“Yeah, and it’s no picnic lugging it
around in suitcases.”
Jo Jo said.
Hathaway nodded, his hands moving expertly among the hills.
“Lucky you’re so strong, Jo Jo.”
The counting continued. The hills were stacked and banded and put aside as Hathaway counted them.
“I started as a teller,” he said as he
counted. “You never forget.”
“Yeah, yeah. I’m telling you, I counted already. There’s two million three hundred and twelve thousand, eight hundred and fifty-four dollars there.”
“I have a fiduciary responsibility,”
Hathaway said.
“How come you started as a teller?” Jo Jo said. “Your father owned the fucking bank.”
Hathaway smiled without answering and continued to count.
“I hear you had a dispute with Jesse,”
Hathaway said,
“We were surprised at the outcome.”
“Son of a bitch blindsided me,” Jo Jo
said.
“It makes us worry a little,” Hathaway
said, carefully slipping the band over a stack of twenty-dollar bills, paying great attention to the process, “about our judgment.”
“Don’t worry,” Jo Jo said.
“He ain’t that good.”
“I hope he isn’t. He was certainly hired on the assumption that he wouldn’t be. What also concerns us is that we hope you are better than the encounter suggests.”
Jo Jo stopped taking bills from the suitcase and rose to his feet.
“You ever been kicked in the
balls.‘?” he said.
Hathaway shOOk his head and lOOked mildly contemptuous.
People of his caste did not receive kicks in the balls.
“He suckered toe”once, he won’t
do it again.“
“We hope not,” Hathaway said.
Jo Jo stood lOOking down at him, feeling the anger surge along his latissimus dorsi. He could pick the little twerp up and strangle him like a chicken. It annoyed him that Hathaway was not more aware of that.
“Look at me,” Jo Jo said. “Look
at him, next time you see him. You think I’m not going to even it up?”
“Not directly,” Hathaway said.
“Whaddya mean?”
“He’s the chief of police,”
Hathaway said.
As he spoke he continued to count.
“So fucking what?” Jo Jo said.
“Anyone screws around with me, has to pay.”
“You are a valuable member of our team, and‘ we can’t compromise the team mission for petty personal reasons.”
“Hey,” Jo Jo said.
“I’m not anybody’s team, you un-nerstand, I’m just me, Jo Jo. I do what I goddamned please.”
Hathaway stopped counting and looked up at Jo Jo silently with his pale blue eyes.
“We want you to avoid any confrontation with Jesse Stone,” Hathaway said.
“And maybe I do it anyway.”
Again the silence while Hathaway looked at him, and Jo Jo felt a little tingle of fear inside the protective muscle layers.
