“Okay. You got a phone number? I’ll call you when it’s cleared.”

“Not necessary,” Decker said. “Just do your job and we’ll all be happy.”

“Tell me how the car came to your attention?” I asked him.

“Not much to tell, sweetheart. Guy comes in here six-thirty in the morning and tells me he needs to dump a hot mark. All those bullet holes, I’m figuring it was a messy holdup or gang warfare. Either way, I don’t want no part of that shit. I tell him where to go for scrap. That’s it.”

“Who’s the guy?” I asked.

“Don’t know him.”

“You don’t know him?” I tossed him a look. “You gave out the address of a chop shop to a guy you don’t know?”

“He’s the stepbrother of a greaser that used to work for me.”

“Okay,” I said. “What’s the greaser’s name?”

He brushed his tongue over his teeth. “We’re back up to a hundred.”

“Fine,” I said. “What’s his name… the greaser?”

“Germando El Paso.”

My father and I exchanged glances. Decker said, “What’d this guy look like?”

“I dunno. Maybe around five-ten.”

“Hair color, eye color?”

“I don’t pay attention to that kinda crap.”

“Think, Angus,” I told him. “It’s important.”

“Real short hair… stubble. Look, I got work to do, ’specially if you want me to do what you’re asking me to do. So get outta here and let me do it.”

“Where’s the scrap yard?” I asked.

Angus narrowed his eyes. “You don’t got no warrant. I ain’t got nothin’ else to say to you.” He started to turn his back.

“Thank you,” I told him.

He stopped, pivoted around, and stared at me.

“Thank you very much,” I said. “I’ll get you the money. I promise.”

His eyes took in my face. He nodded.

“One more thing?”

He waited.

“You’resureyou don’t know this guy’s name? You can understand why I’d want to know that.”

He was silent.

I said, “Angus, how about if I say some names. You don’t even have to tell me yes or no. I’ll just look at your face. And I’ll throw in an extra twenty-five.”

He didn’t move. I took it as an indication for me to continue. I rattled off a few fillers before I got to the meat. “Pepe Renaldes?”

Nothing.

“Juice Fedek?”

Angus was good, but the tic of the eye was involuntary.

“Juice Fedek is Germando El Paso’s stepbrother?” When Angus didn’t answer, I turned to my father. “Hence the mixed gang.”

“Are you leavin’ or what?” Angus stepped out into the working area and looked across the street at my father’s Porsche. “Is that your wheels?”

Decker said, “You touch it, you’re dead.”

“Need any parts? I got an ’81 nine-one-one engine with twenty thousand original miles.”

“As tempting as it is, I think I’ll pass.”

I said, “When you locate the car, tell the Industry PD to call Hollywood substation. Tell them you heard that the Nova was used in an officer-involved shooting.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Angus shook his head and said, “You know, this talk ain’t doing wonders for either of our images.”

“C’mon,” my father told me. When we were across the street, he put his arm around me. “Masterful.”

“I learned from the best.”

He took in my eyes. “I don’t know if you had the best this morning.”

“Then it’s good that I’ve seen him work under less emotional conditions.”

“Very good for him.”

The Loo unlocked the door. Renaldes was just where we’d left him. I pushed forward the driver’s seat and squeezed into my space. I leaned over and tucked the remaining halves of the three torn twenty-dollar bills into his pocket. But I still had severe reservations. This man, however cowed he was atthismoment, was potentially a willing participant in a gang rape. I kept that in the back of my mind. I patted his shoulder. “You did good, Pepe.”

He smiled. “You fin’ him?”

“The less you know, the better,” I told him. Evasiveness helped keep his anxiety level up. I weighed my words carefully. “You know, if we need you again for something else, you’d better come through.”

Dad translated my words into Spanish.

He squirmed.“Que quiere?”

“Nothing right now,” I told him. “But you never know.”

“Well stated,” the Loo complimented. He started the engine and we were off. I made Decker stop at a Burger King and bought Pepe a Shaq pack. I placed the bag on the floor of the car. He eyed it ravenously.

“I no can eat with thefaja.”

“ ‘Faja’ is the belt,” Dad told me.

I said, “You’ll eat when you get home. In the meantime, you can smell it.”

To me, the odor was greasy and nauseating. It was especially sickening because it took us over an hour to make it back to Pepe’s apartment. Traffic was in full swing: bumper to bumper, chrome reflecting in the sunlight, exhaust clogging up the air, and it wasn’t even afternoon rush hour yet. Finally, by one-thirty in the afternoon, we were back where we started, Renaldes delivered in one piece, a chastened man. I undid the wrist restraints and he picked up the bag of food. He took out some French fries and stuffed them into his mouth before we got to the door of his apartment. As soon as my father inserted Renaldes’s key in the lock, the dog went nuts. When he opened the door, I could smell feces and urine. Someone had shown displeasure in a very primal way.

Pepe didn’t seem to notice. He was already unwrapping his hamburger. Before he made his escape, I grabbed his arm and glowered at him. “You say anything about this visit, I tell Angus. And don’t even think about leaving town. I got eyes in the back of my head.Comprende?”

He regarded my face, then looked at my hand around his arm. Slowly, I let it go.

“Pistola?” Renaldes said. “Este es un mundo muy peligroso.”

That much I could understand. I said, “If it’s clean, you’ll get it back.” I slapped his cheek. “Stay out of trouble.”

We walked back to Dad’s Porsche. It felt wonderful to sit in a normal seat. I didn’t realize how raw and tender my back muscles had become by my contortions in the backseat. I gave my legs a long stretch.

I said, “Think Angus is reliable?”

“No,” Dad answered. “But we know where to find him if he isn’t. Where’s your car?”

“At home.”

Decker got back on the freeway. Within minutes, my eyelids closed. By the time we arrived at my apartment, I had napped over forty minutes. I woke up, tired and groggy.

“I’ll walk you to the door,” Decker told me.

“You don’t have to-”

But he was already out of the car. He opened my door, and I leaned on him as we climbed the stairs to my unit. Behind the wall, I could hear my phone ringing. I managed to unlock my door and grab the receiver before the caller hung up. Dad followed me inside.

“Where’ve you been?” the voice asked me.

Shit! It was Lieutenant Stone. I had forgotten to call in at noon. It was almost three.

“Sleeping.” It was the truth. “I’m so sorry, Lieutenant.”

“Stone?” my dad mouthed.

I nodded.

“Shit,” he mouthed back. “Sorry.”

I waved him off. “What’s up, sir? Any new gunshot-wound victims show up in any hospital since I left the station house?”

“Not yet.”

“Well, that’s good.”

“Decker, I just got the strangest call. Someone from Industry PD told me about a shot-up Nova about to be junked. They had heard from an anonymous tip that it was used in a cop pop.”

“Oh my God!” I didn’t have to pretend to be surprised. Iwassurprised. Angus had worked even quicker than promised. I made a mental note to fire off the money in today’s mail. “Is it true?”

“Brill’s going to Industry to check it out.” A long pause. “How do you think word got around that fast?”

I smiled. “Obviously, someone bragged.”

“And where were you all this time?”

“Sleeping.”

“Alone?”

“Yes, I was sleeping alone, but I wasn’t alone in the house. My father’s been with me the entire time. He took the day off because he knew I was rattled. He’s here now. Want to talk to him?” I called him to the phone in a loud voice, speaking with enough volume so that Stone could hear over the line. I told Dad that Industry PD had a fix on the car. He clapped his hands, gave me a thumbs-up sign.