Loomis said, “It doesn’t say Extraordinaire on your license.”
“It’s an honorary title.”
He looked at me, squinted his eyes a little, “Hey, these things can be faked real easy. You have any other proof?”
I gave him one of my business cards. He put it up to his face and read it. “Okay, this is legit,” he said, “Can I call you Ronny?” He winked as he said it.
“Sure, and you can keep that card in case you need me for anything,” I said as I put up my license. I leaned closer and said in a low voice, “Do you have access to the surveillance camera tapes?”
“Sure. I change out the tapes at the start of my shift.”
“How long do you keep them?”
“Two weeks. It’s mostly to get the license plates off cars that don’t pay for their gas.”
“Could I look through them?”
Loomis looked around to see if anyone else was in the store, “Why?”
“I’m working something, and I think the person I’m looking for might have walked down the street out front. I thought the camera might have caught her.”
“You’re not looking for E, then.”
I blinked, “I beg your pardon?”
“Elvis. E. The King. You’re not looking for him.”
“Not…right now.”
“He lives here in LA, you know.”
“I did not know that.”
“Oh yeah, been here for years. Most people think E’s dead, but that’s just a cover so the government can’t find him and use his powers.”
“His powers?”
“They want to catch the King and force him to call down his alien friends so the army can capture their spaceship and learn how to make the Death Ray.” He tapped the tabloid newspaper on the counter. “It’s all in here in The Preditator. Not this particular issue, but in last month’s. This one just tells about E using his healing powers on a one-legged woman over on Wilshire near MacArthur Park. He grew her another leg.” Loomis put the tabloid under the counter and said, “So sure you can.”
“Can what?”
“Duh, Ronny. You can look at the surveillance tapes. Boy, for a Detective Extraordinaire you aren’t real quick.”
“That was a lot of Elvis to absorb all at once, Loomis. It kind of overwhelmed me.”
He leaned across and patted my shoulder, “That’s the power of E. The tapes are in the back, go help yourself.”
“Thanks.”
“Don’t take too long though, because my manager comes by every day to check on the store.”
“Sure thing,” I said.
**
The tapes were dated and stored on a shelf above the recorder. I took the one from the date of the wreck and sat at the small television set with the player beside it, pushed in the tape and watched the day unfold in front of the 7-Eleven.
The date and time showed in the upper right hand corner, so I fast -forwarded until I reached twelve noon, then worked fast forward in spurts to catch movement on the street and at the edge of the lot in the distance.