“Your parole officer couldn’t make it; he sent me to check on you, make sure things were ok with you.”

“Bullshit.”

“Your PO’s named George Stephens. He’s over on Valley Boulevard. I want to know about Cathy, or there are going to be cops on your fucking tail every minute of the day and night. You’re not going to have time to do anything but pee into glass bottles.”

“You got nothing on me,” he whined. Another racking cough escaped from him.

“I know Cathy’s your girlfriend. You want to see her. Tell me. Maybe I can talk her into it. Otherwise I tell George you were selling drugs to that guy at dinner.” Did he know Cathy was dead?

He took his hands away from his eyes to squint at me. “She told you? About me?”

I nodded. “Yeah, she told me about you. So come on, what’s it going to be? More mace, or I fix you up with Cathy?” I put my finger back on the black nozzle of the mace can. “I need some details. My finger’s getting itchy.”

“Met her... couple years ago... together ‘most a year. I got locked up. When I get back... eight months ago... she’s different... gone Hollywood.” He tried to clear his throat and he spit into the grass.

“Yeah, I met her agent.”

“That pimp! She wasn’t getting no work... she got loca.”

“She started hooking.” I guessed.

“No!” He jerked under me. Did he know about her job at Club Tropical?

“She slept with her acting coach,” I said, egging him on.

“No!” he shouted. “She wasn’t really like that... just crazy ‘bout making it big, having her own TV show... for all the brown kids. Make ‘em proud to be raza.”

I felt stupid sitting on top of him, straddling his groin. I was tired of being yanked around. I played with the nozzle of the can. I held it over his face. Who knows what they put in mace? It’s flammable. It probably causes cancer. “Why don’t we cut the crap here before I have to spray you again?”

“Chingao, you don’t understand nothin’. Nothin’ ‘bout being oppressed. Last time she worked she was an extra in a fucking tortilla chip commercial. They had her hair braided, dancing around with some faggot in a serape.”

“Look, we both saw the nudie shots. What do you think she was doing, auditioning to model tampons?”

I wasn’t fast enough. I saw it coming but couldn’t move. His fist connected with the lower right side of my jaw. I felt like I’d been struck by lightning. I let him have it with the mace. A mist of bad chemicals rose up, mingling with the odor of a nearby eucalyptus tree and roses. I nearly emptied the can in his face. We were both coughing like crazy by now