Hooligans

speech.

Salvatore stood in one place, staring back into space and grinding fist into palm, like a bomb looking

for someplace to go off.

“We should?ve brought „em all in, the whole damn bunch,” Dutch said, “get it out in the open. I laid

off because it?s homicide?s baby. Well, it?s our baby too. The Red Sea?ll turn Kelly green before that

bunch of pfutzlukers get their heads out far enough to see daylight. Ain?t it just wonderful!” He stared

off toward „Thunder Point. “I?m gonna haul that bunch of ash lochers in and get some answers. If

nothing else, maybe we can throw these killers off their stride.”

His tirade brought only a grunt from Salvatore, who was glaring back into space.

Dutch sighed. “Okay, let?s see who we got left.”

He started counting them off on his fingers. “There?s the Bobbsey Twins, Costello and Cohen. Then

there?s Stizano and the pasta king, Bronicata, and your pals, Chevos and Nance. I miss anybody?”

There wasn?t anybody else. Like Christie?s Ten Little Indians, the field was running out.

“One thing,” I said. “If you start hauling these people in, you better have a lot of help. They come

complete with pistoleros. And you?ll also be dealing with Leo Costello. He?s quick and a helluva lot

smarter than you?d like him to be. The son of a bitch sleeps with a habeas corpus under his pillow.”

“I?ll keep that in mind,” Dutch said.

Salvatore finally broke his silence. He looked at me and said, “What it is with me, see, I coulda

followed that ugly fuckin? Mick into his bedroom and held his nuts while he balled his old lady and he

still wouldn?t know I was there. [got a talent for that kind of thing. Me and Zapata, we?re the invisible

men.”

“I told him I?d be alone,” I protested. “We took a chance, what can I tell you? Next time I?ll know

better.”

He stared at me for a beat or two longer and suddenly said, “Ah, shit, let?s forget it.”

“What do you think O?Brian wanted?” Dutch asked.

“I don?t know, but if anybody knows, Nesbitt does,” I said. “Let?s put him on the radio, find out his

story.”

“Done,” said Dutch. “I?ll add him to the list.”

We walked back across the narrow pier to solid land, where the coroner flagged us down.

“Stoney Titan?s on his way out,” he said, and turned to me. “He says he wants a word or two with

you.”

“Looks like the old man?s finally throwing his oar in,” Dutch said.