“Don‟t be silly,” he snapped. “You think Harry Raines had anything to do with this?”
I said, “If anybody local sold out to the Taglianis, they‟re looking down the throat of a RICO case.
And that means you, Harry Raines, or anybody else.”
“You have to prove racketeering on the Taglianis,” he said. “From what I hear, you ain‟t got doodlyshit on any of them. You‟re gonna bust out here, just like you did up north. They got you buffaloed,
doughboy. Admit it.”
I wanted to tell the crafty old bastard more, but I decided not to. Instead, I said:
“If he‟s dirty, he‟s going to get turned up.”
“I said, don‟t be silly, boy. Harry Raines is as honest as a Swiss pocket watch. You‟re dreamin‟ if you
think different. Dangerous dreamin‟. Harry, Sam Donleavy, me, we all did our best to keep Dunetown
clean. Sounds to me like you may be tryin‟ to put a size two shoe on a size ten foot.”
“On the other hand, if the shoe fits..
I let the rest of the sentence dangle.
“Let me put it to you straight, doughboy,” he said with unmistakable authority. “You stay away from
Doe Raines.”
I didn‟t answer him. We sat and stared through the shadows for several moments. His jaw was
flinching.
“This isn‟t going anywhere,” I said finally. “I owe you my thanks. I don‟t know what you‟re doing out
here, but I‟m glad you showed up. A little law never hurt anybody.”
“A little law ain‟t worth a damn,” he said. “Either you got muscle or you got numbers. You didn‟t
have either.”
I asked it suddenly. I wasn‟t planning on it, it just popped out, kind of like my gun popping out at the
dog fights.
“Is this your game, Mr. Stoney?”
He chuckled to himself, a mischievous chuckle, a tsk-tsk chuckle, which made me feel like a wahoo,
which is exactly what he wanted.
“I‟m gonna give you a little advice, us being in the same game, so to speak. I been at it forty-five
years. How about you?”
“Almost ten.”
“People are gonna gamble, doughboy, it‟s natural. The reason it‟s natural is because most people are
losers and they see themselves as losers and they don‟t think they‟ll ever amount to a goddamn, so
they gamble because in their eyes it‟s their shot at changin‟ their luck. So people‟ll gamble, and a lot
of hardass law ain‟t gonna change it. The same thing can be said of whorin‟. Always gonna be
whorin‟ goin‟ on, doughboy. A man wants to get laid, he‟s gonna get laid. Now, my job isn‟t to teach
„em not to gamble or not to get laid; that‟s a job for a preacher. No, my job is to make sure they don‟t
get hurt bad at it. We all know gamblin‟ and whorin‟ can attract some unsavoury characters around it,
so for that reason I keep my finger on things. I like to know who‟s doin‟ what. That way I keep things
from gettin‟ outta line, my folks from gettin‟ hurt.”
“That didn‟t answer my question,” I said.
“The answer to your question is yes and no. I own quite a few fightin‟ dogs. It‟s kind of a tradition in
my family. Been fightin‟ dogs all my life, just like my pap and his pap before him. The Titans‟ve
raised pit dogs since before Georgia was a colony. But I don‟t run the game, Mr. Kilmer. That‟s
gaming and that‟s felonious, and while I can tolerate it and my conscience doesn‟t have a problem
with misdemeanours, it balks when it comes to felonies.”
It was my turn to laugh.
“That‟s the damnedest bit of rationalization I‟ve ever heard,” I said.
“Call it what you will, it‟s the way I keep law and I haven‟t had a lot of trouble doin‟ it and I been at it
for longer than you‟ve been alive, so that ought to tell you something. Besides, this ain‟t Cincinnati or
Chicago or New York, it‟s south Georgia.”
“You want to tell me what happened between Nose Graves and Cherry McGee? There was a definite
touch of the Bronx to that.”
“Why are you interested?”
“Because Cherry McGee had done dirty laundry for Tagliani in the past. I don‟t believe in
coincidence, Mr. Stoney.”
“Mm-hmm. So finish it.”
“So I think Cherry McGee was sent in here by Tagliani to test the waters, find out if there was any
local problem. Graves turned out to be a permanent problem for McGee, Then Uncle Franco decided
to cool it. Now why do you think he backed off? It wasn‟t his style.”
“It‟s your story, boy, why don‟t you tell me.”
“Maybe he didn‟t want to attract any more attention. That‟s a possibility.”
“Obviously not one you favour,” he said sarcastically.
“No.”
“And what‟s your notion, doughboy?”
“Maybe he was told to back off.”
Titan never changed his expression his knuckles got a little whiter over the cane.
“Now, who might do a thing like that?” he asked.
“I thought you could tell me.”
“Until this very minute, I never thought to connect the two together.”
“It‟s just a thought,” I said. “If Franco had been in bed with somebody in Dunetown, that somebody
might have told him to cool it before the whole deal went sour.
“You got a hell of an imagination.”
“Not really. I can‟t imagine why the man that did McGee in is sitting over in that other limo and he‟s
counting the take from the first fight, and the sheriff is sitting thirty feet away discussing modern
romances.”
“I‟ve known Luther Graves since he „as a bulge in his mama‟s belly. What he does, he does honestly.
He‟s like a snake—he only gets mean when you step on him. Like I told you, this is still a small town
and it‟s still my job to keep an eye on it. If it‟s gonna happen anyway, I like to deal with people who
are predictable.”
“You telling me he runs a straight game? Is that what you‟re saying?”
“However you care to put it.”
“Well, Mr. Stoney, it‟s been your county for so long I guess you can run it any way you want to.”
He looked over at me finally, a smile flirting with the corners of his mouth, his eyes still gleaming
under shaggy white brows.
“You probably got a little more brains than I gave you credit for,” Titan said. “Now I‟ll ask you a
question. Did you kill „em, doughboy?”
“Did I kill them?”
I had to laugh at that one. But I stopped when I realized he wasn‟t kidding. It was definitely
something he had considered.
“I can get off right down there,” I said. “That blue Ford.”
Titan‟s man was still leaning on the hood.
“You avoidin‟ my question?”
“It‟s an instilling question, Sheriff. Besides I was with half a dozen other cops when two of the
slayings took place and I was on an airplane flying down here when Tagliani and his party got iced.
And besides that, I‟m not in the killing business. Thanks for calling off the dogs, if you‟ll pardon the
pun.”
I started to get out of the car.
“Just don‟t go around here actin‟ like Buffalo Bill or Pat Garrett or something. I got enough problems
on my hands.”
I got out of the limo and leaned back in and offered him my hand. He kept his folded over the gold
handle of his cane.
“Thanks for the ride,” I said.
“Take my advice about Doe Raines, one law officer to another,” he said, without looking at me. He
pressed a button and the window slid up. The conversation was over.
48
SO...LONG..
The Kid was sitting in the front seat when I got in my car. As I was about to find out, he was the
philosopher of the outfit.