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"I guess not Three twenty? Yeah, I guess that's as good a nuator wallet and counted out six fifties and a twenty "Three-two-oh," he said, handing thes on and on and you want h Suppose I have to get in touch with you, Spinner?"
"Uh-uh"
"Okay"
"Like, you won't have to, and if I wanted to give you an address I couldn't anyway"
"Okay"
He opened the attachй and passed me a nine-by-twelve manila envelope sealed on both ends with heavy-duty tape I took it froave the silver dollar a spin, picked it up, put it in his pocket, and beckoned to Trina for the check I let him have it He paid it and left a two-dollar tip
"What's so funny, Matt?"
"Just that I never saw you grab a check before And I've seen you pick up other people's tips"
"Well, things change"
"I guess they do"
"I didn't do that often, dragging down sory"
"Sure"
He got to his feet, hesitated, put out his hand I shook it He turned to go, and I said, "Spinner?"
"What?"
"You said the kind of lawyers you knoould open the envelope as soon as you left the office"
"You bet your ass they would"
"How coh the question was a stupid one "You're honest," he said
"Oh, Christ You know I used to take I let you buy your way out of a collar or two, for Christ's sake"
"Yeah, but you were always square with onna open that envelope until you have to"
I kneas right I just didn't kno he knew it "Take care of yourself," I said
"Yeah, you too"
"Watch yourself crossing the street"
"Huh?"
"Watch out for buses"
He laughed a little, but I don't think he thought it was funny
Later that day, I stopped off at a church and stuffed thirty-two dollars into the poor box I sat in a rear pew and thought about the Spinner He'd givenat all
Back inand put Spinner's envelope beneath it, centering it under the bed The maid runs the vacuum cleaner occasionally but neverback in place and proot about the envelope, and every Friday a call or a e would assure ht where it was
Chapter 2
For the next three days I read the papers twice a day and waited for a phone call Monday night I picked up the early edition of the Ti of "Metropolitan Briefs" there's always a batch of cried "From the Police Blotter," and the last one was the one I was looking for An unidentified ht approxie approximately forty-five, had been fished out of the East River with a crushed skull
It sounded right I'd have put his age a few years higher and his weight a few pounds lower, but otherwise it sounded very right I couldn't know that it was Spinner I couldn't even know that the e could have been done after he went into the water And there was nothing in the ite he'd been in the water If it was more than ten days or so, it wasn't Spinner; I'd heard from him the Friday before
I looked at my watch It wasn't too late to call someone, but it was far too late to call someone and seem casual about it And it was too early to open his envelope I didn't want to do that until I was very certain he was dead
I had a coupleIn theI woke up with a headache and a bad taste in my mouth I used aspirin and mouthwash and went down to the Red Flame for breakfast I picked up a later Ti further on the floater They had the same item as the earlier edition
Eddie Koehler is a lieutenant now, attached to the Sixth Precinct in the West Village I called froh to him "Hey, Matt," he said "It's been a while"
It hadn't been all that long I asked about his family and he asked about o back there," he said
I couldn't, for far o into I couldn't start carrying a badge again, either, but that didn't keep hi his next question
"I don't suppose you're ready to rejoin the hu to happen, Eddie"
"Instead you got to live in a due for every buck Listen, you want to drink yourself to death, that's your business"
"That's right"
"But what's the sense paying for your own drinks when you can drink free? You were born to be a cop, Matt"
"The reason I called-"