Part 27 (1/2)

'I thought they grew a lot of coffee.'

'That's probably a front. Where was I? The point is, the father turns up dead a month later in whatever's the capital of Colombia. He crossed somebody and he ran for it, and they wound up getting him in Colombia, but first they killed his kids and his wife. See, the Colombians, they play by a different set of rules. You f.u.c.k with them and they don't just kill you. They wipe out your whole family. Kids, any age, it don't matter. You got a dog and a cat and some tropical fish, they're dead too.'

'Jesus.'

'The Mafia was always considerate about family. They'd even make sure to arrange a hit so your family wouldn't be there to see it happen. Now we got criminals that kill the whole family. Nice?'

'Jesus.'

He put his palms on the table for leverage, hoisted himself to his feet. 'I'm getting this round,' he announced. 'I don't need some pimp payin' for my drinks.'

Back at the table he said, 'He's your client, right? Chance?' When I failed to respond he said, 'Well, s.h.i.+t, you met with him last night. He wanted to see you, and now you got a client that you won't say his name. Two and two's gotta be four, doesn't it?'

'I can't tell you how to add it.'

'Let's just say I'm right and he's your client. For the sake of argument. You won't be givin' nothin' away.'

'All right.'

He leaned forward. 'He killed her,' he said. 'So why would he hire you to investigate it?'

'Maybe he didn't kill her.'

'Oh, sure he did.' He dismissed the possibility of Chance's innocence with a wave of his hand. 'She says she's quitting him and he says okay and the next day she's dead. Come on, Matt. What's that if it's not cut and dried?'

'Then we get back to your question. Why'd he hire me?'

'Maybe to take the heat off.'

'How?'

'Maybe he'll figure we'll figure he must be innocent or he wouldn't have hired you.'

'But that's not what you figured at all.'

'No.'

'You think he'd really think that?'

'How do I know what some c.o.ked-up spade pimp is gonna think?'

'You figure he's a c.o.kehead?'

'He's got to spend it on something, doesn't he? It's not gonna go for country-club dues and a box at the charity ball. Lemme askyou something.'

'Go ahead.'

'You think there's a chance in the world he didn't kill her? Or set her up and hire it done?'

'I think there's a chance.'