Part 56 (1/2)

'I've still got most of this one.'

'So you do. I don't know who the warning's from, Matt, but from the messenger they used I'd guess it's some very heavy types. And what's interesting is I get absolutely nowhere trying to find anybody who saw Dakkinen on the town with anybody but our friend Chance. Now if she's going with somebody with all this firepower, you'd think he'd show her around, wouldn't you? Why not?'

I nodded. For that matter, why would she need me to ease her out of Chance's string?

'Anyway,' he was saying, 'that's the message. You want the opinion?'

'Sure.'

'The opinion is I think you should heed the message. Either I'm getting old in a hurry or this town's gotten nastier in the past couple of years. People seem to pull the trigger a lot quicker than they used to. They used to need more of a reason to kill. You know what I mean?'

'Yes.'

'Now they'll do it unless they've got a reason not to. They'll sooner kill than not. It's an automatic response. I'll tell you, it scares me.'

'It scares everybody.'

'You had a little scene uptown a few nights back, didn't you? Or was somebody making up stories?'

'What did you hear?'

'Just that a brother jumped you in the alley and wound up with multiple fractures.'

'News travels.'

'It does for a fact. Of course there's more dangerous things in this city than a young punk on angel dust.'

'Is that what he was on?'

'Aren't they all? I don't know. I stick to basics, myself.' He underscored the line with a sip of his vodka. 'About Dakkinen,' he said. 'I could pa.s.s a message back up the line.'

'What kind of message?'

'That you're letting it lay.'

'That might not be true, Danny Boy.'

'Matt - '

'You remember Jack Benny?'

'Do I remember Jack Benny? Of course I remember Jack Benny.'

'Remember that bit with the stickup man? The guy says, 'Your money or your life,' and there's a long pause, a really long pause, and Benny says, 'I'm thinking it over.' '

'That's the answer? You're thinking it over?'

'That's the answer.'