showed up with a court order and the entire Marine Corps to back „em up!” he roared. “And the
Feebies aren?t much better! All they wanna do is make nickels in Washington. If it looks good on the
daily report and they can get a press conference out of it, that?s all they care about. Ask them for a
little help, you get senile waitin? for the phone to ring.”
“I?ve had the same experience,” I said with sympathy.
“Dipshits and robots!” he said. Now his arms were in the act. He was waving them around like a
symphony conductor. “Bastards steal our information, make deals that sown our cases, violate civil
rights, and we get the enema. They always ride off with the chick in the end.”
I nodded agreement. He was running out of steam.
“All my boys get is to kiss the horse at the fadeout, know what I mean?”
“Sure.” Pause. “How about you?”
“How about me what?”
“You feel all you get out of them is to kiss the horse?”
He stopped and stared me up and down and then he figured it all out and started to laugh.
“Aw, hell, pal,” he said, “I been around so long I?m glad for all the kissin? I can get, even if it?s a
horse?s ass.”
“Okay, Dutch,” I said quietly. “I?m not looking for any fadeout kisses. If these people are looting your
town, I?ll help you put them away. All the Freeze wants out of it is information. Connections. How
they operate. How did they infiltrate the town? Who did they have to buy? How are they connected
with the other mobs? No conflict, okay?”
“We?ll just play it by ear,” he said, still coy. It was like kicking a brick wall.
“Shit, if that?s the play, that?s the play,” I said with a shrug.
“You?ll do fine. You got a hair up your ass just like the rest of
“I just do the best I can,” I said, throwing in a little humility.
“According to your boss, that?s pretty damn good,” he said.
“Far as I?m concerned, if we get enough to make a case against somebody, it can go state or federal,”
I said. “My style is give it to whoever has the strongest case—and the best prosecutor. I get a little
crazy when somebody walks on me”
“That?s fair enough,” he said. “Who doesn?t?”
“What kind of DA do you have?”
“A woman. Her name?s Galavanti and she?s meaner than a three-day hangover.”
“On us or them?”
He smiled. “On everybody. You put a case on her with holes in it, you?ll hear language would turn a
