“Yeah. Had one fucking meeting. Told to report to this office in fucking Crystal City. Got there. A bunch of suits—all had soft hands, you can tell—and they ask me these questions. Then gave me money—cash—and told me to check into a hotel down the street and wait. Two days later, a suit came and took me to this house. The others were there. That’s how it began. Never saw one god-damn piece of paper.”

“And the men in the office, no names?”

He scowled at Dunne.

“Who the hell are you?” he said. “No fucking names at all. But, you know, I saw this fellow on the television the other day, looked like one of them.”

“Who was that?”

“I don’t know. He was going into Congress or the White House or something. To talk about all this you-know-what. I don’t know. Like he’s in charge. The sound was off.”

God-damn it, Dunne thought. Could it be?

“Shit, Big, I forgot to tell you, I think I fucked up the television. It don’t get nothing now.”

“We’ll deal with that later,” Lopez said.

“And that fellow you saw?” Dunne said.

“Fuck, who knows? My memory’s shot. Can’t even remember all the pussy I got. Told Big that I left my best days and nights in Tangiers. All got blown right out of my head.”

Dunne slid his chair closer to the man.

“Did you kill Raymond?” he asked.

The man lunged and grabbed Dunne by the collar. Lopez jumped off the bed, and wrapped his hands around the man’s wrists.

“It’s okay, okay,” Dunne shouted at Lopez.

Lopez froze, his hands still holding the man.

“I didn’t fucking kill nobody,” the man said.

“Not Raymond? Not because he knew you knew this guy?”

“No-fucking-body,” he growled.

“Not the girl on the bicycle?”

“What are you fucking talking about?”

The man let go of Dunne’s collar. Lopez freed the man’s wrists and backed away.

“What about the woman who was looking for you?” Dunne asked. “The one you grabbed?”

“Didn’t want to be looked for. It’s pretty fucking obvious why.”

“And did you run her off the road?”

“Man, I didn’t want nobody looking for me. Don’t bug me on that. She’s okay, right? And it was Big who got me all worked up about that. He told me that if she kept coming around, I’d have to book.”

Lopez looked at Dunne and shrugged.

“And she ain’t the only one come looking,” the man said.

Dunne moved his chair back.

“What do you mean?”