“I?d like that a lot,” I said.
A minute or two later Stick came back to the table. “Zapata just called,” he said. “They?ve already
spotted Tanner. He?s at the Breakers Hotel eating breakfast.”
“See what I mean about Chino?” Charlie One Ear said with a grin, and we were on our way.
21
MEMORANDUM
Okay, Cisco, you?re always complaining that I don?t file reports. So I have a thing about that. I can?t
type and it takes me forever to peck out one lousy report. Also there are never enough lines on the
forms and I can?t get the stuff in between the lines that are there. If you want to know the truth, it?s a
royal pain in the ass. But if I were going to write a memorandum, it would probably go something like
this
I?ve been in Dunetown less than twenty-four hours. So far I?ve witnessed one death, seen three other
victims, fresh on the slab, been treated like I got smallpox by Dutch Morehead and his bunch of
hooligans, and seen just enough of Dunetown to understand why they call it Doomstown. It?s an
understatement.
Due process? Forget it. It went out the window about the time Dunetown got its first paved road. As
far as the hooligans are concerned, due process is the notice you get when you forget to pay your
phone bill. Most of them think
Stick understands the territory but he?s kind of in the squeeze. He has to go along with the hooligans
so they won?t tumble that he?s a Fed. On the other hand, he?s smart enough to know that any evidence
these guys might gather along the way would get stomped flat at the door to the courthouse.
What we?re talking about, Cisco, is education. Stick is a smooth operator. The rest of Dutch
Morehead?s people would rather kick ass than eat dinner. Yesterday I tried to discuss the RICO
statutes with them and Chino Zapata thought I was talking about a mobster he knows in Buffalo.
The only exception is Charlie “One Ear” Flowers, who knows the game but doesn?t buy the rules.
He?s like the rest of these guys—they?ve been fucked over so much by the system that they walk with
their legs crossed. I?m not making any value judgments, mind you. Maybe some of them deserved
their lumps.
Take Salvatore, for instance. He was up on charges in New York City when Dutch found him. The
way I get it, Salvatore was on stakeout in one of those mom and pop stores in the Bronx. It had been
robbed so often, the people who owned it took out the cash and put it on the counter every time
somebody walked into the store. The old man had been shot twice. Classic case. It?s the end of the
year and Salvatore is behind two-way glass and this freak comes into the store and starts waving a
