Who in Hell Is Wanda Fuca? Read Free Page B

checked on Henderson
and the woman?"
    Trask turned to Eagan's partner. "Olson, go find Henderson and lend him
a hand."
    "Or a condom," suggested Eagan from across the room.
    The tension shattered. We were still laughing when they stuffed Thomas Greer
back in the window and rolled him out strapped to the gurney.
    "You're a shit magnet, Waterman," said Trask, "a true shit
magnet."
    I suddenly remembered where Trask and I had met. We'd had much this same
discussion at the time. Saasha Kennedy appeared on my left, rubbing her temple,
her glasses in her hand.
    "Mr. Waterman. I don't know what to say. I mean . . . I've never . .
."
    "Don't worry about it," I said.
    She wouldn't let it go, "I mean . . . I'm so sorry . . . I . . . "
    "It was my first jumper too."
    "I was sure the wife - "
    I tried again. "You had no way of knowing."
    "I mean . . . I should have . . . I wouldn't want you to think . . .
"
    "The only thing I'm thinking about, Ms. Kennedy, is having a
drink." I bumped myself off the wall and started for the door. She was
still mumbling when I rounded the corner and headed for the back stairs.
Chapter 2
    The Embers was dark. Interstellar-space dark. Black-hole dark. Patsy liked
it that way. I'd asked him about it once, several years back when I was
spending most of my days and nights working on a stool implant. I'd always
figured that the lighting was merely another example of Patsy's bizarre sense
of humor.
    We'd watched an executive drunk wobble from his stool at the other end of
the bar and head for relief in the men's room. Four lurches from the dim glow
of the light over the register, the poor bastard realized he was flying blind.
He'd stopped, hiked up his drooping trousers, put his hands up in front of his
body, and begun to shuffle slowly across the room, working his hands like a
mime in a box. Patsy had chuckled into the back of his hand.
    "You think it's funny, don't you?" I'd said. He smiled.
    "It is funny," he said. "But that's now why I keep it so
dark. Drunks drink to forget, Leo," he sighed. "It's easier to forget
in the dark. They don't have to wipe anything out. All they've got to do is
make up new material."
    "Very thoughtful of you, Patsy."
    "One does what one can, Leo."
    I'd bolted from the hotel certain I needed a drink. By the time I made it
all the way across town to the Embers, I was positive I'd better not tart. I
was still waffling between the poles when I stepped inside. I'd learned from
experience not to make any sudden moves, just to step inside, close the door,
and wait for my eyes to adjust.
    Slowly, like a fade-in my pupils expanded to the point where I could make
out the two couples engaged in quiet conversation at one of the booths facing
the bar. Another ten seconds and I was able to make out the three solitary
drinkers holding down her bar stools. I headed for the far end of the bar.
    I plopped myself down on the single stool facing the door. Patsy finished up
his conversation with the guy on my right and shuffled over. He read my face
like a book.
    "Leo," he said with a phony Mr. Ed smiled, "haven't seen you
in a while. Just when I thought you'd fixed that drinking problem of
yours."
    "I don't have a drinking problem," I said. "I have a stopping
problem."
    Patsy'd heard them all. Within the limits of commerce, he'd always made it a
point to keep me as sober as possible. When sobriety wasn't possible, he'd
always shoveled me into a cab and seen to it that I got home.
    "What'll it be today?"
    "Better make it an iced tea, Patsy."
    With an almost invisible nod of approval, Patsy receded into the gloom, only
to appear a minute later with my drink. Before we had a chance to exchange
further pleasantries, the guy on the stool at my right piped up.
    "I'm tellin' you, mister, I'll cut you a hell of a deal."
    "I'm sure you would, my good man," Patsy replied, "but, as I
was saying, I don't need a new car."
    Before the guy could go back into his spiel, Patsy inclined his head at me.
    "Now Leo here