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SEVEN

I sat up, shifted the recliner into its upright position

The base of ht leaked in froot up, followed it back to its source Marcie sat at the little kitchen table, hunched over the books, reading theed in frorandlasses

I smelled coffee

She saw me, read my mind

"I just made it," she said "Want et it" I took a plain white cup down from the cupboard, filled it Drank I took the pot to the table, refilled Marcie&039;s cup

"Thanks"

She&039;d arranged the books on the table side by side, had her finger on a coluer sliding down the page

"I thought you&039;d stashed those," I said

She shrugged "You needed to sleep, and nothing good was on TV"

"A fun read?"

"I was an accounting major for two se major?"

"That&039;s what I askedmajor? Why would anyone? So I chucked it in for art"

"So what&039;s with the ledgers?"

She put her hand palm down on one of the books "These are the accounts of several businesses in South Florida, mostly in Miami It&039;s all here Let&039;s take Geno&039;s as an example"

"Geno&039;s?"

"A restaurant"

"Gotcha"

"So according to this book," she patted the ledger again, "Geno&039;s made a profit of sixty-seven thousand dollars" She looked at lasses,to this book," she slapped her hand over the other ledger, "Geno&039;s made two point four million dollars in the sarabbed the book My eyes danced along the rows of nu at, but I didn&039;t need the book I knew the rest of the story

I held in ers Two accounts of all the businesses under Beggar&039;s thumb in South Florida One for public consumption, the one he showed the IRS The other book contained the real nu It coanization These books should have been under lock and key No wonder Beggar wanted everyone in Toppers rubbed clean If these books got into the wrong hands, it could be Beggar&039;s end

But they were in my hands, and as far as I was concerned, they were hot potatoes

"I got to go see solasses, set them on the table "How bad is it, Charlie?"

"Bad"

"Charlie-"

"Bad, Marcie As bad as it gets I have to go"

"It&039;s the ht!"

"There&039;s no tiulped the coffee There was a bag of rolls on her kitchen counter I opened it, grabbed two rolls, shoved the as you like You know that"

I shook ood If they find me, they find you Then we&039;re both dead"

I took the books, headed for the front door Marcie followed

"Charlie"

I stopped, looked at her

"Anytiht about her, the ledgers, us I hadn&039;t known her long, but you got to have soht as well be somebody pretty

I kissed her "I&039;ll be in touch"

I tried to think of what I needed more, friends or answers

My friends were all dead, at least the ones who could help I knew I could count on Marcie and Danny and Ma to all go to the mat for me, but I didn&039;t see how they could help and I&039;d only be getting theured Beggar&039;s toady, Alan Jeffers, ht have them

I drove to a convenience store, found a pay phone

Inforot the nus It was about four AM, so I wasn&039;t surprised when Jeffers&039;s machine answered "You&039;ve reached the hoht-" I hung up, put in another thirty-five cents, dialed again "You&039;ve reached-" I hung up, a quarter and two nickels, dialed the digits

"Do you knohat day and annoyed

"Mr Jeffers, this is Charlie Swift"

"Swift" He was putting the naulp of breath when he figured it out "Holy shit, pal Where&039;ve you been?"

"I got held up When can I bring over the stuff you wanted?"

"Now Bring the out loud, Swift Beggar&039;s having a shit fit"

"Sorry Noon?"

"Noon Yeah Okay, noon You knohere I live?"

"I know" I hung up before he could figure out a way to give me trouble

I drove to Heathrow and parked about half a block down froh to watch Nobody ca me until noon, so I was pretty sure I could catch him with his panties down at the breakfast table I didn&039;t want to give hie a reception for me

I had a di around in et ahold of Jeffers and ar, about Stan and Jiet out of him I didn&039;t have the time or the teers It was tender, but I didn&039;t think it was infected I&039;d need to change the bandage the next time I had a chance I checked my38, then slipped it back in the belly holster And I still had the listening equip with Beggar

Now I just had to wait for the sun

I snapped awake The glow of htly in the s of the houses up and down the street My stomach was coffee sour, so I fished one of Marcie&039;s rolls out of ot out of my car, rubbed my eyes, and headed for Jeffers&039;s front door It occurred to me as I knocked that I wasn&039;t nervous Maybe I was too tired, too sore fro out to be nervous

A woman answered She was lean, black hair bobbed at the ears, thick dark lips, nose pointed and predatory She held a white cotton robe together with one hand and looked ather awake at the crack of dawn

"Yes?"

"I&039;m here to see Jeffers" I pushed past her into the house

"Wait, you can&039;t just-" She padded after ainst tile "Alan!"

She shouted toward the kitchen, so that&039;s where I went

Jeffers was at the kitchen table, a half-eaten slice of toast in his fingers "Tina, it&039;s too early to be screa all over the house for- oh, hell"