California Fire And Life

96

Jack goes out to Billy's office.

Hotter than hell out there in the cactus garden.

"You ain't fired," Billy says. "They can't fire you until they fire me."

"See you on the unemployment line."

"Shit, I'd just retire," Billy says. Gives this private little smile. "Fade into the sunset."

"I'm quitting, Billy."

"Nah, don't do that."

"They gonna pay the demand?"

Billy says, "Probably."

"Then I quit."

"Shit, Jack-"

Billy snuffs out the cig and struggles to light another one. Has to turn against the wind and cup his hands to do it. Sucks down the first drag and says, "Just let it go."

"Can't."

Phone rings inside Billy's office. He says, "That's probably Herlihy again. I got Claims, Agency, Underwriting, and SIU all banging on me about this claim."

"You better go talk to them, then."

"Don't go anywhere."

"I'll sit out here until the vultures take me away."

Jack takes the files off the chair and sits down.

Letty sits in the front seat of her car getting a last sip of her coffee.

She'd rather be doing something else than hiking up some trail in Cleveland Forest to meet a Vietnamese punk teenage chop shop artist to get the word about two of his missing homeboys.

Although I guess I asked for it, Letty thinks as she sets her cup on the floor below the driver's seat. I put the heat on him.

Since busting him in the chop shop, she's cranked up the DA, the Orange County Anti-Gang Task Force, and the little moke's probation officer. Plus she's popped three more chop shops, a gambling room, and a massage parlor to get Uncle Nguyen wound up. So she wasn't all that surprised when she got the call.

She gets out of the car and walks uphill, up the hiking trail, where she can already see Tony Ky standing there doing the Snitch Hop.

The Snitch Hop is this very distinctive two-step – a little double bounce on one foot, then shift the weight and a double bounce on the other – hands in pockets, shoulders scrunched up, head rhythmically turning from side to side. Letty sees this performance of the Snitch Hop, she knows with some satisfaction that the kid is nervous as hell.

Good, Letty thinks. Serves him right. Maybe he'll get so freaked he'll give it up and get a real job. Yeah, right.

Tony is nervous. The kid is definitely not used to meeting with cops to give them information, even if it is about two friends who have dropped off the screen. And Tony has had a brutal week. First there's the bust in the chop shop – which Uncle Nguyen was not happy about. But Tony figures he's still going to cruise through it. Then the DA starts cracking on him about two other chop shops, trying to connect him to some sort of conspiracy, then the anti-gang guy is in his face mumbling something about RICO, then his probation officer says he don't have to wait for a conviction to violate, just him being in the presence of other felons…

Then, like things weren't shitty enough, Uncle Nguyen reaches out personally with the word that if he knows anything about the disappearance of imbecile Tranh and idiot Do, he had better get his mouth in gear immediately if not sooner, and when Uncle Nguyen hears that Tranh and Do were last seen doing errands for the Russians, the old bastard like freaks. And then tells him to do something totally whacked, which is like call this police bitch and tell her. And Tony is like, What? and Uncle Nguyen is like, Do what I tell you, haven't you caused me enough headaches already, I want this cop off my back, so the kid makes the call.

Which would be okay – weird but okay – except that the Russian dude shows up again and asks like, You been talking to the cops? And Tony is like, No, man, I don't talk to cops, and the Russian dude is like, Well you're going to, you're going to set up a meet, and Tony is like, What?

And the Russian dude is like, Your head: use it or lose it.

All of which is to say that, yes, the kid is a little jumpy standing out there on some dirt path in the country waiting for a cop.