“No, it was a SIG Sauer MCX,” Fritz responded.
I just shook my head that he could tell what kind of gun it was from that video.
“The police were there fairly quickly, and the first officer in the door exchanged gunfire with the terrorist. The terrorist then retreated to a bathroom, where he found people hiding and took them as hostages,” Flo explained.
“Around five a.m., they set off a controlled explosion to distract the target. SWAT drove an armored vehicle through a wall of the club, and officers swarmed in from behind. Eleven of them engaged the target and eliminated the threat,” Fritz said.
“Trip was found still under the table, with Andy blocking him from further harm with his body,” Flo said.
“I’m so sorry for your loss,” I told Fritz.
“He did his job,” Fritz said.
I could tell he was starting to get emotional, so I left him alone.
◊◊◊
Frank showed up and wanted to talk.
“They keep harping on the gay bar aspect. That shouldn’t be the focus,” I complained. “They’re all people first. It shouldn’t matter if they’re gay or anything else. People are dead, but that seems to be what the media is latching onto.”
“You’re beating a dead horse with that one,” Frank said with a smirk. “Intellectually, everyone would agree with you, but that isn’t the reality. People want to feel safe. If they can point to something and say, ‘I’m not like them, so it would never happen to me,’ they can go home and not worry about it. Think about it. You see that there’s a bombing in the Middle East; does that affect you?”
“No, I guess not.”
“You can tuck it away and sleep at night because it would never happen here.”
“What you’re saying is that because it did happen here, then people need to explain to themselves why it wouldn’t happen to them?” I asked.
“That’s part of it. Bias also plays a role, whether or not we want to admit it. We want to put it into a neat little box. We want to be able to say, ‘It happened because they were different in some way and the person who did it had a problem with that kind of people.’ Then we can forget about it,” Frank explained.
“It just doesn’t seem right to me,” I complained.
“There’s the other side of the coin. You have to be careful about pushing your agenda for political correctness,” Frank said.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Don’t repeat this, because many people get funny when you use a phrase like ‘political correctness.’ In this case, the ‘politically correct’ thing to do would be to treat them just like everyone else. What you’re able to do is to suppress other people because you have the moral high ground. If you had your way, they wouldn’t even mention that it happened at a gay club.”
I just nodded.
“Would this not be an opportunity to talk about the issues the LGBTQ community faces and how they are treated? Wouldn’t it be better to acknowledge that a possible reason was the bigoted attitude of the killer? I know there’s no evidence that the killer held those views, but I don’t think you want to suppress discussion about that,” Frank reasoned.
“I guess I was just worried about how it would affect Craig. He’s worked hard not to let it out that he’s bi. It could really hurt him financially and affect the types of roles he’ll be able to play. I know it’s not fair, but it’s the truth,” I said.
“And that, my friend, is why you pay me the big bucks. Image is everything,” he said with a smile.
“I’m not sure I agree,” I admitted.
“Maybe not in the real world, but you’re in the movies now,” Frank said.
◊◊◊
I ordered pizza, and when there was a knock at the door, I got up to go pay for it. I opened it to find Kent, Craig’s manager.
“Wow, am I glad to see you. Is Craig with you?” I asked.
“I don’t know where he is. He went to the club with Trip, and I’ve had no word from him since. I was hoping you might know something.”
I invited him in. He told me he’d talked to Frank, and Frank had told him where we were. Pizza arrived, Flo got Halle and Rita, and everyone came out to hear Kent’s story. I admit I’d missed pizza while I was in Cuba, but no one complained about my indulgence.
“Craig had been invited to appear at a comic-book convention called Hero Hype. It was being held at the Orange County Convention Center. They’re planning to create a
“Why would Craig want to do a comic-book convention?” I asked.
“Craig isn’t doing as well financially as you would think. He spent most of his money on maintaining his lifestyle,” Kent admitted.
That was code for he bought a mansion, luxury cars, women, drugs … you name it. It would be easy to blow through a ton of money in LA in a short time.
“Even his signing bonus for the
Everyone turned and looked at me like I’d lost my mind.
“He
“No, what did you get?” Kent asked.
I told him, and even Rita looked impressed.
“That reminds me, Saul asked that I have you call him Monday,” I told Rita.
