“You bastard, you’re going to get me killed.”
“Not if you tell me what you know.”
Scanlan glanced around the lot again. There were only two cars parked there.
“You got a gun,” Scanlan said.
“I do.”
“What happens if I remembered some stuff?” Scanlan said.
“I go away and never mention your name again,” I said.
Scanlan dropped his cigarette and stepped on it and got out a package of Marlboros and lit a new one.
“I don’t know much,” he said.
I waited.
“Jack DeRosa come to me and Kevin one day, says he’s got a easy couple a hundred for us. Tells me all we got to do is rough up some fucking suit. So we say why not, and he says the guy comes down Summer Street every night, same time, got a condo over by the milk bottle thing, you know? And we say fine, we’ll pull him over behind the Postal Annex and have our talk.”
Scanlan dragged in some smoke.
“So the next night, Jack drives us over there and points out the guy. He waits in the car, and we go over and do it. But while we’re doing it some fucking postal cop comes by and pulls his gun. Once in a lifetime, you know, I mean, how many postal cops you ever seen, for crissake. Jack takes off, and we’re busted. EMT’S show up and patch our guy up and we all go over to the station and me and Kevin are shutting up because, what the fuck, we don’t even know why we’re smacking the guy around.”
“DeRosa tell you to say anything to him?”
“Jack says just tell him it’s a message from his bank.”
“He seem to understand that?”
“Who knows. He’s so fucking scared it’s hard to say what he understood. So we’re in the station and the cops are yelling at us and we’re saying jack shit, and this lady lawyer comes in. Man, I’d fuck her in a heartbeat.”
“She’ll be pleased to know that,” I said.
“She tells us her name and says she’s from Kiley and Harbaugh. She says that the suit won’t bring charges, and that she’s getting us released.”
He stopped his eyes moving back and forth across the parking lot.
“That’s it?” I said.
“Yeah.”
“You never saw her again?”
“No.”
“Where’s Marvin Conroy come in?” I said.
“Oh, him,” Scanlan said. “Jack picks us up after we’re out, and I say to Jack, ”Thanks for sending us a lawyer,“ and he says, ”No problem,“ and I say, ”We owe anybody any money?“‘ and he says, ”Nope, it’s on Marvin Conroy,“ and I say, ”Who’s Marvin Conroy?“’ And Jack kind of smiles and says, ”The guy from the bank.“”
“You know who sent McGonigle to kill me?”
“No idea.”
“You driving the car?”
“No way.”
“Jack DeRosa send you?”
“I wasn’t there, man. DeRosa was in jail then.”
“How do you know when it happened?”
“Kevin was a friend of mine,” Scalan said. “I remember when he got killed.”
“DeRosa send McGonigle?”
“Could be,” Scalan said.
I nodded. I didn’t believe he wasn’t driving, but I didn’t think he knew much more than he’d told me. He was too far down the food chain. And I was pretty sure he wouldn’t admit to being an accomplice to attempted murder. So I let it go.
“Okay,” I said. “We’re done.”
“What’d you tell Barb?”
“At the checkout counter? I said I was your new caseworker.”
Scanlan nodded. “She knows I done time,” he said. “You gonna keep your mouth shut about this like you said?”
“Like a stone,” I said.
