Potshot

Chapter 20

THE SUN HAD in fact risen this morning, and we were a little late getting started to Lamarr. When we got there it was nearly lunchtime.

The Bath House Bar Grill still had a neon Spuds McKenzie looking raffish in the window. Inside was darker and cooler. The old-fashioned jukebox was the same, and the bar across the back was as it had been, with wine selections and lunch specials listed on a chalkboard. The dance floor to the right of the front door was empty, and there were only a couple of guys at the bar, getting an early start.

Tedy Sapp was drinking coffee at his table to the left. His blond hair was still brightly artificial. He had a new earring, but he was still wearing the Bath House employee costume, green polo shirt and chinos. Unlike the bartender and the two waiters who were setting up for lunch, Tedy filled the green polo shirt to fabric-stretching capacity. The muscles were so prominent, and the body so hard, and the gaze so flat that if I weren't so tough, Tedy Sapp might have scared me. Fortunately I was with Susan.

"Goodness gracious," Tedy said when he saw me. "Ya'll came back."

His voice had a gentle hoarseness, which as he talked, you soon forgot.

"Hello Tedy. This is Susan Silverman."

"The shrink," Sapp said.

"Yes," Susan said.

"And main squeeze," Tedy said.

"And only squeeze," Susan said, and put out her hand and smiled.

Tedy didn't appear to scare her. Tedy smiled back and stood and put out his hand and shook hers. Susan didn't appear to scare him. He gestured us to sit.

"Coffee? Beer? Late breakfast?"

"Coffee," I said.

"Could I get some hot water and lemon?"

Sapp grinned and didn't comment. He gestured one of the waiters over.

"Two coffees," he said. "And a pot of hot water and some lemon."

The waiter nodded and started away.

"And could I have some of those fake sugar thingies?" Susan said.

The waiter paused.

"We have Equal, m'am."

"That'd be great," Susan said.

"High maintenance," Tedy said.

"And well goddamned worth it," Susan said.

"You think?" Sapp said to me.

I nodded vigorously.

"How's the ophthalmologist?" I said.

"High maintenance," Tedy said.

He smiled.

"And well goddamned worth it," he said.

The waiter brought coffee and hot water with lemon and some little Equal thingies. I put a little cream and sugar in mine. Susan squeezed the lemon into the water, and stirred in a packet of Equal.

"So," Tedy said, looking at the room. "What do you need?"

"There's a town out west, place called Potshot. It's being harassed by a bunch of bad guys, and the cops can't seem to do much."

"They got the wrong cops," Sapp said.

"They do," I said.

Sapp picked up his coffee cup and held it in both hands while he took a sip.

"Lemme guess," he said to Susan. "He's gonna ask me if I want to go out there with him and straighten things out."

"How could you know?" Susan said.

"Gay intuition," Sapp said.

"Of course," Susan said.

Sapp looked at me.

"How many bad guys?" he said.

"Thirty or forty," I said.

"How many guys you got?"

"Counting you, three."

"There's two guys you asked ahead of me?" Sapp said.

"They were closer to home."

Sapp grinned.

"Aside from the fun of going out to West Bum Fuck, excuse me, Susan, in August to shoot it out with forty hoodlums, what's in it for me?"

"You get to work with me again," I said.

"Hot diggity," Sapp said.

"And I'll pay you a lot."

Sapp nodded and drank some more coffee.

"Place closes the month of August so everybody can have vacation."

"What could be more convenient?" I said.

"You planning on hiring anybody else?"

"I have a few more in mind," I said.

Sapp looked at Susan.

He said, "How do you feel about all of this?"

"I wish he were a portrait painter," Susan said, "but then he wouldn't be him, would he?"

"And that would be a bad thing?" Tedy said.

Susan smiled."Yes, God help me, that would be a bad thing."

"And you a shrink," Sapp said.

"When you two get through doing Sonny and Cher," I said, "could we sort of focus on the reason I'm here?"

"Which is to recruit me," Sapp said.

"Yes."

"Okay," Sapp said.

"Okay we'll focus? Or okay, you're in?"

"Okay, I'm in," Sapp said. "Though I may have to have Susan talk to Ben."

"The ophthalmologist?" Susan said.

Tedy nodded.

"Him," he said.

"How long have you been together?" Susan said.

"Twelve years."

"Do you think Ben wants you to be different than you are?"

"No," Sapp said and grinned. "I guess he only has eyes for me."

Susan sighed.