“Medina told you?”
“She said that’s why you were there. She was pretty freaked out.”
“That he was killed or that we were there?”
“Both. I guess. This was later, after the show. She was pissed off and not talking to me. I say okay, here goes, own your shit, asshole, like they tell you in rehab. So I saysor-ree.She shines me on, I say it again. She says I couldn’ta picked a worse time, she’s trying to run a show and sell my stuff and I’m acting like a big baby and on top of it you guys just showed up and told her the retarded dude got killed.”
I said, “His name’s Benny.”
“She said that, too.”
“What was Benny like?”
“Like? He was retarded, didn’t talk much. Little dude, didn’t seem like he’d get in anyone’s face. So who killed him?”
Milo said, “We’re trying to find out.”
Dugong’s eyes bugged. “Oh, shit. Oh, holy fucking shit.” He buried his face in his hands.
“Geoff?”
Red eyes rose. “I see what you’re getting at. Oh, fuck.”
“What, Geoff?”
“He works there, she works there, you think the same could happen to her as him. Something about that place? Bad karma, whatever? Oh, shit. I didn’t think about that.”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, Geoff.”
Dugong pouted. Curiously vulnerable moue, out of place on a grizzled face. “What do you mean?”
“There’s no reason to connect Medina to Benny.”
“Really? You’re not shitting me?”
“Absolutely not, Geoff. First thing we’ll do is head over to Medina’s place, for all we know she came down with something and decided to go to bed.”
“We? You and me?”
Milo smiled. “No, just us, Geoff.”
“She’s sick why wouldn’t she call me? She knew when my flight was leaving because she’d boughten the ticket—oh, fuck, I need to buy another—you think maybe they’d give it to me free ’cause it’s not my fault? Oh, fuck, I need to find out when there are other flights.”
He held the sides of his head. Murmured, “All this shit to do.”
Milo said, “No guarantees, Geoff, but we’ll talk to the airlines, tell them it was an emergency. Why don’t you find out first if there is another flight.”
“Yeah…” Dugong reached into a pocket and pulled out an older Android with a cracked screen.
Milo glanced at me. Not a burner.
He clicked for a while, made errors, cursed, finally connected. “Okay…there’s another in…like five hours. I got to get over there. So you’ll write me a note or something?”
“We’ll do better, Geoff. We’ll drive you over and talk to the airline personally. What’s your cell number?”
Dugong told him. His fingers waved wildly. “I need to get my cats from the dude I left them with.”
I said, “You’re a cat person, huh?”
