He looked around uncomfortably, at his student, at Harley who was grinning sideways at us through the glass, waiting for some kind of show to start.
Cam put his guitar pick between his lips and spoke around it. "Upstairs. And you ain't gonna fuck with me again, y'hear?"
I held up my hands. Truce.
Harley looked disappointed when he saw we were taking our conversation elsewhere.
Cam led me out into the afternoon heat, then up the stairs and into his place. He headed straight for the refrigerator.
His apartment was about the same size as mine - one main room, closet, bathroom, side kitchen. An unmade twin bed set flush against the south wall was occupied by piles of laundry that still retained the upsidedown shape and crisscrossed texture of laundry baskets, like Jell0 out of the moulds. I counted three guitars in the room - two electrics in open cases on the floor; one black Ovation twelvestring on a corner tripod stand. The coffee table was a Sears appliance box covered with spare guitar tuning pegs and string packets and old Olympia cans and an extra large Funky Bird, the kind with the red hair and the hat and the big butt that bobs up and down. Instead of chairs Cam had guitar amps. The posters on the walls were all from the store downstairs - peeling advertisements of bikini girls showing off the latest thing in mixing boards or speakers or trap sets. The only thing in the room that reflected care and meticulous upkeep was the CD collection. That took up three levels of cinder block and board shelving.
I walked over and looked through the titles while Cam was rummaging for beer. The CDs were all kinds, rock and jazz and country guitarists, heavy on the Eric Clapton and the Chet Atkins and too light on the Blind Willie McTell for my taste. The titles were perfectly arranged in alphabetical order except that the top shelf started with Cam's own releases. I was surprised how many - at least fifteen different CDs. I pulled one.
The cover art was a bad photocopy of Cam's face, with his name and the title
"American Cowboy" and the rest of the liner notes in what looked like Cyrillic script.
Russian? Czech? I checked the other titles. Most were similar foreign releases. Only one was labelled Split Rail Records, dated five years ago and entitled The Best of Cam Compton. Probably went platinum, that one.
Cam opened himself an Olympia and walked over to the bed like he was in pain. He knocked the laundry off and sat down slowly, elbows out, the way you'd lower yourself into an extrahot bathtub.
"Your ribs are taped," I said. "Somebody gave you a talkingto last night."
"What the fuck business is that to you?"
I took the stack of Compton's own CDs and went over to an amp and sat down, facing him. I started flipping through the jewel cases. "Interesting discography. Bulgaria.
Romania. Germany. You must have had some success over there."
Cam studied me warily. His one eye with the bloody ring around the iris was almost closed. His urge to play silent was duking it out with his urge to talk about himself. The latter finally won.
"Good market in Europe," he admitted. " 'Specially since the Eastern parts opened.
Had me a number ten song for a week in Yugoslavia 'fore the country broke up."
"That so?"
He nodded morosely, like the whole political mess had been a plot to get him off the charts. "Course Germany's always loved Texas stuff - horses, cowboy hats, country music. They cain't get enough of that shit. Sheckly had me touring some honkytonk clubs over there four or five times. Good money."
"Yeah?" I held up the CD I'd been looking at earlier. "What's this - Russian?"
Cam grunted. He was drinking more beer, warming up to the subject. "Fan sent that to me with a real nice letter. Said it wasn't playing right anymore and she loved it, could I please send her a copy of the American original. Goodlooking girl, too."
"You sent it?"
"Couldn't. There is no original. It's a bootleg of one of my shows in Munich. Half the titles in there are boots. Hell, half the titles in Europe. Now you gonna tell me about Alex B.?"
I put the CDs aside. "I came here to help you, Cam."
He stopped with his beer can halfway to his mouth, put the can down. "That a fact?
You get me fired one day, now you're gonna help me."
"Alex Blanceagle was shot