Choice of Evil

second coming of DiMaggio, shouting encouragement, applauding everything. I could see it embarrassed the fat kid, his father making such a fuss over him and all.

I hated that kid.

I wanted to kill him.

And take his place.

I wanted to. . .

“Burke. Call for you.”

Mama, tapping me on the shoulder, that look on her face telling me it wasn’t the first time she’d tried, but I hadn’t been there.

I shook my head to clear it. Immaculata and Flower were gone. Max was sitting across from me. Cards still on the table. Score sheet to my right. But it was—damn!—half an hour since I’d been in the room.

“Thanks, Mama,” I said, like nothing was going on. I saw her exchange looks with Max.

“What?” I said into the phone.

“Aw, you never did call, huh?” A woman’s voice. But not one I. . .

“Nadine,” I said.

“Sure. Who else? You have other girlfriends?”

“What do you want?” I asked, flat-voiced, just this side of harsh.

“Ah, what a list that is. But, for now, I’ll settle for this: We want to meet with you again.”

“Lincoln—”

“Yes, Lincoln. All of us.”

“What’s the—?”

“The point,” she interrupted again, “is that we’ve come to an agreement. And we want to propose it to you.”

“I told you—”

“Yes, and we listened, okay? You can have what you want. How many times a day do you hear that?” she mock-purred.

“I hear it all the time,” I told her.

“Well, you play your cards right, you’ll get to see it too,” she said, a play-sexy catch in her low voice.

“You want entertainment, watch TV, bitch.”

“You scared?” she challenged.

“Sure,” I said indifferently.

“Hmm. . . that works on most men,” she said, whispering now, breathy. “What works on you, Burke?”

“Money,” I said, neutral-voiced.

“Well, then, you got your wish, mister. Interested now?”

I didn’t bother with the bouncer this time. Or backup either. If there was going to be trouble, it would have been last time. Anyway, my crew knew who everyone was, and where to find the place. If those people knew enough about me to offer me a job, they knew enough to figure out that double-crossing me was a sure ticket to Payback City. And that it wouldn’t be a round trip.

The yellow door opened a split-second after I rapped. Nadine. In baggy pink jersey sweats, her thick dark hair tied behind her head.

“You ever go anyplace without her?” she asked, nodding at Pansy.

“Sometimes,” I replied, looking over her shoulder. The place was empty. “Where’s everyone else?”

“Oh, they’ll be along. Don’t worry. I just wanted to talk to you first. Alone.”

“Talk,” I told her, walking past her and sitting down at the same table she’d been at the first time.

She strolled slowly over, hauling the sweatshirt over her head with both hands as she moved. Underneath was a white jersey bra with heavy shoulder straps. She needed them. Pansy watched her, not moving. She doesn’t rely on smell like most dogs, never makes guesses. If I told her to, she’d let the strange woman pat her head and not make a sound. Or lock on to her like a crocodile with an antelope that ventured too near the water’s edge. All the same to Pansy—she’s a pro.

Nadine sat down, rummaged in a small black nylon bag sitting on the table. The only light was somewhere in the back room. No noise. She came out with a hypo, hit herself on a fleshy part of her upper arm, and pushed the plunger. If she felt the spike go in, I couldn’t see it in her eyes.

And if she expected a reaction from me, she didn’t see it either. “What is it you want?” I asked her.

“To find out. . . something. They’re going to hire you, but I have a. . . proposition. Maybe. I need to find out. . . . Did you ever know a lesbian? I mean, really know one, not watch a couple do it in some movie?”

“I live with one,” I told her.

“Huh? You? Who is she?”

“She’s right there,” I said, pointing at Pansy.

“I guess I don’t like your sense of humor much,” she said, her voice sharp around the edges.

“Pansy’s gay,” I said, telling her the truth. “Or whatever it is that means she wants nothing to do with male dogs. She’s a Neapolitan mastiff, from one of the finest lines. I could get an easy fifteen hundred bucks for one pup, and they usually have real big litters. So I paid a ridiculous stud fee for this famous brute Neo, over in Brooklyn. And even though Pansy was in heat, she wouldn’t get busy with him. No matter what he did, she wasn’t having any.”

“Maybe she just didn’t like him?”

“Like him? A bitch in heat? Sure. Anyway, I tried it again. Couple of times, in fact. No Sale.”

“Didn’t they want you to tie her down so he could—?”

“Yeah, they did. You think I’d let anyone rape my dog?”

“Well. . . you were going to breed her, right?”

“I was going to let her have sex, then let her have puppies. That’s it. I thought she wanted to. And I was wrong. Truth is, I thought she would—she loves puppies.”

“You really think she’s gay?” she asked, leaning forward, moving her elbows in to display the cleavage.

“Sure.”

“I didn’t think dogs could be—”

“Why not? Some monkeys are. It’s just brain chemistry, right? Hormones trigger differently. I heard it from other guys too, about their dogs.”

“How about male dogs?”

“I. . . don’t know. I don’t see why not. Be harder to tell with them, though.”

“Why?”

“They’re pack animals. When the bitches go into season, the males fight. The winners get to mate. At least, mate first. Maybe their blood gets up even if they don’t want to have sex, and they fight anyway. I don’t know. Never paid much attention.”

“But you seem to know a lot about them.”

“Dogs? Sure. Pansy’s my. . . partner.”

“Is she. . . trained, like?”

“You mean, can she do tricks?”

“Yes. I mean, I guess so. What else could—?”

“They got food in that joint? The one around the side?”

“Sure. What would—?”

“Go get a nice piece of raw steak, no bone, I’ll show you a trick.”

She gave me a quizzical look for a long second. Then got up and walked out the door. If running around in her bra bothered her, you couldn’t see any evidence of it.

I lit a cigarette. “Ready to show off, girl?” I asked Pansy.

She didn’t say anything.

I was almost done with the smoke when Nadine came back in, a big slab of bloody steak in one hand. “Now