I felt a flood of affection for him, for what we'd been through, and I said, "Listen, I feel like I ought to tell you I know. About your wife and kids, all that. And I'm sorry."

He did a double take, his jowls bouncing beneath that scraggly beard. "I was never married."

"It's okay. I found out by accident. About how you were a dentist and then you started drinking, left everything behind."

"A dentist? What are you talking about, Nick? I sold weatherproofmg."

Shaking his head, he folded the bills into his pocket and walked off, leaving me poleaxed on Induma's front walk.

Induma was still laughing. "You had a drunk former weatherproofmg salesman perform maxillofacial surgery on you."

"Faulty intel. It happens to the best of us. Besides, I was high on cocaine at the time. Impaired judgment."

"Especially this week. Homer's vocational history came from the same woman who sold you that 'Godfather's with Firebird' line?"

"You try getting wrapped up in a government conspiracy. It can wear a person down."

"I just hope she shows you the secret handshake next time."

"There's an obvious joke I'm not gonna make."

"Hey. Chivalry isn't dead."

We were at the counter, me on a stool, Induma leaning. Our old positions. We'd showered and squared away the living room. Then, when we realized we were starving, she'd whipped together some vadai-which, to her chagrin, I characterized as Indian falafel. Now we sat and drank green tea.

She followed my eyes to the chip of Charlie's bone, in a Ziploc on the counter next to the chutney. I said, "I wonder what bone it's from."

"Sacroiliac, I'm thinking. I'll run it in right now. That all you care about, or you wanna do a DNA, too?"

I couldn't help but grin. We sipped our tea some more, enjoying the sun-warmed room, prolonging the inevitable. "Might as well while they're at it."

"Okay. Two days to process. And no, there is no quicker way."

"Baby, I take the Jag." I thought it wasn't a bad Alejandro. "I bring it in for the service."

She snorted. "You sound like Ricky Ricardo. Where to?"

"I want to see if I can flush out who's on my tail."

"Just don't leave cocaine in the glove box. It's becoming a pet peeve." She pushed back from the counter. "I have to get ready. Handro's taking me out."

"Right. The anniversary." I cupped my hands around the warm mug, stared into the tea like it held something fascinating. "He's a lucky man."

"Yes," she said, "he is."

I watched her walk up the stairs.

Chapter 34

With its throngs of UCLA students, Westwood has even more coffee shops per block than the rest of Los Angeles. At a sidewalk cafe table, I found a dark-skinned guy tugging on a hookah and slurping a boba drink with tapioca balls.

I said, "Want to make a hundred bucks easy?"

He said, "Okay, but I'm the top and it's another fifty for a reach-around."

"Let me rephrase."

"Please."

"Here's my credit card. The hundred bucks is just to walk across the street to that Starbucks, charge a cup of coffee, and bring it back here."

"Where you get the card?"

"It's mine." I showed him the name and my driver's license. Then I peeled five twenties off my roll.

"What if they ask for ID?"

"They don't ID for three-fifty."

He took another toke. "You think I look like somebody name Horrigan, you smoke more than I do."

"I'm paying you a hundred bucks to try."

He shrugged and rose, snatching the bills from my hand. He took two steps away, then came back. "What kind of coffee?"

"A Mocha Valencia."

"What?"

"A Toffee Nut Latte."

"Huh?"

"A cup of coffee."

"Coulda just said so."

I waited for him to scurry through the slow traffic and get into line, and then I crossed the intersection, entered a little jewelry store with tinted windows and a good view. The cut in my cheek radiated pain when I shifted my jaw, but I didn't want to leave to get more Advil.

The kid came back across the street with the coffee, found the table empty. After looking around, he sat down again and resumed smoking and checking out girls. Another few minutes passed. Then he started drinking my coffee.

I'd been perusing the same cabinet for too long. The clerk came over with an aggressive smile. "Maybe I can help you decide on something?"

"Sure, I'm looking for my girlfriend."

"Earrings?"

I looked down. Earrings. "Yes."

"Do you know what she likes?"

Two sedans screeched up to the curb by Starbucks, and Sever and three agents I didn't recognize hopped out and rushed inside. I'd figured Bilton's crew had put a flag on my credit card, and I'd wanted to note the faces of some of the other involved agents. As a branch of the Treasury Department up until the Homeland Security shuffle, the Service knew money and how to track it. It had been nailing counterfeiters since the end of the Civil War. And now those considerable resources were pointed at me. This was bigger than just Sever and a few agent cronies. Bilton's crew was using the system against me. They wanted that paternity test and ultrasound. Maybe they even thought I could lead them to Baby Everett.