"And hubby-to-be is arranging the wedding."
"Sure," Chollo said.
"You believe that?"
"No."
"You think she's in there?"
"Somebody is," Chollo said.
"So we gotta go in."
"Going to be a lot of blood we go in there straight on," Chollo said. "I got no problem with that, but if it is Belson's wife is in there, he might.
"We gotta go in," I said.
"She was a princess, a wonderful mother," Luis said. "She was beautiful and she cared for me beyond all else."
As he spoke, the badly edited film jerked from scene to scene. In many of the scenes, lit by the cheap floodlight bar of his camera, Luis's mother was with men. In one scene she was kissing a man next to a bed when she was filmed. The man had a hand on her butt. The fabric of her short skirt was gathered in his hand. The skirt was hiked nearly hip high. She turned as if frightened, holding her hand to shield her face, gesturing at the camera.
"I used to tease her when she would come home with a date. I would catch her giving them a little kiss and later I would tease her about it. But it was never anything with the men. She always said I was the only one, the man she truly loved."
"And your father?"
Luis shook his head, annoyed. "I had no father," he said.
"Is he alive?"
"I told you," he said, "I have no father."
The film looped back to the beginning, and began its second run-through. The apartment so often pictured seemed no more than a single room. The men pictured were never the same.
"Your mother had a lot of men," Lisa said.
"They were friends. She never loved them."
"She had friends in every night?"
Luis stood suddenly, and walked to the far side of the room.
"Did they stay all night?" Lisa asked.
"We will not speak anymore of my mother," Luis said. "We will talk of other things."
He walked back behind the theater flats for a moment. She could feel his weakness, and she could feel her strength.
"Did they stay all night?"
He reappeared. When he spoke his voice was low and firm and dangerous, like a movie villain.
"We will talk of us, now," he said.
"Your mother was a hooker, wasn't she?" Lisa said.
Luis whirled toward her and slapped her hard across the face; she fell to her hands and knees. Her head ringing. And, from that position she heard herself laughing.
"She was, wasn't she? She was."
And then Luis was on his knees beside her crying, his arms around her.
"I am sorry, Angel, I am sorry. I am so sorry."
She raised her bead and looked at him, still on hands and knees, and saw the tears, and laughed. The sound of it ugly even to her.
"Hell, Luis," she said. "So was I."
Chapter 35
"Deleon look like his mug shot?" I said.
"Yeah, but real tall," Chollo said.
"Six-five," I said. "What do you think?"
"He's dangerous, but he's not tough, you know. He's like a big kid and he's full of himself, but he's not really sure, and he's afraid someone will find him out, and you know he's kind of desperate all the time. He's got that look you see in some of the gang kids, the new ones. They're scared, but they're crazy, and they'd die to get respect, so you don't know what they'll do. You can't trust them not to be stupid."
I nodded.
"That's what Deleon's like. Guys like you and me, we know pretty well what we can do if we need to. Don't spend a lot of time thinking about it. Don't care too much if other people know it. Deleon doesn't know what he can do, or if he can do it, and he wants everyone to think he does and can, if you see what I'm saying. If the woman wasn't involved, he'd be easy enough. I've made a good living putting guys in the ground that were trying to prove how dangerous they were because they weren't sure themselves."
"But the woman is involved."
"Yeah, and that makes Deleon dangerous as a bastard because you can't do it simple, and you can't do anything without knowing how it'll affect the woman, and you can't trust him to do anything that makes any sense to you. And he's big and he's got a gun."
"Swell," I said. "Is there a number-two man?"
Chollo laughed.
"El Segundo is a skinny little shooter with a big long ponytail, named Ramon Gonzalez. A coke head, got a thin, droopy moustache, jitters around behind Deleon wearing two guns."
Chollo laughed again.
"I don't mean a gun and some sort of hide-out piece in an ankle holster. Or a back-up under your arm. I mean he's wearing two Sig Sauer nines with custom grips, one on each hip, like the fucking Frito bandito."
"He a real shooter?" I said.
"Oh yeah," Chollo said. "And he loves Luis. Looks at him like he was George fucking Washington."
"I never been too scared of a guy wears two guns," I said.
"How many people you met wear
two guns?"
"The only other one is Hoot Gibson," I said.
"I don't know if he's good, but Ramon's real. I know the type. He shoots people 'cause he likes it."
"And you don't," I said.
"I got no feelings about it," Chollo said. "I do it 'cause they pay me."
"I'm not paying you," I said.
Chollo grinned.
"Maybe I'll go to heaven," he said.
"You got my word on it," I said. "There's a dozen shooters? That include Deleon and Gonzalez?"