ceiling. There was a lot to sort through, most of it guesswork on my part, and very little of it, if any,
could be substantiated.
Without looking down, Graves whispered:
“Also I didn?t kill McGee. Man, I was gonna whack that little cocksucker off but somebody else did
the job for me.”
That one caught me by surprise, although I did my best not to show it.
“I?ve had my people killed in this thing,” he said. “Hard to forget.”
“So why get more killed? It?ll just get harder to forget. I understand people went down on both sides.”
Pause.
“That?s true,” he agreed. Then, still looking at the ceiling, “I take the fifth on that cocaine shit. That?s
federal. Put that motherfucker back in the file.”
“You?re clean on that one too,” I said. “If somebody else lifted the load, you?re not guilty of violating
anything. Whoever stole and brought it in, that?s the guilty party.”
He looked down at me and smiled. “You could be in the wrong game, dog lover,” he said. “You
oughta be a fixer.”
“I used to be,” I said.
“Well, shit, how about that.”
“Can we talk about Leadbetter?” 1 asked. I wanted to know about the dead police chief. That was
another coincidence I didn?t believe in. Mufalatta was staring at me, open-mouthed, as I pushed it as
far as it would go.
“What about him?”
“Was he giving you any trouble?”
Graves shook his head very slowly. “Him and Mr. Stoney,” he said, entwining two angers., “like
that.”
“Do you know why he was killed?”
“1 heard it was an accident,” he said.
“There?s one other thing,” I said. “Did Tony Lukatis ever do a job for you?”
“Shit, don?t be a jive-ass. I hardly knew the little motherfucker.”
“You didn?t like him, then?”
“I didn?t think about him one way or the other.”
“So he wasn?t working for you on the Colombia run?”
“If there was a Colombia run, he wouldn?t have been workin? for me, nohow. Okay?”
“Okay.”
