Wild, the guy said, taking off his sunglasses to reveal red-tinged, clouded eyes that werent surprising considering the scent emanating from him. Yeah, hes out back by the pool. You wanna say hi?

I think wed like that very much, Jessie said, smiling pleasantly. Can you lead the way?

Sure, he said, apparently not at all troubled by having law enforcement show up unannounced. Is everything cool?

Unfortunately, no, Jessie told him. Were investigating a crime and were hoping Percy can help us out. Do you work for him?

The guy laughed wheezily at the question.

You could say that, he said. Im Wally, by the way. Im what you might call a procurer of items.

What kind of items? Karen asked.

Oh, household necessities. Everything from toilet paper to kombucha.

I see, Karen said, not pressing him on what other necessities might be on the shopping list.

They passed through a long central hallway, lined with paving stones, into a more modern living room with a wall-sized TV screen at one end, and finally to a sliding door that led outside. When it opened, they were enveloped by the sound of piped-in music, which Jessie assumed was Avalons. She wasnt a connoisseur of his work. They walked up a set of stone stairs that opened onto a kidney-shaped pool with a waterfall and a water slide.

There were half a dozen people, all men, spread out around the pool. Some were in chairs, others on chaise lounges. One guy was seated at the mouth of the slide, dangling his feet in the water. Jessie was pretty sure that at least some of them were band members. Beer bottles were strewn about and two of the guys were sharing a bong.

Jessie and Karen ignored them and walked over to the man sitting in a chair in the shade of an umbrella-adorned deck table. He was dressed only in red swim briefs, a bold choice under any circumstances, but especially when the temperature was hovering in the mid-sixties. His salt and pepper chest hair looked like a birds nest and most of the skin on his back and arms was covered in tattoos. His gray hair was even longer than that of his procurer, Wally.

They both recognized him as Percy Avalon, lead singer of Humbert Humbert, a hugely successful rock band from the early 2000s that still attracted solid crowds on their seemingly endless tours. Avalon was known as a wild man in the bands heyday, repeatedly arrested on drunk and disorderly charges. He once even got into a fistfight with the lead singer of another band backstage at the Grammys. Both men were arrested, though they were each allowed to perform onstage before being carted off. In more recent years, Avalon seemed to have mellowed, at least until the recent false imprisonment charge that Milly Estrada got knocked down to accessory and time served.