Unspeakable

loud yellow coat. On one side he was flanked by a hard-faced young Chinese in an expensive light-gray suit, on the other by a huge man in a tight black T-shirt, with a flattop and a broken nose.

'All human life is there,' Mickey remarked as Holly sat down again. 'The Chink on the left is Danny Hee, who's into anything from crack cocaine to fake Rolexes. The big ape on the right is Vernon Pulitzer, who used to be a boxer but is actually gay. You going to be okay with this? You want a drink?'

'Just a coffee, thanks.'

Mickey said, 'You see that table for two, right opposite Krauss? You can sit there and pretend that you've been stood up, or that you're a lonely spinster or something. You can sit facing the mirror, with your back to him, so it won't be so obvious that you're watching him. You'll also be well out of earshot, so hopefully he won't be inhibited about talking business. Maybe, with any luck, he'll talk about this hit he's arranging too.'

'Do you believe in luck?'

'Luck? For sure. I wouldn't spend so much of my salary at Portland Meadows if I didn't.'

'What aboutbadluck? Do you believe in that?'

He caught something in the tone of her voice and narrowed his eyes. 'Is something worrying you?'

'I don't know. I never believed in bad luck before. I couldn't, could I, after losing my hearing? The only way to deal with it was to count my blessings and try to think that God had made me deaf for a very good reason.'

'But now?'

'Now I'm not so sure. I feel like everything's changed but I don't quite know how. It's like walking into a room and somebody's moved all the furniture and the pictures but you can't remember how they were before, except that you find it disturbing.'

'You're giving me the creeps, you know that?'

The waitress came over to take their order. After she had gone, Mickey leaned forward and said, 'I used to know a detective called Frank Fraser who always carried this two-headed quarter as a lucky charm. We were going into a warehouse on the waterfront once, me and Frank. Somebody had tipped us off that it was full of contraband booze and cigarettes. We climbed up onto the building next door so that we could jump across onto the roof.

'I went first, but I landed badly and my shoe came off. Frank came after me, and he was laughing at me while I was hopping around on one leg, trying to get my shoe back on. He opened the door that led down into the warehouse andbang!I'll never forget it as long as I live. His head blew up like a bunch of red roses.

'So what was that? Bad luck for Frank but good luck for me.' He reached into his pocket and took out a coin. 'This is it: This is Frank's two-headed quarter. I carried it ever since, to remind me that every situation has two sides to it, and that one day it might be me who opens the door first. Bad luck, good luck. Who knows which is which?'

Merlin Talks Business

Holly went over to the table opposite Merlin Krauss and the waitress brought her a tiny cup of espresso and a small plateful of almond madeleines. Merlin was drinking Full Sail ale and eating handfuls of nuts as if he needed them to stay alive. Danny Hee was complaining about something, while Vernon Pulitzer was staring into the middle distance and solemnly concentrating on picking his left nostril.

She couldn't pick up everything that Merlin was saying, particularly since he kept clapping his hand in front of his mouth to fill it with nuts, and lipreading in a mirror was always slightly more problematic than lipreading full-face. Nobody's mouth was perfectly symmetrical, as Holly used to demonstrate by challenging people to curl their lips like Elvis onbothsides of their face.

'No-I never guaranteed no specific date,' Merlin insisted, chewing nuts and shaking his head from side to side. 'I guaranteed a delivery, yes, but I never guaranteed no specific date.'

'What good is it saying you're going to deliver when you can't saywhenyou're going to deliver?'

'I'mgoingto deliver. Iguaranteedto deliver. But I never guaranteed no specific date.'

'So when? Tomorrow?'

'I don't know, Danny. Do I look like some kind of fucking clairvoyant? I mean, do you see any crystal balls around here?'

'Where's the stuff now?'

'It'scoming,Danny. Trust me. It's on its way.'

'So when?'

'I told you. You'll get your delivery. You've paid for it, you'll get it. Did I ever let you down before?'

'No, but when? Next week? I have to have it by the end of next week or else I'm fucked.'

'Listen-I'm not going to let you pin me down to some specific date because I never guaranteed no specific date. Who do you have on your back anyhow, it's all got to be so fucking urgent? Not that Sung asshole?'

Danny Hee said nothing.

'It's Sung, isn't it, that asshole? What an asshole. Thinks he's in a Jackie Chan movie. Well, you can tell him from me that he'll get what's coming when it comes. Asshole.'

Holly was used to the repetitive monotony of criminals' conversation. It was tedious, but it made it easier to fill in the words that she inevitably missed. It was never like a Quentin Tarantino movie, no witty observations about what Big Macs were called in Paris. It was all 'a deal's a deal, right? Understand what I mean? Like, when I say it's a deal, it's a deal.' And 'my son's playing basketball tonight, he's doing great, he's really doing great.' 'Yeah?' 'Yeah, he's really doing great.' 'Yeah? Great.'

Even when they were discussing acts of extreme violence or bizarre sexual practices, criminals were invariably boring and matter-of-fact. She had once lip-read the conversation between two men who were going to take their revenge on a friend for sleeping with one of their wives. They had talked about cutting off his penis and stuffing it in his mouth as if they were discussing a trip to Freddy's supermarket.

'So we'll cut it off, okay, and you can open his mouth and I can push it down his throat.'

'You could choke him, doing that.'

She sat there for nearly an hour and a half, drinking two more cups of coffee and irritably checking her watch as if she were waiting for a friend to show up. Two or three times Mickey appeared in the background and raised his eyebrows to ask her if Merlin had said anything in relation to the hit. Each time she had to shake her head.

Danny Hee eventually left, still complaining about his delivery. Merlin sat eating nuts and saying nothing for almost ten minutes, while Vernon Pulitzer transferred his attention to excavating his ears. It was well past six o'clock now and Holly had to be home by seven to give Daisy something to eat and to pack her weekend case. She was just about to leave when Merlin picked up his cell phone.

'Yeah? What? Oh, it's you, Mr Rossabi. Yeah, fine. You don't have to worry. Everything's under control. Four o'clock Tuesday afternoon, just like you said, right outside the Richard Herrera Hair Salon, Southwest Main. Richard Herr-era.'

He paused, listening, and then he said, 'What did I tell you? Not a trace.'

Another pause, then, 'Like I said before, it's better that you don't know. I wouldn't tell you over the phone even if I would tell you, which I won't. Okay? I'm sorry, you're going to have to be happy with that. Yeah. No. That's right. You won't know she even existed.'

A very much longer pause, and then, 'Let me put it this way, Mr. Rossabi. I have a friend in the wood-pulping business. She's going to make the front page ofThe Oregonian. Literally.'

Holly waited for three or four more minutes, and then she got up to leave. As she passed Merlin's table, he said, 'Never showed, then, the sap?'

'What?'

'Your date, he never showed. What a sap. Lovely-looking woman like yourself, if you don't mind my saying so.'

'Thank you. I guess his plane was delayed.'

Merlin offered his cell phone. 'Want to call him? Be my guest.'

'That's all right, thank you.'

'What's your name, if you don't mind my asking.'

'Margaret.'

'Well, nice to meet you, Margaret. I hope you don't think I'm sneaky or nothing, but I've been checking you in the mirror ever since you sat down, and I have an inkling that you were checkingmeout, once or twice, weren't you? You're a lovely-looking woman. Unforgettable. I hope to see you again.'

'Why not?' said Holly.

Fallen Moon

Mickey was waiting for her on the steps outside the hotel, smoking. 'So, how did it go?' he asked her, laying his hand on her shoulder.

'Ouch,' she protested.

'Sorry-forgot about the bruise. Did you pick up anything good?'

'Well, it took some time, but I think so. Krauss came out with a name, somebody called Rossabi. He also mentioned a time and a date, and Richard Herrera's Hair Salon on Southwest Main. I even think I know what they're planning to do with the body.'

'You're amazing. You know that? You're absolutely amazing. Listen-why don't we go to the Rock Bottom Brewery and we can have a serious debriefing over a serious beer?'

'I can't. I have to go home and give Daisy her supper.'

She had just climbed into Mickey's car, however, when her cell phone warbled, and it was a text message from Daisy. 'Mom. Tracey hs asked me 2 play & she hs SpongeBob Barbie so can I?' This was immediately followed by 'Its OK by me, XX Evelyn. Home by 8.'

She showed the messages to Mickey. 'What wouldyousay?'

'I'd say