Lamar said nothing. Down on the sand, a trio of homeless men was setting up a hotplate on a gas burner. One guy was in fatigues, and Vincent wondered how many of the campers on the beach were just like him—people with a military background who’d seen far worse than they wanted to. The difference was, he could cut it in this world and they couldn’t. Funny, though, to think about what made that difference—how far he was from being unable to cope. How much had to go wrong in his life to put him over there on the sand? Maybe he’d been at the threshold, and the morning’s drama had pushed him over. Might wake up tomorrow and decide he wasn’t built for it anymore.

Lamar said, ‘Okay, look.’ Saying it with a sigh, confessional.

Vincent said, ‘Bit late now to be getting down to it, don’t you think?’

The light went green, and he made the left onto Cabrillo, eastbound. The fog was burning off early this morning, and on his left the mountains were visible, great tiers of dark green looming behind town, the houses just white flecks at this distance.

Lamar said, ‘It was this real-estate deal I had last year. I wanted to get into apartment developments. Had this place I was doing down in Santa Monica. Sort of a combined hotel–apartments thing, ground-floor retail. The hotel people pulled out, found a better location, so of course we lost the finance. Sly had bought in early, lost two mil, I think it was. Two point one.’

‘And how long’s he been after you?’

‘Don’t know. Six months, I guess.’

‘Bluesmoke had him checked out—a guy down at LAPD reckons he’s on the mob scene. That sound about right?’

Lamar shrugged. ‘Probably.’

Vincent said, ‘But you didn’t think it was a good idea to maybe tell me about it? Being in trouble with a guy who’s friendly with west-coast mob?’ He paused, forming the rest of the line. ‘And a gold-toothed Cuban who shops at Gelson’s?’

Lamar said, ‘I thought fuck off would mean fuck off. Kind of language you’d expect them to understand.’

‘Yeah, right. You done business with him before? Or did he just wake up one morning and want to buy a hotel?’

Lamar looked out his window. ‘We’ve done bits and pieces.’

‘And was it all pretty legal?’

Lamar didn’t answer. Vincent had to assume he was pleading the Fifth. He said, ‘You got Google on that phone of yours?’

‘Uh-huh.’

Vincent said, ‘Maybe look up “bodyguards”. I’ve only got twenty minutes left on the clock. However long it takes to get back.’

Lamar scoffed. ‘Jesus. Here I was thinking you’d last longer than a week.’