back. I couldn’t believe my luck when Geary and Brightman came sniffing around about you. I knew they wanted a patsy. I may hate that I have to breathe in the air you breathe out, but I know you’re no patsy. Fucking Jews are all troublemakers to begin with, never happy to leave well enough alone. And with what you did to me and my family, I had every confidence you would ruin their plans. I don’t know what you did to force Brightman to resign and I don’t care, but here’s to you! There is justice in this world.”
I didn’t explain why I was laughing when I walked out of Thin Tim McGuinn’s.
Two weeks later, Israel Roth showed up in Sheepshead Bay. We had spoken several times after my return to New York, but I had been purposely vague about what had transpired during my time in Florida. He hadn’t gotten in any trouble with the Boca cops. They had scolded him like a child and suggested he take a gun-safety course offered by the local NRA. I apologized for what I’d put him through.
“Don’t worry, Mr. Moses, you’ll see. For being an ass when you’re young, the punishment is getting old.”
One night, when Katy and Sarah had gone to bed, we sat up drinking scotch and vodka. I explained to him about how his offering me his automatic had saved my life. He looked very perturbed at me when I suggested that our meeting in the Catskills and our reconnecting in Florida must have been a part of some great plan.
“I’ve seen too close the results of some of God’s great plans. It’s better you think of things as luck or misfortune,” he advised.
“To luck and misfortune!”
That cheered him up. He said that there had been nothing in the papers about either Morenos or Barto, but that he’d keep his eyes open. I wasn’t sure I much liked that, but there was nothing to be done about it.
On the day he was to leave, I gave Mr. Roth back the boxes he’d given me. I told him it was only right that he give Katy and Sarah their stars. He almost started crying. Almost. Like he said, he had too closely seen some of God’s great plans. As he put their stars around their necks, I touched the one he’d given me back in Florida. I had gotten quite used to it by now. The strange thing is, I could have been reinstated and gotten my detective’s shield in spite of everything. I had turned it down. Somewhere along the way, I’d realized I had my shield, only not the one I’d expected.
