The news went off. Janice parred 6 and waved. Littell walked inside. Littell wrote appeal briefs.
Jimmy Hoffa was through. The Boys knew it. Carlos soldiered for Jimmy. Carlos dunned donations. Carlos built a Help Jimmy Fund. It was futile. It was hopeless. Their bribe roll had crapped out.
Littell put his brief down. Littell grabbed his bankbooks. Littell ran figures and totaled his tithes.
Glad tidings:
The bagmen aced Wayne Senior. The bagmen stole his skim fees. The bagmen were duplicitous. The bagmen were good. The bagmen were Mormon-rowdy.
He directed them. He ran the skim. He wrote fictive reports. He lied to Drac. He embezzled Drac. He sucked Drac's blood.
The bagmen bagged. The bagmen moved six hundred grand-two weeks' worth of skim. He took his 5%. He fed his Chicago account. He opened accounts in Silver Spring and D.C. He used fake ID. He laundered the cash. He tithed the SCLC.
He wrote tithe checks. Five grand per. He wrote them under pseudonyms. He print-wiped the envelopes.
Drac and the Boys meet Dr. King-We Shall Overcome.
His desk phone rang. He grabbed it.
"Yes?"
Static hiss-long distance. A garbled Pete: "Ward, it's me."
The hiss built. The line buzzed. The hiss leveled flat.
"Where are you?"
"I'm in Mexico City. I'm losing the fucking connection, and I need a favor."
"Name it."
"I need Wayne to cut the apron strings and come to work for me."
Littell said, "With pleasure."
(Las Vegas, 9/30/64)
Janice fucked Clark Kinman. Wayne watched.
She left the lights on. She knew he was there. She rode Kinman. She showed her backside.
Wayne braced the mirror. Wayne sipped Wayne Senior's scotch. It was her sixth show. It was his sixth hide-and-see.
He surveilled the motel. Janice fucked every night. Wayne Senior caught her most times. The gigs were synced. Ditto the arrivals.
Kinman shows at 9:00. Janice shows at 9:10. Wayne Senior shows at 9:40. Kinman comes to fuck. Janice comes to act. Kinman co-stars unasked.
She fucked in the dark for Wayne Senior. She fucked in the light for Wayne.
He thought it out.
She saw him at Nellis. She _knew_ him. She _knew_ he'd break in. He'd log Wayne Senior's routine. He'd seize on his off nights and LOOK.
Janice bent back. Her hair flew. Wayne saw her face topsy-turvy. The speaker popped. Kinman moaned. Kinman said dumb sex things.
Janice bent up. Janice raised her hips. Wayne saw Kinman inside her.
Sol Durslag checked out. The Vegas _Sun_ ran the story. May '55-Wardell Gray/tenor sax. Beaten dead/body dumped/sand dune/DOA. No suspects-case closed.
Janice bent back. Her hair dropped. Wayne saw her eyes upside down.
Kinman moaned per I'm-coming. Kinman said dumb sex things. Janice grabbed a pillow. Janice muzzled him.
His toes curled. His knees contracted. His feet clenched. Janice rolled clear and free.
Kinman dumped the pillow. Kinman smiled and scratched his balls. Kinman tapped his Saint Chris on a chain.
They talked. Their lips moved. The speaker fuzzed sighs.
Kinman kissed his Saint Chris. "I always wear this for protection. Sometimes I think you're likely to kill me."
Janice sat up. Janice faced the mirror-wall.
Kinman said, "Wayne Senior should take better care of you. Shit, I think we've gone sixteen days straight."
Janice winked. Janice said, "You're the best."
"Tell true. Is he good?"
"No, but he's got qualities."
"You mean money."
"Not exactly."
"He's got to have something, or you'd've found yourself a steady before me."
Janice winked. "I've sent out invitations, but nobody knocked on my door."
"Some boys don't know how to read signs."
"Some boys need to look first."
"Shit, if your hubby could see you now."
Janice raised her voice. Janice talked overt slow.
"I had a thing with a musician once. Wayne Senior found out."
"What did he do?"
"He killed him."
"Are you ribbing me?"
"Absolutely not."
Kinman kissed his Saint Chris. "You'll be the ruin of me. Shit, and I thought Junior was the only killer in the family."
Janice got up. Janice walked to the mirror.
She primped. She fogged the glass. She licked a finger. She drew arrows and hearts.
o o o
A dust storm kicked through. Hot winds kicked sand and sagebrush.
Wayne drove to the ranch. Wayne walked to the guest house. Wayne saw a stray car en route.
There's Ward Littell.
He ducked the wind. He blocked Wayne's door. He looked sandblown and storm-fucked.
He said, "Your father sent you to Dallas."
_DOCUMENT INSERT_: 10/1/64. Covert Intelligence Dossier. From: John Stanton. To: Pete Bondurant. Marked: "Hand-Courier Only/Destroy Upon Reading."
P.B.,
I'm hoping this gets to you in time. It's really no more than a highlighted summary I've edited out the extraneous details. I'm routing it through the Mexico City Station to meet that deadline you requested. Note: Data culled from Interpol files in Paris Marseilles. Agency copy file #M-64889/Langley.
Per: MESPLEDE, JEAN PHILIPPE, W.M., 8/19/22. LKA: 1214 Ciudad Juarez, Mexico City.
1941-'48: Con.flicting accts. MESPLEDE (an alleged anti-Semite) was either a Nazi collaborator or a member of the Armed French Resistance in Lyon. Conflicting accts: MESPLEDE turned over Jews to the SS/MESPLEDE assassinated Nazis at a health retreat in the Arbois. Note: One Interpol wag concluded that he did a little of both.
1946-'47: Whereabouts unknown.
1948-'50: Mercenary work in Paraguay. The Asuncion Ops Station has a 41-page ifie. MESPLEDE infiltrated leftist student groups at the behest of the Paraguayan Association of Police Chiefs. MESPLEDE (Spanish fluent) assassinated 63 suspected Communist sympathizers per association guidelines.
1951-'55: French Army service (Indochina-now Vietnam- Algeria). MESPLEDE served as a paratrooper, saw action at Dien Bien Phu allegedly became bitter over the French defeat withdrawal. Reports (unconfirmed) _have him moving opium base hashish to his next duty station in Algiers_. In Algiers, MESPLEDE transferred to an occupation unit taught torture techniques to members of a mercenary police unit employed by wealthy French colonialists. MESPLEDE (a committed anti-Communist) allegedly executed 44 Algerian nationalists suspected of Communist ties gained a reputation as a superb wet arts specialist.
1956-'59: Whereabouts largely unknown. MESPLEDE is believed to have traveled extensively in the U.S. during this time. The Atlanta (Ga) PD has a 10/58 file note on him. MESPLEDE was suspected of taking part in the bombing of a synagogue targeted by neo-Nazis. The New Orleans PD has a 2/9/59 file note. MESPLEDE was suspected of 16 armed robberies in N.O., Metairie, Baton Rouge Shreveport. Note: unconfirmed rpts. state that MESPLEDE traveled in Organized Crime circles during this interval.
196O-'61: Mercenary work in the Belgian Congo. MESPLEDE (a known associate of our KA LAURENT GUERY) served as an enforcer for Belgian landowners worked with an Agency liaison in the anti-Lumumba incursion. MESPLEDE GUERY engineered the capture execution of 491 leftist rebels in Katanga Province. The landowners gave MESPLEDE carte blanche told him to implement a deterrent measure to scare would-be rebels. MESPLEDE and GUERY herded the rebels into a gully killed them with flamethrowers.
1962-'63: At large in France. MESPLEDE (who lost land holdings when DeGaulle granted Algerian independence) allegedly joined the French OAS took part in the 3/62 8/63 assassination attempts on DeGaulle. MESPLEDE resurrected in Mexico City (9/63) has allegedly been in touch with our KAs GUERY FLASH ELORDE. MESPLEDE is known to be committed to the antiCastro cause as previously stated, is determinedly antiCommunist, Spanish fluent has both probable narcotics experience military experience in the Southeast Asian Theatre. All in all, I think we can use him.