IVIV: Penny Kimball and f**king the powers that be

[John Bailey]

Doc goes to lunch with Penny Kimball, the Deputy DA he's been
'seeing'; as already mentioned, the precise nature of the relationship
seems short of 'dating' and Doc himself sees it as a bit of a power
thing - Penny getting some cheap hippie love thrills without having to
actually involve herself with the lifestyle that actually entails.
It's just sex, a surface engagement. She doesn't seem to like him,
certainly doesn't respect him, and that probably goes both ways.

Not too different from Doc's r'ship with Bigfoot...

This whole idea is amplified by the choice of lunch locale, a skid-row
dive where judges and lawyers go to rub shoulders with winos. Penny is
most definitely on the side of the Powers That Be.

She immediately begins grilling him courtroom stylee: "Put it another
way... how close *were* you and Shasta Fay Hepworth?" The whole
exchange is written as a witness interrogation.

This cold tone suggests an ulterior agenda, which might tie into the
upcoming betrayal when Penny delivers Doc to the feds.

Doc, on the other hand, is still as temporally foggy as ever: "It was
all over with years ago," he said. "Months?"

Well, which is it? I'm still having trouble sorting the novel's
deliberately vague timeline.

Note that Shasta's first request to Doc was to get in touch with Penny
et al about the Mickey booby-hatch plot. He says he's been calling
her, but this is the first time he's really followed up on Shasta's
plea. Maybe it's just his reticence to get involved with authorities.