Эд Макбейн: Bread

Q: Then Bachmann’s a dealer, right?

A: A merchant.

Q: And what you did was go to Grimm with a source for dope...

A: No, no.

Q:...knowing he had a way of bringing it in...

A: No, you got it all wrong. I was a businessman making an investment. I didn’t know what Grimm was involved in.

Q: You’re full of shit, Alfie.

A: (Silence)

Q: Alfie?

A: All right, I was trying to make a little money for myself, what the hell’s wrong with that? You know how much that scag would’ve been worth after it was cut? Eleven million dollars! And Jesus, what a sweet setup! I knew where to get the stuff, and Grimm already had a tested way of bringing it in. Every customs official on the dock knew he was running a legit operation, they never so much as glanced at that wooden crap he was importing. Hollow out the animals, stuff them with dope, plug them up again, and we’re home free. Perfect. We used to dream of a setup like that when we were in jail together.

Q: But your partners found out about Grimm, and you decided it was safer to sacrifice him than to...

A: Sacrifice him? He was a stupid bastard. It was his fault they found out.

Q: But you couldn’t risk their finding out it was you who’d double-crossed them in the first place.

A: I didn’t double-cross them. This was business, pure and simple. A two-way split is better than a three-way split any day of the week.

Q: You’re just an enterprising businessman, is that right, Alfie? First you double-cross one set of partners, and then you throw your next partner to the wolves.

A: What’d you expect me to do? You think Robbie and Oscar were kidding around? Getting Charlie to burn down the warehouse was the first warning. The house in Logan...

Q: Why’d Elizabeth Benjamin spend two nights with Reardon?

A: Because he was getting cold feet. They’d already given him five grand, but all of a sudden he was running scared. Liz went over with a little female persuasion.

Q: And the house in Logan?

A: That was the second warning. If Grimm had still tried to bring that shipment in, they’d have had him killed. The way they had Reardon killed after the fire.

Q: Did Charlie take care of that, too?

A: Charlie would’ve shoved his own mother off the roof for a nickel. He was a junkie, man. He needed lots of loot to keep that habit of his going.

Q: Didn’t he make enough with his pornography business?

A: Where’d you guys get all this stuff?

Q: Didn’t he?

A: He used to. But nowadays you can buy porn right in the open, so what’s so special about it? Charlie was on the skids, the Caddy was four years old, the threads were out of style. They supplied him with junk, and he did what they told him to do. In case you haven’t heard, the supply’s a little short these days. Which is why this would’ve been such a sweet deal if it wasn’t for that stupid bastard Grimm. Why’d he go to you guys, would you tell me that? Dumb, that’s why. He’s involved in an eleven-million-dollar dope deal, so he runs to the cops for help.

Q: He wouldn’t have run to us if you hadn’t burned down his warehouse.

A: I keep telling you I didn’t burn it down, they did. Send him back to jail, will you? You’ve got the contract, that’s all you need. Send him away for a million years. He’s a menace to society.

Q: But not you, huh, Alfie?

A: I was only in it for the bread. You’re the ones who taught me, man.

At a quarter past 9:00 Rosalie Waggener asked if it was all right if she went home. The detectives told her it was not all right. The detectives told her that they were charging Hemmings, Worthy, and Chase with arson and homicide, and Grimm, Chase, and herself with attempting to smuggle dope into the country.

“I had nothing to do with any dope,” Rosalie said.

“You paid for it,” Carella said.

“I was only a messenger.”

“For a jig pusher,” Ollie said.

“Knock off that kind of talk, will you?” Carella said.

“What kind of talk?”

“That bigoted bullshit,” Hawes said.

“Bigoted?” Ollie said. “White or black, they’re all the same to me, they all stink. That’s bigoted?”

“That’s not even equal but separate,” Carella said, and Ollie burst out laughing. He slapped Hawes and Carella on their backs, simultaneously, with both beefy hands, almost knocking over Carella, who was off balance to begin with. “I like you guys,” he said, “you know that? I really enjoy working with you guys.”

Carella and Hawes said nothing. Since Ollie had just confessed to a monumental misanthropic outlook, Carella was wondering why he had now bestowed upon them the singular honor of his affection. Hawes, on the other hand, was wondering what mistake he’d made. Had he somehow indicated to Ollie that he’d wanted his friendship? Jesus, had he unwittingly done that ?

“You know what I think I’m gonna do?” Ollie said. “I think I’m gonna put in for a transfer to the 87th. I really do like you guys.”

Again Carella and Hawes said nothing. Hawes was thinking they already had an Ollie Weeks up at the old station house, and his name was Andy Parker, and if Ollie transferred to the 87th, Hawes would immediately ask for a transfer to the 83rd. Carella was thinking that Ollie’s addition to the squad would create a fine kettle of fish — Ollie himself, another jewel named Andy Parker, a black cop named Arthur Brown, and a Puerto Rican cop named Alexiandre Delgado. The potential mix was pregnant, so to speak. Carella shuddered at the thought.

“Is it all right to go to the ladies’?” Rosalie asked.

In bed that night, Carella had trouble falling asleep. He kept thinking of Alfred Allen Chase’s last words in the Q and A.

“You’re the ones who taught me, man.”

It was not that he hadn’t understood what Alfie had meant, or exactly whom he was indicting. It was merely that, as a white man, he had enormous difficulty accepting Alfie’s indictment.

When he finally did fall asleep, he tossed and turned a lot, and his dreams were bad.