The concrete blonde - By Michael Connelly Page 0,35
Spot was owned by a man named Harold Barnes, who was a front for the Chicago Outfit. It grossed more than a million dollars a year—on the books. Probably another one under the counter. Bosch knew all of this from Mora of Ad-Vice, whom he had partnered with on some nights while they both were on the task force four years earlier.
Bosch watched a man of about twenty-five get out of his Toyota, walk quickly to the solid wood front door, and slip in like a secret agent. He followed. The front half of the former supermarket was dedicated to retail—the sale and rental of videos, magazines and other assorted adult-oriented and mostly rubber products. The rear was split between private “encounter” rooms and private video booths. The entry to this area was through a curtained doorway. Bosch could hear heavy-metal rock music coming from back there mixed with the canned-sounding cries of phony passion coming from the video booths.
To his left was a glass counter with two men behind it. One was a big man, there to keep the peace; the other was smaller, older, there to take the money. Bosch knew by the way they looked at him and the skin stretched tight around their eyes that they had made him as soon as he had come in. He walked over and put one of the Polaroids on the counter.
“I am trying to ID her. Heard she worked in video, do you recognize her?”
The small guy leaned forward and looked while the other guy didn't move.
“Looks like a fucking cake, man,” the small guy said. “I don't know any cakes. I eat cakes.”
He looked back at the big guy and they exchanged clever smiles.
“So you don't recognize her. What about you?”
“I say what he says,” the big guy said. “I eat cakes, too.”
This time they laughed out loud and probably had to restrain themselves from exchanging a high five. The small guy's eyes sparkled behind rose-tinted glasses.
“Okay,” Bosch said. “Then I'll just look around. Thanks.”
The big guy stepped forward and said, “Just keep your gun covered, man, we don't want to excite the patrons.”
The big guy's eyes were dull and he set out a five-foot zone of body odor. A duster, Bosch thought. He wondered why the small guy didn't fire his ass.
“No more excited than they are,” Bosch said.
He turned from the counter to the two walls of shelves that were lined with hundreds of video boxes for sale or rent. There were a dozen men, including the secret agent, looking. Appraising the scene and the number of video boxes, Bosch somehow was reminded of how he once had read all the names on the Vietnam War Memorial wall while on a case. It had taken several hours.
The video wall proved to be less time consuming. Skipping the gay and black performer videos he scanned each box for a face like the concrete blonde's or the name Maggie. The videos were in alphabetical order and it took him nearly an hour to get to the T's. A face on the box of a video called Tails from the Crypt caught his eye. There was a nude woman lying in a coffin on the front. She was blonde and had an upturned nose like the plaster face in the box. He turned the box over and there was another photo of the actress, on her hands and knees with a man pressed up behind her. Her mouth was slightly open and her face was turned back toward her sex partner.
It was her, Bosch knew. He looked at the credits and saw that the name fit. He took the empty video box to the counter.
“'Bout time,” said the small guy. “We don't allow loitering here. The cops give us a hard time on that.”
“I want to rent this.”
“Can't, it's already rented. See, the box is empty.”
“She in anything else you know of?”
The small guy took the box and looked at the photographs.
“Magna Cum Loudly, yeah. I don't know. She was just getting started and then dropped out. Probably married a rich guy, lots of them do.”
The big guy stepped over to look at the box and Bosch stepped back, out of his odor zone.
“I'm sure they do,” he said. “What else was she in?”
“Well,” the small guy said, “she had just made her way out of the loops and then, pfffft, she's gone. Tails was her first top billing. She did a fabulous two-way in Whore of the Roses