Potshot

"Clean up the criminal element?" Chollo said.

"Yeah."

"We are the criminal element," Chollo said.

"Yeah, but you're not their criminal element."

"What do you want with Ta

"I don't know. But it must have something to do with the thing in the desert."

"So you clean up one, you clean up the other?"

"Si."

"I didn't realize you spoke our language," Chollo said.

"Si."

"If you were to succeed in this," del Rio said. "It might provide me an opportunity to expand eastward."

"If Ta

"Si."

I looked at Chollo.

"He's fluent too," I said.

"Ta

"That's my plan," I said.

166 sobert's. parker

"How big is their criminal element?"

"Thirty, forty guys:"

"And ours?"

"With you and Bobby Horse," I said. "There would be seven:"

"Including you?"

"Including me:' l said. "Which really makes it seventeen. As you know, my strength is as the strength of ten."

"Ten what?" Chollo said.

"You paying?" Bobby Horse said. "Big time:' I said.

"How much?"

I told him. He looked at Chollo.

"I saved his ass once before," Chollo said. "He's sort of fun for an Anglo."

Bobby Horse looked at del Rio. "Mr. del Rio?"

"I don't have a problem with it," del Rio said. "Chollo?"

"No problem: '

"Okay," Bobby Horse said.

"Can you make the phone call?" I said to del Rio. "To Ta

"I'll have it made," he said.

"Gracias.", Del Rio gri

"Si," he said.

Chapter 31

IN A DARK brown Range Rover, laden with brush gear and sonorous with stereo, with Bobby Horse driving and Chollo beside him, and me in the back seat, we cruised down Palm Canyon Drive, through Palm Springs on Racquet Club Road and into Morris Ta

"That him?" he said.

"Si," Chollo said.

The cowboy looked at me some more, then straightened and jerked his head toward the house.

"Okay," he said.

Bobby Horse shut off the motor and we got out into the heat, walked to the front door, and rang the bell. A Filipino house boy answered and bowed us into the air-conditioned hallway.

"Please to wait here," he said and went down the hall and disappeared. In a few moments a man came out of the door where the Filipino had gone and walked toward us. He was a well-built guy, like a racquetball player, or a te

"Yes," I said.

"Five minutes," he said.

"Plenty," I said.

Chollo and the suit continued to look at each other.

Then the suit said, "Follow me," and turned and went back down the hall. We followed him into a smallish room that looked out through glass doors at a modest pool, and beyond, to the green of the golf course. A big-screen television set on a high shelf was blasting out a rollicking symphony of ca

"Ro

Without a word, the suit who let us in went to a desk beside the door and pressed a button. The flabby guy climbed down off the Gravitron and wiped his face with a towel and took a big pull of Gatorade.

"I'm Morris Ta

The Filipino came silently into the room and folded up the newspapers, picked up the Gatorade bottles, cleaned up the spill and went silently out. Ro

"My name's Spenser," I said. "I wonder why you sent Jerome Jefferson and his friend Tino to scare me out of my wits."

"Don't know Tino," Ta

"What things did you want taken care of?"

"I want you to forget about Steve Buckman. I want you to stay away from Lou Buckman, and I want you to forget about the Dell."

"Un-huh."

"And if you don't do what I want I'll have you killed."

"How come?" I said.

"Because I say so, that's how come. You think because you get del Rio to call me, and you bring a couple of his greasers to back you up, that somehow makes you different from every other two-bit cheapie I've put in the fucking ground?"

"I'm the greaser," Chollo said, still looking at Ronslie. He tilted his head toward Bobby Horse. "He's an Indian."

Ta

"You heard me," he said.

"I did, and I'm trying to get my breath back," I said.

"Okay," Ta

"What's your interest in Lou Buckman?" I said. "Or the Dell?"

"This is my home," Ta

Ta