Page 3 (1/2)

"Does anyone know you&039;re here?" Morgan asked "Whittaker never an worried he was out of a job Would the old poet want his graduate workshop back?

Valentine lunged forward, took Morgan&039;s elbow into his bony fist, an into the srip was iron

"Now listen, old sport," Valentine said "I&039;d really appreciate it if you could keep my presence here on the hush-hush side Understand?"

"No"

They arrived at a low leather couch, and Valentine dropped Morgan at one end Valentine perched down at the other "It&039;s just that I a "I need rest I couldn&039;t sto"

"I understand"

"Do you?" Valentine leaned forward, squeaking the sofa leather Shaggy brows knotted with stress "I can&039;t write any Insipid, clich¨¦, rhy excrement"

"My name&039;s not Bill"

Valentine didn&039;t hear "I sit down atcoan nodded, sunk into the vast, deep so the same complaints His mind drifted If he&039;d had a chance to take a year off and write in Prague, he daood use of it He daydreaanja sotten the better of him

"I won&039;t tell anyone," he told Valentine

Valentine grinned, eyes brightening He patted Morgan on the knee "That&039;s a good fellow, Bill I appreciate it I really do Let&039;s smoke on it, eh? Seal the deal"

"I&039;d prefer a beer," Morgan said, more a wish than an actual request

"Certainly" Valentine waved his hand like he was casting a spell "In the refrigerator behind the desk"

four

Harold Jenks crouched on the fifth-floor fire escape of the abandoned building and smoked a Philly Blunt with one hand, the other hand in the warm front pocket of his Cardinals sweatshirt He scanned the alley below He puffed quick and nervous, watched the smoke spiral away on the cold wind

He was always nervous picking up a delivery froo, the cops had shot Jenks&039;s cousin in a drop just like this Those undercover fuckers could be anywhere-on the roof, in the old buildings, disguised as ho in a Du heavy in Jenks&039;s back pocket Jenks sighed out a long, gray stream of smoke He hadn&039;t wanted Spoon to kill that boy His heart hadn&039;t been in it Hadn&039;t been in a lot of things for a while now If Spoon hadn&039;t been there

Jenks had told Spoon his wild idea, but in a flash of sanity, Jenks figured it just wouldn&039;t work Spoon told him he was crazy and should throw the wallet out If he did this thing-if he was crazy enough-he&039;d keep it under wraps He would tell no one Jenks would siht He made Spoon swear to keep it secret

A flutter of noise off to his right Jenks jerked, his free hand going to the Glock at the seons Da on Jenks&039;s nerves

He s butt into the alley

Then he saw Red Zach&039;s white limousine enter the alley It approached slowly, parked under Jenks&039;s fire escape Fivemotherfuckers, hands deep in the pockets of expensive overcoats, stone faces, sunglasses They spread out and kept watch

Red Zach craned his neck, looked up at Jenks Jenks waved Red Zach climbed the fire escape Jenks watched hi

Red Zach had hair the color of a fire engine Not natural, of course Zach was a broad-shouldered, light-skinned black man with a pencil-thin beard also dyed red He had sharp features, a pointed nose Story around was Zach had so halfway up Red Zach wore an iold chains and bracelets, a brown pin-striped suit that cost more money than Jenks saw in a month

By the ti pretty good

"You know I&039;d climb down," Jenks said

"Better up here," Zach said "We can see if the cops come in either side of the alley and have plenty of ti, capped teeth, white-"I need the exercise once in a while" He patted the beginnings of a slight paunch under his suit

Zach opened the gym back and showed Jenks the contents It was full of little clear Baggies of white powder, prepackaged for street distribution Jenks&039;s job was to ferry the stuff to the bartenders and hairdressers and street pushers who distributed the stuff in his area Jenks kneas looking at a hundred thousand dollars&039; worth of junk

"Here you go, Harold" Zach handed over the bag "You knohat to do with it"

"Right"

"You okay?"

"I&039;ood"

"You don&039;t seem like yourself," Zach said "You down? Got sohed

"I&039;m just tired"

"Uh-huh Where&039;s your boy Spoon today?"

"I didn&039;t bring him"

"Shit, I know that That&039;s why I asked where he is"

"Went to see his sister and her kids Going to eat Chinese with them"

Zach leaned on the rail, looked down into the alley, then out across St Louis "You know I been keeping an eye on you, Harold You&039;re doing good work, and I&039;ve noticed that I need loyal men on my team You keep clearheaded and put in your tiht by you You knohat I&039;?"

"I know"

"I could send one of my boys up the ladder with the stuff if I wanted, but I co you along You hear what I&039;ster "You know I appreciate it, Red"

Zach nodded, squeezed Jenks&039;s shoulder "Okay You stay cool and I&039;ll check you later"

Red Zach cliet back into the li and sloatched the lilide quiet out of the alley like smoke on the wind

Back at Jenks&039;s shabby apart time

For two years he&039;d been Red Zach&039;s boy He knew Red was right If he stayed tight, he&039;d eventually have a fine ride, a Caddy or a BMW He&039;d have fine clothes, bitches that did whatever he said si Ellis&039;s eyes when Spoon had stabbed hi the boy was, everything he&039;d worked for And Jenks was to bla ar out fro he valued, and threay the rest

And he took Red Zach&039;s gyoons on either side of him The limo cruised the decay of East St Louis&039;s side streets He had

He pulled out the latest copy of Esquire fro advertisement which featured a square-jawed black man in denim Stonewashed Snakeskin boots The jacketup on soround with an SUV off to the side Zach couldn&039;t decide if the ht about elbowing one of his goons, showing hiood talking to these guys They didn&039;t do talk And Zach couldn&039;t risk his ie anyway These boneheads expected him to strut around in ridiculous outfits and spit out homeboy talk Fine He&039;d put on the act for the troops Whatever

But Zach didn&039;t bust his huures a year just to waste away in the hood He had reservations in Aspen He wanted to catch Don Giovanni before the season ended He&039;d recently becoold-level member of the St Louis Art Museum and there was a cocktail reception at the end of the month

He needed some new clothes