“Pinchi muffdiver,” he growled in reply, stepping toward me.

“I beg your pardon!” Where did he get this idea?

“You’re the fuckin’ dyke what’s been messing with my sister.” He turned and smacked Lupe across the mouth for emphasis.

“Don’t do that again. This is my office,” I added as an afterthought. “You’re trespassing.”

He grinned a big, stupid grin. “What are you gonna do about it?”

“I’m going to tell you one more time to stop it or else

“You stupid hijo de puta!” Lupe screamed at him. “I can do whatever I want.”

Terrified, I gave her a look that meant stop! But either she didn’t see me or she didn’t care.

“You cannot do whatever you want. You cannot be no whore. You cannot be no dyke. You’re a mother. You got a little boy at home. You’re gonna go home now and you’re gonna take care of business or I’m gonna kill you and I’m gonna kick your girlfriend’s fuckin’ butt.”

“How about a drink? Maybe we could talk about this,” I said.

Growling, he lurched toward me. Lupe jumped on his back, throttling him around the throat. He shook her like a dog shakes water. She scraped the side of the desk but clung to him, biting him about the ears. He lunged for the doorway where I was standing. I was glad I was an only child.

“Hector, I thought you were in training. Is this what you do, beat up on women?”

He pushed toward me, flinging Lupe from his back. She hit the floor. Picking herself up, she tried to throw herself between us. I caught her by the arm, jerking her off balance and toward me. Grabbing the edge of the tall bookshelf that stood next to the door, I pulled on it with everything I had. My entire set of unpaid-for Bender’s California Criminal Defense Practice came tumbling down on Hector’s head. It didn’t stop him, but it slowed him down. Black’s Law Dictionary, the hardbound edition, caught his right forearm as he raised it to swing at me.

“¡Vamanos!” I screamed at Lupe, but she was already halfway down the hall to the stairs.

The oak bookshelf smashed Hector in the chest, and they both went down. I didn’t spend any time looking back to see how he was, but I heard him cussing and moaning, then the bookcase being thrown aside as I made it to the stairs.

A bleary-eyed Harvey Kaplan opened the door of his dark office to peer out into the hallway.

“Lock up after me!” I shouted, racing past him.