to accept that would not hurt Pekach's feelings.
Until Stillwell had called, he had taken some consolation by thinking that the food would probably be good, and even if that didn't happen, he would be able to satisfy his curiosity about what the inside of the mansion behind the walls at 606 Glengarry Lane looked like.
Now he was extremely grateful to have been the recipient of Miss Peebles's kind invitation.
I may even carry her flowers.
'Can't you get out of it?' Stillwell insisted. 'Peter, this is important. Possibly to both of us.'
You for sure, and me possibly. Fuck you, Stillwell.
'I just can't. One of my men is having a little party to celebrate his engagement. I have to be there. You understand.'
'Which one of your men?'
You are a persistent bastard, aren't you?
'Captain David Pekach, as a matter of fact.'
Farnsworth Stillwell laughed, which surprised Wohl.
'I wondered what the hell that was all about. I'll see you there, Peter,' he said, and hung up.
What the hell does he mean by that?
Farnsworth Stillwell broke the connection with his finger and dialed his home. 'Helene, call the Peebles woman back, tell her that I was able to rearrange my schedule and that we'll be able to come after all.'
Margaret McCarthy, trailed by Lari Matsi, came up the narrow staircase into Matt Payne's apartment. Both of them were wearing heavy quilted three-quarter length jackets and earmuffs.
'I could have come and picked you up,' Charley McFadden said.
'Next time, take him up on it,' Lari said. 'It'scold out there.'
Jesus Martinez came up the stairs.
'Hay-zus, you don't know Lari, do you?' Margaret said. 'Hay-zus Martinez, Lari Matsi.'
'How are you?' Martinez said.
'I didn't catch the name?' Lari replied.
'It's 'Jesus' in Spanish,' Charley offered.
'Oh,' Lari said, and smiled.
'I don't think we've met,' Margaret said, smiling, to the third young man in the room. 'And Charley's not too good about introducing people.'
He was wearing a mixed sweat suit, gray trousers and a yellow sweatshirt, on which was painted, STOLEN FROM THE SING SING PRISON ATHLETIC DEPARTMENT. There was little doubt in her mind that he was a cop; a shoulder holster with a large revolver in it was hanging from the chair that he was straddling backward. He stood up and put out his hand.
'Jack Matthews,' he said.
'Where's Matt?'
'In his bedroom with a woman,' Charley said.
'He thought you'd never ask,' Jack Matthews said.
'What are you talking about?' Margaret said, not quite sure her leg was being pulled.
'You asked where Matt was, and I told you. He's in his bedroom with a woman.'
'I don't believe you.'
'Probably with his pants off,' Charley added, exchanging a pleased smile with Jack Matthews. Jesus Martinez shook his head in disgust.
Amy Payne came out of Matt's bedroom, saw the women in the living room, and smiled.
'Hi! I'm Amy,' she said. 'Matt'll be out in a minute, presuming he can get his pants on by himself.'
Officer McFadden and Special Agent Matthews for reasons that baffled all three women found this announcement convulsively hilarious. Even Jesus smiled.
'Just what's going on around here, Charley?' Margaret demanded.
'Let me take it from the beginning,' Amy said. 'I'm Amy Payne. Matt's sister. I happen to be a doctor. And knowing my idiot brother as I do, I felt reasonably sure that he would not change his dressings, and that's what I've been doing.'
'Not very funny at all, Charley,' Margaret said, but she could not keep herself from smiling.
Lari dipped into an enormous purse and held up a plastic bag full of bandages and antiseptic.
'I don't know him as well as you do, Doctor,' she said. 'But that's why I'm here too. He is that category of patient best described as a pain-in-the-you-know-what. I was filling in on the surgical floor at Frankford when they brought him in.'
'Well, that was certainly nice of you,' Amy said. 'Apparently, you don't know my brother very well. If you did, you would encourage gangrene.'
'No,' Lari said. 'That would put him back in the hospital. Anything to prevent that.'
They smiled at each other.
Matt came into the room, supporting himself on a cane.
'Oh, good!' he said. 'Everybody's here. Choir practice can begin.'
'I promised Mother I would see that you were eating,' Amy said. 'What are your plans for that?'
'We're going out for the worst food in Philadelphia,' Matt said. ' You're welcome to join us, Amy.'
'I know I shouldn't ask, but curiosity overwhelms me. Where are you going to get the worst food in Philadelphia?'
'At the FOP,' Matt replied. 'As a special dispensation, because I have been a very good boy, I have permission to go there, providing I don't drink too much and I come directly home afterward.'
'Actually, I'm looking forward to it,' Jack Matthews said. 'I've never been there.'
'I think I'll pass, thank you just the same,' Amy said.
'You're a cop, and you've never been to the FOP?' Lari Matsi asked.
'Oh, come on, Amy,' Matt said. 'I'll even buy you a chili dog.'
'I haven't had supper,' Amy said. 'For some perverse reason, a chili dog has a certain appeal to me.'
'How is it,' Lari pursued, 'that you've never been to the FOP?'
'He's not areal cop,' Charley said. 'More like a Junior G-man.'
'In deference to the ladies, Officer McFadden,' Jack Matthews said. ' I will not suggest that you attempt a physiologically impossible act of self-impregnation.'
Matt laughed. After a moment, Amy did too, and then Lari.
'Then what's the gun for?' Lari asked.
'I work for the Justice Department,' Jack replied.
'He's an FBI agent, Lari,' Matt said.
'Oh, really?'
Matt saw the way Lari was looking at Jack Matthews, and knew that whatever chance there might have been for him to know Lari Matsi in the biblical sense had just gone up in smoke.
'Are you hereofficially?' Amy asked. 'I mean, are you part of Matt's bodyguard, or whatever it's called?'
'Actually, I came to play chess,' Jack said. 'But these evil people pressed intoxicants on me. Have I shattered your faith in the FBI?'
'Yeah,' Amy said, smiling.
Yeah, you are here officially, Matt thought, or at least quasiofficially. You came here, under cover of playing chess, to tell me that yes, indeed, the rumors are true. I am to be investigated by the FBI regarding formal charges made that I violated the civil rights of Charles David Stevens, Esq., by shooting the murderous sonofabitch.
'Has any thought been given to how we're going to get Matt-I guess I mean all of us-from here to the FOP?' Amy asked. 'I don't have my car.'
'No problem,' Charley said. 'We-Hay-zus and me-have an unmarked car downstairs. We'll take Matt in that. The rest of you can ride with Jack in his G-man wagon.'
'That should work,' Lari Matsi said.
