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playing square.
My hairs getting gray.
Looks to me like its falling out. Whoa! Touchy!
Talk, Downtown.
Right. Always in a hurry. Here it is. The two guys that come in for Barbie
put her into a coach with the dink that did the bidding. Only he d changed
somehow. Gotten spooky. She didn t want to go, but he grabbed her. I thought
maybe I d give her a hand, only the guys eyes got weird.
Green?
Yeah. Like green fire.
You re holding my interest, Downtown. But if that s all you ve got . . .
Shaker knew one of the guys helped push her into the coach.
Ah!
I don t know him, see, Shaker said. It s like I seen him around. He s not
somebody I pal with, like Downtown. Just a guy I seen around.
Here s the one that makes or breaks you, guys. You know where to find him?
Shaker said, I know where he cribs.
I dropped coins on the table. I ll be back in a while. I m going to bring a
guy to talk to you. If you put us together with this guy you know, he ll fill
your pockets. I was out of there before any of them could respond.
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Morley had company. I had to wait. Then wait. Then wait some more. While I
waited, Saucerhead came in. I waved. He joined me, glumly. Cheer up. I need
some muscle, I told him.
Like now?
Right away. Unless your investments Cant wait?
Would I be . . . ?
What s the matter?
Just don t feel like it, Garrett. Not in the mood.
Since when do you have to be in the mood to make yourself a mark?
Hey, busting heads ain t all the fun it looks like, Garrett.
I know. I know.
How would you? You don t wale on nobody unless&
You feel good enough to pick up a few coppers running a message?
I guess. Yeah. I could handle that.
I sent him to fetch Captain Block. If I had to wait around forever for Morley
to finish playing, I might as well pull in the money man while I did.
I did wait. And I waited. And then I waited. I waited so long I got sober. No
Morley. Block and Tharpe showed up, dripping. It was raining again. I thought
some more about getting into the boat business. When Morley still showed no
sign of growing bored with his guest, I said, the hell with him.
We can handle it without him. Let s go.
Block was relieved. He didn t think it would be politic for him to associate
with a professional killer.
Saucerhead said, Ill tag along.
Thought you weren t in the mood.
Maybe I ll change moods.
It s raining out there.
It s always raining. Lets go.
Block said very little till we enjoyed the privacy of the street. I hope this
is something good, Garrett. I need it.
Yeah?
Pressure again. You don t feel it down here. The Hill is in a panic. Some
people up there are carrying on like the Venageti were at the gates. I need
something fast. Anything.
Tell you what. This doesn t pan out, you pass the word for them to keep their
daughters out of the Tenderloin.
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Give me a break, Garrett.
I mean it. There s a fad amongst the deb set. Go down and play sleaze girl.
That won t make their fathers happy, but it s a fact. It looks like our killer
picks his victims from rich girls working the quarter.
That won t make anyone happy.
Not when it gets out. You recall, none of the stories we got about the
victims ever mentioned anything like that. I think we talked to the wrong
people. People who didn t know and didn t guess because the bodies weren t
found near the quarter.
Maybe some suspected. I can think of several stories that sounded like
somebody trying to make somebody look good. Block sniffed, grunted, hawked. He
was working on a cold. We get lucky, maybe we won t have to deal with any of
that.
We don t get lucky, maybe we can let the word get around without it looking
like it s your fault. It will come out if this goes on much longer.
Block grunted again.
I glanced over my shoulder. My instincts were right. We were being followed.
Did you maybe bring a few helpers?
Block glanced back. Yeah. They re mine. Clumsy, aren t they?
They don t get much practice.
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