George Pelecanos - Shame the Devil

“You did?” said Wilson.

“Well, I gave up gambling, anyway.”

“Excuse me, Uncle L.,” said Wilson. “I better change into my work clothes so we can get it on.”

Wilson walked back to the bathroom, where his coveralls were hung behind the door.

He chuckled under his breath, thinking of that fool rug man. Imagine, a high-stakes, after-hours card game, back in this industrial park, on a dead-ass Friday night. And then he thought, maybe it wasn’t so foolish after all.

You planned it right, it could work.

Dimitri Karras sat the bar of the Spot, eating Darnell’s special, a tomato-based cod stew with onions, garlic, oregano, and potatoes. Anna Wang sat beside him, smoking one of Mai’s cigarettes. Mai stood behind the bar, her arms crossed, a smoke dangling between her chubby fingers.

“The special didn’t go so well today,” said Anna.

“It should have,” said Karras, scooping up the juices with a heel of French bread.

“A little too esoteric for this place,” said Anna, loud enough for Happy, seated two stools to her left, to hear. But Happy just brought his cigarette slowly to his lips and gave it a loving drag.

“The man can cook,” said Karras. “He needs the right vehicle, is what it is.”

Maria Juarez came from the kitchen, went behind the bar, grabbed a can of pineapple juice from the shelf, and shook the can. A welt had risen on her cheek, and her eyes were red from crying. She managed to smile at the group before returning to the kitchen.

“Fucking bastard,” said Anna.

Karras saw James Posten give Maria a hug at the entrance to the kitchen, and then James came out and headed for the basement steps. He stopped to say a few words to Ramon, who cradled a full bus tray. Ramon set the bus tray down and followed James down to the basement.

“Where’s Nick today?” said Karras.

“He gave me his shift again,” said Mai. “Must be busy with one of those cases. I like when he’s busy. I need the work.”

“Yeah, but no time for sergeants,” said Anna.

“Andy Griffith,” said Karras.

“Huh?”

“You’re too young.”

“I have plenty of time for my Sergeant DeLaughter,” said Mai coyly. “You have to make the time, and honey, the night time is the right time.” She wiggled her eyebrows at Anna.

A drunk on the end of the bar began to sing loudly to the song coming from the house stereo.

“‘Gypsies, tramps, and thieves,’” sang the drunk, “‘we’d hear it from the people of the town, they’d call us…’”

Karras winced.

Mai laughed and said, “What, Dimitri? You don’t like my music?”

“Put it this way,” said Karras. “If I was Phil and I walked in right now, I’d have to let you go.”

“Just for playing this song?”

“If there was any justice,” said Karras, “it would be a firing offense.”

Nick Stefanos picked up the developed photographs he had taken of Erika Mitchell and her boyfriend and drove south on Blair Road. Night had fallen, and the streets were slick with a brief shower of cold rain.

Stefanos pulled into the Blair Liquors lot and went to the outdoor pay phone. He phoned Ronald Weston, Randy Weston’s brother. He described Erika Mitchell’s new boyfriend to Weston, asked him a question, and got a quick response.

“One more thing,” said Stefanos. “Did Erika have a key to your brother’s crib?”

“Sure, man. She was hangin’ at that joint, goin’ in and out all the time while he was workin.’”

Stefanos thanked Weston and next dialed Jerry Sun at Hunan Delite. He asked him a question and got another quick response. Stefanos thanked Sun, cut the line, and dropped another set of coins in the slot.

“Elaine,” said Stefanos. “Glad I caught you in. I’m running out of change here.”

“You know I never get out of here before seven or eight. What’s up?”

“I’m close to breaking the Weston case.”

“Talk about it, Nick.”

“Got a question for you first. You run those plate numbers I gave you the other day?”

“I have it right here.”

Elaine read the name of the ice green Acura’s owner to Stefanos. He wasn’t happy, but there was the satisfaction of having done a job and done it well.

“You still there?”

“Yeah.”

“Tell me what’s going on.”

“Tomorrow. I’m going to let you buy me lunch. Say, one o’clock? I’ll meet you at Scholl’s.”

“I’ll be there. Look, Nick, have everything ready for me then. No more secrets, okay? The trial starts in a couple of days.”

“Right. See you at Scholl’s.”

Stefanos got back in his car. He swung the Dodge out of the lot, went a couple of blocks, turned off Blair onto Rittenhouse, and parked halfway down the street.

He pulled a full-size black Maglite from his glove box and stepped out of the car. He was breaking his own rule about working outside at night. This wasn’t necessary; he was nearly sure he had the answers now. He told himself this as he walked down the sidewalk toward Sean Forjay’s house.

The green Acura was not in the driveway. There was a light on in the house, but the light meant nothing. Stefanos looked around quickly and stepped past the empty gravel driveway to the locked-down garage. Along the top of the garage doors was a series of small rectangular windows. Stefanos got a log from a nearby stack of wood and set the log on its end. He balanced himself atop the log, pushed the rubber button on the shaft of the metal flashlight, and engaged the bulb. He pointed the light through one of the rectangular windows. He knew what he’d find.

The red Torino was parked in the garage.

Stefanos was grabbed from behind and thrown to the ground.

He rolled and came up standing, the flashlight still in his hand. He had landed wrong on his neck, and for a moment he fought dizziness. He squinted to make out the young man standing before him in a crouch. It was the low-slung young man he had bumped into, the one with the stoved-in nose.

“Hold up a minute, man,” said Stefanos.

The young man smiled. He charged Stefanos, his head down. Stefanos swung the Maglite up, connecting it to the young man’s jaw. He heard a crack and breaking glass, saw the young man leave his feet, his eyes fluttering up in the last flash of light.

Stefanos turned and ran, the head of the Maglite gone, its cracked shaft still in his grip. His feet grazed the sidewalk as he booked. He thought of the days he had run from the cops as a child and beaten them, thought of the first time he had won a fight, and he laughed.

He reached his car. He was still laughing as he turned onto Blair Road and gave the Dodge gas.

Nick Stefanos poured three fingers of Grand-Dad into a rocks glass and took it and a cold beer out to his living room, where he had lit a fire. He stood before the fireplace, listening to a Circus Lupus LP called Super Genius. The cut was “Breaking Point”; the rhythm section kicked, and the guitars made it rock. Stefanos drank deeply of the bourbon and set the glass on the mantel. He looked down at his fingers playing air guitar below his waist and he smiled.

Alicia Weisman arrived a little while later. He kissed her on the lips as she removed her coat. She went to walk away, and he drew her back to him and kissed her again.

“What’s up with you?” she said, not unhappily.

“Nothing. Can we just stay in tonight?”

“Damn straight. Let me get a drink.”

“Bring another beer for me, too. Okay?”

Stefanos built the fire up and got down to his T-shirt. Alicia played Soda Pop* Rip Off, by Slant 6, and Stefanos played 13-Point Program to Destroy America, by Nation of Ulysses. He called it “the greatest punk-rock record of all time.”