The Kings Of Cool s-1

by Don Winslow

  You might be able to walk naked in Laguna without raising alarm-or an eyebrow-but Newport Beach? They don’t get undressed to have sex. You could get arrested in Newport for wearing white after Labor Day.

  Okay, this is getting you nowhere, O thinks.

  But maybe that’s just where you should go.

  Maybe you should lie down, fire up a blunt, and forget it.

  227

  Chon pulls over near Crowe’s place up Laguna Canyon and looks at the driveway.

  Crowe’s car isn’t there.

  Chon gets out, slips his pistol into his waistband, and goes to the front door. It’s locked.

  The man has taken off.

  Chon doesn’t blame him, but it’s a problem.

  Not a big problem, but a problem.

  228

  Chad “No Worries” Meldrun comes into the parking structure like he has a problem.

  Worries.

  Has that “places to go, people to see” look on his face as he strides to his Benz, gets in, and peels out.

  Ben follows him.

  West on Jamboree.

  North on the PCH.

  All the way to the Newport Beach Yacht Club.

  Which figures, Ben thinks.

  Money is a pigeon.

  It always finds its way home.

  229

  This is, like, Republican Central. The party could hold its California convention right here, and Ben feels like he should have a visa to even get in.

  A twenty slipped into the doorman’s palm

  (“Are you a member, sir?”

  “No, but he is.”) is sufficient documentation, but Ben feels Out of Place and a little hostile as he makes his way through the lobby and watches Meldrun go out onto the patio, overlooking the harbor, overlooking the yachts, where on this late Friday afternoon the elite are there to have a drink and to see and be seen.

  Ben’s working hard at being Joe Detective, trying to blend into the crowd and still keep an eye on Meldrun without being seen when he hears “Ben?”

  230

  It’s a woman’s voice.

  “Ben? Ophelia’s friend? Is that you?”

  Ben panics momentarily because

  (a) he doesn’t want to lose sight of Chad, and

  (b) he can’t think of her actual name, only “Paqu.”

  “Oh, hi. Mrs…”

  He damn near says “Four.”

  “It’s Bennett, now,” she says in a tone that manages to combine self-deprecating charm with a warning not to push the subject. (Indeed, she’s here cruising for his replacement. Four is about to become Four mer.)

  “Mrs. Bennett.”

  She’s statuesque, sexy, beautiful, with all the genuine human warmth of an ice sculpture.

  (Except, Ben remembers, O swears that she will not melt. O has watched The Wizard of Oz, like, twelve thousand times to get tips.)

  “What brings you here?” Paqu looks a little surprised, as if she either can’t understand why a friend of her daughter’s would be at the club, or forgot that they let Jews in now.

  Ben catches sight of Chad’s back. “Oh, you know-Friday… the patio.”

  Paqu glances at his left hand. “Yes, it can be quite the place to meet eligible young ladies.”

  Subtext: you’d better not be doing my daughter.

  “Is O with you?” Ben asks, aware that if she is, she’s in handcuffs and leg irons, because O would rather sip cat urine straight from the cat than iced tea with her mother on the patio.

  Paqu lets the “O” reference slide. “No, I believe she’s out seeking employment.”

  And I believe, Ben thinks, that bin Laden is hitting open-mike night at the West Akron Holiday Inn.

  He watches Meldrun go up to someone-Ben can’t make out his face-along the railing bar.

  “What do you do?” Paqu asks.

  “Sorry?”

  “What do you do, Ben?” Paqu asks. “For a living?”

  “I’m an environmental consultant,” Ben says, still unable to get a good look at who Chad is talking to.

  “What does that mean?”

  It means I have to tell the IRS something, Ben thinks. “When a big building or a complex is going up, I advise the landscape architects what kinds of trees, plants, and grasses to put in.”

  “That sounds fascinating,” Paqu says. “Very ‘green.’ Is that the word?”

  “That’s one of them.”

  “What’s another?” she asks.

  That’s when Ben realizes she’s a little drunk.

  “Bullshit,” Ben tells her. “It’s all bullshit, Mrs. B.”

  She looks him straight in the eyes. “Ain’t that the goddamn truth, Ben.”

  Yeah it is.

  Because some people move out of the way and Ben sees who Meldrun is talking to.

  Stan.

  231

  O-wearing a blue knee-length dress-walks up to the distinguished older home on Balboa Island and rings the bell. When the man comes to the door, she says, “Hi. Would you be my sperm donor?”

  The man blinks and says, “Could I just take three boxes of Thin Mints, please?”

  232

  Brian Hennessy opens the door of his apartment to a nasty surprise.

  Chon.

  Who lays a shotgun stock into the base of Brian’s skull.

  233

  Places Ben Would Expect to See His Father Before He Would Expect to See Him on the Patio:

  1. A Republican National Committee Fund-raiser

  2. Dollywood

  3. Wines R Us

  4. A Monster Truck Show

  5. Rush Limbaugh’s Small Intestine

  6. Anywhere

  Ben fucking reels.

  Turns and walks away.

  The truth always comes home, but not to his home.

  234

  When Brian comes to, he’s duct-taped to a chair.

  Chon sits across from him.

  “What did I tell you?” Chon says. “What did I tell you I’d do if you laid another hand on one of our people?”

  Brian remembers the answer. “Don’t. Please.”

  “Say it-what did I tell you?”

  “That you’d kill me.”

  “Did you think I was kidding?”

  “No.”

  “Do you think I’m kidding now?”

  “No. Please. Jesus.”

  “I’m going to give you one motherfucking chance,” Chon says. “One. To tell me the truth. If you lie, I’ll know it and I’ll kill you. Tell me you understand, Brian.”

  “I understand.” His legs are shaking.

  “Who pulled the trigger on Scott Munson and that girl?”

  “Duane.”

  “Duane Crowe.”

  Brian nods.

  “What did you tell the cops?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Here’s what you’re going to do,” Chon says. “You’re going to call Crowe, tell him you want to meet.”

  “He won’t come.”

  “Tell him he comes or you tell the feds everything,” Chon says. “What’s his number?”

  Brian tells him.

  Chon takes Brian’s phone, punches in Crowe’s number, and holds it up to Brian’s mouth.

  235

  “I meant ‘sperm donor’ not as in ‘would you give me some sperm, please,’” O says, “but would you be the man who made a sperm deposit with, or rather with in, my mother that resulted in, well, me?”

  Paul Patterson recovers his poise quickly and says, “Come in, please.”

  He ushers O into a beautifully furnished living room that looks, well, old.

  Old Newport Beach money.

  Photos of sailboats on the wall. Wooden models of boats in glass cases.

  “Do you sail?” O asks.

  “I used to,” Patterson says. “Before I got… well, before I got too old.”

  He is older than he was in her fantasy.

  In her fantasy he was in his late forties maybe, handsome, of cou
rse, with just a streak of silver in the temples of his otherwise jet-black hair. In her fantasy he was athletic, he’d kept himself in shape, maybe he was a tennis player or a surfer or an iron-man triathlete.

  The real man is in his early sixties.

  His hair is wispy, a weird kind of yellow and white.

  And he looks frail. His skin is translucent, like thin paper.

  Her father is dying.

  “Please sit down,” he says, pointing to an upholstered, wing-backed chair.

  She sits and feels uncomfortable.

  Small.

  “Would you like something to drink?” he asks. “Iced tea or some lemonade?”

  O loses it totally blows.

  All that pent-up emotional lava just freaking explodes.

  236

  INT. PAUL PATTERSON’S HOUSE — DAY

  O

  Iced tea? Lemonade? That’s it?! After nineteen fucking years, that’s it? No hug, no kiss, no it’s so wonderful to finally meet you, I’m so sorry I abandoned you before you were born and broke your heart and totally fucked up your life?

  Patterson looks sad. Even sadder as he answers PATTERSON

  My dear Ophelia…

  Don Winslow

  The Kings Of Cool

  237

  Patterson goes Counter Darth Vader on it “I’m not your father.”

  238

  Ben pulls into the driveway of his parents’ house in the canyon, gets out of the car, walks up to the door, takes a deep breath, and rings the bell.

  What the fuck do they have to do with all this, Ben wonders. For all their goofy, reconstructed-hippie bullshit, they’re essentially kind, loving people. Caring therapists, good if overbearing parents.

  It feels like it takes forever, but his mother finally answers the door.

  She looks shaken.

  “Ben-”

  Stan walks up behind her. Puts his hands on her shoulders and says, “Ben, what are you involved in?”

  “What am I involved in?” Ben asks. “What are you involved in?”

  239

  They pull into the parking lot.

  A warehouse complex in the canyon.

  Old C trains scattered around.

  Empty. Quiet.

  Crowe’s Charger is already there.

  Chon lies on the floor of the van behind Brian. He pushes the shotgun barrel into the back of the seat. “You feel that, Brian? It will go right through this seat into your spine. The best you can hope for is a helper monkey.”

  “I feel it.”

  “Pull up beside him and get out.”

  Chon feels the van slow and then stop.

  The door opens.

  Brian gets out.

  Crowe rolls down his window

  And shoots Brian in the head.

  240

  “I was aware,” Patterson says, “that your mother married me for my money. I was in my forties, she was in her twenties and beautiful. I knew-everybody knew. I married her anyway.”

  O sits and listens.

  Patterson continues, “I knew that I was her second husband but wouldn’t be her last. It was all right with me-I was happy just to borrow her beauty for a few years.”

  Borrow, O wonders, or rent?

  “We didn’t have a prenuptial agreement,” Patterson says. “My family was furious, my lawyers more so, but Kim wouldn’t hear of it. I knew what I was doing, but money has never been my problem in life. One agreement that we did have, however, is that there would be no children.”

  O winces.

  “I was too old,” Patterson says, “and didn’t want to cut that ridiculous figure of the middle-aged father trying to keep up with a toddler. But there was more to it. I knew the marriage would never last and, as a child of divorce myself, I didn’t want to inflict that on another child.”

  But you did, O thinks.

  “I knew that she was unfaithful,” Patterson says. “She would be gone for long, unexplained hours. She would take little trips. I knew but I didn’t want to know, so I never pressed the issue. Until she informed me that she was pregnant.”

  “With me,” O says.

  Patterson nods.

  241

  Ben follows them into the study, the walls lined with bookshelves filled with psychology texts, sociological studies, economic histories, evidence of their belief that the truth of the world is contained in books, if only you could read enough of them, and the right ones.

  Now Ben wants a truth that can’t be found in books and says, “Please, I need to know.”

  “We came here in the fresh bloom of our idealism,” Diane explains. “We thought we would change the world.”

  Ben’s about to object to the whole “Diamonds and Rust” monologue he senses is coming, but then his mother starts talking about a guy giving away tacos.

  242

  Chon watches Crowe get out of the car and stand over Brian’s body, making sure.

  There’s not a lot of doubt. Brian’s lifeless eyes stare up at the moon and a pool of blood forms beneath his head.

  Chon slides the van door open and drops to the ground. Belly-crawls around until he sees Crowe swinging his gun at the sound.

  Crowe sees him and fires.

  But Chon has already dropped into a low crouch. Can’t shoot the man, can’t take a chance on killing him, so he drops the shotgun, lunges, and tackles Crowe at the waist, driving him into the sand.

  Fifty-eight thousand fucking times he practiced on the sand south of here, down on Silver Strand, but he’s weak now, and rusty, so he lets

  Crowe’s gun hand come around as he tries to jam the gun barrel into Chon’s head and the shot is deafening, a roar like a big wave going off and Chon feels the burn and his head roaring as he gets his knee up and drives Crowe’s arm to the sand and traps it there, but Crowe is big and strong and he pounds his left fist into Chon’s ribs, then the side of his head, bangs his hips up and bridges his back, trying to buck Chon off, but Chon slides up and gets his other knee on Crowe’s left forearm and now he kneels on the man’s arms, feels the blood running hot down his face, his pulse slamming in his neck and he takes his thumbs and presses them into Crowe’s eyes.

  Chon’s forearms quiver with exertion, he’s trying to hold it until Crowe screams and drops the gun and yells, “Enough!”

  Chon grabs Crowe’s pistol and gets off him, holding the gun on him.

  Crowe rolls onto his stomach, presses his palms into his eyes, and moans, “I can’t see, I can’t see.”

  Chon walks over to his shotgun and picks it up. He feels blood seeping out of his left leg where the wounds have opened up from the fight. When he comes back, Crowe is on his knees, trying to get up.

  Chon kicks him back down.

  Presses the shotgun barrel into his neck.

  “Who do you work for?”

  “They’ll kill me.”

  “They’re not your worry right now,” Chon says. “I am. Who do you work for?”

  Crowe shakes his head.

  Chon’s out of wind and his leg starts to throb. He says, “They wouldn’t die for you.”

  Crowe gives him a name.

  It hits Chon like a blow to the chest.

  He leans over and says, “Tell me the truth. Did you kill those two kids?”

  Crowe nods.

  Chon pulls the trigger.

  Sorry, Ben.

  He drags Crowe’s body over by Hennessy’s, then puts the shotgun in Hennessy’s hands and lays the pistol by Crowe’s.

  Justice or revenge.

  Either way.

  Taking his knife, Chon cuts a strip off his shirt and presses it against the open wound on his leg.

  Then he notices that it’s raining.

  243

  “What happened?” Ben asks when Diane finishes her story.

  244

  Chon starts to run.

  A steady, disciplined trot.

  It’s only six or seven miles.

  Nothing to it.

&n
bsp; The rain grows heavier now.

  Thick, heavy drops fall on his shoulders, run down his side and his leg.

  The blood mixes with the water.

  245

  John 14:2

  “In my Father’s house there are many mansions-if it were not so I would have told you.

  “I go to prepare a place for you.”

  246

  What happened? Stan repeats.

  To us?

  To the country?

  What happened when childhood ends in Dealey Plaza, in Memphis, in the kitchen of the Ambassador, your belief your hope your trust lying in a pool of blood again? Fifty-five thousand of your brothers dead in Vietnam, a million Vietnamese, photos of naked napalmed children running down a dirt road, Kent State, Soviet tanks roll into Prague so you turn on drop out you know you can’t reinvent the country but maybe you reimagine yourself you believe you really believe that you can that you can create a world of your own and then you lower that expectation to just a piece of ground to make a stand on but then you learn that piece of ground costs money that you don’t have.

  What happened?

  Altamont, Charlie Manson, Sharon Tate, Son of Sam, Mark Chapman we saw a dream turn into a nightmare we saw love and peace turn into endless war and violence our idealism into realism our realism into cynicism our cynicism into apathy our apathy into selfishness our selfishness into greed and then greed was good and we

  Had babies, Ben, we had you and we had hopes but we also had fears we created nests that became bunkers we made our houses baby-safe and we bought car seats and organic apple juice and hired multilingual nannies and paid tuition to private schools out of love but also out of fear.