Page 18 (1/2)

"I meant Wisconsin Most of 'em come from Minnesota"

"I know"

"The murder rate used to be around a thousand a year Three a day in the five boroughs That always seeh"

"It's just about double that now" He leaned forward "But that's nothing, Matt Most hoether and one of 'em shoots the other and doesn't even rees It's the saer murders, where the killer and the victim don't know each other That's the rate that shows you how dangerous it is to live soer er oes up like a rocket"

"There was a guy in Queens yesterday with a bow and arrow," I said, "and the guy next door shot hi about a dog shitting on the wrong lawn?"

"So like that"

"Well, that wouldn't be on the chart That's two guys who knew each other"

"Right"

"But it's all part of the sa each other They don't even stop and think, they just go ahead and do it You been off the force what, a couple years now? I'll tell you this much It's a lot worse than you remember"

"I believe you"

"I le out there and all the aniun You realize the nu around with a piece? Your honest citizen, he's gotta have a gun now for his own protection, so he gets one and souy next door"

"The guy with the bow and arrow"

"Whatever But who's gonna tell hiun?" He slapped his abdomen, where his service revolver was tucked under his belt "I gotta carry this," he said "It's regulations But I'll tell you, I wouldn't walk around out there without it I'd feel naked"

"I used to think that You get used to it"

"You don't carry anything?"

"Nothing"

"And it doesn't bother you?"

I went to the bar and got fresh drinks, ht the s and sighed like a tire going flat He cupped his hands and lit a cigarette, inhaled deeply, blew out the smoke as if in a hurry to be rid of it

"This fucking city," he said

It was hopeless, he said, and he went on to tell es on the whole criminal justice syste how none of it worked and all of it was getting worse every day You couldn't arrest a guy and then you couldn't convict him and finally you couldn't keep the son of a bitch in jail

"The prisons are overcrowded," he said, "so the judges don't want to hand out long sentences and the parole boards release people early And the DAs let the guys cop to a reduced charge, they plea bargain good cases down to nothing, because the court calendars are so jahts of the accused that you just about need a photo of the guy coet a conviction, and then you hts by taking his photograph without prior permission And in the ot ten thousand o Ten thousand fewer cops on the street!"

"I know"

"Twice as many crooks and a third less cops and you wonder why it's not safe to walk down the street You knohat it is? The city's broke There's no , noArabia All those assholes are trading in their ca tubes" He stood up "My turn to buy"

"No, I'll get theot a client" He sat down I ca there?"

"Just ginger ale"

"Yeah, I thought that's what it looked like Whyntcha have a real drink?"

"I' back on it these days"

"Oh yeah?" The gray eyes focused on lass and drank about half of it, set it down on the ooden table with a thunk "You got the right idea," he said, and I thought he ears by then "Quitting the job Getting out You knohat I want? All I want is six ot your twenty?"

"Then I got ot one Out of this job and out of this shithole of a city Florida, Texas, New Mexico, sos about Florida, all the fucking Cubans, they got cri in there Those crazy Coloht of Royal Waldron "A fellow I know says they're all right," I said "He said you just don't want to cheat 'em"

"You bet your ass you don't want to cheat 'e Island City? Must have been six, eight o Sisters, one's twelve and one's fourteen, and they found 'eas station, hands tied behind their backs, each of 'em shot twice in the head with a sives a shit?" He drank the rest of his drink "Well, it didn't figure No sex angle, nothing It's an execution, but who executes a couple of teenage sisters?

"Well, it clears itself up, because a week later somebody breaks into the house where they lived and shoots theiron the stove See, the family's Colombian, and the father's in the cocaine business, which is the chief industry down there outside of srew a lot of coffee"

"That's probably a front Where was I? The point is, the father turns up dead a month later in whatever's the capital of Colombia He crossed so him in Colombia, but first they killed his kids and his wife See, the Colombians, they play by a different set of rules You fuck with them and they don't just kill you They wipe out your whole fa and a cat and some tropical fish, they're dead too"

"Jesus"

"The Mafia was always considerate about fae a hit so your faot criminals that kill the whole family Nice?"

"Jesus"

He put his pale, hoisted hi this round," he announced "I don't need some pimp payin' for my drinks"

Back at the table he said, "He's your client, right? Chance?" When I failed to respond he said, "Well, shit, you ot a client that you won't say his naotta be four, doesn't it?"