WOLFMAN Kane went to Hollywood to see if any of it made sense. As he took his coffee on Santa Monica Boulevard, wave after wave of images flickered through his mind. Charles Laughton snacking on shit sandwiches. Bob Mitchum banging some producer's wife. Jean Simmons making the filling for a sandwich between Stewart Granger and Richard Burton. And speaking of the Welsh windbag, here he is stumbling out of a bar and telling a pal who asked him why he was looking so smug: "I just fucked Elizabeth on the back seat of my Cadillac." Elizabeth Taylor, retelling the story to Michael Jackson, says: "Rich had nice eyes when they weren't bloodshot. But to be honest, he was usually so pissed by 11am that he couldn't get it up." That made Jacko giggle.
So Kane sits and wonders which of the vacant-eyed humanoids passing by has current celebrity status. He doesn't think he would know any of them and really has little interest. A few years back he had rescued a couple of young things from Harvey Weinstein's cesspit, but he can't remember where they went.
Kane wants a woman. He is a strapping handsome big lad and could probably easily pick one up if he trawled a couple of nightspots. But the game is the thing....
He spotted Margot shopping along Rodeo Drive and tracked her back to the Hollywood Hills. A good-looking woman wearing cream slacks and a white silk blouse. Forty something, gym-bunny body. Momentarily he had lost her in the swirl of scents when she went to the perfume counter, but he soon picked up her natural odor. When Margot left her home later that afternoon, Kane expertly picked the back-door lock and entered the sprawling mansion. He liked exploring houses, the secret nooks and crannies of suburban lives. In the laundry he fished a pair of Margot's panties from the basket and pressed them to his nose. The musty whiff pleased and aroused him. He explored the rest of the house and helped himself to a bottle of Petrus from an oak sideboard. The vintage wine relaxed him. "Oenophile," he muttered. "the guy's an oenophile." Kane thought Walter Robertson probably didn't know the meaning of the word. But Kane knew. He knew a lot of things. He collected university doctorates and studied the constellations. He was contemptuous of human murmurings about UFOs. There was no such thing. His own travels through time and space required energy resources which were undreamed of by the earthlings.
On the sideboard were family photos, a wedding snap of Walter and Margot, a couple of their kids. The kids would be away at college, Kane thought. And another photo caught his eye. It showed Margot on safari in Africa with a dead lion. She was wearing jodhpurs and brown riding boots, a red bandana knotted around her tanned neck. She was kneeling beside the fallen beast, rifle in hand. And she was smiling, a huge happy smile. Kane snarled. His lips curled up over his fangs. He hated hunters, mindless morons who killed for pleasure. He decided to have a word about it with Margot later. His distaste for her grew. A woman who would be happiest firing bullets into rhinos and Ragheads.
By about 5pm, Kane had thoroughly researched the family and had a good handle on their finances. Walter was a corpulent corporate lawyer who spent most of his time at home watching old clips of Donald Trump rallies. He was out of shape and owned a lot of guns. There were no sex toys in the bedroom.