fishing. Suddenly I had this crazy thought that while Stick was younger than me and newer at the
game, he was protecting me. It was a feeling I had known in the past and it scared me because it made
me think about Teddy.
“I?ve been chasing Taglianis longer than anything else I?ve done in my whole life,” I said. “Longer
than college, longer than law school, longer than the army. I know everything there is to know about
the fucking Taglianis.”
“That?s why you?re here enjoying the land of sunshine and little honeys,” Stick replied. “Think about
it—you could be back in Cincinnati. Now that?s something to get the blues over.”
“1 hope you?re not gonna be one of those jerks who always look on the bright side,” I said caustically.
In a crazy kind of way, I felt a strange sense of kinship with the Taglianis, as if I were the black sheep
of the family. My life had been linked to theirs for nearly six years. I knew more about the Tagliani
clan than I did about the Findleys or any of the hooligans. I knew what their wives and their
girlfriends were like, what they liked to eat, how they dressed, what they watched on television, where
they went on vacation, what they fought about, how often they made love. I even knew when their
children were born.
“You want to hear something really nuts?” I said. “I almost sent one of the Tagliani kids a birthday
card once.”
“I knew a detective in D.C., used to send flowers to the funeral when he wasted somebody. He always
signed the cards „From a friend.”
“That?s sick,” I said.
“You know what we oughta do, buddy? When this fiasco is all over we ought to take a month?s leave,
go down to the Keys. I got a couple of buddies live down there, sit around all day smoking dope and
eating shrimp. That?s the fuckin? life. Or maybe get the hell out of the country, hit the islands Aruba,
one of those. Sit around soaking up rays, getting laid, forget all this shit.”
“Wouldn?t that be nice?” I said.
“We?ll do it,” he said, slapping the steering wheel with the palm of his hand, and then he said
suddenly, “Hey, you married?”
“No, are you?”
“Hell no. What woman in her right mind would spend more than a weekend at the Holiday Fuckin?
Inn.”
“That?s where you?re staying, the Holiday Inn?”
“Yeah. It?s kind of like home, y?know. They?re all exactly alike, no matter where you are, If you get
one of the inside rooms overlooking the pool, the view doesn?t even change.”
