Zoot-Suit Murders Read Online Free Page B

might be so drunk already, you’ll stumble into church and donate it to the poor box by mistake.”
    Wino Boy took Younger’s hand and held it solemnly like he was about to propose marriage. “
Compadre
, trust me. I know nothing about dead brothers, I just know bazebull.” He tossed his head back, banging the windowpane and laughing long enough for Younger to count the five decayed teeth left in his mouth. The girl inside the restaurant shook her fist.
    Like a magician with an endless supply of white rabbits, Younger slipped a hand inside his coat pocket and produced another neatly folded five-dollar bill.
    “
Compadre, ¿quées?
” Wino Boy stopped laughing. “You buying me two cases of the Tokay?”
    Younger glanced suspiciously up and down the street, then hunched his shoulders against the people passing by and spoke softly. “I want information. We speak only in English, otherwise someone might hear.”
    Wino Boy puffed up his chest. “Only in the English, my friend. There isn’t no more than five people on the whole street who can speak it so good.”
    “What do you hear in the Barrio about Mankind Incorporated?”
    “They are coco locos,
nililo gabachos
.”
    “In English, Wino Boy, English!”
    “They are anglos crazies in the heads.”
    “Do many people follow them? Do the
gente
believe them?”
    “Does the dog, she shits in the same hole twice?”
    “If not many people follow them, why are they in the Barrio?”
    “The same as the Catolicos, because the poor
gente
be in the Barrio. Poor
gente
will always be paying the money for the chance to be no poor
gente
no more.”
    “Who is the Voice of the Right Idea?”
    “He pretend he
Cristo
. But the people here, they no born stupid, they know better.”
    “The woman, the thin young one who says she is the head of Mankind Incorporated’s Latin Service Bureau, what do you know about her?”
    “You meaning the pretty one, the one with much hair the color of fire?”
    “Yes.”
    “You meaning the pretty one with the little maracas,” Wino Boy cupped his shaking hands to his chest like he was carefully caressing two nice-sized peaches.
    “Yes, I don’t need you to go feeling her up. What do you know?”
    Wino Boy pursed his lips and leaned against Younger unexpectedly like he was going to give him a big kiss. “I giving you only the truths.”
    “Only the truths, or you can give me back the other fiver I gave you as well.”
    “
Nada mas
.” Wino Boy shook his head slowly, then the worn shine of his eyes brightened. “Wait, I do know something. But how to say in the English. She’s a sick one. The ones who cannot always breathe.” He pounded his chest and coughed. “The ones not strong in the chest.”
    “You mean asthma? You mean to say Kathleen La Rue’s an asthmatic?”
    “
Sí
.” Wino Boy laughed mischievously and grabbed the five-dollar bill. “That’s all I know!”
    “Fat lot of good that kind of information does me. I could go up the street to Esteban’s Barbershop and for two bits I could get the same information, plus a haircut, shine, and shave.” Younger turned disgustedly and walked away.
    “¡
Momento, compadre
!” The urgent tone in Wino Boy’s voice stopped Younger in his tracks.
    Younger turned and walked back, standing close to Wino Boy’s wrinkled face as he breathed in the sickly sweet odor of cheap wine. “You have something else?”
    “
Sí
, somethings you like knowing.” Wino Boy smiled proudly. “I just get the V-mail from my grand-
niñTo
at Forts Lee. After cinco months they be promoting him to private. My Alejandro’s going to be a
hen-ee-rahl
before Hitler’s getting to kiss the Queen in
Londres
.”
    “Promoted to
private
!” Younger shook his head in disbelief at the near toothless smile of the old man. “Jesus, Wino Boy, you’re a real pill.”

5
    T he voice was breathless, its soft tones carrying to the ceiling, caressing the gloss of green paint, undulating over long fingers of