True Detective

They were tough guys; probably as tough as Miller and Lang, maybe tougher.

But they had woken up a guy in his sleep who had been pushed once too often in too short a time, and I must've had a look on my face that said they might die, because they put their hands up and Mutt said, 'Heller! Please. This ain't that way. We ain't even armed.'

That didn't sound right.

'It's true,' Jeff said. 'Can I take my coat off?'

I was off the bed now, standing on the floor: the wood was cold against my bare feet.

'Slip out of it'- I nodded 'but nice and easy. I haven't killed anybody all day. Help me keep it that way.'

Jeff slipped out of the coat, no tricks at all. and held his dark gray suitcoat open and there was no shoulder holster.

'You do what he did,' I told Mutt.

Mutt slipped out of his topcoat; his suit was a blue pinstripe, but there seemed to be no gun under there, either. I had them both put their hands against the wall, or actually one of them put his hands against the door, because there wasn't wall space enough in that room for two people to be frisked against any one wall; and. standing there in my underwear. I frisked them, and they were clean.

'Sit on the bed' I told them.

They sat on the bed.

'Tell me what this is about.' I said, and got my pants on, taking my time, keeping the gun on them, buttoning my fly one-handed.

'Mr. Nitti wants to see you,' Mutt said.

'Oh, really? Isn't he a little under the weather to be having visitors?'

Jeff said, 'He's gonna be okay. No thanks to you coppers.'

I motioned with both hands, including the one with the gun in it 'Hey. I'm not a copper anymore. And I wasn't in on it.'

'You was there.' Jeff said accusingly.

'And that was the extent of it,' I said.

'Maybe so.' Mutt said, 'but Mr. Nitti wants to see you.'

'So you come break in my apartment and put the muscle on me.'

Mutt pursed his lips and moved his head from side to side slowly. 'We got the key from the guy at the desk. It only cost a buck. You got great security here, pal.'

'It's okay. I'm moving tomorrow. You boys can go now. Tell Mr. Nitti I'll talk to him when he's feeling better.'

Mutt said. 'This is a friendly gesture. He just wants to talk. That's why we didn't come heeled.'

I thought about that.

'I still don't like it,' I said.

'Look,' Mutt continued, 'you know if Mr. Nitti wants to see you, Mr. Nitti's gonna see you. Why not do it now. when you got a gun on us, and when he's on his back in a hospital bed?'

I nodded. 'Good point. Car downstairs?'

Jeff smiled a little. 'You bet.'

'Okay,' I said. 'Let me get my shoes and socks and shirt on.'

They watched me dress; it wasn't that easy to do while keeping a gun on 'em. but I did it and Mutt sat in back of the big black Lincoln with me. as we took Monroe Street over to the near West Side, to Jefferson Park Hospital.

There were four more guys in topcoats and hats in the corridor on the third floor where Nitti had his private room. The lighting in the corridor was subdued- it was roughly three in the morning now and I saw no doctors and only one nurse, a woman about thirty-five, stocky, dark-haired, scared shitless. Nitti's room was halfway down the corridor, and I stood outside with Jeff while Mutt went in.

Mutt didn't come out: a doctor did. A rather distinguished-looking man in his late fifties or early sixties, short, medium build with a paunch, gray-haired with a gray mustache. He had a near-frown on his face when our eyes met; he didn't approve of my being here, I could tell already. In fact I could tell he didn't approve of me, period

'I consider this ill-advised,' he said, as if my being here was my idea. I told him it wasn't.

'Frank being here is your idea, though, isn't it?' he snapped, in a whisper.

'Actually, no.' I said. 'I got pulled into this by the short hair.'

'You're the one who killed the boy.'

I nodded.

He sighed. 'My son-in-law insists on seeing you.'

'You're Dr. Ronga?'

'That's right.' He didn't offer a hand to shake; I thought it best not to offer mine. 'I wouldn't have agreed to this at all if I couldn't see that Frank might get agitated if we refused him. and he does not need to get agitated right now.'