The Cold Six Thousand - James Ellroy [89]
He bought the Dallas papers. He scanned every page. He got no news on Maynard Moore. He got no news on Wendell Durfee.
He read the papers. Sergeant A. V. Brown got sometime ink. Sergeant Brown worked Homicide.
Sergeant Brown knew he killed Maynard Moore. Sergeant Brown had no proof and no body. Sergeant Brown hated him. Ditto Dwight Holly.
Holly tailed him—spot tails/odd nights. Jaunts through West LV—ten minutes per.
Show tails. Overt tails and grudge tails. Fender-to-fender.
Holly tailed him. Holly knew his Darktown biz. Holly was Fed. Holly was cosmetically pro-Negro. The snuffs fucked Holly up. The snuffs fucked Holly up with Wayne Senior.
They went back. They shared laughs in Indiana. They shared their chaste brand of HATE.
HATE lured them places. HATE lured Wayne to the ranch. He prowled the ranch cyclical. He got the urge and savored it. He picked his entry shots.
Janice leaves. Wayne Senior leaves. He watches them go and walks in. He goes to the dressing room. He smells Janice. He touches her things.
He reads Wayne Senior’s files. He reads Wayne Senior’s tracts.
The Papal Pipeline. Boat Tickets to the Congo—one-way passage on the Titanic.
The tracts went back to ’52. The tracts “probed” Little Rock. The tracts “exposed” Emmett Till. The Little Rock kids spread gonorrhea. Emmett Till raped white girls.
It was bullshit. It was chaste and cowardly HATE.
Wayne Senior lied—“I ‘diversified’ last year.” Bullshit—Wayne Senior pushed long-term hate.
HATE tracts. HATE comic boox. HATE primers. The HATE alphabet.
Wayne read Wayne Senior’s mail file. Mr. Hoover wrote memorandums. Dwight Holly wrote notes. They were long-term pen pals—from 1954 up.
’54 rocked. The Supreme Court banned school segregation. The Ku Klux Klan rocked anew.
Mr. Hoover rocked. Mr. Hoover deployed Dwight Holly. Holly knew Wayne Senior. Mr. Hoover loved Wayne Senior’s tracts. Mr. Hoover collected them. Mr. Hoover displayed them. Mr. Hoover rang Wayne Senior up.
They chatted. Mr. Hoover bored in:
You push hate tracts. Someone has to. They’re harmless and fun. They appeal to the rural right. The rural right is factional. The rural right is dumb.
You have hate credentials. You can help me place plants. We place them in Klan groups. Dwight Holly to supervise. They snitch mail fraud. They scotch your tract rivals. They assist the FBI.
Wayne read file notes. Mr. Hoover wrote. Dwight Holly wrote. Klan klowns wrote komedy. They sucked up to Wayne Senior. They yahooed. They described their koontretemps.
The mail file stopped dead—summer ’63. No Fed notes/no snitch notes/no kommuniqués: Why that? Say what?
Wayne loved the Fed notes. The Fed-speak glowed: “Felony guidelines.” “Acceptable acts to sustain informant credibility.”
Wayne loved the Klan notes. The text glistened. The Klan-speak glowed.
Wayne Senior suborned rednecks. Wayne Senior koddled them. They lived on Fed money. They bought corn liquor. They pulled “minor assaults.”
One note sizzled. Dwight Holly writes—10/8/57.
Holly praised Wayne Senior. Holly enthused: You toughed it out/you retained your kover.
10/6/57. Shaw, Mississippi. Six Kluxers grab a Negro. Said Kluxers employ a dull knife. They sever his balls. They feed their dogs in front of him. Wayne Senior observes.
Wayne read the note. Wayne read it fifty times. The note taught him this:
Wayne Senior fears you. Wayne Senior fears your HATE. It’s unmediated. It’s unexploitative. It’s unrationalized.
Wayne Senior hated petty. Wayne Senior had a rationale. Wayne Senior tried to shape his HATE.
Wayne Senior played him a bug tape. Wayne Senior played it over drinks. The date: 5/8/64. The place: Meridian, Mississippi.
Civil-rights workers talked—four Negro males. Said Negroes defamed white girls. Said girls were “liberal cooze.” Said girls were “punchboards out for black stick.”
Wayne listened. Wayne replayed the tape—thirty-eight times.
Wayne Senior ran a Fed film. Wayne Senior ran it over lunch. The date: 2/19/61. The place: New York City.
A folk club/mixed dancing/dark lips and hickeys.
Wayne watched. Wayne