Hard Eight

time.”

“You’re not listening,” Abruzzi said. “I’m telling you to stay out. Stay out of this house and stay out of Evelyn’s affairs.”

Bells and whistles were going off in my head. Why did Abruzzi care about Evelyn and her house? He was her landlord. My understanding of his business was that this wasn’t even an important piece of real estate to him.

“And if I don’t?”

“I’ll make your life very unpleasant. I know how to make women uncomfortable. Benito and I had that in common. We knew how to make women pay attention. Tell me,”

Abruzzi said, “what were Benito’s last moments like? Was he in pain? Was he afraid? Did he know he was going to die?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “He was on the other side of the glass. I don’t know what he was feeling.” Aside from insane rage.

Abruzzi stared at me for a moment. “Fate is a funny thing, isn’t it? Here you are back in my life. And you’re, once again, on the wrong side. It will be interesting to see how this campaign unfolds.”

“Campaign?”

“I’m a student of military history. And, this is to some extent a war.” He made a small hand gesture. “Maybe not a war. More of a skirmish, I think. Whatever we call it, it’s a contest, of sorts. Because I’m feeling generous today, I’ll give you an option. You can walk away from Evelyn and this house, and I’ll let you go. You’ll have bought amnesty. If you continue to participate, I’ll consider you to be enemy troops. And the war game will begin.”

Oh boy. This guy is a total fruitcake. I held my hand up in a stop gesture. “I’m not playing war games. I’m just a friend of the family, checking on things for Evelyn. We’re going now. And I think you should do the same.” And I think you should take a pill. A big pill.

I ushered Lula and Kloughn past Abruzzi and Darrow and through the door. I hustled them into the car, and we took off.

“Holy crap,” Lula said. “What was that? I’m totally creeped out. Eddie Abruzzi has eyes like Ramirez. And Ramirez had no soul. I thought I put all that behind me, but I looked into those eyes just now and everything went black. It was like being with Ramirez all over again. I’m telling you, I’m freaked. I got the sweats. I’m hyperventilating is what I’m doing. I need a burger. No, wait a minute, I just had a burger. I need something else. I need… I need… I need to go shopping. I need shoes.”

Kloughn’s eyes brightened. “So Ramirez and Abruzzi are bad guys, right? And Ramirez is dead, right? What was he, a professional killer?”

“He was a professional boxer.”

“Holy cow. That Ramirez. I remember reading about him in the paper. Holy cow, you’re the one who killed Benito Ramirez.”

“I didn’t kill him,” I said. “He was on my fire escape, trying to break in, and someone else shot him.”

“Yeah, she almost never shoots anyone,” Lula said. “And I don’t care anyway. I’m getting out of here. I need mall air. I could breathe better if I had mall air.”

I took Kloughn back to the Laundromat and dropped Lula at the office. Lula roared off in her red Trans Am, and I went in to visit with Connie.

“You know that guy you picked up yesterday,” Connie said to me, “Martin Paulson?

He’s back on the street. There was something wrong with his original arrest, and the case has been dismissed.”

“He should be locked up just for living.”

“Apparently, when he was released his first words as a freed man were some unflattering references to you.”

“Great.” I slouched onto the couch. “Did you know Eddie Abruzzi owned Benito Ramirez? We ran into him at Evelyn’s house. And speaking of Evelyn’s house, she has a broken window that we need to repair. It’s in the back.”

“It was a kid with a baseball, right?” Connie said. “And after you saw him break the window, he ran away, and you don’t know who he is. Wait, even better, you never saw him. You got there and the window was broken.”