gazette2

WC - For someone. Believe me, I wouldn't wear it if I didn't have
to. I'm a detective. I don't work for Ringling Bros. (gesturing to
face) This doesn't open a lot of doors.

So your true identity could hurt someone else. Aren't you
carrying your ethics into a whole new realm.

WC - It's more complicated than that.

And talking doesn't help?

WC - No, Doctor.

(Wildclown smiles softly.)

WC - It goes with the times we're living in.

What's your take on that? You're a detective, surely you've tried
to figure out what happened.

WC - The Change? No, I think only God's going to figure that
out. It's a blind alley for me. You look at the number of scientists
who have tried to work it out, and they've pretty much all
capitulated. If they can't tell us why dead people are walking
around, or why you and I aren't aging then, I'd be kidding myself
to start. They need facts like me. If they can't find them, I'm not
going to try. Besides, that kind of introspection is self-
destructive.

How so?

WC - Reality has Changed. Too much thought of 'why' forces
you to compare it with the old reality. It's gone. Dead. Move on.

What's your take on death?

WC - My take is, I don't like it. But I'm more familiar with it
than you might think. And I don't mean the odd time I've gotten
into a scrape on the job. I just think that every one of us has a
bullet out there with his or her name on it.

Bullet?

WC - Bullet, or bus, or Pontiac, or chicken bone. My point is,
we're all going to be members of the club sooner or later.

So you don't fear it.

(Wildclown shifts uncomfortably in his chair.)

WC - How can I? Death makes as much sense to me as the
Change does. Why try to figure it out? Just keep going until it
happens. It will.

That's your philosophy?

WC - The Change demands it. And like my partner Elmo says: be
a changing man.

Let's talk about your partner. There has been a lot of
speculation about him lately.

WC - He's speculating too. When he got killed, he lost a lot of
his memory from his life. Since I met him when he was dead, I
couldn't help him put it together.

But he has been identified as Thesalon Des'arlmo, from pre-
Change New Orleans.

WC - Oh, I know. But he's still mystified can't remember much
at all. He's always had a fondness for Cajun foods that he
couldn't explain, but... The revelation that he was a detective in
life made sense to me. Hell when it comes to sheer detective
professionalism he's got me beat hands down. And I should point
out that he was a private detective in Vicetown after the Change
and that's where he got killed.

Any idea who killed him?

WC - We're looking into that now.

Is that the next case you mentioned?

WC - I'm unable to say.

Professional ethics again?

WC - Yeah. But in this case, it's sheer economics. That kind of
job takes money, and Elmo's boss is a skinflint.

There is a rumor that your last case involved a very rich family
from New Garden and that you received a considerable reward.

WC - The trouble with my business is you usually owe the money
you make on your next job.

Is that a confirmation or a denial of a New Garden family's
involvement?

WC - I've always found that the press makes that determination
on its own. You decide.

You don't like the press.

WC - I don't care about the press. It's just another thing I can't
control. I like a well-written article and the funny pages.

You don't believe it helps uncover the same facts you look for.

WC - Yes, it does. But do you know who owns the Gazette?

There was a rumor that this 'considerable reward' helped to
finance a trip to the sunny south, where you are also rumored to
have been involved with the break up of a macabre cross-border
dead immigrant smuggling ring, and later the destruction of the
infamous Salsa del Rio ranch. It was also rumored that this
explained your absence during most of the Authority in fighting
and why the independent counsel has only now begun to talk to
you.

WC - You know better than to listen to rumor. But, if I was away
during that time, it would explain why I can still draw a breath
and smoke two packs of cigarettes a day. A lot of people got dead
and gone.

What's next for you?

WC - The poor house, if I don't get back to work.

So, there's no money, fleeting and dangerous fame, and notoriety
in your line of work.

WC - Not so romantic.

Why do it, then, Ethics?

(Wildclown stands and points his index finger at me, makes a
firing gun motion. He smiles in a knowing yet maniacal way.)

WC - I wish it was as simple as that.

What next?

WC - It'll be in all the papers.

Note- Wildclown received a subpoena two days after giving this
interview. An Authority gag order delayed its publication in the
Greasetown Gazette. Wildclown gave his deposition in closed
court while in the company of his attorney, Conrad Billings. No
criminal charges are pending. He was released under Authority
protection until the upcoming series of trials. The Greasetown
Gazette will continue to cover this developing story. MH.

(Rumored key-witness in the upcoming Independent Counsel's grand
jury, Private Investigator Thomas Wildclown, enters the room puffing
on a cigarette clamped between black make-upped lips. His large
hands make fists at his sides with either nervousness or purpose. His
big form, made bigger by his apparel, a well-worn knee-length
overcoat, low-slung fedora and combat boots, suggest great strength
with an air of dissipation, though the canny snaps of his head belie
this, suggesting secret resources. He clomps across the plush carpet
of the hotel's conference suite with all the apparent grace of a dump
truck. His hat does little to hide the sinister black and white clown
make-up he is notorious for and seems incongruous with the heavy
spotted coverall he wears beneath the coat. He appears to be pre-
Change forty in age.)

(He rakes the room with coal black eyes, before finding the large
chair across from me. He quickly removes and throws his coat and
hat across its back, exposing the powerful .44 caliber automatic
hanging dangerously from his pink skipping rope belt. Wildclown
drops into the chair and turns his piercing gaze upon me. There is
something dangerous there, glinting under the surface. An otherness
fills his mien, provoked by his makeup and the face of the man hidden
beneath.)

"You have a drink?" (He says while stubbing his cigarette in an ash
stand to his right. He searches his pockets for a fresh one. He lights
it.)

"Certainly," (I say, gesturing to my assistant.) "I suppose the
interview has started?"

"Why not?" (Wildclown mumbles into his three-ounces of scotch. His
sharp eyes watch my assistant's retreat.)

Over the past months you have become a contentious figure in the
Greasetown political landscape.

WC - Contentious in what way?

Mayor Harvey has called for your private investigations license to be
revoked. That's contentious.

WC - The Greasetown political landscape has always been contentious
to me. So I guess it fits.

You made enemies.

WC - And friends. I'd be a missing person otherwise.

You figured prominently in the recent Authority in-fighting, yet your
actual role in it has never been well defined.

WC - I was working on a case during the 'in-fighting' and I'm unable
to divulge my role because I have professional ethics.

But your detractors say that should you divulge it, you could clear
the considerable debate about you�Authority's independent counsel
may not subpoena.

WC - And I'd sink friends in the process. No. I'm more interested in
the next case than in kissing mayoral asses. I'll talk at the special
grand jury.

No one seems to know your true identity, but friends are important to
you. Why the emphasis on friends?

WC - I only have a couple. My friends have kept me alive and
working. [Mayor] Harvey wants my ass on a platter because he was in
bed with the side of Authority that lost. He's trying to get me because
I, in a circuitous way, got him. The reason he can only bellow about it
is because I have friends on the side that won.

So powerful friends diminish powerful enemies.

WC - I don't keep friends because they're powerful. That's a perk. I
try do the honorable thing. A notion the Mayor's unacquainted with.

A little mud slinging?

WC - A little truth slinging. I owe it to my friends.

Friendship. Honor. Politicians use the same words.

WC - Using a word isn't meaning it.

How do our readers know you mean it?

WC- I'm a professional. I have ethics.

That's supposed to make us believe?

WC - Yes and no.

How so?

WC - People shouldn't reserve their professionalism or ethics for
their business lives. I try to act accordingly in every situation in life.
Right and Wrong are Right and Wrong regardless of the setting. If
more people in Authority did this off the job, they might find it
impossible to act the way they do on the job.

There's a rumor that you used to work for Authority and quit for that
very reason.

WC - I'd rather not got too deeply into that mystery.

Why not? The war is over.

WC - The war's never over. And the more penetrating the question,
the sooner I'll stop being myself.

Then the make-up?

WC - Is a tough issue for me.

Is it a shield?