Cities of the Red Night by William S. Burroughs Page B

and asked me to join him. He was young, thin, sandy-haired, glasses … refined and rather academic-looking. He signaled the waiter and I ordered a beer.
    After the waiter had brought the beer and gone back to the bar, the man leaned forward, speaking in a low precise voice.
    â€œShocking thing about the Green boy.” He tried to look concerned and sympathetic but his eyes were cold and probing. I would have to be very careful not to tell him anything he didn’t already know.
    â€œYes, isn’t it.”
    â€œI understand it was uh well, a sex murder.” He tried to look embarrassed and a bit salacious. He looked about as embarrassed and salacious as a shark. He was cold and fishy like the Countess de Gulpa. I remembered that he was rich.
    â€œSomething like that.”
    â€œIt must have been terrible for the family. You didn’t tell them the truth?”
    Watch yourself, Clem.… “I’m not sure I know the truth. The story I actually told them is of course a confidential matter.…”
    â€œOf course. Professional ethics.” Without a trace of overt irony, he managed to convey a vast icy contempt for me and my profession. I just nodded. He went on. “Strange chap, Dimitri.”
    â€œHe seems very efficient.”
    â€œVery. It doesn’t always pay to be too efficient.”
    â€œThe Chinese say it is well to make a mistake now and then.”
    â€œDid you know that Dimitri has resigned?”
    â€œHe didn’t say so.…”
    â€œHe was the object of professional jealousy. Career men resent someone with independent means who doesn’t really need the job. I should know.” He smiled ruefully, trying to look boyish.
    â€œWell, perhaps you can avoid the error of overefficiency.”
    He let that roll off him. “I suppose these hippies go in for all sorts of strange far-out sex cults.…”
    â€œI have found their sex practices to be on the whole rather boringly ordinary.…”
    â€œYou’ve read Future Shock, haven’t you?”
    â€œSkipped through it.”
    â€œIt’s worth looking at carefully.”
    â€œI found The Biologic Time Bomb more interesting.”
    He ignored this. “Dimitri’s dabbling in magic hasn’t done him any good either … career-wise, I mean.”
    â€œMagic? That seems out of character.”
    I could tell he knew I had just been to Dimitri’s house for dinner. He was hoping I would tell him something about the house: books, decorations.… Which meant he had never been there. A slight spasm of exasperation passed over his face like a seismic tremor. His face went dead and smooth as a marble mask, and he said slowly: “Isn’t your assistant awfully young for the kind of work you’re doing?”
    â€œAren’t you a bit young for the kind of work you’re doing?”
    He decided to laugh. “Well, youth at the helm. Have another beer?”
    â€œNo thanks. Got an early plane to catch.” I stood up. “Well, good night, Skipper.”
    He decided not to laugh. He just nodded silently. As I walked out of the bar I knew that he deliberately was not looking after me.
    No doubt about it. I had been warned in no uncertain terms to lay off and stay out, and I didn’t like it—especially coming at a time when I had about decided to lay off and stay out. And I didn’t like having Jim threatened by a snot-nosed CIA punk. The Mafia couldn’t have been much cruder.
    â€œYour assistant very young man. You looka the book called Future Shock maybe?”
    When I got to the room I found the door open. As I stepped in I caught a whiff of the fever smell—the rank animal smell of Jerry’s naked headless body. Jim was lying on the bed covered by a sheet up to his waist. As I looked at him I felt a prickling up the back of my neck. I was looking at Jerry’s face, which wore a wolfish grin, his eyes sputtering