Executioner's Song, The - Norman Mailer [334]
Maybe she was saying it in a way that really got their attention, like she was smelling the finest and most peculiar shit.
Chapter 19
Advent
It was not the kind of news you could anticipate. In fact, it was unbelievable. Bob Moody received a phone call from Gary's friend, Gibbs, who said he was a police informer and was going to testify at a trial in the next couple of days. Having been Gary's cellmate in County Jail, he had quite a story to tell, he told Moody, and wanted ten thousand bucks and a chance to get on the Johnny Carson show.
Moody informed Vern immediately of the conversation, and a couple of hours later, visiting the prison, Vern passed it on to Gary. When there was no reply, Vern explained again what Gibbs had said to Moody.
Gary puckered his lips so tight, it looked as if he had taken out his plates.
"I'm sorry, Gary," said Vern. "As you know, I already paid him the $2,000."
"You know that guy," Gary said. "I trusted him. You don't trust too many people in the world."
"I'd like to run into him," said Vern. "I'd change his head."
"Well," Gary said, "don't worry, Vern. You can't do anything about it, but I can." He nodded. "I can take care of it right from here." He was certainly serious, thought Vern. "Yes," said Vern to himself, "if Gibbs doesn't leave town, he's going to get taken care of."
Schiller and Barry Farrell were working together that morning in Los Angeles when Moody called with the news. Gibbs, he said, was eager to talk to Schiller about a deal. Larry had been mentioned in the pages of Helter Skelter, and so he thought Schiller mIght want to buy inside stories on Gary, stuff no one else had. Schiller was plainly worried, and got on the phone and put in a call to Gibbs, and heard him repeat everything he had said to Moody. Then Gibbs asked that Schiller not divulge any of this private information to Gary. Schiller, hanging up, said to Farrell, "It's ridiculous. Does he think Moody is going to keep it from his client?" Farrell, fresh from reading Gilmore's letters full of encomiums to his cellmate, said, "Gibbs has got to be the lowest of all creatures."
Schiller had already decided to find out whether Gibbs really knew enough to do any damage to his exclusive, and, if so, sign him up at the lowest possible price. Since he and Barry were about to take off for Provo that afternoon, and were ready to prime Moody and Stanger with new questions, it would be relatively simple to interview Gibbs as well. Indeed, it would be the first job they would do in Utah together. Might be a way of christening their relationship. "Behooves us," said Farrell, "to wring Gibbs out like a washrag."
On the airplane, en route to Salt Lake, they went over the interrogatories Barry had prepared. In the last week, Farrell had read everything available, the letters, tapes, and every sheet of yellow paper on which Gilmore had written answers, and then had come up with a new and thorough set of questions. Schiller now read this work with attention and discussed each query and they changed a number of them.
At Salt Lake, they rented a car, drove to Provo, and put up at the TraveLodge. Then he brought Barry over to meet Moody and Stanger. It took a while to convince the lawyers not to inform Gilmore about Farrell. "If Gary knows another man has been brought in, he's going to have to learn to trust the new man," Schiller said. In fact, after Gibbs, who would he accept?
Then Schiller tried, in the politest way, to lay out some of his criticisms of the lawyers' interviews, and convince them why the approach from now on had to be mapped by Farrell and himself. "Here," he showed them, "is our first full-dress interview." He went through the questions, and emphasized the possible