“You said you had a couple other things to tell me. What was the second thing?”

“Oh, yeah. I called Vincent’s liquidator and you had that right. He’s still got one of Patrick’s long boards.”

“What’s he want for it?”

“Nothing.”

I looked at Cisco and raised my eyebrows, asking where the catch was.

“Let’s just say he’d like to do you the favor. He lost a good client in Vincent. I think he’s hoping you’ll use him for future liquidations. And I didn’t dissuade him from the idea or tell him you usually don’t barter property for services with your clients.”

I understood. The surfboard would not come with any real strings attached.

“Thanks, Cisco. Did you take it with you?”

“No, he didn’t have it at the office. But he made a call and somebody was supposed to bring it in to him this afternoon. I could go back and get it if you want.”

“No, just get me an address and I’ll have Patrick pick it up. What happened with Bruce Carlin? Didn’t you debrief him today? Maybe he’s got the Muniz tape.”

I was anxious to hear about Bruce Carlin on several levels. Most important, I wanted to know if he had worked for Vincent on the Eli Wyms case. If so, he might be able to lead me to the magic bullet.

But Cisco didn’t answer my question. Lorna turned and they looked at each other as if wondering which one of them should deliver the bad news.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

Lorna turned back to me.

“Carlin’s fucking with us,” she said.

I could see the angry set of her jaw. And I knew she reserved that kind of language for special occasions. Something had gone wrong with Carlin’s debriefing and she was particularly upset.

“How so?”

“Well, he never showed up at two like he said he would. Instead, he called at two — right after Wren called and quit — and gave us the new parameters of his deal.”

I shook my head in annoyance.

“His deal? How much does he want?”

“Well, I guess he realized that at two hundred dollars an hour he wouldn’t make much, since he was probably going to bill only two or three hours tops. That’s all Cisco would need with him. So he called up and said he wanted a flat fee or we could figure out things on our own.”

“Like I said, how much?”

“Ten thousand dollars.”

“You gotta be fucking kidding me.”

“My words exactly.”

I looked from her to Cisco.

“This is extortion. Isn’t there a state agency that regulates you guys? Can’t we come down on his shit somehow?”

Cisco shook his head.

“There are all kinds of regulatory agencies but this is a shady area.”