Bust (18 page)

The little rice eater looked like he was about to cry.

Max stared at him for a few seconds and decided that he was probably telling the truth after all. But if Kamal didn’t give the herpes to Deirdre that meant that Max must have gotten it from Angela.

“Eh, just forget about it,” Max said. “What difference does it make anyway?”

Max went to the fridge and poured himself a glass of skim milk.

“You know, you should really consider joining me at the ashram sometime,” Kamal said, stirring the big pot of brown rice. “I think it would very healing for you.”

“I’m Jewish,” Max said.

“Our guru welcomes people of all faiths,” Kamal said. “And meditating and chanting can be very cleansing. It can help you to become at peace with your inner self.”

“I’m not gonna sit on the floor and chant like some hippie,” Max said. Then he wondered if he could meet some classy Indian woman at the ashram. Hell, he could do rice and, for a decent lay, he’d chant till the crows came home or till the whatever fucking birds they had in India came home. Besides, what the hell was he doing with Angela anyway? He used to think he was in love with her, but lately he wasn’t so sure. She had a nice body and that great accent, but there wasn’t much more going on there. What had he been thinking?

“Lemme ask you something,” Max said. “Do women come to these ashrams?”

“Yes, of course,” Kamal said. “The spiritual journey is not just for men.”

Kamal was trying not to smile. Was something funny?

“Yeah, lemme ask you something else,” Max said. “Are they well-endowed?”

“Excuse me?”

“Tits. Do they have big tits?”

Kamal waited a few seconds, checking the vegetables, then said, “Some of them do, yes.”

“In that case, maybe I’ll give the hippie shit a shot,” Max said. “I mean after I get through with my mourning of course.”

Then he looked away and glanced at the copy of the
Daily News
on the table. Some Jap tourist got his throat cut on Forty-second Street and the police had no suspects. Max chuckled, thought,
I guess Times Square ain’t no Disneyland after all
.

I lose it, flapping about in the rain and kicking the hell out of the dog. I don’t deserve this. I don’t fucking deserve all this fucking bad luck and this stupid fucking life.

R
AY
B
ANKS
,
The Big Blind

The next day another Manhattan murder was the lead story on the six o’clock news. The rat-gnawed body of forty-one-year-old Homicide Detective Kenneth Simmons of the 19th Precinct had been discovered by some children in an empty lot in Harlem. The body had two gunshot wounds and a stab wound to the chest. The police had released a police sketch of a suspect in the case — a white male, approximately five-five or five-six, maybe 130 pounds, with gray hair, last seen wearing an old leather jacket and dirty blue jeans and new sneakers. On Monday morning, the suspect had been spotted in a pawnshop on Bayard Street in Chinatown selling jewelry that was stolen during the recent murders of two Upper East Side women. Police believed that he might be a suspect in those murders as well since Detective Simmons had been working on that case when he was killed. People with any information regarding the case were urged to call a special police hotline number or 577-TIPS.

Watching the news report on the TV in his living room, Max had no doubt that the guy in the police sketch was Popeye. His face was too fat and his eyes and nose looked different, but everything else, down to the leather jacket, was definitely him. Max didn’t know what that guy was going to fuck up next. Was the stupid prick determined
to wipe out the population of Manhattan? He’d read once that the Irish were truly demented. Well, no argument there.

Sitting at a table in the back of Famiglia Pizza on Fiftieth and Broadway, Max saw Popeye limping up the aisle. After Popeye sat down, diagonally across from Max, with a big cupful of ice, Max said, “What happened to your foot?”

“Fook me foot, yah suited prick,” Popeye said. Then looking around nervously he said, “Nobody followed yeh here, right?”

Dillon was fingering a gold pin in his leather jacket, like it was a talisman or something. The Irish and their goddamn superstitions.

“Not that I know of,” Max said.

“Yeah, well you better be sure,” Popeye said. “I shouldn’t even be here now. I should be in Florida, writing me poetry.”

The idea of this bloodthirsty animal writing poetry was too much for Max. What was that old joke? If you threw a stone in Ireland, you’ll probably hit a poet, usually a bad one.

Smiling, Max asked, “How do your poems start? Roses are red?”

Popeye had the cup up to his mouth, sucking out an ice cube. When his eyes peered over the cup, Max said, “Don’t look at me.”

Sucking on a cube, Popeye said, “What?”

“You heard me, you little cocksucker.” Max laughed. “Just sit there and keep looking straight ahead and don’t look at me. If you look at me one time I’m getting up and leaving here and you’ll never see me again.”

“I like that, the little bollix showing some spunk,” Popeye said. “But are you on medication?
You’re
the one who can’t look at
me
.”

“Not anymore,” Max said. “Now
I’m
calling the shots.”

“You’ll be calling the fookin mortuary, I haven’t time for this shite.”

“Then find time, because you’ll be here as long as I want you to be here.”

“Yeah, and if I get up, walk out, what will you do, use more obscene language?”

“Go ahead. You’re the wanted criminal, not me.”

“If I’m fooked, you’re coming to hell with me.”

“You can’t prove anything,” Max said. “What are you going to do, say I hired you to kill my wife? I really doubt that the police’ll take your word over mine. I’m a respected businessman. Who the fuck are you?”

“Did you say fook to me?”

“I told you not to look at me.”

“Bollix, I’m legging it.”

“I don’t think that would be a wise idea.”

Popeye paused, half-standing, then sat down again and said, “Why not?”

“Think about it. You need this guy out of the way as much as I do. You don’t know what evidence the police have on you. Maybe you left something in my house that night — something you forgot. Or maybe they found some of your blood or hair there or they got something off that piece of shit you left on my rug — thanks very much for that, by the way. What was that, your idea of a fucking housewarming present? It wasn’t very bright, with DNA and all that other shit the cops have these days. I don’t know what it feels like to die by lethal injection, but I imagine it’s not very pleasant.”

Popeye stayed still for a few more seconds then settled back down in the seat and stared straight ahead. Finally he said, “So where does the crippled fuck live?”

“First let’s talk about the important
shite
,” Max said, trying to put on a brogue, wanting to give Popeye a taste
of his own. “My money. I want to revise the offer I made to you over the phone this morning.”

“You said twenty large.”

Max loved the way Popeye’s tone was weakening. Jesus Christ, Max felt the power going straight to his head.

“Yeah, well, a lot has changed since then,” Max said. “For instance, you’ve made it on to the NYPD’s Most Wanted list, so I’ve decided you owe me a freebie for this one.”

“Like fuck I do.”

Max ignored this, said, “You have as much stake now in this as I do. You can’t disappear until this Rosa guy is out of the way and you know it.”

Popeye’s eyes narrowed into slits.

“How will you find his address?”

“I already called Information,” Max said. “They told me they didn’t have any Bobby Rosas. I said, what about Robert Rosas? They had one in the West Village — the fudgepacking district. The Rosa I met didn’t look like a guy who talks into the mike, if you know what I mean. They also had one at one hundred West Eighty-ninth so I said gimme that one.”

“But how you know it’s the same fellah?”

“I did something you’re not used to doing — I used my fucking head. I called the building and said to the doorman, ‘Does a Robert Rosa in a wheelchair live at your address?’ The guy said ‘Yeah,’ and I hung up. You have any more stupid questions?”

Popeye started to say something, but Max interrupted and, with his best Oirish accent said, “Good, then you can get the
bejaysus
out of here.”

Popeye looked stunned for a couple of seconds, mumbling something about “tinkers.” Then he stood up and said, “You shouldn’t take the Lord’s name in vain, tis bad luck.”

About twenty minutes later, when Max got out of the cab in front of his townhouse, a man said, “You Max Fisher?”

Looking at the guy, Max thought, Jesus Christ, what now?

The guy took out his shiny gold badge and said, “Ortiz — Homicide. I think you better come with me.”

I wanted to say they busted apart as do dried-up dreams, or public trust, but, truly, they flew apart exactly like yesterday’s shit.

D
ANIEL
W
OODRELL
,
Give Us a Kiss

The doorbell rang and Bobby said, “Come in,” sitting in his wheelchair about ten feet from the door, his Glock 27 compact pistol resting on his lap. In walked Max Fisher’s executive assistant. She was wearing a short red leather skirt, matching pumps and a tight top. Like the other night at the hotel, her hair was big and blown dry, but tonight she had on thick red lipstick, plenty of eye makeup, and silver hoop earrings.

After looking her up and down again and then waiting a couple of seconds, Bobby wanted to say,
Holy fuckin’ shit,
but went with “Can I help you with something?”

“Sorry to bother you like this,” she said. “I mean I would’ve called, or tried to call and tell you I was coming over, but I didn’t think I’d have time. It’s just I heard my boss talking on the phone today and I had to come over to warn you.”

Man, that Irish accent was sexy as hell. He was trying to remember whether he’d ever banged an Irish chick. He had — a few of them — but they were Irish-American. They didn’t sound like this girl, that’s for sure.

“Warn me about what?” he asked, hiding the gun between his leg and the side of his chair.

“I think you’re in big trouble,” she said. “My boss said he’s sending somebody over here to hurt you, or maybe
worse. I don’t know what’s going on, but I heard him mention your name and address.”

Bobby stared at her for a few seconds. She was biting her lower lip, in a naughty schoolgirl way, and he wished he could give her something else to bite on. He wondered if she’d dressed up just for him. The other night, at the hotel, she’d been wearing jeans and a tube top.

“So who’s this guy that’s gonna come after me?” he asked.

“He calls himself Popeye.”

“Popeye? I gotta look out for Olive Oyl too?”

Angela smiled, said, “I just heard Max talking about Popeye.”

“And how does Max know a guy like this ‘Popeye’?”

Angela shrugged.

“Is he the guy with the gray hair and the screwed-up mouth I saw a sketch of on the news?”

“I really don’t know anything else,” Angela said. “I mean I guess it could be the same guy.”

Bobby looked her up and down again, said, “Wanna sit down?” and Angela said, “Sure.”

As Angela passed by Bobby caught a whiff of her perfume and said, “You’re wearing Joy.”

“Yeah,” Angela said, smiling. “How’d you know?”

“I bought some of it for an old girlfriend one time. I love that smell.”

Bobby watched her sit down on the couch. He liked the noise her leather skirt made when she crossed her right leg over her left. She was exactly the type of girl Bobby would have gone crazy for before he got shot. He would have taken her to one of those classy Italian restaurants downtown in the West Village, then to some club on Seventh Avenue, and then back to his place for an all-night screw fest.

“This is a really big place you got here,” Angela said
looking around. “You live here all by your own self?”

“Yeah,” Bobby said. Then he lifted himself up in his wheelchair to do a pressure-relief and said, “But I’ll probably sell it one of these days and move into something smaller.” Noticing an empty pizza box on the coffee table and glasses half-filled with soda on the end pieces he said, “Sorry it’s such a dump.”

“Oh, don’t be ridiculous,” Angela said. “If you want to know a secret, my apartment’s a real mess too.”

Bobby was staring at Angela’s mouth, loving how when she stopped talking her lips stayed slightly apart. He said, “So you know why Max wants this Popeye guy to kill me, don’t you?”

“No,” Angela said.

“You don’t know anything about the pictures?”

Angela shook her head.

“Well,” Bobby said, “I sort of took these pictures the other night of you and your boss... in that hotel room.”

Bobby was watching Angela’s reaction closely. She seemed genuinely surprised, but he couldn’t tell for sure.

“You’re saying you were the guy who—”

Bobby nodded.