“Leonard Jones.”
“John Kalogeropoulos.” That is my real name. You can see why I used a stage name. I though of using Johnny Kay at first, but some suggested that sounded like Danny Kay, which was not the image I was going for.
May raised an eyebrow when he heard my name. “What do you know about Johnson’s whereabouts last night?”
Lenny took the lead. “We know he was working at The Hideaway last night. After they closed, we gave him a ride home.”
“Why were you there long enough after they closed to do that?”
“We’re musicians. We were on the bill. We were just finishing up when he was.”
“Did anything else happen?” May looked at us and we looked at him for a few seconds. “Johnson has been accused of lewd behavior toward a young lady and beating up her suitor.”
I saw fire flash in Lenny’s eyes. He said, “There were some kids there who were harassing Moon—Johnson. That’s why we gave him a lift. We didn’t want any trouble. Besides, does Johnson look like he’s been in a fight?”
“No. When I got the report, the accuser didn’t look like he had been in fight either except for a little scrape on his hand. My kid gets scraped up worse playing baseball. But under his shirt, he was bruised up something fierce. Someone worked him over. Someone who know what he was doing.”
I felt like I was about to go back on the stage. The eggs, biscuit and gravy started unpleasantly experimenting with ways to escape my stomach. I told myself, “The show is already started. It’s time to rock, man.”
Lenny continued. “We can assure you that Johnson didn’t lay a hand on anyone. We drove him away. If one of those kids got themselves beat up, it was by someone else.”
“So do you promote promiscuity and adultery?”
“What?” I asked.
“Did you sing a song called ‘Jailbait’ at The Hideaway last night?”
“Um, yes, sir.”
“And you’re musicians. You play rock and roll music.”
Whole Grain Serial 