“Didn’t say you did,” Cogan said. “Very few guys know me. I’m just a guy, is all. I never been in here before in my life.”
“How’d you happen to come in today?” Frankie said.
“Looking for you,” Cogan said. “I was looking for you and a guy told me, he said you told him you come in here a lot, ’round this time of day, see if you can get up nerve enough, talk to a girl. So I came in. Simple, huh?”
“Who’s the guy?” Frankie said.
“Just a guy,” Cogan said, “guy, a friend of yours, actually. Knows a little about you, told me where to look you up. Well, he didn’t tell me himself. He told a guy, and the guy was up here and he told me. Because I asked the guy, this friend of yours.”
“Who’s this friend?” Frankie said.
“China,” Cogan said.
“Never heard of nobody by that name,” Frankie said. He finished his beer and started to straighten up.
Cogan put his right hand on Frankie’s right arm. “China’ll be surprised to hear that,” he said, “very surprised. Here’s a guy, concerned about you, your friends’re concerned about you, you know that, Frankie? They’re worried. Guys like China. China was really, he, well, he insisted I hadda go and talk to you, is what he did. I wasn’t sure I oughta bother you, you know? Got yourself a place and everything? ‘Sounds like he’s doing all right to me,’ is what I said. ‘No reason I should go around and bother him.’ You have got a place, haven’t you, Frankie?”
“Yeah,” Frankie said.
“Somewhere south of New Hampshire, I bet,” Cogan said.
“Right onna peg,” Frankie said.
“Norwood, to be exact,” Cogan said. “Why’d you do that, alla them trucks?”
“I dunno,” Frankie said.
“Now whyn’t you relax a little, Frankie, okay?”
Cogan said. “You know how it is when a guy, when China wants a guy to do something, you got to do it, is all, China’s all down there, locked up and everything, he’s gotta depend on his friends, do the right things for guys he’s worried about. I’d be embarrassed in front of China, I hadda tell him, he ever found out, a guy he wanted me to talk to, I didn’t talk to him. You know how China is.”
Frankie leaned back again.
“Have another beer,” Cogan said. “Look at the girls. Jesus, I dunno how you can stand the noise out there. Still, I suppose, guys got all kinds of reasons for doing things. Gotta car, too, I understand.”
“Yeah,” Frankie said.
“Lemme give you some advice, all right?” Cogan said.
Frankie did not answer.
“I had one of them things myself,” Cogan said, “they first come out. You got the hood scoops, right?”
Frankie did not answer.
“Ah, come on,” Cogan said, “you got the green Geetoh with the scoops. Don’t fuck around with me, right?”
Frankie nodded.
“You’re gonna have trouble with it,” Cogan said, “couple months or so. January, when it gets cold. Fuckin’ thing won’t run. It’ll start but it won’t run. You can do anything you want to it, it won’t run, and when it’s really cold, down around seven, eight below, it won’t start.
“Now lemme tell you what you got to do,” Cogan said. “You got to pack them scoops. Mine just had the one, the split one in the middle. But, well, you got the two, I bet you’re still gonna have the same trouble, the car just won’t warm up. You’re gonna have to pack them scoops. It’s the scoops. Your engine can’t get warm in that thing when it’s cold unless you run it about ninety miles an hour the minute you get her going, and you do that, you’re gonna bend a fuckin’ valve, is all. What I used to do, I used to put masking tape right over them scoops. Looks like hell, but it works. Got that? Masking tape.”
Frankie nodded.
“You see what I mean,” Cogan said.
“Uh,” Frankie said, “uh, no. No, I don’t.”
“Your friends,” Cogan said. “Your friends’re worried about you. See? I even heard, you’re carrying.”
“Fuck, no,” Frankie said.
“Well,” Cogan said, “now, that’s good. Because, you wanna be careful about that. You, what, you been out a month?”
“Six weeks,” Frankie said.
“Right,” Cogan said. “Onna robbery thing, am I right?”
“Yeah,” Frankie said.
“Well, there you are,” Cogan said, “and that’s why it’s such a good thing, you’re not carrying. You know how those guys are. They’re gonna be measuring your dick every time somebody pulls a job looks anything like what you did. You think they don’t know you’re out?”
“Nope,” Frankie said.
“And of course,” Cogan said, “they’re not gonna get nothing on you, because you’re not doing nothing, am I right?”
“Just havin’ a beer and watchin’ the girls,” Frankie said.
“Sure,” Cogan said. “Nothing wrong with that. But, they pick you up, even though you didn’t pull a job, you’re carrying, they’re gonna run you again.”
“I know that,” Frankie said.
“Well,” Cogan said, “that’s good. That shows, your friends that’re worried about you, shows them you must’ve grown up some since you went in.”
Frankie looked at Cogan. “Grown up some?” he said. “A dog’d get born and live and die in the time I was in.”
“Well,” Cogan said, “yeah, you’re right. But, maybe even since you got out. Maybe you grown up some since then.”
“Well,” Frankie said, “I finally got laid.”
“That’s good,” Cogan said. “How was it?”
“Not so good,” Frankie said. “Matter of fact, it was kind of shitty. I naturally got some broad that’s been fuckin’ since they found out how to do it, and I naturally shot my mouth off all over the place and I got through and she told me I’m a lousy lay. I’m gonna keep at it, though. I figure, can’t be too tough to get the hang of it, and there must be some reason, there’s so many people running around doing it.”
“That’s the idea,” Cogan said. He made a sucking noise with his tongue and his teeth. “Jesus,” he said, “that’s too bad. If I’d’ve only run into you sooner. I should’ve got on this right away, when I first get the word from China and them. I knew a guy could’ve helped you along that line. Really knew some great broads. But he’s dead.”
“Oh yeah?” Frankie said.
“Yeah,” Cogan said. “It’s too bad. You maybe saw it inna paper. Somebody whacked him out the other night. Markie Trattman. Nice guy. A real nice guy, and what that guy didn’t know about getting broads, nobody knew.”
“Must’ve fucked the wrong one, I guess,” Frankie said.
“Yeah,” Cogan said, “it was either that or something else. He got somebody pissed off, that’s for sure. That’s the way it is with most of them guys, I think, that get whacked. They get somebody pissed and then something happens. You got to be careful, these days. You do something, looks perfectly all right to you, and the right guy gets pissed off for no reason at all and you’re in the shit. Look at China. How long you known China?”
“China?” Frankie said. “Ten years or so, I guess.”
“Well,” Cogan said, “that’s long enough. Now there’s a guy, you should’ve heard what they’re saying about China, year or so ago.”
“I did,” Frankie said.
“Yeah,” Cogan said, “and, knowing China, you got to know, it’s not true. China’d eat shit before he’d talk to anybody. But the trouble is, some asshole gets it in his head that something’s going on or something, and he starts spreading stuff around about China, and of course nobody asks any questions or does anything smart like that. They just talk and talk and talk and pretty soon China’s getting all this static, and he wasn’t even doing anything.
“Now,” Cogan said, “China’s a smart bastard. He’s down there and he knows he’s gotta see somebody and see them quick. So he gets himself a habe or something and they bring him up here and he gets a chance to get the word to a few guys and somebody got in to see him and he told him: ‘Look, I’m gonna get a shiv up my ass if somebody doesn’t start stopping all this talk and shit, you know? And, I’m not gonna stand still for that. If I gotta protect myself, I’m gonna have to go to somebody and start telling them things, and I don’t want to do that, all right?’ So the guy comes out and he puts it around and China’s all right again with everybody. See, that’s what I mean. China’s a smart bastard, knows how to protect his ass. Markie, well, he knew a lot about broads, but I guess he didn’t know nothing about protecting his ass.”