'I want out of this,' he said.
'Un huh.'
'I want to deal.'
'What you got to deal with?' I said.
'I keep my trap shut about Dwayne,' he said.
'And what do I do?'
'You walk,' he said. 'And I walk and nobody says nothing.'
'And nobody shoots Dwayne?' I said.
'Nobody shoots him, nobody bribes him, nobody mentions his name again.'
I leaned my head back against the padding on my chair. I was tired. Tired of Deegan, tired of Dwayne, tired of tough guys and cops and guns and deals. I was tired of almost everything but Susan.
'Whaddya think?' Deegan said.
I shook my head slowly, still against the back of my chair.
'No?' Deegan said. 'Why no?'
'Davis,' I said.
'Davis,' Deegan said, 'why do you give a fuck about Davis? You got nothing to do with Davis.'
'Got to get something for Davis,' I said.
Deegan took in a long breath and let it out and dipped his nose into the glass for a moment and swallowed.
'You got to get something for Davis,' he said.
I nodded.
'How about getting dead for Davis?' Deegan said.
'Hard to do,' I said.
Deegan nodded slowly. 'Yeah,' he said. 'It is.'
He drank again.
'But it's not impossible,' he said.
'I can put you away on the gambling charge,' I said. 'Dwayne will testify. So will I. You're a known hoodlum. You'll be a long time gone.'
The wind seemed to have shifted. I could hear the rain being driven at a slant against the window behind me.
'What do you want for Davis?' Deegan said.
'The rest of the OTB crew.'
'OTB?'
'You and some other guys knocked over an Off Track Betting parlor in New York. I want the guys you did it with.'
'I can't do that,' Deegan said. 'They'd fucking kill me.'
'I'll get you a witness protection deal. You aren't prosecuted and the Feds will give you a new identity and relocate you.'
'All to keep you from pushing this gambling thing?' he said.
'And I don't tell your wife about Madelaine,' I said.
Deegan looked at me a long time without speaking.
'You are a hard fucking case,' he said, 'aren't you?'
The question was rhetorical. I didn't comment.
'For a fucking arrogant asshole kid, talks about himself in the third person,' Deegan said.
'He's good at what he does,' I said.
'So what the fuck is that to you?' Deegan said.
'Girlfriend's nice, too,' I said.
'Chantel?'
'Yeah, she sees something in him.'
'So what the fuck is that to you?' Deegan said.
'You want to deal, or not?' I said.
Deegan stood slowly, and put his whiskey glass on my desk and walked over to the wall to the right of my desk and stretched both hands above his head and leaned on the wall. He did a couple of push-aways on the wall and
