Pynchon - Inherent vice

THOMAS PYNCHON

The Penguin Press

New York

2012

THE PENGUIN PRESS

Published by the Penguin Group

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This edition published in 2012 by The Penguin Press,

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Copyright Thomas Pynchon, 2009

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Originally published by The Penguin Press, 2009

Publishers Note

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

ISBN 978-1-101-59467-4

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Under the paving-stones, the beach!

GRAFFITO, PARIS, MAY 1968

CONTENTS

ONE

SHE CAME ALONG THE ALLEY AND UP THE BACK STEPS THE WAY she always used to. Doc hadnt seen her for over a year. Nobody had. Back then it was always sandals, bottom half of a flower-print bikini, faded Country Joe & the Fish T-shirt. Tonight she was all in flatland gear, hair a lot shorter than he remembered, looking just like she swore shed never look.

That you, Shasta?

Thinks hes hallucinating.

Just the new package I guess.

They stood in the streetlight through the kitchen window thered never been much point putting curtains over and listened to the thumping of the surf from down the hill. Some nights, when the wind was right, you could hear the surf all over town.

Need your help, Doc.

You know I have an office now? just like a day job and everything?

I looked in the phone book, almost went over there. But then I thought, better for everybody if this looks like a secret rendezvous.

Okay, nothing romantic tonight. Bummer. But it still might be a paying gig. Somebodys keepin a close eye?

Just spent an hour on surface streets trying to make it look good.

How about a beer? He went to the fridge, pulled two cans out of the case he kept inside, handed one to Shasta.

Theres this guy, she was saying.

There would be, but why get emotional? If he had a nickel for every time hed heard a client start off this way, he could be over in Hawaii now, loaded day and night, digging the waves at Waimea, or better yet hiring somebody to dig them for him... Gentleman of the straightworld persuasion, he beamed.

Okay, Doc. Hes married.

Some... money situation.

She shook back hair that wasnt there and raised her eyebrows so what.

Groovy with Doc. And the wifeshe knows about you?

Shasta nodded. But shes seeing somebody too. Only it isnt just the usualtheyre working together on some creepy little scheme.

To make off with hubbys fortune, yeah, I think I heard of that happenin once or twice around L.A. And... you want me to do what, exactly? He found the paper bag hed brought his supper home in and got busy pretending to scribble notes on it, because straight-chick uniform, makeup supposed to look like no makeup or whatever, here came that old well-known hardon Shasta was always good for sooner or later. Does it ever end, he wondered. Of course it does. It did.

They went in the front room and Doc laid down on the couch and Shasta stayed on her feet and sort of drifted around the place.

Is, they want me in on it, she said. They think Im the one who can reach him when hes vulnerable, or as much as he ever gets.

Bareass and asleep.

I knew youd understand.

Youre still trying to figure out if its right or wrong, Shasta?

Worse than that. She drilled him with that gaze he remembered so well. When he remembered. How much loyalty I owe him.

I hope youre not asking me. Beyond the usual boilerplate people owe anybody theyre fucking steady

Thanks, Dear Abby said about the same thing.

Groovy. Emotions aside, then, lets look at the money. How much of the rents he been picking up?

All of it. Just for a second, he caught the old narrow-eyed defiant grin.

Pretty hefty?

For Hancock Park.

Doc whistled the title notes from Cant Buy Me Love, ignoring the look on her face. Youre givin him IOUs for everything, o course.

You fucker, if Id known you were still this bitter

Me? Trying to be professional here, is all. How much were wifey and the b.f. offering to cut you in for?

Shasta named a sum. Doc had outrun souped-up Rollses full of indignant smack dealers on the Pasadena Freeway, doing a hundred in the fog and trying to steer through all those crudely engineered curves, hed walked up back alleys east of the L.A. River with nothing but a borrowed fro pick in his baggies for protection, been in and out of the Hall of Justice while holding a small fortune in Vietnamese weed, and these days had nearly convinced himself all that reckless era was over with, but now he was beginning to feel deeply nervous again. This... carefully now, this isnt just a couple of X-rated Polaroids, then. Dope planted in the glove compartment, nothin like at...

Back when, she could go weeks without anything more complicated than a pout. Now she was laying some heavy combination of face ingredients on him that he couldnt read at all. Maybe something shed picked up at acting school. It isnt what youre thinking, Doc.

Dont worry, thinking comes later. What else?

Im not sure but it sounds like they want to commit him to some loony bin.

You mean legally? or a snatch of some kind?

Nobodys telling me, Doc, Im just the bait. Come to think of it, thered never been this much sorrow in her voice either. I heard youre seeing somebody downtown?

Seeing. Well, Oh, you mean Penny? nice flatland chick, out in search of secret hippie love thrills basically

Also some kind of junior DA in Evelle Youngers shop?

Doc gave it some thought. You think somebody there can stop this before it happens?

Not too many places I can go with this, Doc.

Okay, Ill talk to Penny, see what we can see. Your happy couplethey have names, addresses?

When he heard her older gents name he said, This is the same Mickey Wolfmann whos always in the paper? The real-estate big shot?

You cant tell anybody about this, Doc.