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TWELVE

This time the phone book was a bust, and Information stuckSammy&039;s existed as far as the phone company was concerned I parked the Suburban in a pay lot off don near the clubs, and Lou and I searched on foot I didn&039;t think any of the respectable places would inflict Spanklicious on their customers, but we had to start someplace Since it was a lazy afternoon, nobodya few seconds to talk to us, but nobody was much help either

Finally, an old black ht direction "A place just off Main called Underground Full of kids Plays that new clank and crank electro-junk Maybe that the place Maybe not No telling All them bands look alike Sound alike Ask somebody over there"

"Thanks" I pulled a wad of bills from my pants pocket "Let me take care of you"

"Thanks, no Just reood We got Diesel Joe Jarvis on the ivories tonight"

"We&039;ll keep it in round just off Main down at the rotten end with the hon said they wouldn&039;t open until ten and advertised a band called the Bone Destroyers We stood on the sideith our hands in our pockets

"Okay, New Guy," I said "Hoe find these guys?"

"I don&039;t know, but I&039; you, ular schedule I&039;ve got to keep my carb level at a certain-"

I tuned hiers sat on the curb, panhandling the pedestrians The two girls looked like the riuy had half of his head shaved, and the other half was a green mop, tattoos up and down his arirls do the work

"Shut up about food," I said to Lou "Follow me"

I walked up to the kids as I fished the wad of bills out of le and handed it to the first girl Lou s

"God bless you, sir" That enerous people wanted to hear Sheat me, expectant She knew there was more to it Smart kid

I took out a five, held it where they could see it The other girl paid attention too The guy still acted like it was none of his business

"A band called Spanklicious," I said "Ever heard of theuy said, "They don&039;t play the Underground" He looked away again like that was all I needed to know

The one girl shrunk into her sweater The other one was a little older, blond hair tucked up under a Gators ball cap, ring in her nose, another in her left eyebrow She eyed the five in uy&039;s comment into useful information "They wouldn&039;t play don No place around here"

"Where?"

A shrug

"You know a place called Mudhog Saave her the five and said thanks Lou started in on ht as well of flushed the six bucks down the toilet"

"I didn&039;t see you co up with any brilliant ideas," I said

A voice chased after us as we turned the corner "Hey, irl in the oversized sweater She jogged up to us, stopped, looked at us hard for a second "Are you two cops?"

"No"

"If I ask straight out and you&039;re cops, you have to say so, or it&039;s like entrapht?"

"Sure"

"I know so and the band"

"Tell us"

"I want some money More than five"

I took the bills out, showed her a picture of Andrew Jackson

"More"

"How &039;bout I squeeze it out of her?" said Lou

That didn&039;t scare her She just looked at me

"Let&039;s hear what you have," I said "I&039;ll decide what it&039;s worth"

"The Mudhog&039;s out on the Prairie, back in the woods before it gets too swampy It not like an official kind of place, you know? It was like this old house, and then kids started hanging around a lot Then some people just sort of set up shop and sold beer but didn&039;t card anyone, and you can usually score soht there&039;ll be a couple of hundred kids"

"Keep going What about the band?"

"They&039;ll be there tonight, but they don&039;t just play They also deal from the back of their van I&039;ve scored from them a few times"

"Hoe know this ain&039;t just a pretty story, so you can tap us for a few bucks?" asked Lou He said to ured you looked gullible"

She pushed up the sleeve of her sweater and turned her arm over to show us the tracks Soh out there off and on when I can get a ride That&039;s why I asked if you were cops I could get in the shit talking to cops"

"What did the van look like?"

"It&039;s been a while"

"Think"

"Not like a new er Blue Dark blue But you can&039;t ot like a really shitty airbrush job of a ht sky picture on the side"

"Probably has Orange County plates," said Lou

"Ford or Chevy or what?" I asked her

"I don&039;t know," she said "Can I have the money?"

"No I want directions"

"I told you Paynes Prairie"

"I want asign from a telephone pole She drew a map on the back

"That&039;s the worst map I&039;ve ever seen," said Lou

"Label the roads"

"I did," she said

"That one"

"For fuck&039;s sake, it doesn&039;t have a name It&039;s a dirt road"

"Then write that What&039;s it near?"

"There&039;s a bait shack about four ave me the map, and I handed her tenties

"Waitarabbed her by the ar hurts you stupid-"

"Shut up"

She shut up

"I&039;d hate to think we paid you good ," said Lou

"I told you the truth"

"Yeah, but keep it to yourself I wouldn&039;t like to hear that you warned the"

"Don&039;t worry" She jerked her aruys won&039;t exactly win me a lot of friends"

We headed out to Paynes Prairie that evening, the girl&039;s ly accurate It had been dark about an hour e passed the bait shack, and I flipped on the Suburban&039;s high beams so ouldn&039;tpeople unless I give the signal," I said

"It&039;s cool, man" He kissed the knuckles on both hands "The ladies are ready when you say"

We turned onto the dirt road, which wound its way back into the woods It was narrow andat twenty h the trees, reflecting off low clouds A lot of lights

"Aw shit, et about this"

I rounded the next bend, and a patrol car blocked the way More blue lights came up, and officers stepped out of the woods on both sides with shotguns cradled in their arms One held up a hand, and I stopped the Suburban

"Let me talk," I told Lou

I rolled down theas the deputy calanced at it a second then handed it back