Free Freaky Deaky by Elmore Leonard

plan. I ran into Woody.”
    “I was gonna ask you.”
    “I even got invited to his house. It looks exactly the same, all the heavy furniture, the life-size painting of Mom in the front hall, the only time she’s ever appeared sober. . . . You know what we did?”
    “I’m dying to hear.”
    “We went swimming. Woody makes you take your clothes off and go in the pool before you can have a drink or a line or whatever you want, he has everything. He cranks the stereo way up and everybody gets zonked. Donnell sort of lurks, the way their mom used to.”
    “Well, did you get Woody aside?”
    “It wasn’t the right time. The whole scene, it was too loud, confusing. Woody disappeared after a while, I don’t know what happened to him.” Robin paused. “I think we’ll be taking a different approach anyway.”
    “Like what else you getting me into?”
    “I have to work it out. But I will, don’t worry.”
    “I’m not worried,” Skip said. “I’m up here in Yale, Michigan, trying to rip off a case of dynamite in a rented Hertz car. What’ve I got to worry about?”
    “I’m just about convinced we should go after Mark.”
    “He was there, huh?”
    “Mark and Woody were together, but I don’t think it was Mark’s idea. Mark puts on his suave act, he still does that, wants you to think he’s cool.And Woody still comes off as the lout, sort of an offensive Poor Soul. Only now Woody’s got Mark by the ass for the rotten way Mark used to treat him. I have a hunch Mark even pimps for him.”
    “Well, you said Woody’s got all the dough.”
    “Yeah, but I didn’t think he had the brains to use Mark. That’s what he seems to be doing.”
    “I guess you don’t need brains if you’re rich.”
    “Woody comes up with these shlock ideas—he loves those big Broadway musicals, Oklahoma, you know, Fiddler on the Roof . The next one they’re doing is Seesaw .”
    “Never heard of it.”
    “Full of hit tunes like ‘Lovable Lunatic’ and that show-stopper ‘It’s Not Where You Start It’s Where You Finish.’ Meanwhile Mark’s dying to put on rock concerts. Remember ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’?”
    “Sure, old Iggy and the Stooges.”
    “Mark wants to sign Iggy Pop and make him a superstar.”
    “I’d go for that.”
    “Woody wants to get in touch with Gordon Macrae and see if he’ll do Carousel .”
    “Who’s Gordon Macrae?”
    “Remember Savage Grace? Ten Years After? The Flying Burritos? Mark dug out these old tapes Woody has—Iggy doing ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’—all the groups we heard at Goose Lake, the summer of ‘seventy.”
    Skip said, “That rock concert? I wasn’t at Goose Lake. They had me in the Washtenaw County jail for littering, passing out all your pamphlets everybody threw away and I got blamed for. I think ever since we met I been doing the heavy work and you been having all the fun.”
    “I’m going to look it up,” Robin said, “but I’m pretty sure Mark’s in my Goose Lake journal. Something I wrote I think was like a prophecy.”
    “Goose Lake, sounds like a kiddie show.”
    “It wasn’t bad. Woodstock without the rain and mud.”
    “Get laid by strangers. Was that your trip?”
    “I knew everybody I slept with,” Robin said. “You should’ve been there.”
    “I should’ve been anywhere but in jail. Hey, I got one for you. You remember Dick Manitoba and the Dictators?”
    “Never heard of them.”
    “See, you don’t know everything, do you?”
    “I miss you,” Robin said. “Anyway, if Mark’s in my Goose Lake journal I’m going to take it as a sign.”
    Skip said, “Does that make sense? If Woody’s in charge, what do we want to go after Mark for?”
    “Because he needs a friend,” Robin said. “Mark has a major problem and could use some help. Trust me.”
    “Hey, Robin?”
    “What?”
    “I got another one. You remember Manfred Mann’s Earth Band?”
    “ ‘Get Your Rocks Off,’ “ Robin said. “ ‘Bye.”
    She picked up the spray can