The Frenzy Way (21 page)

10:55
PM

A wiry man with jet-black hair cut like Adolf Hitler’s sidled up to the bar and drummed his spidery fingers on it. In the mirror over the back bar, Patty saw him appraising her.

“I love your hair,” he said in an almost effeminate voice.

Patty shifted her gaze to him. “Thanks.”

“Buy you a drink?” She knew that he flicked his tongue as he spoke so she’d see the stud centered in it.

“I’ve already ordered. Thanks.”

“So I’ll pay for it.”

She looked away. “I’m good.”

“You can buy me one, then?”

Patty turned back, amused more than annoyed. “I don’t think so.”

Under the guise of a pirouette, he stared at her breasts. “Okay, forget the drink. Why don’t we just get out of here?”

Patty resisted the urge to laugh in his face. “Forget it.” Lloyd set her drink down and she paid him, leaving him a dollar tip.

“How come?”

Patty sipped her drink. “You’re not my type.”

“What type are you? Type O? B negative?”

Holding his gaze, Patty said, “I like men, not boys.”

His cocky expression collapsed like a demolished building.

“Ouch,” Willy said in the car and Mace grunted.

11:20
PM

With her drink finished, Patty gyrated on the dance floor. She had been a club hopper in her early twenties, even though she had never listened to music like this. Closing her eyes, she turned in small circles with her arms extended, as she had observed a girl doing when she entered. Whenever a man or a woman tried to join her, she sashayed away, leaving them even more interested in her. One persistent man who wore more mascara than she did pursued her for several minutes before giving up. She moved faster, feeling sweat forming on her hairline. For a moment, she actually felt good in this theatrical environment.

11:35
PM

“Check Grandma’s house,” Mace said, cracking his knuckles.

Willy picked up his hand radio. “Mother Goose calling Grandma’s house. Over.”

“Go ahead, Mother Goose. Over.”

“Your big ears open? Over.”

“Roger that. Just waiting for Little Red Riding Hood to bring us some goodies. Over.”

“Copy that. Over.” Willy hung up and stared at the nightclub’s entrance.

11:50
PM

Patty followed walls covered with papier-mâché and Day-Glo graffiti through the darkness to the ladies’ room. The illumination provided by a single black light almost made it more difficult to see than if there had been none at all. She saw a couple snorting something in an alcove. They looked at her with dulled eyes, and she continued into the unkempt bathroom, cold, clammy, and industrial.

Entering a stall with a broken lock she whispered between her breasts, “Take five, boys.” She had to raise her top up to her chin toswitch off the radio transmitter. Then she hiked up her miniskirt and made herself comfortable.

“Time?” Mace said.

Willy glanced at his watch. “Four minutes.”

Come on. Come on
, Mace thought.

“We’re back in business,” Patty said at last.

Mace loosed a low sigh.

11:55
PM

When Patty emerged from the bathroom, she nearly collided with a bald man heading toward the men’s room. He glared at her, tight jawed and taut muscled. The black light made his dome resemble some alien appendage, and his bulging eyes did not blink.

“Are you into blood?” the bald-headed bug man said.

Patty stared into his dilated pupils. “No.”

Turning to Willy, who had tensed up, Mace shook his head.

“Then why are you here?” they heard the man say.

“I’m looking for someone,” Patty said.

Pause.

“Good luck.”

They heard a door close.

12:01
AM

When Patty returned to the bar Lloyd was busy, and a young goth who had attempted to dance with her seemed to materialize out of thin air. He wore a long black coat.

“You were really hot out there before,” the goth said. “I mean, you really set the place on fire. You want to get out of here and maybe go for a walk or something?”

Patty felt sorry for the boy, who didn’t even seem legal drinking age. “You’re a little young for me.”

“I’m a gothic vampire.”

“Maybe next year.”

Willy spat up the coffee he had just retrieved. “He did
not
just say that!”

This time Mace had to laugh too.

They heard Patty answer, “I love your nail polish,” with no response from the gothic vampire, who had apparently given up on seducing the newcomer to Carfax Abbey II.