Fast Bang Booze by Lawrence Maddox

Author:Lawrence Maddox
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Down & Out Books

Chapter 20

1993

We hurdled down the Ventura Freeway. The Spyder’s little dashboard clock said one-forty. Two hours and twenty minutes left. Time was precious, so I made Cape Man gun it. He winced at the whining uncertainty of the engine.

“I know what you’re up to,” Cape Man said. “Being silent. You’re messing with my mind.”

I ignored him.

“You have the power. Yet you assume the quiet of a bound player. Mocking me. As if I’m to wait for you to mutter the safety word, or even gesture, that would force me to end your pleasurings. Yet I cannot do so since you have the gun!”

I didn’t know what to do next. I could charge into Popov’s house alone. Like Popov had said, Vlad could be at Popov’s with a posse; or Popov’s million-plus bankroll could be waiting for me in Popov’s garage.

I could try to find Popov at one last stop.

I’d driven Popov to Violet’s, a Russian restaurant in Eagle Rock, the night he hired me. He needed to meet with someone there he called the “Grandfather.” Popov didn’t invite me in, but he’d explained that the Grandfather wasn’t his real grandfather, but some old dude who was the Russian version of the mob’s Godfather. His blessing would mean success or failure in LA’s Russian underworld. If Popov was still looking for help, this could be his last stop. It was a few miles from his Pasadena stilt house. It made sense to drop in.

Cape Man and his classic Spyder were an immediate hit on Eagle Rock’s Colorado Boulevard. Especially on drag race Friday night.

A Honda pulled up alongside at a stoplight.

“What is that, a sixty-seven?” the driver yelled out his window.

“Sixty-nine,” Cape Man tersely replied.

“You supposed to be Count Dracula or something?”

When the light turned green, the Honda peeled out, leaving us in the dust.

“Vermin,” Cape Man grumbled.

We turned right and parked in the back lot of Violet’s. In front, an American flag and an old U.S.S.R. flag flew side by side. Old enemies had finally become buds in Eagle Rock.

I pulled my Ruger and motioned Cape Man out of the car, walking him into the back alley. The drama queen was remarkably cool.

“Is this the part where you shoot the hostage?” he asked. “And I had such romantic notions about my own death.” He folded his cape over his head like comic book dragon wings.

I pushed him with my foot and shooed him towards a side street.

“That’s it?” Cap Man asked incredulously.

I tucked the gun in my belt and walked away.

“My car keys then? Hello?”

I flipped him the bird.

“I want my car!” he called after me. “We’re not done!”

I spun and aimed my gun at him. He scurried off. I was going to need Leopold a little longer.

Violet’s was empty. The bartender sized me up as a non-Russian right away.

“What do you want?” he asked in that thick Russian accent that was running all over LA tonight.

There was no sign of Popov or the Grandfather. I decided to check out the hallway.

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