'I am again looking for a woman,' I said.
'To find her I need to ask some questions about the way business is done in Boston.'
I waited while Mei Ling translated. Fast Eddie lit a new cigarette with the butt of the old one, dropped the old one into a tin can of water, and put the new one in the corner of his mouth.
'Do you do business with Julius Ventura?' I said.
Fast Eddie nodded before Mei Ling could translate.
'Do you do business with Gino Fish?'
Again Fast Eddie nodded.
'Do you know Marty Anaheim?'
Nod.
'Anthony Meeker.'
Fast Eddie spoke to Mei Ling.
'Mr. Lee wants you to say the name again, slowly.'
'Anthony Meeker.'
Fast Eddie said, 'Ah,' and nodded.
'Tell me about them,' I said.
Fast Eddie thought for a few moments. We waited quietly. An old woman with her hair tight to her head sat on a stool by the counter near the door in the front of the store. She too was smoking. There were no customers. A ceiling fan turned slowly above us and gently swirled the smoke from Fast Eddie's cigarette. A big late-summer horsefly looped furiously about the store without apparent purpose.
Fast Eddie watched the fly for a while and then began to speak.
He paused periodically for Mei Ling to translate.
'Marty Anaheim is known to Mr. Lee only by reputation,' Mei Ling translated.
'He is Gino Fish's assassin. Julius and Gino and Mr. Lee do business. They have separate, ah, spheres of influence, but sometimes those spheres overlap and provisions must be made. Sometimes those provisions are…'
Mei Ling paused, trying for the right word.
'It is a Chinese expression,' she said to me.
'My pig, your pig…'
'Quid pro quo?' I said.
Mei Ling's smile was brilliant.
'Yes,' she said.
'Exactly. Sometimes the provisions are quid pro quo, but sometimes the overlap is not equal and then payments need to be made to keep the, ah, equilibrium.'
'Who handles the payments?' I said.
Without waiting for Mei Ling, Fast Eddie said, 'An-tho-ny Meeker.' He made it sound like a Chinese name.
'Both ways?' I said.
Fast Eddie looked at Mei Ling.
'I don't know quite what you are meaning, sir,' Mei Ling said to me.
'Did Anthony transfer money among all three of them. Mr. Lee, Julius, and Gino?'
Mei Ling translated. Fast Eddie nodded as he spoke to Mei Ling.
'Yes, Anthony carried the money to and fro among them,' Mei Ling said.
The horsefly cruised down from above the ceiling fan and made a run past Hawk. Hawk caught it in his left hand, and killed it.
'Did you have any problems with Gino or Julius?' I said.
Fast Eddie thought about this a little as he started a new cigarette and got rid of the old one. Then he spoke for a while to Mei Ling.
'Since Joseph Broz retired,' she translated, 'there have been four people running the business in the main part of Boston. There are the Irish groups in Somerville, and in Charlestown, who have their own following and their own territory but the territory is peripheral. And they do not cooperate with the rest. They have some influence in South Boston as well, but the rest east of Springfield, and north of Providence, all of which belonged to Joseph Broz now belongs to Julius and Gino, and Tony Marcus and to Mr. Lee.'
Fast Eddie took in a deep lungful of smoke and let it out slowly through his nose. He spoke again.
'The four of them are like large stones in a sack, Mr. Lee says.
They grind at each other.'
'Tell me more about that,' I said.
