Chapter 18

Doc meets Adrian Prussia and Puck Beaverton at Adrian’s office. Adrian soon leaves, then Puck shares a joint with Doc that is secretly laced with PCP. Adrian false inhales. As Doc goes on a bad trip, Puck confesses, “I am the Golden Fang” (318) and explains the origin and meaning of the term. (318)

Puck confesses to murdering Dr. Rudy Blatnoyd, which means the Golden Fang “iced one of their own board members.” (329). Puck also brags of beating up his new wife, Trillium.

Puck explains to Doc that the Aryan Brotherhood killed Glen Charlock because he was a “traitor to his race” (320) for running guns to WAMBAM, a militant African American organization. Although Puck was also an Aryan Brotherhood member, he was loyal to Glen and warned him the hit was coming. Protecting Mickey was Glen’s first legit job so he stood by him, but paid the ultimate price.

Puck explains how Adrian Prussia became a contract killer for the LAPD, and how the LAPD protects Adrian from any legal consequences. When the LAPD requested Adrian to kill police officer Vincent Indelicato, he wasn’t interest so offered the hit to Puck, who truly hated Vincent.

Puck attempts to murder Doc, but Doc kills Puck and then kills Adrian.

As Doc leaves the crime scene (Adrian’s office), he finds Bigfoot stealing a twenty-kilo parcel of the Golden Fang’s heroin from Adrian Prussia’s car.

Doc confronts Bigfoot for setting him up to kill Puck and Adrian. Later, Bigfoot says he should have killed them himself.

Bigfoot recounts the circumstances of Vincent’s murder.

Bigfoot confesses that he knew the commotion at Chick Planet Massage “was really to cover a hit on Glen Charlock […] it was never about Mickey.” (333–334) According to Bigfoot, Mickey just stumbled onto something he shouldn’t have seen. The Vigilant California goons panicked and hustled Mickey away for a while.

Bigfoot explains when the feds found out Mickey wanted to give away his billions, they (“being tight with the Golden Fang”) got Mickey into the Chryskylodon Institute to reprogram his brain. (334)

Later Doc discovers Bigfoot has planted 20 kg of the Golden Fang’s heroin in the trunk of Doc’s car—an effort to get Doc murdered.

Doc assumes he is being pursued by the Golden Fang to recover their stolen heroin. To throw the Golden Fang off his scent, he creates a decoy heroin package and puts it on a plane bound for Honolulu. He hides the real heroin in Denis’s apartment.

Crocker Fenway phones Doc and reveals he is a fixer for the Golden Fang and arranges the return of the stolen heroin.

Download a PDF of this diagram.
Character Relationships in Inherent Vice, Chapter 18 — 166 KB PDF