The Hanged Man by Walter Satterthwait Page B

with?”
    â€œShit, man, she’s not the one who’s dead. Quentin is.”
    â€œAnd I won’t know why unless I understand the connections between all these people. What about Bennett Hadley? Was she ever involved with him?”
    He looked at me, frowned, shook his head. “Don’t think so, man. Bennett’s not her style. Too spooky, maybe.”
    â€œSpooky?”
    â€œHe gets these headaches, like. Migraines, I guess. And he weirds out. It’s like, you know, people who drink too much and get blackouts? But Bennett, man, he doesn’t need to drink. He gets one of those headaches, like when he gets upset, and he starts talking weird, and then later on he can’t, like, remember any of it.”
    I remembered Hadley massaging his temples. “Weird how?” I asked.
    â€œ Weird , man. I was out with him once, me and Peter Jones and him, we were at Vanessie’s having a drink. Just beer, right? That’s all I ever drink. And so Peter asks him something about his family, right? About his father. What’d his father do, you know? What kind of job did he have? And Bennett starts rubbing his head and wincing, sorta, and then the next thing you know he’s shouting at us, me and Peter. Stuff about ingratitude and envy, crazy stuff. Came out of nowhere, man. And loud . The bartender had to ask us to leave. Bennett’s still babbling away, right? And then, when we get outside, Bennett sorta stops and looks like his knees are weak. And he rubs his head some more and then he looks around like he can’t figure out where he is, you know? And then he asks what happened and Peter tells him. Peter’s good with that stuff, real gentle. And Bennett, he says he musta had a flashback. From the war, you know? Vietnam. He was there.” Brad shook his head. “Spooky, man.”
    â€œHow often does he get these headaches?”
    â€œI dunno. Peter told me he’s seen him do it before. But that was the only time I ever saw it happen. Only time I want to see it happen, man.”
    â€œYou’ve read his book?”
    â€œSure. Good book. He’s okay, he’s cool, he knows what he’s talkin’ about. It’s just those headaches, man. They’re spooky.”
    â€œWhat about Leonard Quarry?”
    â€œWhat about him?”
    â€œWas Justine ever involved with him?”
    â€œWith Leonard? Are you kidding? He weighs like a million pounds. He looks like Jabba the Hut, man. Justine can’t stand him.”
    â€œWhat do you think about him?”
    He shrugged. “I dunno. He’s always been okay to me.”
    â€œDoes that mean he hasn’t been okay to other people?”
    He shrugged. “I don’t know about other people, man. All I know is how the guy treated me.”
    â€œNo way he might be responsible for Bouvier’s death.”
    â€œNo way, man. All Leonard wants to do is buy and sell things and lie around in the hot springs. The heat is good for his emphysema. That’s why he moved to Agua Caliente.”
    I nodded. I said, “I’ve heard that Justine had a relationship with Veronica Chang.”
    His eyebrows went up. “No shit. I didn’t know that.” He grinned. “Far out.” A thread of admiration, perhaps even envy, ran through his voice.
    â€œWhat do you think of Veronica Chang?”
    â€œAmazing lady, man.” He nodded. “Amazing.”
    â€œHow so?”
    â€œFirst of all, she’s like drop-dead gorgeous. I mean, you remember the Dragon Lady, from the old ‘Terry and the Pirates’ thing on TV?”
    â€œSure.” Brad was, on that evidence, a few years older than he looked.
    â€œReally? You remember that? A million years ago, it seems like now. But I still remember the Dragon Lady. And Jesus, man, was I in love with that chick. Those eyes and that slinky body, you know? Well, that’s Veronica. And I know it’s like a stereotype and