“Look, can we go outside and talk? This definitely is not my thing.”
“Weak stomach?”
“Yeah, right.”
“They take a little time out here, when the ref has to use the breaking stick like that.”
“So what‟d O‟Brian say when you called him?” I asked.
“Nothin‟. Nobody was around. Some shrimpers, a guy trying to make city marina in a sailboat. That
was it.”
“What time was that?”
“You left at ten-oh-five.”
“You‟d be up shit creek if I turned the time around a little, wouldn‟t you?”
“Where you think I am right now? Up shit creek without the proverbial, no less, is where I‟m at.
Everybody‟s on my ass, okay? The locals, the Fed, the Tagliani family, what‟s left of them. I mean, I
got everybody on my ass but the fuckin‟ marines.
“Somebody threaten you?”
“I don‟t have to hear from the pope, pal. I was O‟Brian‟s chief button. My job was keepin‟ him alive.
I flicked up. You think I‟m gonna get a second chance? O‟Brian was family, he was son-in-law to old
man Franco.”
“Maybe that‟s what they wanted.”
“What the hell‟s that mean?”
“I‟m talking about supposing somebody wanted Jigs out of the way, somebody big in the family.
Supposing they put it to somebody to ice Jigs. And this somebody rigs the whole thing to provide
himself with a perfect alibi—like me, For instance. Shit, Harry, what do you take me for—”
“Hey, you think I done O‟Brian in? You think I done that thing? C‟mon. And the family put my nose
to it? Come on. Shit, you need help, dreamin‟ up a story like that. The whole fuckin‟ family‟s getting
aced one on top of the other, you think it‟s one of them behind it?”
“Why not? This is quite a plum, Doomstown. Be a nice place to control.”
“Shit, you think this is an inside job, you‟re on the wrong trolley.”
“How about Chevos? Or Nance?‟
“That‟s family!”
“Not really.”
“There ain‟t any bad blood there. Everybody was happy until the Tagliani knockover. Everybody had
their thing.”
“It‟s happened before, y‟know. Somebody gets greedy. Like that.”
“Not this time, pal. I mean, that Nance, he‟s a badass and all that, but I don‟t see him and Chevos
doin‟ that. Look, I‟m tellin‟ you, except for that local nigger there wasn‟t any problems.”
“I still don‟t trust you, Harry,” I said. “You could‟ve dragged me all the way out to this pasture to try
to get me to fix yourself up an alibi.”
He was sweating. The dogs were at it again but he had lost interest. He was mine for now. He wiped
his forehead with the back of his hand and leaned closet to me, whispering over the bellowing crowd.
“What d‟ya want to know? Uh, the guys with you, one was the size of a semi, the other one was
missing an ear. . . uh, you had a feast would choke a fuckin‟ hippopotamus. Then you went over and
talked to two other birds..
He rambled on, filling in details as they came to him, things nobody would have thought to tell him.
He was a very observant man.
“Okay,” I said, cutting him off, “so maybe for now I choose to believe you. You got something to
trade? This is your party, so I assume you want something, and since Christmas is long gone, I figure
you got something to throw in the pot. Otherwise we wouldn‟t be out here in this shithouse.”
“Look, I know I‟m probably on the shit list. I can‟t take a chance on leaving town if I‟m gonna get
busted. The Triad has got people all over the state on the payroll, man. I get busted, the boys‟ll hear
about it, y‟know, like yesterday. I won‟t make it to the South Carolina border, fer Chrissakes.”
“That‟s what you want, a guarantee the law‟1] let you out of town without a hassle?” I asked with
surprise.
“Once I‟m loose, I‟m okay,” he said “I got some friends in Phoenix. I‟ll take a moniker. But I can‟t
take a chance, see, some dumb flatfoot, pardon the French, turns me up down here.”
“Why don‟t you drive?”
“It‟s their car, their credit cards. I left the car in a downtown parking lot with the cards locked in the
dash, sent them the keys. I‟m breaking as clean as I can. Hell, I was even afraid to tap my bank
account, y‟know? It‟s all set up by the company.”
“So you‟re tapped out, too?”
“1 got a small stash, get me where I‟m goin‟. Look, I‟m not askin‟ for anything except a ride and
some company to Jacksonville. They can put me on the plane, that‟s it. Am I on the suspect list,
Kilmer?”
“Hell, I think I‟m even on the suspect list.”
“I need some cover, man, to break out. Whad‟ya say?” The crowd noise surged and I was compelled
to look down in
the pit. The little dog, the hog dog, had the old warrior by one ear and was dragging it across the pit.
“See what I mean,” Harry cried, forgetting his troubles for the moment.
“What‟s to trade?” 1 asked.
“You sure got a one-track mind.”
“Yeah, and right now I‟d like to get on that track and get the hell out of here.”
“Like I said, what d‟ya wanna know?” he asked.
“Everything you know.”
“It ain‟t that much.”
“How about narcotics?”
“I don‟t have nothin‟ to do with dope”
“How about Chevos?”
“Look, what do you want? All I‟m askin‟ is a fuckin‟ ride out of town. This ain‟t the Inquisition. I
can‟t turn anybody up. That ain‟t what this is about.”
“Did I ask you to turn anybody up, Harry? You‟re making me play twenty questions here, that‟s all.
We‟ve never done business before. What‟s the game?”
“Look, I don‟t know what you want to know. One thing I don‟t know is who iced these people.”
“Start from the beginning. The first time you came down here from Cincy,”
He thought about it while I watched the activity in the ring. Finally he said, “1 come down here four
years ago. It was Tagliani, Costello, Cohen, that‟s all. I was one of the old man‟s soldiers at the time.”
“What happened?”
“Nothin‟. We was gonna stay at this old hotel out where the Strip is now, but it was rundown. We
coded up on this guy‟s yacht.”
“What guy?”
“I don‟t remember his name.”
“Was he local?”
“Yeah. A Doomstown johnny. I think he was in the banking business, like a big shot. Look, you
wanna know the truth, it was the two guys you were talkin‟ to at breakfast.”
“Seaborn and Donleavy?”
“1 just don‟t remember that, I ain‟t good on names.”
“Did you hear what they were talking about?”
“I never did that. It was none of my business. On the way back, though, Tagliani tells Costello he
thinks this guy is gone around.”
“You mean they made some kind of a deal with him?”
“That‟s the impression I got. In fact, I know it. We all got accounts in his bank.”
“What bank?”
“Seacoast National.”
“You all have accounts in the same bank?”
“Sure. We get paid automatically. Every Friday, you can book on it. It goes in automatically.”
“And that‟s the whole family?”
“Anybody I know about.”
“Did you come down again with Franco?”
“One other time. We stayed on the same yacht. That time it was only the older guy, not the one looks
like a wrestler, and he brought this other bozo with him. Short fellow, skinny. Looked to be maybe
thirty-five to forty.”
I felt like kicking myself for not knowing anything about Sutter and Logan. They were the two