He drank from his lemonade, his eyes never leaving mine. Then he pushed opened the short iron gate with his foot.
'It's a nice day, a special occasion. I got no bad feelings on a nice day like this. Eat a piece of cake,' he said.
'We can talk out here.'
'What, you too good to sit down at my nephew's birthday party?' he said.
I ate a custard-filled eclair in a sunny spot by the garden wall. The air was dry and warm, and the breeze blew through the banana trees along the wall and ruffled the water in an aboveground swimming pool. The guests around the tables were his relatives and family friends-working-class people who owned small grocery stores and cafes, carried hod, belonged to the plumbers' union, made the stations of the cross each Friday in Lent, ate and drank at every meal as though it were a pagan celebration, married once, and wore widow black with the commitment of nuns.
Max combed his hair back over his bald pate at the table, cleaned the comb with his fingers, then stuck the stub of a filter-tipped cigar in his mouth and motioned me toward a gazebo on the far side of the yard. The latticework was covered with purple trumpet vine; inside, the glass-topped table and white-painted iron chairs were deep in shadow, cold to the touch.
Max lit his cigar and let the smoke trail out of his mouth. His shoulders were brown and oily-looking against the white straps of his undershirt.
'Say it,' he said.
'I hear you and Bobo put out an open contract on Clete.'
'You get that from Lonighan?'
'Who cares where it came from?'
'Lonighan's a welsher and a bum.'
I leaned forward and rubbed my hands together.
'I'm worried about my friend, Max.'
'You should. He's got a radioactive brain or something.'
'I'm not here to defend what he does. I just want you guys to take the hit off him.'
'He's the victim? Have you seen my fucking car? It ain't a car no more. It's a block of concrete.'
'Come on, Max. You guys started it when you leaned on his girlfriend.'
'That's all past history. She paid the loan, she paid the back vig. All sins forgiven.'
'Here's the deal. You and Bobo tried to take out Nate Baxter. I think you probably did this without consent of the Commission. What if some reliable information ends up in their hands about a couple of guys in New Orleans trying to cowboy a police administrator?'
'That's what you got to work my crank with?' he said.
'Yeah, I guess so.'
'Then you got jack shit.'
'What's going to make you happy, Max?'
He smiled. I felt my pulse swelling in my throat; I rubbed the top of my knuckles with my palm. I kept my eyes flat and looked at the curtain of trumpet vine that puffed in the breeze.
'I want the two hundred large Tommy Lonighan owes me and Bobo,' he said. 'That fucking mick is gonna die and take the debt to the grave. You twist him right, we get our money, then I don't have no memory about troubles with Clete Purcel.'
'Big order, Max.'
'You know anything easy? Like they say, life's a bitch, then you get to be dead for a long time.'
The ash from his cigar blew on my slacks. I brushed it off, then put on my sunglasses and looked out into the sunlight.
'What, you sentimental about Lonighan or something?' he said.
'No.'
'That's good. Because he's been jobbing you. Him and Hippo Bimstine, both.'
'Oh?'
'That's a surprise? People like you rip me up, Robicheaux. You think Jews are martyrs, the Irish are fun guys singing 'Rosie O'Grady' on the corner, and Italians are colostomy bags. Tell me I'm wrong.'
'You were going to say something about Tommy Blue Eyes?'
'Yeah, he got his fat mick mush full of booze and was laughing about how you trust Hippo Bimstine and think he's big shit because he's got all these liberal causes.'
'I see.'
'You see? I don't think you see shit. Lonighan says Hippo stole some stuff out of the public library about that Nazi sub so you wouldn't find out what's inside it.'
'No kidding?'
'
I leaned forward and picked at the calluses on my palm. The breeze was drowsy with the smell of chrysanthemums and dead birthday candles.
'You and I have something in common,' I said.
'I don't think so.'
'I went down on a murder beef once. Did you know that?'
'I'm supposed to be impressed?'
'Here's the trade, Max. Take the contract off Clete and I stay out of your life.'
'You ain't in my life.'
'Here's the rest of it.'
'I ain't interested,' he said. 'I tell you what. It's my nephew's birthday, you came out to my mother's house and showed respect, you didn't act like the drunk fuck everybody says you are. That means I'm letting all this stuff slide, and that includes what you done to me out at Lonighan's place. So you can tell dick-brain the score's even, he's getting a free pass he don't deserve, I got businesses to run and I don't have time for this shit. Are we clear on this now?'
'I hope you're a man of your word, Max.'
'Fuck you and get outta here.'
When I opened the gate and let myself out, I noticed a tangle of ornamental iron roses tack-welded in the center of the pikes. The cluster was uneven where one rose had been snapped loose from its base. I rubbed the ball of my thumb over the sharp edges of the broken stem and looked back at Max. His eyes had never left me. He rotated an unlit cigar in the center of his mouth.
The AA meeting is held on the second floor of a brick church that was used as a field hospital for Confederate wounded in 1863, then later as a horse stable by General Banks's Union cavalry. Outside, the streets are wet and cool and empty, the storefronts shuttered under the wood colonnades, the trees still dripping with rain against a sky that looks like a red-tinged ink wash.
It's a fifth step meeting, one in which people talk about stepping across a line and admitting to God, themselves, and another person the exact nature of their wrongs. For many, it's not an easy moment.
Some of them are still zoned out, their eyes glazed with residual fear; those sent by the court try to hide the resentment and boredom in their faces; others seem to have the exuberance and confidence of airplane wing walkers.
Bootsie sits next to me, her hands folded tightly in her lap. She showered after supper and put on makeup and a new yellow dress, but in her cheeks are pale discolorations, like slivers of ice, and there's a thin sheen of perspiration at her temples.
'You don't have to say anything. Just listen,' I whisper to her.
They start to unload. Some of it seems silly-overdue library books, cavalier attitudes toward bills-then it turns serious and you feel embarrassed and voyeuristic; you find your eyes dropping to the floor, and you try not to be affected by the level of pain in the speaker's voice.
The details sometimes make the soul wince; then you remember some of the things you did, or tried to do, or could have done, while drunk and you realize that what you hear in this room differs only in degree from the moral
