Doctor Who_ Wonderland - Mark Chadbourn [9]
'Oh, I get it. A pop concert,' Ben said dismissively.
Stimson shook his head wearily.
'I wanted to talk about the Blue Moonbeams,' I said.
Stimson started at this, his exuberant mood fading quickly. 'What do
you know about that?'
I told him what had happened in the I-Thou. 'My boyfriend's missing. I don't know if it's connected –'
'You better hope it's not,' he said sharply, before rifling among the mess of paper on his desk for a coffee-stained notebook. 'I first heard about it from one of the Diggers in the Fall. Word had been getting out about some bad acid ... only this took you so far-out you never came back again – literally, dig? This was crazy stuff. Kids would drop a tab. Not long after they'd fade away, like, vanish, gone, man. This is a strange cosmos, kids. We've got supermen from the stars coming here in times past to be our gods and Atlantis calling out and witches casting spells up on Divisadero, but this, you.' know, man ... here in the Haight?' He shook his head again.
'Crazy,' I said.
'Right. Crazy. Except I heard it again at the Love Pageant Rally. Just before everyone in the crowd dropped acid together, this guy flipped, started running around screaming not to drop the Blue Moonbeams. Then they were talking about it at the Fillmore, and the Avalon Ballroom ... all over. Kids vanishing.'
'Do you think it could possibly be true?' Polly asked.
Stimson flicked over a few pages of his notebook. 'Here's the facts, ma'am. Kids have been going missing. I've got names and addresses, hard facts. All over the Haight. But you know what it's like here. There are chickenhawks down at the bus station picking up the pretty little things rolling in wide-eyed from the sticks. People come and go and come. Running away from something, running towards something. And the Haight's attracted some real bad dudes recently, man. It's always the same when something gets a buzz. All the creeps come out of the woodwork trying to get their share.'
'You're saying it's not real?' Ben pressed.
'I'm saying the smart money is on a big batch of contaminated acid dumped on the Haight for quick, hard cash, and the bad guys are already a long way away. And it's so bad, kids are burning out. Or killing themselves. It's not hard to disappear here.' He chewed on his cigarette holder for a moment, before adding, 'But I'm not ruling anything out.'
I tried to keep my fears hard in me, but I could see from Polly's expression I hadn't done a very good job. I took out Denny's picture and slid it across the desk. 'This is my boyfriend, Denny Glass. He's missing. I don't think he would have taken acid. He's ...' I struggled for the words.
'A straight edge?' Stimson said, examining the photo. 'I can't publish it. If I did, I'd have kids queuing round the block trying to find their missing beau.' He saw my face fall, and added, 'But I'll tell you what I will do. I'm out on the street all the time – it's my second home, man. I'll ask around. Denny Glass will be found. You have my word, sister.'
At the time that sounded like a good thing.
After I'd given Stimson the address of my crashpad, we went back outside and found the Doctor standing under a street lamp watching the mist drift in strange patterns. It was surprisingly quiet out, with few of the Haight's usual freaks milling around. The Doctor was distracted, and at first his expression was troubled, but when he saw us approaching he manufactured a supercilious smile.
'How was your little chat?' he asked.
'I'm not getting any closer to Denny,' I said. 'I don't know what to do next.'
'Oh, I shouldn't worry,' he said. 'I'm sure he'll turn up.'
Looking back, I'm sure he intended his words to be reassuring, but at the time I found them patronising and heartless. They knocked the blues off me, and I snapped back, 'I'm going to carry on looking, and I'm going to find him. I know it. It's only a matter of time.'