“It wasn’t nice of you to manhandle poor Curly like that.” He gestured to the security screens that lined the wall. “You embarrassed the kid.”
“The kid embarrassed himself. And when you pull heat on a mug, you deserve a lot more than a sore ear.”
“The scattergun is loaded with salt rock,” Pan said. “It’ll sting like hell but won’t kill you. You think I’d let kids run around with genuine heaters?”
“Might be. You have a rep for being a bit vicious.”
“Exaggerated, I’m sure.” Pan gave an indifferent shrug. “Tiger Lily, why don’t you pour the man a drink? What do you take, Mr. Trubble?”
“Bulleit Neat will do. I didn’t see anything harder than soda when I came in, though.”
“I keep things spirited in my private cache.” He jerked a thumb where Tiger Lily poured a glass of bourbon behind the bar. “I like the rye, myself. Makes for a darb Manhattan. You tried it?”
“Not too many drinks I haven’t tried. It’s on your tab, so whatever’s clever. Hold the cherry, though. I don’t do that girly fruit stuff.”
“I heard there’s a drink styled after you,” Pan said. “Called the Troubleshooter. A Godfather with some absinthe tossed in. Pretty popular at the Black Dahlia, I’m told.”
I shrugged. “Didn’t know that. It’s a killer drink, though. In fact, I only pour it when I’m about to kill someone.”
Pan smiled as Tiger Lily returned with our drinks. She sat close beside Pan after serving them, gazing challengingly at me with eyes so dark they seemed to drink the light. “Is that what you’re here for?” she asked. “To kill somebody?”
I glanced at Pan. “You might wanna tell your moll to take a powder.”
He grinned as Tiger Lily’s eyes narrowed dangerously. “She stays.”
“Have it your way. I’m here for the little white bird.”
Pan frowned. “For what?”
“Word on the wire is you got a new mother for your kids. Funny thing is it got out right around the same time the Mannering dame got snatched. I figured I’d ask nicely upfront and see how you’re gonna roll.”
Pan laughed. “That’s what this is all about? You think I’m behind a high profile snatch job the whole city is focused on? Now why would I wanna bring that kind of heat on my back?”
“You tell me. Maybe you need the extra help watching over these kids you’re so fond of.”
Pan’s face grew serious. “These kids would be dead or locked up if I didn’t watch over them. But I don’t need to snatch some dame from her parent’s arms to give me a hand. Tiger Lily here is the new mother I told the kids about. We’re going steady now, and she loves looking out for the Lost Boys.” He placed an arm around her shoulder while she murdered me with her glare.
“Yeah, I noticed there were no other girls around,” I said. “You got something against ‘em?”
“Tiger Lily is all I need. One girl is more use than twenty boys, right?”
“Girls are adopted faster and get into less trouble,” Tiger Lily said in an unfriendly voice. “The ones who slip through the cracks usually are looked after by the Gutter Girl organization. I’m sure you know who they are.”
I shifted in my chair. I knew exactly who the Gutter Girls were. I had a kind of love/hate relationship with their group. Meaning they hated to love me. Most dames do. “I’ve run into ‘em before. So you’re saying you’re squeaky clean, that it? You wouldn’t be holding back on me, would you? I understand lying gets easier when you’ve had a lot of practice. Maybe a few hundred years or so… right?”
Pan sighed and shook his head with a wry grin. “Sounds like you’ve been in company with Hooke. Still obsessed with that pre-Cataclysm picture, I see.”
“So you admit it’s you in the pic?”
He plucked the cherry from his cocktail and chewed scornfully. “Of course not. It’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. Time after time it’s been proven that completely unrelated people can look nearly exactly alike. There’s probably someone out there right now who looks exactly like you. Hooke has a picture — so what? It’s become an obsession with him — that’s why he was demoted from a dick to a dingdong.” He paused. “That and his extracurricular activities, that is.”
I finished my drink and placed the glass on the table. The kid was right, it wasn’t half bad. I caught Tiger Lily’s eye as I pulled out my deck of smokes. I offered her one. She paused for a second before accepting, and I knew I had her. I lit hers first, then my own before I sat back and exhaled a wispy cloud. “What activities would those be?”
“Trafficking. Hooke was the subject of an internal investigation a while back when he was fingered by a slimy skel named Bobby Braxton.”
“The Gingerbread Man?” I knew the mug by his rep. His moniker wasn’t a compliment, it was an observation on how fast he ran away from anything related to pressure. Usually his fleet feet took him to the brass, where he’d sing like a canary and dime out his fellow scumbags in exchange for immunity.
Pan nodded. “The investigation failed to prove Hooke was in on the deal, but it smeared enough dirt on his name to get him buried in probate. The rest is just his fanatical attraction to yours truly.”
“Show me a copper with clean hands and I’ll show you a rookie on his virgin beat,” I said. “What’s this got to do with the Mannering dame?”
Pan spread out his hands. “Aren’t you listening? I just told you Hooke is into trafficking. He had to be scared stiff when you walked in his office asking questions. That’s why he sent you chasing your tail over here. He’s hoping he can throw you off his scent.”
I leaned forward, waving away the gasper smoke. “You’re not making any sense, kid. I don’t give a rat’s ass about Hooke’s drug business. I keep telling you what I’m looking for. If you don’t have anything to do with missing dames, then you better spill on where I might find one.”
Pan spoke slowly, exaggerating his pronunciation to make sure I followed him. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you. Hooke was investigated for trafficking.”
“You just said that.”
“Yeah. But what I mean is trafficking of bodies, not junk. If you’re looking for a missing girl, he’d be the first rat I’d cheese out if I were you.”
I sat back, stunned. “You’re saying Hooke was involved in fencing dames on the flesh market?”
Pan’s eyes glimmered. “You think you know Hooke? You don’t. Not like I know him. He’s a pirate, and he’s been nabbing girls and fencing them on the meat yard for years. Women, girls… and boys. That’s why we clashed not too long ago. He tried to make off with a pair of twin boys for one of his more perverted clients. I caught wind of his scheme and stopped him. He’d have lost a lot more than his hand if he hadn’t managed to escape.”
I exhaled a cloud of gasper smoke toward the ceiling. “And I’m supposed to just take your word for it, that right?”
Pan leaned back with an impish grin. “No, I guess not. But I’ll prove it to you.”
“I don’t think this is a good idea. I’m not exactly crazy about airships.” I gripped the balcony railing tightly and peered over the edge of the zeppelin deck. The entire city glimmered dizzily beneath; a sea of streaking lights, flying traffic, murky fog and menacing winds.
Pan laughed. A leather aviator bomber cap covered his carrot-colored mop, and he wore a coffee-colored bomber jacket about one size too big over his skinny torso. His cargo pants were tucked into tightly laced military style boots. His fingers tapped the long, skull-engraved dagger strapped to his thigh. A smaller one was tucked in his boot.