thought you left."
I said, "Everybody always thinks that, Milt, and everybody's usually wrong."
Pike said, "The patio." Down below us, LeRoy Bennett was yelling for René to get his ass up to the house. René looked our way, but you couldn't be sure what he saw or what he was thinking.
Rossier frowned at Pike's gun and then we went back to the patio. I said, "Sit down, Milt. We've got a business proposition."
Milt Rossier eased his bulk down into one of the white lawn chairs, and Pike lowered the gun. Rossier said, "Somebody got to old Jimmie Ray. I told you he'd stop messin' with that little gal, and he has. I thought we were shut of that." He tried looking at me, but he kept glancing at Pike and the gun. Nervous.
I smiled. "Not that kind of business, Milt." LeRoy Bennett was a white midget down between the ponds, arms and legs pumping as he ran toward us. Rene" La-Borde was finally headed our way, walking with a stiff-legged lumbering gait like Frankenstein's monster. I said, "Milt, here's the word. You're gettin' screwed by Donaldo Prima, and we can double your money."
When I said Donaldo Prima the old man's face tightened and he tried to put down the iced tea, but he missed the little table and it shattered on the patio. Just like Frank Escobar. Maybe poor hand-eye went with a life of crime. He said, "I don't know what you're talking about."
I looked at Joe Pike. "Man, these guys come up with the good lines, don't they, Joe?"
Pike didn't move. LeRoy was closer, and Pike was watching him. René was still down between the ponds, but he was getting up a head of steam. I guess Pike was thinking about having to shoot them.
I said, "You and Donaldo are moving illegal aliens upriver through bayous upon which you hold the leases. Donaldo deals with the people down south and contracts with the illegals, and you provide inter-coastal transportation and a secure location through which they can enter the country."
Rossier was waving his hands, feeling panicked and trying to push up out of the chair. "I don't know any of that. I don't know what in hell you're talking about." Pike leaned forward and shoved him back. Rossier swatted at Pike's hand the way you would swat at an aggravating gnat, and Pike palmed him hard once on the top of the head. Milt stopped the swatting. "I don't know any Prima or illegal alien nonsense or anything else. You'd better get out of here right goddamn now 'fore I call the law!" Giving us an old man's outrage.
I held up two fingers. "Two words, Milt. Frank Escobar."
He stopped sputtering, and his eyes focused on me.
"Escobar controls the coyote scene through the port of New Orleans and the intercoastal region. We left him a couple of hours ago. Prima used to work for Escobar, but now he's gone into business for himself with you, and Escobar doesn't like it that Prima's taking his business. Prima's getting the business because he's cutting prices, and Escobar likes that even less. You following me with this, Milt?"
Milt was squinting at me big time now.
"And because Prima's charging less, you are getting less. Do you see? You're getting, what, a grand a head for your end?"
Now Milt wasn't bothering with the denials. We were with the money, and when you're with the money you have their attention.
"Frank will give you two grand apiece, Milt. Double your money. If you're getting one load of illegals a week, thirty people on average, that's thirty thousand a week, one hundred twenty thousand a month from Mr. Prima. But Frank doubles it. The thirty becomes sixty. The one-twenty becomes two hundred forty thousand per month, every month, just for using Escobar and cutting out Prima. Are we talking about the same thing, now, Milt?"
LeRoy Bennett chugged up to the patio, winded and barely able to keep his feet. He saw the gun in Pike's hand and clawed under his shirt, trying for his own piece. Pike punched him once in the side of the face. Bennett dropped. Pike bent over and disarmed him. Pike said, "Some muscle."
Rossier stared at LeRoy thoughtfully and said, "I am surrounded by dunces."
I made a little shrug.
Rossier shook his head and settled back into the lawn furniture. "Well, I guess you're the new Jimmie Ray Rebenack, aren't you? He thought he tripped over Easy Street, too. Look where he is."
"Milt, Jimmie Ray