Page 15 (1/2)

That night Elaine and I walked over to Ar salad I had a bowl of chili and stirred a large side order of minced Scotch bonnet peppers into it It h to blister paint, but you couldn't have proved it by

She talked some about her day at her shop, and about what TJ had said when he dropped by to jive with her I talked about my day And then we both fell silent Classical h the buzz of conversations around us Our waiter came around to find out if antedme a cup of black coffee when he had a moment Elaine said she'd have herb tea "Any kind," she said "Surprise er "What a surprise," she said

I triedmust have shown in my face, because Elaine's eyebroent up a notch

"For an instant there," I said, "I could taste booze in the coffee"

"But it's not really there"

"No Good coffee, but only coffee"

"What they call a sense-uess"

You could say I cao, before Ji block to the west, Ar's had been situated on Ninth Avenue around the corner from my hotel, and it had functioned forspace I socialized there, I isolated there, Ithere, and soood and drunk at the bar or at my table in the back My usual drink was bourbon, and when I didn't drink it neat, the way Godof coffee Each flavor, it seemed to me then, complemented and enhanced the other, even as the caffeine and alcohol balanced one another, the one keeping you ahile the other softened the edges of consciousness

I have known people hen quitting sive up coffee tely associate the two I had proble sober, but coffee was not one of the it with pleasure, and apparently with ie when most of my contemporaries have found it advisable to switch to decaf I like the stuff, especially when it's good, the way Elaine h she hardly ever has a cup herself) or the way they brew it in the Seattle-style coffee bars that have sprouted up all over town The coffee's always been good at Ar's, rich and full-bodied and aro it, and wondered why I'd tasted bourbon

"There was nothing you could have done," Elaine said "Was there?"

"No"

"You told hiht to leave the country"

"I could have pushed a little harder," I said, "but I don't think he would have done anything differently, and I can't blame him for that He had a life to live He took all the precautions a ood job for hi they did wrong I suppose they could have posted men around the clock in his apartment, whether or not there was anybody in it, but even after the fact I can't argue that that's what they should have done And as far asI left undone that ht have made a difference It would have been nice if I'd had soht that told ives hthowever 's bothering you"

"Will's out there," I said "Doing what he does, and getting aith it I guess that bothers me, especially now that he's struck down ato say, and that would have been inaccurate, but I had the sense the last tiht have beco to do?"

I drank the rest of ht the waiter's eye and pointed to ht about the question she'd asked I said, "The funeral's private, just for the family There'd be a crowd otherwise, with all the headlines he's getting I understand there'll be a public o to that"

"And?"

"And ht a candle," I said

"It couldn't hoit," she said, giving the phrase an exaggerated Brooklyn pronunciation It was the punch line to an old joke, and I guess I smiled, and she smiled back across the table at me

"Does the money bother you?"

"The money?"

"Didn't he write you a check?"

"For two thousand dollars," I said

"And don't you get a referral fee fro your pardon?"

"A basic principle of the personal-security industry," I said "Someone used it for the title of a book on the subject Wally took a sin to cover what he has to pay in hourly rates to the ally entitled to bill the estate, but he already toldto eat it Since he'll wind up with a net loss, I won't be picking up a referral fee"

"And you're just as glad, aren't you?"

"Oh, I don't know If he'da share of it And if the two grand Whitfield paid ive it away"

"Or try to earn it"

"By chasing Will," I said, "or by hunting for the man who shot Byron Leopold"