Potshot

"Maybe, but then I got to whisper stuff to him."

"Okay," I said. "I know a guy."

"I was sure you would," Samuelson said, and broke the co

I went in the house and looked up a number in my address book and came back out and sat and dialed it up. A man answered on the first ring.

"Yes?"

I said, "Ives?"

"Who's calling?"

"Spenser."

There was a pause while Ives processed me through his memory banks.

"Well," he said. "Lochinvar."

"I need a favor," I said.

"In which case you will then owe me one."

"There's a guy named Morris Ta

"Really?" Ives said.

"The Bureau has surveillance on him," I said. "I need to talk with someone who has access to it."

"Our cousins at the Bureau are not usually forthcoming with surveillance data," Ives said.

"Gimme a guy to talk with," I said.

I waited.

"Wilbur," he said. "Wilbur Harris."

I waited.

"I'll call Wilbur, give him a heads up on your behalf."

"Got the phone number?"

He gave it to me.

"Call Wilbur in half an hour," Ives said, and broke the co

Bernard J. Fortunato came onto the porch carrying a street sweeper.

"Lot of firepower for a guy your size," I said.

"Fifty rounds of twelve-gauge shotgun shells," Bernard said. "Automatic. Vi

"He show you how to hit what you shoot at?" I said.

"Already knew that," Bernard said.

"I guess that thing makes accuracy less of an issue."

"You think I'm not accurate?" Bernard said. "I'm accurate."

"I hope so," I said. "I don't want you shooting one of us with that thing."

I was watching the brush where the deer had silently moved. There was always some sort of muffled visceral tug when I looked at a wild animal. I never really knew what the tug was. But I liked it when it happened.

"You sure they're going to come?" Bernard said.

"They'll come."

"We backed them down pretty good in town," Bernard said.

"There's forty of them and seven of us," I said.

"You think The Preacher doesn't know that?"

"So?"

"So why fight us when the odds are even?"

"Then why don't we try what Bobby Horse says? Lock them up in the valley and shoot them from up above?"

I shook my head.

"Lot of us think it's the way to go," Bernard said.

"I don't," I said.

"Maybe we should vote."

"Maybe I should make my phone call," I said. Bernard shrugged and walked down to the other end of the porch. I called Wilbur Harris.

"I don't usually do this," Harris said. "But our mutual friend is entitled to a favor."

"You got surveillance on a guy in L.A. named Morris Ta

"No further mention of names, please," said. "We have him under consideration."

"Phone tap?" I said.

"Yes."

"Visual surveillance?"

"Yes."

"Got a bug in the house?"

"Yes. In his study."

"How long?"

"Two years."

"He make you?"

"I think he's spotted the visual. They all assume they're tapped. I don't think he's wise to the bug."

"Can you give me the logs from the bug?"

"Sure," Harris said. "Maybe do your tax returns for you?"

"And transcripts?"

"You can't have the transcripts. It would take too long to copy them."

"How about I give you a few names and if you come across them, you send me their transcripts?"

"Gimme the names. I'll see what we can do."

I gave him some names.

"If they're all in the logs it's too many," he said. "We got a serious problem staffing clerical help."

"God forbid you do the Xeroxing yourself."

"God forbid."

"Can you overnight them to me?"

"And what do we get?" Harris said.

"I think Ta

"Gimme your address."

I did.

Chapter 55

VINNIE WAS UP on the hill with his walkie-talkie. The rest of us were on the porch. I sat on the railing. Hawk leaned on the post by the porch steps. Tedy Sapp was making drinks.

"We have a position," Chollo said, "for your consideration, jefe."

"We?"

"All us, for whom I, a simple Latino, am honored to speak."

"That the same as simpleton?" I said.

"I do not think so. We are thinking that it makes no sense for us to sit here and wait for the Dell to attack us, when we could go out and slyly shoot them while they were still in their hole."

"If we were to be successful, we'd have to massacre pretty much all of them," I said.

"Si."

"I don't want to do that," I said.

"On the other hand, senor, we do not wish them to massacre us."

"I was thinking maybe there'd be a third option," I said. "Maybe I can bust this murder case and then maybe we won't have to fight the Dell."

"We would run?"

"It's a third option," I said.

Nobody else said anything. Chollo took the drink that Tedy Sapp handed him, and took a sip and held it happily in his mouth for a moment before he swallowed it.

"You were not so reticent about shooting in Proctor when we were after that cop's wife," Chollo said.

"We weren't shooting fish in a barrel."

"We were risking women and children."

"They were risking the women and children," I said. "We were getting Belson's wife out of there, and it was worth a massacre if it came to that."

"And this situation is not worth a massacre?"

"No."

Chollo thought about that. Everyone else was quiet.

"You do not have to do it," Chollo said, without anger. "We can do it, and when we have you can solve your murder."

Sapp handed me some beer in a long-neck bottle. Blue Moon, a personal favorite. I had a pull.

"No," I said.

Chollo didn't seem offended. Thoughtfully he rocked back in his chair. Bobby Horse sat beside him, both feet flat on the floor. Bernard was in another rocker, the second walkie-talkie on the table beside him. Tedy Sapp had stopped tending bar and was leaning on the wall, his arms folded. Even in repose, Sapp looked as if he were flexing. Chollo balanced his chair by touching his feet to the floor just often enough to keep the chair steady. He looked at Hawk.

"I'm with him," Hawk said and nodded toward me.

"You would have a problem with shooting them?" Chollo said.

"No."

"But you won't?"

"No."

Chollo nodded slowly. He looked at Bobby Horse.

"We could go back to L.A.," Bobby Horse said.

"Si."

Chollo looked at Sapp.

"I vote for the massacre," Sapp said.

"Bernard?" Chollo said.

"I just as soon shoot all of them that we can," Bernard said.