(16)
Monday morning Lance
is gone. He doesn't leave a note for Van asking him to lock up or bring back
milk or be home in time for dinner and that makes sense because they're not
a couple, Lance is a black-market middleman and Van is a cop
posing as a whore. Van needs some way of remembering that before he goes back
in or Billie is going to be able to tell and she is going to kick his ass
for going all Stockholm on them. Maybe he could write notes on his hand.
Lance is gone but Joe
is in the office at his desk, because Lance likes keeping work very close
to home. He stands up as soon as Van walks in. "I'm driving you home,"
Joe says, and Van nods, putting his hands in his back pockets. It's not like
he needs to bring a bag. They don't talk in the car, and when Joe pulls up
in front of Van's current address, which he never asked for, he tells Van
he'll be back in twenty-four hours. Van nods and tries not to look too excited
about another week being the go-to guy.
He showers and puts on
real clothes, his clothes,
a funky print shirt and jeans that actually let his nuts move around a little
when he walks. He's at the Candy Store by noon.
Deaq performs his interpretive
version of "Pretty Woman" and Billie smirks.
"Fuck off, the both
of you," Van says, settling down on the couch. "Y'all know I wasn't
wearin' a wire, so if you expect me to give you the full dish, you should
be nice."
Deaq throws himself down
on the cushions, half on top of Van, rubbing the back of his shoulders and
grinning like a mad man. Van's face feels like it's going to split open he's
smiling so wide. He doesn't need notes. He just forgot, a little, what it's
like here in the middle of things, on the right side of it all. Next to Deaq,
with Billie lighting up across the table and kicking up her stilettos on the
glass table. This is his home.
Billie winks and says,
"So, dish."
He lays out everything
he knows, the trades, the rubies, the other whore Chris sent over, the car
bomb that killed JC. He skips details on the sex, which of course Deaq notices
right away.
"What? We can handle
it, baby, come on." Deaq
wiggles his eyebrows and jabs him in the ribs. "This Bass fella working
you over something good or what?"
"It's fine,"
Van shrugs.
"Fine? Fine? Uh-uh. Give Daddy the details. Be a good boy."
Van curves out and away
from Deaq's arm on his back. "Don't you ever ask me to call you Daddy."
Deaq puts his hands up.
"Sorry, Mr. Father Issues. But come on, spill already. What's not in
the file?"
Van looks to Billie,
but she just arches an eyebrow. "It's important to have a full report,"
she says, blowing a smoke ring.
"Maybe I should
just sneak in a camera when I go back." Van pushes off the couch, standing.
"So you're going
back," Deaq says. Van shrugs and strides over to the basketball hoop,
snagging a ball on his way.
----
Later Deaq shows up at Van's place with
some beauty mask Aquarius' honey likes and Van finally says, "Dude, I'm
not a girl, okay, I'm just a piece of ass."
"Don't talk smack
about my most prized piece of ass," Deaq says, knocking his shoulder
into Van's.
----
Alternate take for scene
(12)
It's reassuring, in a
very commodified kind of way. Everyone knows his place. The problem, of course,
is that Van's place needs to be a little closer to the top of the food chain
if he's going to actually discover anything about Lance other than his many
sexual preferences. He tried small talk. He tried small talk during tender,
intimate moments. The most he's gotten from Lance is a long litany of grunts
and swears and compliments.
----
Alternate outfit for
scene (13)
For dinner on the third
day, Van showers and pulls on a pair of brown leather pants. There are wide,
cream-threaded stitches around the waist and down the seams, so he picks a
thin, loose shirt to match. Lance sent someone with a measuring tape upstairs
the first night and that morning a week's worth of threads were hung in his
closet. He didn't have to ask who they are for because there was nothing else
hanging on the rack.
----
The rest of the
story goes something like this, according to my old, old notes. Stuck-out
text has already been revealed.
Things
I know about this story that you don't. Yet.
1.
JC is dead.
2.
JC was a cop.
3.
Lance thought he and
JC were going to run away together.
4.
Joey suspected JC was a cop.
5.
JC was killed by a
car bomb meant for Lance.
6.
EvilGuy is the one
who set the car bomb.
7.
Joey never told Lance that
he'd discovered JC was a cop.
8.
Joey was in love with JC.
9.
Joey was prepared to kill
JC to keep Lance clean and safe.
10.
Joey has been in love with
Lance even longer than he was in love with JC.
11.
JC wanted to find a way out
for Lance, like running away together. Maybe he even told Joey that, and it's
why Joey couldn't kill him.
12.
Lance finds out EvilGuy killed
JC. EvilGuy is way more evil than middleman Lance.
13.
Van wants EvilGuy in jail,
hints to Lance that giving him up could be Lance's way out. Lance wants EvilGuy
dead, nothing less.
14.
Joey kills EvilGuy. Lance
finds out the whole story for the first time -- JC the narc, Joey the savior,
etc.
15.
Van finds a way out for Lance
-- not running away together, but a way for Lance to get away. With Joey.
Van will go back to Deaq and the Candy Store, where he belongs.
----
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fb.
this is as finished as it's going to get unless fox puts out the DVDs. e-mail
them about that and you're likely to get better results.