“So?”
“So Chevos says maybe he should take care of it and Costello says no, no Fed killing and besides,
Nance fucked it up once before and Nance gets really pissed, like bad enough, he could have taken
Costello?s head off. Couple of us, we had to take them apart. Anyway, it blew over. Later Costello
tells Nance he?s sorry, it?s all blown over, and Chevos says maybe they can use this thing with the
Raines broad to bring you down.”
“What?d Costello say?”
“He says he?ll think about it and Chevos says you?re a jinx. He says, „A black cat runs across your
path, you kill it, one way or another.? That?s his exact words arid Costello repeats himself. „I?ll think
about it,? he says.”
“Is there paper on me?”
“Not that I heard, just the beef is all. Jesus would you look at that.”
The two dogs were locked together in the centre of the pit. Blood was splashed on the pit walls, the
dirt floor, everywhere. The hog dog was no longer a pit virgin. Its face was shredded. I wanted to get
out of there.
“Anybody in the mob got a beef against the Taglianis?”
“Not that I heard.”
“Anybody inside got a hard-on for them?”
“Hey, it ain?t like that, man. I told ya, everybody?s happy.”
“Anything else?” I asked.
“Well . . there?s one more thing I can give you. I heard something about a big coke shipment that?s
coming in. Mucho kilos.”
“Well, what about it?” I demanded.
“All I know, there was some stuff comin? in from down south. Out of the country. I know this because
some of our girls are into snow and it?s been short.”
“And..
“And the boat?s late. Not to worry, is the word. Could be a storm or something. If it got busted, we?d
already know. You guys brag about shit like that.”
“Maybe that?s where Nance went, to bring the load in.”
“What about Nance?”
“He?s gone underground. We?ve been looking for him since Monday.”
“I don?t know anything about that,” Harry Nesbitt said.
Down below, the fight had gone against the hog dog. The old warrior had it by the throat and was
