"Two contracts out on you." "You got a pair of local shooters and you got two violinists from South Chicago out to plow you under." "It never occurred to you that you were aiming all these angry flat-nose types right at me?" "Better you than me." "Can we get somebody to take a picture of me and Mr. Butkus?" "The guy is obviously a flake." "Book me or let me go." "You walk out of here, you're gonna be dead before morning." "This is Jim Rockford." "At the tone, leave your name and message." "I'll get back to you." "Call toll free cinco, cinco, cinco, tres, uno, dos, uno." "No, no, no." "Now, listen, Jimmy, it isn't gonna be like that at all, man." "Now, don't get it confused." "I'm not asking you to do anything that we'd consider strictly illegal." "You see, this here proposition is in a real kind of gray area, legally speaking." "Well, let me ask you now." "What you're gonna do is, you're gonna tell this guy that he can have a half interest in a racehorse, and then you're gonna show him some bloodlines that are phony." "They're not phony." "They're not phony, they're just a..." "They're what?" "Creatively speculative." "Oh." "Of course, of course." "Now, you're not sure, you're not absolutely sure, that this is the lost foal of Secretariat, but you're 90% sure, right?" "And then I come in with a British accent and a riding crop, and I offer you $50,000 for the horse." "Right." "And then you and, what's his name?" "We'll just call him Mr. X." "Let's just call him The Mark." "It's not gonna be like that." "Jimmy, the horse could be out of Secretariat." "Well, it's not impossible, is it?" "Who knows what those horses do, man, when there's no one watching them." "Who's that?" "It's probably your parole agent." "Hey, why don't we let him in on this?" "That's not funny." "Mr. Rockford?" "Not necessarily." "Show him, Babe." "Okay, okay, so you got a gun." "Gun?" "What?" "Are you Mr. Rockford?" "No, he's Mr. Rockford." "I'm Mr. Martin." "I'm just a handyman down at the pier." "I do odd jobs, stuff like that." "I'll see you, Jimmy." "I'm gonna try and pick up some of those brackets." "Or maybe if they got the brass hinges on the back..." "We know you're working for King Sturtevant." "Who?" "King Sturtevant." "You remember him." "Who's King Sturtevant?" "Now, look, there's a couple of ways we can do this." "Either we can talk or we can dance." "Now, it's up to you." "I don't know anybody named King Sturtevant." "Where's the tapes, Mr. Rockford?" "What?" "The tapes." "Hey, look, you fellas got your wires crossed." "I don't have any tapes." "I don't know anybody named King Sturtevant." "And I wish, before we start dancing, you'd pick up the phone and double-check your information, 'cause I don't have any idea what you guys are talking about." "They told me that you were gonna be difficult." "But I like to give a guy the benefit of the doubt and start out polite." "I'm gonna have to take you two guys and this place apart." "No, that's okay, buddy, he's got the tapes." "Give him the tapes, Jimmy." "Angel, there aren't any tapes." "Don't fool with him, Jimmy." "Give him the tapes." "Angel, shut up." "Where are they, Mr. Rockford?" "Now, look." "I'm gonna tell you one more time." "I don't have any tapes," "I don't know any King Sturtevant, and you guys got your facts messed up." "Okay." "Babe, junk this place." "Got them." "Those them?" "So that's where you had them hid." "You said you had them hid pretty good." "I don't think that's very good." "Shut up." "Well?" "Oh, yeah, yeah, that's good." "You got all four?" "All four." "That's just about it then, huh?" "Excuse the mess, okay?" "Oh, don't mention it." "Maybe one of these days I can redo your place for you." "Yeah, maybe." "Angel, Angel, you were marvelous." "You should have given them them tapes up front." "Ain't no sense being a dead hero." "Angel, I never heard of any King Sturtevant." "He didn't give me any tapes and I haven't the faintest idea what all that was about." "They just got the tapes." "No, no, they got some Ella Fitzgerald and some nice Rainbow Jazz." "Then we better get out of here." "They'll be coming back." "Well, maybe not." "No, there's no King Sturtevant, but on one of those tapes there's a little Count Basie." "Maybe that's close enough to hold them." "Maybe you should've had some Duke Ellington." "Let's get out of here." "Yeah, yeah, I wanna." "I'm gonna go see Dennis and file a complaint." "I wouldn't do that." "Well, no." "You wouldn't, but then they didn't bust up your place." "You ever heard of anybody named King Sturtevant?" "Yeah." "Come on, Angel, spill it." "I'll need $20, Jim." "Angel, don't scam me." "I gotta eat." "He's this little African king." "More like a tribal chieftain, really." "Sturtevant, that's a Dutch name." "And as you probably recall, maybe you don't recall it, back in the early 1800's, the Dutch settlers, they took over South Africa." "Tribal chiefs, they took on the Dutch names, you see." "But this king, he's here in the U.S. with one of those African art exhibits." "I read about it in the paper." "He's here in L.A. Tribal masks, tribal spears, got them all hung up down at the museum there." "You know, if all that turns out to be untrue," "I'm gonna get my $20 back, with interest." "I scam you?" "We got somebody back there." "Those two guys, you think?" "I don't know." "Let's not wait around to find out." "In pursuit of suspect vehicle, eastbound on Alameda." "Cut him off on Victory." "Federal Officers." "Get out of the car and put your hands up." "All right, spread them out." "Both sides." "Okay." "Impound the car." "We'll take these two in." "Let's go." "I wanna get out of here." "We've been at this for two hours." "I wanna go home." "You keep me here much longer, and I might even put you in a rubber room." "You don't want that, Rockford, believe me." "You don't want it." "Look, I have told you everything I know, which adds up to nothing." "Look, if you think you can blow me off with this golly-gee-whiz act, well, you can think again." "Look, I don't know any King Sturtevant." "I never heard of him." "And since I never heard of him, I can't very well have his lousy tapes." "Now, you ease off, buster, or I'll..." "What?" "What you gonna do?" "I swear I'll..." "Write to your congressman, maybe?" "Get my badge, maybe?" "King Sturtevant called you last Wednesday." "You went over to the hotel where the team was staying." "You met him in the bar." "He gave you the tapes in a metal box, locked, paid you a fee to hold on to them until he instructed you to hand them over to whoever supplied you with a signed affidavit." "Now, you're gonna hand them over or I'm gonna club your head down between your knees." "You know, you got to stop reading those crime fighter comic books." "They're turning you into a cluck." "What team?" "What team?" "Yeah." "What team?" "The Warriors." "The Southern Illinois Warriors." "Sturtevant's a quarterback." "His name is Larry Sturtevant, okay?" "Now at least you can stop asking me that question." "Hey, this is kind of getting you down, isn't it?" "Yeah." "Well, me too." "Why don't we just wrap it up and go home?" "Where are the tapes, Rockford?" "What tapes?" "Did you open the box and listen to them?" "What box?" "There are some very tough people floating around the outside of this thing." "You're gonna be an early casualty." "You cooperate with me" "I'll take you out of the game." "You can't think this is worth getting killed over." "You're right." "You are right." "I can't." "So I want out of here." "Why is it that every time we have one of our little chats, we're behind locked doors?" "Didn't it ever occur to you I just might go tapioca and throw you out of one of the windows?" "You got your full complete share of mouth, don't you?" "Right." "I haven't done anything wrong." "You can't hold me." "So book me or let me go." "You walk out of here, you're gonna be dead before morning." "That's my problem." "Okay." "Okay, so you listened to the tapes, and you've decided to go into business for yourself." "I'll give you a life-saving tip if you want it." "Oh, sure." "Sure." "Try not to stay wired to the bottom of the river for more than a minute or two." "I'm terrified." "Now unlock this thing." "I didn't have no ride, you know." "They finished with me a couple of hours ago, but I figure I'd hang around in case you needed cigarettes or candy or something like that." "Angel, King Sturtevant is a professional football player." "The closest he ever got to Africa is the Jungle Cruise at Disneyland." "Must've been another Sturtevant." "He might have played a little soccer in college though." "Hey, wow!" "That's wild." "Now that I think of it," "I read in the article that he played football." "Bet it's the same guy." "Angel, I'm not in any mood to argue about it." "Just give me my $20." "It's an honest mistake." "I got myself some soda pop." "I was a little short." "Did anybody tell you what was going on around here?" "Well, I could sell you an opinion." "What're you doing?" "Well, I thought I'd call King Sturtevant and get him to tell me what's going on." "You don't even know how to reach him." "Well, sure." "I just call the museum." "He's probably there working on his old art exhibit." "I'm serious." "Okay." "Take my car and I want you to drive toward the freeway, and then time it so you're back in about 10 minutes." "When I walk out at the front of the building, you just drive on by." "Go around the back of the building." "Pick me up in the parking lot." "You ought to let them tail you." "Just for your own protection." "I don't think they want to protect me." "Now, get going." "Did you find him?" "Yeah." "Yeah." "Just watch this car here and then get on the freeway, will you?" "Listen, Jimmy, why don't you run me on downtown because I got a bunch of errands I got to run." "I got to pick up some of them brackets and some of those..." "Angel." "That's a joke, Jimmy." "Yeah." "All right, I'll drop you downtown." "Listen, honey, who the hell do you think you're dealing with here?" "You got one of the biggest names in professional sports standing around back here while that creep is out there talking to a bunch of bubble-gummers and a guy with a bird book." "I'm sorry, Mr. Sturtevant." "I thought you understood you were an alternate guest." "Alternate?" "I've never been an alternate my entire life." "Sorry, pal." "No interviews." "It's okay." "He can't get out that way." "It's a fire door." "He thinks he's Joe Namath." "Nobody's ever heard of him." "You ever heard of him?" "No." "I've never heard of him." "You see?" "Me neither." "Thank you." "All right." "All right, all right." "Give me your program, I'll autograph it." "Where are the tapes, Sturtevant?" "What?" "You heard me." "Where are the tapes?" "And what are they?" "What is this, this is some kind of a joke, right?" "You got some real snappy punch line you're gonna lay on me." "Caps, huh?" "Yeah." "Nice, huh?" "Had them done last summer." "Fine, fine." "How'd you like to be able to carry them around in your wallet?" "You must be Rockford." "It's kind of a long story." "Yeah, I got plenty of time." "Yeah, but I don't." "I'm on a very tight schedule." "Make room." "Look, I got to get to a team party." "It's kind of a press thing, and if I don't show up, they'll all rip off their toupees and stamp on them." "Look, if you want, you can ride with me and we'll talk on the way." "Okay?" "Oh, that's fine." "Good." "Get rid of him, Al." "Hey, I gotta talk to him now." "Well, maybe later will be just as convenient." "You've been waiting for me." "I don't think I even know you." "That was cute, that little thing you did with your head." "The only thing that spoils it is you got crummy teeth." "But don't worry about it, though." "I know a guy can put caps on there like he was spreading butter." "Will you leave me alone please?" "You probably didn't recognize me." "I'm King Sturtevant." "Honey, we're not gonna be able to slip out of here for about 10 minutes 'cause the press is gonna be on me like a bad smell." "The press left half an hour ago, and I wouldn't leave here with you if the hotel was on fire." "I'm in room 615." "Why don't you take the key and I'll be down there in about 15 minutes." "Get lost, buddy." "Help yourself to anything you find in the refrigerator." "There's plenty there." "There's a lot of booze." "I swipe it off airplanes." "That was your last chance." "You blew it." "Dumb broad." "Dumb." "Okay." "Go rope him." "It's the room right below." "And use the stairs, huh?" "Jim Rockford, Long Beach Press-Telegram." "Geez." "I thought the press would never leave me alone." "I always wind up sneaking out of these things." "I guess being a celebrity jock ain't so bad." "Except when you're trying to get somewhere and you're six rows deep in people asking for autographs." "Then it gets kind of hairy." "I can imagine." "Yeah." "Ever tell you I got six people answering my fan mail?" "Yes." "Yeah" "Well, I do." "I do." "Where we going?" "Stairs." "It's quicker." "I don't wanna wait." "Yeah, all right." "Oh, sorry." "I got the wrong room." "Always like a good brawl." "Yeah, but you didn't hit anybody." "Sorry, honey." "I know you're very disappointed, but maybe next time." "Will you come on?" "Hey, listen." "I want to thank you for helping me out back there." "I would have creamed one of those guys, but my hands..." "I got to be careful of my hands." "I throw passes for a living." "I noticed." "Oh, no." "No." "Not the broad." "I never have to line up broads." "They jump me in dark alleys." "Yeah." "Well, not that one." "She set you up for the two guys in the gorilla suits." "Yeah?" "Must have been pretty good duty for her." "I mean, sandbagging the King." "Pretty exciting." "I'm on six." "Good." "Where we going?" "Be there in a minute." "Hold it, hold it." "What is this?" "Now, let me put it to you this way so you'll understand." "This is a fourth down situation." "You can't kick and there's only 10 seconds left on the old stadium clock." "And if you lose this game, you could end up rolling around on a platform with a cup full of pencils." "You want some answers, right?" "Right." "You see, somebody thinks I have some tapes that you gave to me." "Only, you and I know that's pure nonsense, but I'm having a little trouble getting it across to them." "Well, who?" "Tell me who they are." "I'll straighten them out." "The two guys upstairs." "I don't think I'm going to be able to help you with them." "I never seen them before." "The Federal Government." "Look, can I trust you?" "I think you'd better." "About two days ago, some guy comes to the practice field." "He wants some tapes I'm supposed to have." "I don't have the faintest idea what he's talking about." "Then he comes to my place that night with another guy and they bust the place apart, while I'm standing there." "'Course, I don't have any tapes to give them." "You don't know how frustrating that was." "Sure I do." "Anyway, then the Feds come around." "Some joker named Shore and, gee, I don't know what the hell's going on." "But all I know is these guys are closing in on me." "So I said, "Look, I got to go make a phone call."" "So when I go to the phone, I look up Private Detectives in the Yellow Pages." "I saw your ad." "It's a real nice ad you got there, with a full quarter page, a nice picture of you." "It's real nice." "Oh, yeah, anyway, so I fake a phone call and I tell the Feds that I gave you the tapes, and I told you to give them to them." "Well, bingo." "They're out the door like a bunch of volunteer firemen, and I take a hike." "And then the next time I see the two guys that busted up my place," "I tell them the same thing." "Hope this didn't inconvenience you too much." "You're kidding, of course." "Oh, I know it sounds flaky, but put yourself in my position." "I am in your position." "You put me there, remember?" "Oh, yeah." "That's right." "That's right." "Yeah, well, anyway, I got a game on Sunday and then I go right back to South Chicago, and I got a lot of connections there, and I figure whatever the problem is, I can get it unsnarled." "See, here in L.A. I don't know anybody." "Except maybe a couple hundred girls." "It never occurred to you that you were aiming all these angry flat-nose types right at me?" "Better you than me." "Besides, I figured any guy who's got a full quarter page ad in the Yellow Pages, you should know how to take care of yourself." "Let's go." "Where we going?" "We're going to the Feds." "You're gonna take me off their list." "I'm afraid not." "I won't do that." "You want to bet?" "You see, there's one other thing I forgot to tell you about me." "I cheat on my taxes and I'm in a lot of tax trouble." "I hate to even mention this, but I could go to jail." "Better you than me." "You know, I been thinking it over, Jim." "I think I got a solution." "Okay." "First of all, I am not gonna just waltz into that Federal Building and yank my own ripcord." "So you can just forget about that." "See, what I'm gonna do is, I'm gonna tell old Agent Shore that you decided to sell the tapes and that you now, you're trying to make it look like I never gave them to you" "which of course, I will insist that I did." "Well, you know, you'll be insisting all this through broken teeth." "Caps are cheap." "Besides, I don't figure you for that kind of talent." "See, when you're a pro quarterback, you gotta learn how to read the defense." "And you, well, you read like a guy with a big case of terminal confusion." "I just don't figure you to take me out and bust me up." "At least, that's the way I'm gonna play it." "Oh, well." "Fine, fine." "Let's just play it that way, huh?" "I tell you what..." "Tell you what, I think I got another idea." "Okay." "Fine, fine." "Let's hear this one." "The manager of the team I play for is a guy named Dale Fontaine." "He owns the franchise." "He's behind it all." "I think he might know what the tapes are all about." "Why?" "I'm not supposed to spread this around, but..." "I found out a couple of months ago, that Fontaine is a representative of the underworld." "And the whole stinking franchise is owned by the mob, and he's mob." "Yeah, yeah." "It's a real bummer, isn't it?" "And me an ex-altar boy." "Get in the car." "Where we going?" "We're gonna go see Fontaine." "I don't want to do that, Jim, it sounds kind of dangerous." "Oh, it's all right." "We'll be very polite and call him sir." "I don't think it'll help." "Sure it will." "Get in." "He usually works late." "It's right there down the hall." "He's dead." "Dead." "Oh, no, he can't..." "He can't be." "Well, he is." "Is this Fontaine?" "What's that?" "The well known blunt instrument." "I guess we ought to call the cops." "I guess so." "Don't use that phone." "Use one out in the hall." "Yeah." "All right." "I'll be right back." "Don't leave." "You call them?" "Yeah." "Do you have any idea who killed him?" "You did." "You see," "I was down the hall looking at some game films and heard some shouting so I went to my locker and I got my gun." "And when I came back here, I caught you in the act." "Why don't you just shoot me and put me out of my misery?" "Look, I know this is getting awfully confusing for you, but you, you see, you forced me to improvise." "I'm really sorry it turned out this way." "It won't stick." "You know that, of course." "I didn't have any motive to kill him." "Oh, yeah." "Yeah, sure you did." "You see, you had the tapes and he wanted them back." "I'll take that." "Okay, let's go." "Dennis, I didn't kill him." "I'll make my statement later." "I'm in a little bit of a shock now." "I've never seen a man clubbed to death." "It was terrible." "You got anything to say, Jim?" "Yeah." "Yeah, I want my attorney." "We'll sort this out downtown." "Come on." "Did you really just pull my name out of the Yellow Pages?" "And then I held him at gunpoint for about, oh, 10, 15 minutes, and then you guys showed up." "Hi." "Will you look at her?" "She's so star-struck, she's speechless." "Is that everything?" "The whole statement?" "Yeah, yeah." "That's it." "Listen, honey, try not to stare." "I know it's difficult, but why don't you just relax and then, later, the two of us will go get some coffee?" "I'll let you look at my scrapbook, huh?" "That'll be lovely, only I gave up reading the funnies in the third grade." "Who is she?" "Rockford's attorney." "Oh, yeah?" "Hey, I studied two semesters of pre-law at Southwestern." "Summer semester." "We should have a lot in common." "Could I see the statement for a minute, Dennis?" "Sure." "I play quarterback for the Southern Illinois Warriors." "I'm kind of the star of the team, I guess." "You're not gonna hold Jim on this, are you?" "I mean, it's pretty thin, and this guy is obviously a flake." "I got to, Beth." "No other choice." "The press calls me King Sturtevant." "How about that, huh?" "King." "I don't like it, but what're you gonna do?" "I mean, when you're..." "When you're a biggy, they kind of hang stuff like that on you." "Let me see Jim." "First thing in the morning, Beth." "Hey, I'm at the Crestview Towers at room 615." "Why don't you give me a ring, huh, babe?" "Leave her alone, Sturtevant." "She's really not interested." "Sure she is." "No, I'm not." "Okay, Jim." "We found one of these guys at the party who says he remembers you." "He said he handed you a bio about 10:30." "So you're clean for now." "Coroner establishes time of death around 9:00." "And you just can't believe that I killed him at 9:00, then went back at 11:00 and stood over him with the trophy and then gave him a couple of shots for good measure." "I don't know why you can't believe that, Dennis." "It makes about as much sense as anything else in this case." "When we get an eyewitness report of a killing, what else are we supposed to do?" "Okay." "Okay." "So now you just put out a warrant for the arrest of King Sturtevant." "Yeah, well, we're still sort of looking into it." "There's no warrant out for Sturtevant?" "I'll explain it to you later, Jim." "Look, he made a false police report." "He falsely accused me of murder." "Now, I want somebody to go out and arrest him." "It's sort of a provision I made to get you out of jail." "There are some special circumstances." "Okay, okay." "Get me out of here." "Hey, I'm sorry, Jim." "I don't understand it either." "But we got orders from upstairs, and they don't want him busted." "At least, not yet." "It's okay, Dennis." "I'll bust him for you." "Now there goes your special circumstances." "I call it lousy, Dennis." "What do you call it?" "I call it interdepartmental courtesy." "You're out by default." "It could fall on you." "Let's go." "Now, Beth." "Did Shore tell you about the tapes?" "Let's go, Jim." "Beth, I want to know." "No." "He didn't say a thing about them." "Take it easy, Jim, I've never seen you like this." "I don't get mad very often, Beth, but I am mad." "Don't push." "I met King Sturtevant last night." "He's quite a handful." "Wait till I tell you what he did." "Yeah, he took a run at you, huh?" "Did Shore tell you anything?" "No." "Listen... just go home and stay out of it." "I want to know." "All right." "Sturtevant owns a nightclub in Southern Illinois." "It's called the King's Castle." "It's kind of an underworld hangout." "Okay." "Go on." "It burned to the ground yesterday afternoon." "According to Shore, it was arson." "Why?" "Who burned it down?" "I don't know." "But I found out something else on my own." "The late Dale Fontaine brought down another quarterback from the Canadian leagues to replace King Sturtevant." "But it never happened." "So Sturtevant must have some kind of leverage." "Almost immediately, the town started filling up with hoods from Southern Illinois." "And then yesterday, Sturtevant's nightclub got torched." "What does that mean?" "I don't know, but I think Sturtevant's still got those tapes." "Stay out of it, Jim." "Oh, I will." "I will." "I mean it." "Shore said if you got mixed up in it, he'd fall on you." "I'll stay out of it." "You can count on that." "Really." "He's not in his hotel." "I already checked." "Oh, thanks." "You saved me a stop." "Hey, did you get anything?" "Oh, no." "Not really, not really." "No, listen, Jimmy." "I'm gonna run..." "Don't ditch me now, Angel." "I need some help." "I'm not ditching you, Jimmy." "I'm trying to help you." "You know that old Angel stands behind a friend." "You ask anybody." "You made 10 phone calls." "You must have found out something." "Something, no, I didn't." "I just..." "I didn't find anything." "Angel, come on." "I need a lever." "Certain associates have told me that anybody helping Jim Rockford would be pushed into the thing along with him." "Now, I like you a lot, Jim, but I don't like you that much." "So keen judgment and an eye toward good health demand that I skate on this thing." "I know you understand." "Angel." "Angel." "Angel!" "Now, I don't want to have to lean on you, but if I have to, I will." "Okay, okay." "Look, this is hard for me." "I mean, you know, I'm really chicken." "I hate taking a risk." "I'm not gonna tell anybody." "It's con to con." "Now, what'd you find out?" "You're hot, man, and I mean that in the negative sense of the word." "You've got two contracts out on you." "You got a pair of local shooters and you got two violinists from South Chicago out to plow you under." "Why?" "What'd I do?" "Well, the word is out that you have some tapes that Dale Fontaine's selling underworld information to the Feds." "Now, supposedly, that's why he got knocked off." "Now, why the out of town guys want you, I don't know that." "Maybe you know that." "I don't know that, I don't want to know that." "Well, what about Sturtevant?" "Did you get anything on him?" "Yeah, that part's kind of weird." "Well, it'll fit right in with everything else." "See, apparently he's got a pad up in Hollywood." "He likes to throw those Hollywood parties, you know." "I found that out from a prostie he had up there one time." "She didn't remember the address, but it's a house on Sharon Drive." "It's got a yellow gate." "Anything else?" "Yeah." "One little thing, yeah." "Do you think you could give me back that camera I leant to you?" "I mean, I'm pulling for you, brother, but if you don't make it, you know, well, the estate guys, they freeze everything." "The guy in Culver City that leant me the camera, he says if I don't give it back to him by the end of the week, he's gonna take it out of my hide." "I don't want to bring it up to you now." "You know, you got your own problems..." "Okay." "Okay, Angel." "It's in my trailer in the back closet on the top shelf." "And, Angel, thanks." "Con to con." "Hasta la vista." "Hi." "Drop dead." "That's nice." "All right now, I've had it with you, Sturtevant." "I'm not a guy you want to fool around with." "Look, Rockford." "Will you let me up, please?" "No." "I got to get out of here." "Look, if you found this place, they'll find it." "There are a couple of guys in town from South Chicago, and I think they're maybe trying to kill me." "Where are the tapes?" "I don't have the tapes." "Then who does?" "I loaned them to a girl, she lives in one of those apartments off the strip." "Now, will you please get up off of me?" "You're hurting my passing arm." "I swear I'll come clean, I promise." "But we got to get out of here." "I hope you got that out of your system." "I was never very good at that sort of thing." "Had to give it a try though, right?" "Let's get out of here." "When I was a kid, nobody ever took me too serious." "We used to have choose-up games." "I was always the last to get chosen." "My older sister, my older sister, used to get chosen before me." "When I was six, man, I knew I wanted to be a football star." "And I worked, man, I mean, I worked and, damn it, if I didn't make first string quarterback my senior year at Southwestern." "The tapes, Sturtevant." "You told me you'd tell me about the tapes." "You promised me." "Even when I started playing ball for the Warriors, though." "I mean, all right, all right, it's a second-rate team in a third-rate league." "But I'm a pro-baller." "It means a lot to me." "They never paid any attention to me." "So, what do I do?" "I go out and I rent a white Rolls Royce, which I can't even afford, and a place in North Hollywood," "and they still don't pay any attention to me." "What about the tapes, huh?" "What'd you do?" "Did you bug the tables at that restaurant where the underworld hangs out?" "Huh?" "That's it." "That's what you did." "All right." "Yeah." "Well, not exactly." "I bugged the conference room that I rent out." "Oh." "I have a few tables, too, but you never get too much off the tables." "See, the mob, they're very cautious, but the conference room, the conference room, now that's where you really get the stuff." "You want to know who did the killings for Vito Genosa?" "I don't wanna know." "His tailor." "I said I don't wanna know." "The guy who cuts his pants." "It's true." "I'm not kidding around." "When you know stuff like that, it makes you feel important." "Where does Fontaine come into this?" "Well, one of the things I picked up off the tapes was that Fontaine was selling information to the Feds." "He was a mob guy, but he swung like a gate." "Well, last Tuesday, I find out that they wanna replace me with some stiff they got out of the Canadian leagues." "Well, I go to Fontaine." "I say, "Look, you take me out of the line-up, man," ""the mobs gonna wind up with those tapes." So what happens?" "Fontaine gets murdered and next thing I know my club's getting burned down." "Yeah." "Now the lid's blown off, and we only got one way to save our lives." "We got to find the tapes and we got to use them to deal our way out." "Right." "I guess if I played this Sunday it would be too risky, huh?" "I hate the idea of that Canuck running that club." "Well, you get used to it 'cause you're benched." "Now, where do we go?" "Well, we got to back up here, first of all." "Go down the street and make a right." "It's the apartment building on the east side of the street." "You're Judy." "Remember me?" "No." "I'm King Sturtevant." "Remember?" "We met at Lisa's apartment up over there." "No, I'm sorry." "I don't remember." "Is Lisa at this party?" "Yeah." "Last time I saw her, she was over there by the barbeque." "Thanks." "Thanks." "Lisa." "Lisa." "Hi." "I've got to talk to you." "Dick Butkus, this is Larry Sturtevant and friend." "Butkus." "Dick Butkus." "Actually, it's King Sturtevant." "I play on the Warriors." "Warriors?" "Yeah." "I'm the quarterback." "I'm afraid I never heard of you." "It's all right." "Nobody has." "What do you want, Larry?" ""Nobody has."" "Can we get somebody to take a picture of me and Mr. Butkus?" "Larry, the tapes." "Oh, yeah, the tapes." "Lisa, I need my tapes." "What tapes?" "Remember, I gave you some tapes to take care of for me?" "Larry, if you've been lying to me..." "She's got them." "She's got them." "A couple of weeks ago, remember, I gave you some tapes." "You were supposed to take care of them for me." "Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah." "Now I remember." "Where are they?" "I suppose they're in the room over there, in the box, in the tiki room." "I brought them down for the party." "Great." "Mr. Butkus, great to see you." "You got a mustache." "I..." "We both." "They got to be in here somewhere." "I don't believe this." "She said she's gonna put them in a safe place." "Then why didn't she?" "'Cause she's a dipso." "Here, here, what's this?" "No, no." "That's not it." "Wait a sec." "Wait a sec." "Got one." "Hey!" "What is this?" "Shut up or I'll blow you off right here." "Can't we talk about it?" "Let's get down to business, huh?" "You hit this guy in front of his family." "I mean, you cowboy it and I talk to Mr. Santini." "He wants this done clean." "Hey, look, I been in business a while, you know?" "Hold it." "I got some ethics." "Ask Mr. Tremayne." "I smoked a guy for him in Denver last year." "That's Gino Sorell." "Drop your guns." "Don't move." "You're surrounded." "Hey, Dennis." "Am I glad to see you." "You okay, Jimbo?" "Where are the tapes?" "Don't you want to make sure we're okay?" "I don't much care." "Where are the tapes?" "Those two guys over there got them." "If they don't, they're out by the pool in a box near the stereo system." "Who put them there?" "I don't think I can go through with that now." "You two are under arrest." "You can tell me about it downtown." "Boy, when it comes to wasting other people's time, the Feds are the blue ribbon champs." "How long does it take to type up a statement?" "That's another buck." "Double or nothing?" "Yeah." "You go first." "You know, you got a pretty good attorney." "I could use a good lawyer." "Oh, yeah?" "Yeah." "That must be nice, having a lady lawyer." "At least when you're sitting there in a holding cell, you got something to look forward to." "Yeah, I always look forward to it." "Hey, what was on the rest of those tapes?" "Oh, more of the same." "Contract killings, zoning commission buyouts." "Oh, there's enough stuff in there to keep the D. A.'s office busy for a year." "Lot of people gonna go to jail." "Your turn." "All right." "We're even." "Go again?" "Yeah, yeah." "Say, I..." "I want to thank you for telling Shore I wasn't involved." "Oh, don't mention it." "Don't mention it." "Rim shots count half, all right?" "Oh, yeah." "Yeah." "King, there's a question I just got to ask you." "Yeah." "Go ahead." "Well, this has been a terrible experience for me." "I never had so many people trying to kill me and so much official interest." "Now my taxman calls me and tells me I'm being audited." "Shore's behind it." "It's been a whole nightmare." "What's your question?" "Well, come on." "Tell me." "You didn't really just pick my name out of the phone book, did you?" "I'm afraid I did." "No fooling?" "No fooling." "Son of a..."