I sat down. There was no point in pushing it any further. We both had made our points.
“Suppose you tell me how you want to run the show,” I said. The storm was over. “It ain?t that,” he
said quietly. “I just got
hot under the collar, see. I didn?t like hearin? things about a man I?m workin? sock and shoe with from
the local gossip.”
“She?s guessing,” I said.
“Is she guessing right? Did you have an affair with Doe Raines?” “Shit, Dutch, I had a college
romance with Doe Findley. That was over and done with a long time ago. Besides, what?s that got to
do with the price of eggs?”
“Right now a scandal could really upset the apple cart.” I felt like getting righteously indignant except
that he was cutting close to the bone. I wasn?t sure how to deal with the situation without straight-out
lying to the man.
“There?s not going to be any scandal,” I said finally.
“Is that a fact?” he asked seriously.
“That?s a fact.”
He nodded slowly. “Okay,” he said. “I?m sorry I brought it up but I?m lust as glad we got it out of the
way. Anyway, I got run through the wringer this morning. Titan and Donleavy both shoved it up and
broke it off.”
“Does Donleavy know about Doe and me?”
“I doubt it. It didn?t come up.”
“So what?s their beef?”
“No more?n you could expect,” he moaned. “My job was to keep people like Tagliani outta here. Now
they want the whole mess cleaned up. Titan?s idea is to just run them out of town.”
“That stuff went out with Buffalo Bill.”
“Tell them that. So far, Raines hasn?t figured it all out. The name of the game is sweep it under the
rug.”
“It?s gone too far for that.”
“You know it and I know it.”
“But they don?t, is that it?”
“Livin? in the past,” he mused. “Donleavy doesn?t know anything about the rackets. He?s seen too
many James Cagney movies.”
“Unless I?m mistaken,” I said, “Donleavy had a hand in all this. He was supposed to screen these
people.”
