Ray Depente said, 'This the muthuhfuckuh?' He took a black tube from his jacket pocket and screwed it onto the muzzle of the.45 as he said it.

That's him.'

Lucas Worley's eyes went wide, and he took one step back. 'Hey. What is this? What's going on?' Smug was gone. Arrogance had vanished.

Ray and Joe crossed the room like two large, sinuous sharks gliding toward a blood spoor. Ray moved between Worley and the stairs, and Joe moved in from the other side and grabbed Worley's throat hard and rode him down on the couch. When Joe grabbed him, Lucas made a gurgling sound. I said, 'I guess you should've called the cops when you had the chance, Luke.'

Ray waved the.45 at me. 'You can split now, you want. Mr DiVega says thanks.'

'Can't I stay?'

Ray shrugged like it was nothing to him. 'Either way.'

Lucas Worley's eyes were bulging and his face changed from red to purple. He was clawing at Joe's one hand with both of his, but it was like a child trying to bend steel bars.

Ray jacked a round into the.45, then put the muzzle of the suppressor against Worley's cheek and held out his other hand to shield himself from the blood-splatter that would surely follow and Lucas Worley thrashed and moaned and his bowels and bladder went loose at the same time. Guess the real world wasn't seeming like Easy Rider anymore. Guess it wasn't like a movie or a television program. Not much glamor in messing your shorts.

I said, 'You guys don't shoot him, yet.'

Lucas Worley's eyes rolled toward me.

I walked over and squatted by him to look into the rolling eyest I said, 'I helped Mr DiVega out a couple of years back, and he owes me. He knows that I want something from you, and he's willing to play this however I want. You see?'

Lucas Worley was trying to shake his head, trying to say he wasn't trying to cut in on anyone's trade and wouldn't do it anymore if only they'd let him live. Of course, since Joe was strangling him, we couldn't quite make out the words.

'These gentlemen have orders to kill you unless I tell them not to.'

Ray said, 'Kill yo' ass dead.' I frowned at Ray over the top of Worley's head, and Ray shrugged. Overacting.

I said, 'So what's it going to be, Luke? You going to help me out with Jonathan Green, or do I walk out the door and make these guys happy?'

Lucas Worley gurgled some more.

I said, 'I didn't understand you, Luke.'

Joe released some of the pressure, and Lucas Worley croaked, 'Anything. I'll do anything.'

Ray Depente pressed the gun in harder and looked angry. 'Shit. You mean we don't get to kill the little muthuhfuckuh?'

'Not yet. But maybe later.'

Ray squinted down at the rolling eyes, then withdrew the gun and stepped back. Joe let Worley go and also stepped away. Ray said, 'You got a pass this time, dipshit. But Mr DiVega be on your ass now, you understand?'

Lucas Worley was frozen on the couch like a squirrel in front of an onrushing car.

Ray said, 'You just retired from the dope dealin' business, didn't you?'

Worley nodded.

Ray said, 'You're giving Mr DiVega your word, and you know what will happen if you break your word, don't you?'

Worley nodded again. I think he was too terrified to speak.

Ray looked at the framed Harvard Law School diploma and shook his head. 'Dumb muthuhfuckuh. You Oughta be ashamed of yourself.'

He put away the.45, then he and Joe Pike walked over to the bar and made themselves a drink.

I said, 'I told you that you'd see it my way, Luke. Now go wash off and change your clothes. We've got some work to do.'

CHAPTER 29

When Lucas Worley was in the shower I looked at Ray Depente. '"Kill yo' ass dead"?'

'I thought it was very effective.'

Joe Pike shook his head. 'Samuel L. Jackson.'

Ray frowned. 'Since when did you become Sir Laurence Olivier?'

Pike's mouth twitched, and he went over to browse through Worley's CDs.

By the time we got Worley out of the shower and dressed and sitting in the living room, it was two-forty that afternoon. Joe and Ray were back in character, Joe standing behind the couch like an ominous shadow, Ray watching ESPN on the big-screen. I said, 'Luke, do you have a gun here in your house?'

He was sitting on the couch with his hands in his lap and his hair wet and spikey. He still looked scared, but now he wasn't looking panicked. 'Yeah. Up in the nightstand.'

Joe drifted up the stairs.

'That the only one, Luke? You wouldn't have any surprises tucked away, would you?'

He shook his head, eyes jumping with the certain knowledge that surprises would get him killed. 'That's all. I swear.'

'Are you expecting anyone?'

'No.'

'No one dropping around to pick up a little smack? No girlfriends? No repairmen?'

'No. Honest.' A dope-dealing ex-attorney saying honest.

'Okay. I am now going to tell you exactly what I want, and you're going to tell me how to do it. Okay?'

He looked worried. 'If I can.'

Ray whirled away from the big-screen, loud and angry and snapping, 'What did you say?'

Lucas Worley jumped as if he'd been slapped. 'I'll tell you how. Sure. Whatever you want.'

Ray's eyes narrowed, and he turned back to the big-screen, mumbling.

Joe Pike came back down the stairs with a pistol. 'Clock nine.'

'Anything else?'

'Nope.' He sat by Ray.

I said, 'Okay, Luke. Here's my problem. I suspect that your mentor, Mr Green, is suborning testimony. I think he may even be involved in murder, only I can't figure out why a man in his position and of his stature would risk his ass by so doing. Do you understand that?'

Worley wasn't just looking at me; he was watching my lips move, careful to get every word. He blinked when he realized that I'd quit speaking, then shook his head. 'Of course, he wouldn't. That's dumb.'

'That's what everyone says.'

'It's true. If he's caught he'd be throwing away his career.'

I smiled at him. 'Sort of like you.'

Lucas Worley swallowed, then shrugged. Like he was embarrassed. 'Yeah, but I was just a lawyer, and I never liked it much. He's Jonathan Green. He loves it.'

'Well, you're going to help me find out if it's dumb or not. Would Jonathan enter into a verbal agreement with a client?'

Worley grinned. 'You've got to be kidding.'

'Okay, so everything would be written.'

'Absolutely. But no one is going to admit to a crime on paper. You're not going to find a paper that says "I will do murder for X dollars."' He was smiling at the thought of it. 'Such a contract isn't enforceable, anyway. You couldn't sue somebody because they didn't perform an illegal act. You'd be incriminating yourself in conspiracy.'

'So Jonathan wouldn't put anything in writing that he couldn't support in a civil action.'

'Not a chance. No lawyer would.' He spread his hands. 'Look, you're not going to find anything incriminating there. I promise you. Jonathan isn't that stupid.'

That's not your concern. Your job is to get me access to all the contracts between Teddy and Jonathan. That is the sum total of your value to me.' I nodded toward Joe and Ray. 'You know that much, don't you?'

The worried look came back. 'Hey, I said that I would. We can't just walk in there in the middle of the day. There're people.'

'When do the people go home?'

'The office closes at six, but some of them stay late. Christ, we used to work until ten, eleven at night. Sometimes later.'

Joe said, 'How many people?'

'A few. It's a big office.'

I said, 'But most of the people go at six?'

'Yeah. There shouldn't be more than eight or nine there later than that.'

'You have a card key to get in?'

'Oh, yeah. I kept it.'

'How about the elevator to Jonathan's floor?'