“My stomach's a mess,” Sally said. “I need a drink.”
Sounded like a good idea to me, so I trailed behind him to the bar. Every time he'd push through people they'd turn and look and go, “Hey, it's Sally Sweet! I'm a real fan.” And Sally would go, “Shit, man, that's cool.”
“What do you want?” Sally asked.
“Beer in a bottle.” I figured if Sugar attacked me, I could brain him with my beer bottle. “I didn't realize you were so famous,” I said to Sally. “All these people know you.”
“Yeah,” Sally said, “probably half the people in this room have slipped a five under my garter belt. I'm like regional.”
“Sugar's here somewhere,” the bartender said, passing drinks to Sally. “He wanted me to give you this note.”
The note was in the same tidy little invitation-?sized envelope Sugar had given Grandma. Sally opened the envelope and read the note card.
“ 'Traitor.' ”
“That's it?” I asked.
“That's all it says. 'Traitor.' ” He shook his head. “He's wigged, man. Beyond Looney Tunes. Looney Tunes is funny. This isn't funny.”
I belted back some beer and told myself to stay calm. Okay, so Sugar was a little over the edge. It could be worse. Suppose the guy who was going around chopping off fingers was after me? That would be worrisome. He'd already killed someone. We didn't know for sure if Sugar was a killer. Arson didn't necessarily mean he was a killer type. I mean, arson was remote, right? So no point to getting all freaked out ahead of time.
Ranger moved next to me. “Yo,” Ranger said.
“Yo yourself.”
“Is the man here?”
“Apparently. We haven't spotted him yet.”
“You
armed?”
“Beer bottle.”
He gave me a wide smile. “Good to know you're on top of things.”
“No grass growing here,” I said.
I introduced Ranger and Sally to each other.
“Shit,” Sally said, gaping at Ranger. “Jesus shit.”
“Tell me what I'm looking for,” Ranger said.
We didn't exactly know.
“Blond Marilyn wig, red dress with short skirt,” the bartender said.
Same outfit he had been wearing onstage at the club.
“Okay,” Ranger said. “We're going to walk through the room and look for this guy. Pretend I'm not here.”
“You going to be the wind again?” I asked.
Ranger grinned. “Wiseass.”
Women spilled drinks and walked into walls at the sight of Ranger grinning. Good thing he didn't want to be the wind. The wind would have had a hard time with this group.