'Well,' I said, 'I don't know that I'm open to work right now, Pete.
As a matter of fact I've got a trip planned, I'll be going overseas the end of the week.'
'Whereabouts?'
'Ireland.'
'That sounds great,' he said. 'But look, Matt, couldn't you just come out here and let us lay it out for you? You listen, and if you decide you can't do anything for us, no hard feelings and we'll pay for your time and your cab out and back.' In the background the brother said something I couldn't make out, and Pete said, 'I'll tell him. Matt, Kenan says we could drive in and pick you up, but we'd have to come back here and I think it's quicker if you just jump in a taxi.'
It struck me I was hearing a lot about cabs from somebody who was working as a messenger and delivery boy, and then his brother's name rang a bell. I said, 'You have more than one brother, Pete?'
'Just the one.'
'I think you mentioned him in your qualification, something about his occupation.'
A pause. Then, 'Matt, I'm just asking you to come out and listen.'
'Where are you?'
'Do you knowBrooklyn ?'
'I'd have to be dead.'
'How's that?'
'Nothing, I was just thinking out loud. A famous short story, 'Only the Dead Know Brooklyn.' I used to know parts of the borough reasonably well. Where are you inBrooklyn ?'
'Bay Ridge.Colonial Road .'
'That's easy.'
He gave me the address and I wrote it down.
THE R train, also known as the Broadway local of the BMT, runs all the way from179th Street inJamaica to within a few blocks of theVerrazanoBridge at the southwest corner ofBrooklyn . I caught it at Fifty-seventh and Seventh and got off two stops from the end of the line.
There are those who hold that once you leaveManhattan you're out of the city. They're wrong, you're just in another part of the city, but there's no question that the difference is palpable. You could spot it with your eyes closed. The energy level is different, the air doesn't hum with the same urgent intensity.
I walked a block onFourth Avenue , past a Chinese restaurant and a Korean greengrocer and an OTB
parlor and a couple of Irish bars, then cut over toColonial Road and found Kenan Khoury's house. It was one of a group of detached single-family homes, solid square structures that looked to have been built sometime between the wars. A tiny lawn, a half-flight of wooden steps leading to the front entrance.
I climbed them and rang the bell.
Pete let me in and led me into the kitchen. He introduced me to his brother, who stood to shake hands, then motioned for me to take a chair.
He stayed on his feet, walked over to the stove, then turned to look at me.'Appreciate your coming,' he said. 'You mind a couple of questions, Mr. Scudder? Before we get started?'
'Not at all.'
'Something to drink first? Not a drink drink, I know you know Petey from AA, but there's coffee made or I can offer you a soft drink.
The coffee's Lebanese style, which is the same general idea as Turkish coffee or Armenian coffee, very thick and strong. Or there's a jar of instant Yuban if you'd rather have that.'
'The Lebanese coffee sounds good.'
It tasted good, too. I took a sip and he said, 'You're a detective, is that right?'
'Unlicensed.'
'What's that mean?'
'That I have no official standing. I do per diem work for one of the big agencies occasionally, and on those occasions I'm operating on their license, but otherwise what I do is private and unofficial.'
'And you used to be a cop.'
'That's right. Some years ago.'
'Uh-huh. Uniform or plainclothes or what?'
'I was a detective.'
'Had a gold shield, huh?'
'That's right. I was attached to the Sixth Precinct in the Village for several years, and before I was stationed for a little while inBrooklyn .
That was the Seventy-eighth Precinct, that's Park Slope and just north of it, the area they're calling Boerum Hill.'
'Yeah, I know where it is. I grew up in the Seventy-eighth Precinct. You knowBergen Street ? Between Bond
