Olly nodded. “Positive. Dent on the bumper, right next to the AAA sticker.”
“Son of a bitch! I’m gonna wring his neck.” Rich reached to undo his seat belt.
Olly laid his hand on Rich’s arm. “No, wait. Let me think.”
“What is there to think about? One asshole stole the video of my sister, and the other asshole left the blackmail letter.”
“Yeah, but I’d like to know who this second guy is.” Olly took his phone out and started furiously typing. “I’m sure there’s a way to find out the name from the address. There must be a website for this stuff.”
While Olly was picking away at his phone, the door of the house opened, and Jimmy came out.
Rich watched Jimmy speed away and couldn’t hold his temper any longer. “Fuck this shit.” He jumped out of the car and marched up to the house.
The man answering Rich’s banging was older, late forties, early fifties. He was shorter too, and balding. “Jimmy, what—” The words stuck in his throat at the sight of Rich. His eyes got big, and Rich saw recognition in them.
Rich lifted a hand, his index finger pointing into the man’s face. “Listen, motherfucker, you stay away from my sister, or I’ll rip your lungs out and feed them to you.”
The man tried to take a step back, but Rich grabbed his shirt and yanked him through the doorway. “Who are you? What do you want? I don’t understand,” he squealed.
Rich leaned into the man’s face and growled, “If you come as close as a mile to my sister, I’ll make you sorry you were ever born.”
“Let me go! I’ll call the police!” the man squeaked.
“Sure, go ahead. I bet they’d love to know what you and Jimmy Boyd are up to.” Rich was bluffing—he didn’t want the cops involved any more than this bozo did—but it worked. The man turned paper white.
“What’s going on? Mr. Kane?” An old woman stood at the porch of the next house, glaring at them.
At the same time, Olly clasped Rich’s arm and tugged. “Rich, c’mon, let’s go.”
Rich let go of the man, who put on a fake smile and waved at the neighbor. “Nothing to worry about, Mrs. Peplinsky. Just a misunderstanding.”
Rich shot one last murderous look at the guy and let Olly drag him away.
“Sheesh, Rich, way to go Rambo. Do you always go off half-cocked?” Olly griped, driving down the hill.
“I was fully cocked, I can assure you,” Rich retorted.
“I thought we agreed not to talk about cocks.”
“You started it.”
Olly huffed. “My point is, the guy still has a copy of the video clip, and you getting up into his face didn’t help. He could cause a lot of trouble if he wants to.”
“I’ll break his face if he does.” Rich clenched his fist and imagined punching the guy right on the kisser. It felt red-hot good to find a focus for his anger at last.
“Oh for fuck’s sake, could you dial back the he-man shit for a minute? Unless you enjoy being a walking, talking cliché.”
Rich didn’t appreciate being told off, and it took an effort not to say something he’d regret later. He took deep breaths and stared out the window. They rolled past malls, car dealerships, fast-food joints and stucco mini-malls that all looked the same. Compared to Chicago, LA, or at least this part of it, was an architectural wasteland. Was he homesick? No, definitely not, but he was missing something. “All right. What would you do?” he asked calmly.
Olly jumped on the question. “Well, first of all, we need to learn more about this guy. The neighbor called him Kane, and we know his address. You can find out a lot about a person from public records.”
“Then what?”
“Depends what we find. Know thy enemy.”
Rich nodded. “Sun Tzu.”
“Huh?” Olly gave Rich a sideways glance of bafflement.
“Art of War.”
“HBO. Fangs. You know, the show your sister’s on? Do you ever watch it?”
“No. I prefer not seeing my sister naked.”
“Oh.” The expression on Olly’s face suggested he had no problem seeing anyone naked. Probably because of his upbringing. “Well, anyway, the show’s centered around a pack of werewolves living in a small town in Texas. Of course, the regular citizens don’t know. In season two, a stranger arrives and opens a strip club. Rafael, the alpha werewolf, sends one of the girls from the pack to work at the club, and she discovers the new guy’s a vampire. What follows is a lot of sex and gore. It was the season where Sandy first appeared.” Olly seemed ready to recap the entire series if Rich so wished.