“What does he know?”
“He knows. Not every particular. I don’t spread much around, that’s not my style. But he gets it. He come to you for money?”
“He did, yeah.”
“See? Wanted an advance against the take. First of all, I ain’t loaning money to nobody. I ever float a loan you know of?”
“Negative.”
“Ain’t gonna happen. So why’s he so pushy all of a sudden? Asking to move up the timetable? Getting into us for cash? That’s us showing intent.”
“He said it was Get Outta Jail money.”
“Maybe it’s not money he needs to get out.” Derrick’s finger went back and forth between them. “Maybe it’s us.”
Yarrow scowled. “I think he’s probably fine.”
“ ‘Probably fine.’ You’re not careful.”
“How am I not careful?”
“You’re too trusting.”
“Who do I trust?”
“Too many.”
“ ‘Too many.’ Who do you trust?”
“I don’t trust nobody. Except who I trust.”
“You trust me?”
“I don’t trust Milky.”
“You never liked that kid.”
“I liked his brother. Liked his brother a lot. His brother was the shit. Wish he had been my brother. You didn’t know Jimmy.”
“Not well.”
“Before you came back to town. The shit, he was. Until Oxy turned his head into a friggin’ butterfly cage. Never saw anyone in such a hurry to die.”
Yarrow launched his last two darts in quick succession, having lost his taste for the game. Fourteen and a triple-ring eight. “Milky, though. What’s he gonna do? He dimes us, how’s he gonna show his face around town again?”
“Witness relocation or some such. They’re forcing him into it, don’t you see? They pushed a deal across the table, and he took it because he’s a weak sister. Because he’s strung out like Silly Putty, and because of his ma. That’s why they picked him up on the possession charge. The fix was in on this from the start.”
“What fix?”
“Don’t you see? Busting him, breaking him down, using him to get to you and me.”
“Who told you this?”
“About him? I know.”
“Who told you exactly? I think I need to know.”
“This came from very close, and it was pure happenstance how I got it. I was lucky. I still got a guardian angel left somewhere.”
Yarrow collected the darts. “She’s your last one, that’s for sure.”
Derrick swigged his Killian’s and said, “I want to go over there right now and beat the shit out of him. Beat the truth.”
“That would not be wise.”
“This throws everything into question. How can we make a move, period? If everything we say...” He waited for Yarrow to return, then lowered his voice. “If everything we say and do is being taken down. The friggin’ Invisible Man could be in this room with us.”
“Then we said too much already. We got to know for sure. So how do we do that? Search him for a wire?”
“Forget that. They sew those things into the clothes now, they’re so small. Nothing would be taped to his chest. They hide that shit anywhere.”
“Even if you freeze him out, then what? He already knows what he knows. If you seriously have a question, you need to keep him close.”
“Friggin’ right. Like The Godfather.”
“The thing is what, eleven days off? That’s some time.”
“Don’t upset the cart. That’s what you’re saying.”
“Eyes on the prize, baby.”
“All right.” Derrick took the darts from Yarrow, readied one. “But if Milky turns out dirty, I swear to God, I’m gonna smoke him.”
It would have been cooler if he’d thrown a bull’s-eye then, instead of a lousy six.
Pendleton and Kyter stopped by O Street before lunch, double-parking outside. Two winding flights up the narrow staircase, Mrs. Milk answered the door holding her housecoat robe together with one wrinkled hand.
Pendleton badged her. “We need to see Eddie.”
Mrs. Milk smiled at the sight of them, shuffling backward to welcome them inside. “I don’t know where he is right now. Out working hard, I’m sure. You can leave a message for him with me. He’ll want to get right in touch with you as soon as he can.”
Pendleton smelled buttermilk, looking up and down the narrow hall. “Sure he will.”
Mrs. Milk’s eager smile was not the welcome they got from most mothers whose grown sons were in trouble with the police. “Can I get you two something to drink?”
Kyter said, “I don’t think so, Mrs. Milk.”
“Eddie is working very hard,” she said, stepping closer, speaking confidentially. “He wants to do well. To prove to you that he can.”
“Prove he can what?” said Pendleton, hiking up his pants. “Stay out of jail?”
“See,” she said, ignoring the comment, “I know he wasn’t supposed to tell me, but...”
They waited. “Tell you what, Mrs. Milk?”
“Well, that he’s working for you.”
Kyter looked at Pendleton. “Working for us?”
“Working with you. But please, don’t fault him. You know a mother has ways of finding things out. His secret’s safe with me.” She looked at a framed photograph hanging on the wall, a man with two young boys fishing off a pier. “He’s going to look so handsome in uniform.”
The detectives looked at each other.
“Okay, Mrs. Milk,” said Kyter. “Tell Eddie we came by. Tell him to do himself a favor and get in touch.”
“He will.” She touched the glass front of the frame as she spoke. “He has a lot to live up to now.”
The detectives were pissed off going downstairs, as though they had been the ones lied to.
“That little shit,” said Pendleton, out at their car. “That weasel.”
Kyter said, “I’m sick of this shit. Sick of getting the thumb from him. We come by here like a taxi service?”
“He’s working for us, huh? Working with us?”
“Imagine that day.”
Pendleton looked at him over the roof of the car. “I think now it’s time we teached him a lesson.”
The traffic stop went down in Andrew Square. They brought a marked cruiser with them, full rack lights, big show. Everybody out, hands on the roof.
Pendleton patted down Derrick Shanahan. “You don’t got any warrants there, Shanahan, do you?”
Kyter took Chippie Yarrow, kicking out one leg and bouncing him against the once-white Mazda. “How ’bout you, Yarrow? Any outstandings?”
Derrick said, “What is this?”
“Inspection sticker,” said Pendleton, tapping the corner of the windshield of the beat-up Mazda. “Twenty-nine bucks would have done it. Gotta keep up.”
Kyter said, “Downtown we’ll tell you all about how it works.”
Eddie Milk stood with his hands on the car roof, very quiet, very nervous.
“You,” said Pendleton. “Milky.”
Milky said nothing, eyes staying down.
Pendleton said, “Go ahead, take off. Get outta here.”
Milky blinked like there had been a mistake, relief coming into his eyes. Amazed at his good fortune, he started away before they could change their minds, glancing back over his shoulder as he walked fast into the crowd.
Derrick stared at the roof of the Mazda as if he was trying to remove the paint finish using only the heat from his eyes.
Yarrow looked at the detective facing him as handcuffs clasped around his wrists.
Yarrow went alone to Milky’s place. He wanted to get to him before Derrick did.
Milky’s mother answered the door, said she didn’t know where he was.