I said, "Did anyone ever tell you you look like Herman Munster?"

Charlie's eyes made a slow-motion move from Karen to me, then he got up from the chair and walked over. A vein pulsed in his right temple. He said, "Some guys never get it, Ric. Some guys, you tell'm and tell'm, they never get it, and they end up in trouble."

I nodded. "Some guys, trouble is a way of life."

Peter was giving confused. "What are you guys talking about?"

Charlie took another step closer. He was maybe six inches from me, red-faced and snorting, staring with eyes that were now dead and fishlike, and you could see how he got the name, Charlie the Tuna. "You got brain damage from too much sun? You wanna go over the top right now?" His voice was a sort of a hiss.

Peter said, "Hey, this doesn't need to get out of hand."

Ric said, "It's cool," and came up behind Charlie, putting a hand on either shoulder, working him just like he had worked him with Joey Putata, whispering, talking until the snorting and the pulsing had stopped. Keeping Sal DeLuca's kid in control of himself. I wondered if they paid him extra for this.

Peter said, "Hey, Charlie, you all right? You want a gla.s.s of water?"

The deep-sea eyes submerged and Charlie made a little move that stopped Ric. Charlie stepped back and picked up his coat and Ric held it open so that Charlie could work into it. Charlie said, "I'm fine, Peter. Just a little misunderstanding, that's all. Misunderstandings happen."

Peter said, "Hey, sure." Everything okay now.

Charlie looked at Karen again, then b.u.t.toned his coat and went to the door. "It was a pleasure to meet you, Peter. Christ, you know Chainsaw Chainsaw is one of my favorite pictures. I bought a videoca.s.sette. Seventy-nine ninety-five. I musta seen it-what?-over a dozen times, Ric?" is one of my favorite pictures. I bought a videoca.s.sette. Seventy-nine ninety-five. I musta seen it-what?-over a dozen times, Ric?"

Ric said, "A dozen."

Peter said, "You'll never have to buy another. Give Karen a call and let her know your address. I'll send you tapes of all my movies." He hoisted the St. Pauli Girl and made a little salute.

Charlie smiled. "I'll give Karen a call." Then he looked back at Karen and shook his head. "C'mon, Ric." Ric opened the door and they left.

Joe Pike peeled himself away from the wall and went across to the window and looked out.

Peter said, "Jesus, I don't know why you had to make such a big deal about it, Karen. Toby's fine."

Outside, a car door opened, then closed. Toby yelled "Bye" from his room. Watching out his window. An engine started. A car pulled away. Pike drifted back to the wall.

Karen went through the dining room and into the kitchen, closing the door quietly after her.

Peter said, "What's her problem?"

I left them in the living room and went to the kitchen after Karen Lloyd. She was standing at the sink, staring through the garden window at her backyard. There were little clay pots on the shelf in the window for growing herbs. Some of the pots were planted, but some of them weren't.

She said, "The man came to my home. He actually came to my home. He was threatening my child."

"Mobsters will do that."

She stared at the backyard some more, and I thought she was going to cry, but she didn't. Every tendon in her body was standing out. I will will change my life. I change my life. I will will maintain control. You had to admire it. She said, "Oh my G.o.d, what am I doing to us? What if they had hurt my son?" maintain control. You had to admire it. She said, "Oh my G.o.d, what am I doing to us? What if they had hurt my son?"

I reached out and touched her back. She didn't pull away. I said, "They didn't and they won't. Charlie wants you on his side. He hurts the boy, he knows he's lost you."

She nodded, thinking about that but not believing it. "I want you to watch out for him. Will you do that? Will you and Mr. Pike stay with us until this is over?"

"Yes."

She turned away from the window and looked at the door to the living room. "I'm going to have to tell all of this."

"I don't see any way around it."

She closed her eyes and looked tired. "Christ," she said, "that's going to be worse than dealing with Charlie."

Twenty-seven.

I left Karen Lloyd in the kitchen and went back out into the living room. Toby had come back and was sitting on the couch with Peter. Pike was gone. Outside, probably. Peter said, "You want to come visit me in California?"

"Sure."

"Hey, you come out," Peter said, "I'll make the studio send their jet. They got this jet, it does nothing but fly jerks to places they don't need to go. The studios are scared s.h.i.tless of me. I got a house in Malibu on the beach. Johnny Carson lives a couple doors down. So does Steven Spielberg and Sly Stallone and Tom Hanks. We can hang out. Won't that be great?"

"Unh-hunh." Maybe meaning Spielberg and Stallone, maybe meaning the jet. Dani was smiling and nodding at how wonderful it would all be. Every boy's adventure come true.

Outside, I could see Pike on the driveway, palms together over his head, standing on one leg. Tree pose. Seeking focus and balance and escape from chaos. Peter said, "What's your favorite car?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, what's your favorite car? You see TV, you see cars driving around, you look at magazines. You gotta have a favorite car."

"I kinda like red cars." He had never thought about it.

Peter spread his hands and beamed. "Hey, you come out, we'll get a red car to drive around. How about that?"

Toby made a face like his father was speaking Venusian. "You'll buy a car because I'm there?"

"Sure. You're my son. We'll buy a f.u.c.kin' helicopter, you want."

Toby sort of giggled, maybe for the helicopter, but more likely because Peter had used the F word.

Peter said, "Dani, go get the thing."

Dani grinned and went out to the limo and came back with a couple of good-sized boxes. Peter said, "Open'm up, champ." Champ. Just like Ward Cleaver talking to the Beave.

Toby opened them. The boxes contained a top-of-the-line JVC professional videotape camera, a turbo-charged videotape player and electronic editor, some blank tapes, and copies of all of Peter Alan Nelsen's movies. I figured the setup would retail out at about thirteen grand, excluding the movies. Toby said, "Wow."

Peter patted him on the leg. "Now you can make your own movies. Just like your old man."

"Will you show me how?"

"Bet your a.s.s." Peter leaned forward and ruffled his hair. "You're Peter Alan Nelsen's kid, and things are going to be different from now on. Your life is going to undergo enormous enormous improvement." improvement."

What a thing to say to a twelve-year-old.

Peter said, "Whatever you want, it's yours. Anything you wanna do, we'll do it. I'm thinking about buying a couple of motorcycles so we can go riding together. Would you like that?"

"Yeah!"

When Karen came out of the kitchen, Toby said, "Look at what Peter gave me."

Karen didn't like it much. "It looks expensive."

Toby said, "We're gonna get motorcycles. We're gonna go riding together."

Karen didn't like that at all. "Motorcycles are dangerous, Peter. Toby is too young."

Peter said, "I'll get'm a trail bike. We won't ride on the street. We'll ride in the woods."

Karen's jaw clenched and her eyes went hard. "That's not the point. Toby lives here. Toby lives a certain way and too many expensive gifts will distort his values."

I said, "Tobe. Peter and your mom have to talk. Why don't you go outside for a little bit."

Peter said, "The boy and I were just getting to know one another."

Karen said, "I know, but this is important. You can get to know each other after."

Toby went out the front door and pretty soon there was the thump thump thump thump thump thump of the ball on the drive. Karen looked at Dani. "Could we have some privacy?" of the ball on the drive. Karen looked at Dani. "Could we have some privacy?"

Dani flushed and said that she'd keep Toby company and went out.

Peter said, "What?"

Karen sat on the couch and tucked her skirt under and stared at the man she had married when she was seventeen years old and lived with for fourteen months. Then she took a sharp, quick breath and told him about her involvement with the mafia. No preamble.

Outside, the deepening twilight was purple and chill and punctuated by the bounce of the ball and an occasional laugh or word. I could see Dani and Toby and most of the drive, but not the hoop. Someone would shoot the ball and the ball would arc up, but then it would be gone, pa.s.sing from my line of sight. It didn't matter. You could tell if they made it or not by their faces and the sounds they made and by how the ball rebounded. If someone ran to one side or the other, the ball had caromed off the side of the hoop. If someone ran fast straight ahead, they had lofted an air ball and it was rolling into the garage. If the ball gently came back to them or they trotted forward to the hoop, they had made a basket. You didn't see the event, you saw the results of the event. I had read a book on modern astronomy which had said that both Neptune and Pluto were predicted long before they had ever been seen because of peculiarities in the orbits of the other outer planets. It made me think that planets weren't so very different from people. Seeing what happened around them was enough to tell you where they were and what they were.

When Karen Lloyd was finished, Peter looked at me and said, "Is this for real?"

"Yep."

He stood up and gave impatient. "No. I mean, is this really real? This guy who was here, Charlie, he's a criminal, he's in the mafia mafia?"

I said, "It's really real, Peter." Something only someone in show business would have to hear. "The DeLucas are one of the largest mafia families in New York. I've talked to Charlie about letting Karen out of the setup, but he's said no."

Peter made a big deal out of looking around the room before he looked back at Karen. He was grinning, like this wasn't really real after all, like maybe we were clowning around. "You're in the mafia."

"No. I'm not in the mafia. I'm involved with the mafia." Her voice was edged. The edge hadn't been there a few minutes ago.

"Does the boy know?"

The jaw knotted again. "Stop calling him 'the boy.' He has a name."

"Jesus Christ, all right. Toby. Does Toby know?" Now Peter was giving us irritated.

"No. This is illegal, Peter. What I'm doing is against the law. You don't tell a child something like that."

I said, "This is why I didn't call. We were trying to get this straightened out before I brought you in."

Peter said, "Jesus Christ."

"If Karen goes to the police, she'll have to cut a deal with the states and the feds. She can do that, and her testimony will put Charlie and probably Sal away, but then she'd have to go into witness protection."

Karen said, "We'd have to change our names. We'd have to move and go into hiding. I won't do that to Toby or to me."

Peter said, "But the guy's here threatening our kid."

I said, "Charlie did what he did today to get a message across. He won't do anything else if Karen makes the pickups that he tells her to make and continues to launder the money."

Karen said, "I've asked Elvis and Mr. Pike to move in here until this is over."

Peter blinked at me. Surprised. "I didn't know you were staying here."

"I wasn't staying here. I'm going to stay here now now"

Peter frowned, thinking about it and not liking it. "How long is this going to take?"

I told them about Gloria Uribe and the Jamaican named Santiago, and that maybe Charlie was going to meet with Santiago sometime tomorrow.

Peter was shaking his head. "You're gonna follow him around and hope you see a connection? Christ, that could take years."

"It's what we can do."

Peter went to the window. Outside, Toby pa.s.sed the ball to Dani, who shot and missed. She laughed when she missed and said something that I couldn't understand. Peter said, "All right. If that's the way things are, that's the way things are. I'll take care of it." He was looking sort of pleased with himself.

Karen said, "What do you mean, you'll take care of it?"

Peter made a little no-big-deal gesture with his right hand. "I'll talk to the guy. I'll pa.s.s a little cash and smooth him out. I'll take care of you, Karen."

The skin beneath Karen's right eye began to jump. "You'll take care of me." Her voice was soft.

"Sure. We don't need all this running around and following."

I said, "Peter, this isn't some mid-level union fixer looking for a payoff."

"I know what this guy is." Annoyed.

I said, "No, you don't. This guy is a professional nut case who made his bones when he was sixteen years old by killing a man. This guy is not going to do what you want because you're from Hollywood. He's capo capo of the largest crew in the DeLuca family, and one day he's going to be boss of all the other of the largest crew in the DeLuca family, and one day he's going to be boss of all the other capos capos. If he wants to pal around with people from Hollywood, he'll buy a studio."

Peter leaned toward me, giving me the Donnie Brewster treatment. "And I'm telling you I can smooth this guy out. I come three thousand miles and find out the mafia got my family, I know what to do. I'm Peter Alan Nelsen."