine bag full of weed. Jack sprinted for the street. A Buick sedan at the curb-mud on the front and back plates. Locked doors-kick glass or go home empty.

Jack kicked out the driver's-side window. Glass on his front seat booty-a single brown paper bag.

He grabbed it, ran to his car.

Valburn's door opened.

Jack peeled rubber-east on 5th, zigzags down to Western and a big bright parking lot. He ripped the bag open.

Absinthe-190 proof on the label, viscous green liquid.

Hashish.

Black-and-white glossies: women in opera masks blowing horses.

"Whatever You Desire."