'Not usually,' Susan said.
'You look like a hot Jewess,' I said.
'I'm the exception,' she said.
'I'll say.'
'Perhaps the booze and the broads and the bully-boy posture are all a kind of costume. If he learns what you know, and behaves as you behave, then it allows him to slough off the costume.'
'So I haven't helped him change as much as I've helped him get out.'
'Might be the case,' Susan said.
'You Ph.D.'s,' I said.
Susan smiled.
'We both spend our professional lives mucking around in the human condition,' she said. 'There is very little in there to be dogmatic about.'
'I know,' I said.
'Have a drink after the shooting?' Susan said.
'Quirk, Z, and I had two scotches each in my office, after everything was over with.'
'He seem to want more?' Susan said.
'Hell,' I said. 'I wanted more.'
'But you didn't have any,' Susan said.
'No.'
'I wonder if he did?'
'Did he go back to his room at Henry's gym and drag a bottle out from under the mattress?'
I shrugged.
'No way to know,' I said.
Susan nodded.
'And if he did,' I said, 'nothing to be done.'
'No,' Susan said. 'He has to do it himself, but if you matter enough, you may be able to help him simply by mattering. For what it's worth, I'm betting he didn't.'
'I think he can do it,' I said.
'Do you think he's right about Stephano Whatsisname?'
'Need to be ready for it, at least,' I said.
'Have you talked with Mr. del Rio about him?' Susan said.
'I thought I'd do that tonight.'
She stuck a piece of toast into her soft-boiled egg and bit off a corner.
'Good,' Susan said.
49
'I KNOW OF NO ONE in Los Angeles who does not fear Stephano DeLauria,' del Rio said on the phone when I finally got through.
He paused for a moment. I waited. The way he paused, I knew it wasn't my turn yet.
'Except Chollo,' del Rio said. 'To the best of what I know, Chollo isn't afraid of anything.'
'If it gives him trouble, he assumes he can shoot it,' I said.
'Exactly,' del Rio said.
'And Bobby Horse?' I said.
'On his own,' del Rio said, 'yes, Bobby Horse would be cautious of Stephano. But with Chollo . . . He would go with Chollo into a working volcano.'
'And you?' I said.
'I fear my wife,' del Rio said. 'Everything else Chollo and Bobby Horse take care of.'
'So tell me about DeLauria,' I said.
'He is an excellent hand fighter, a fine shot with handguns and long weapons. He is skilled with explosives. He is expert with a knife. Even a cudgel.'
'Cudgel?' I said.
'I have worked very hard all my life to perfect my English,' del Rio said.
