Boston Noir by Dennis Lehane Read Free Book Online Page B

take care of you both."
    Eric sat back as mean old Millie left the same tip she'd been leaving since Sputnik--a quarter--and slid off her stool. She gave Bob a rasp that was ten percent vocal chords and ninety percent Virginia Slims Ultra Light 100s. "Yeah, I'm off."
    "You take care, Millie."
    She waved it away with a, "Yeah, yeah, yeah," and pushed open the door.
    Bob locked it behind her and came back behind the bar. He wiped down the bar top. When he reached Eric's elbows, he said, "Excuse me."
    "Go around."
    Bob wiped the rag in a half-circle around Eric's elbows.
    "Who's your partner?" Bob said.
    "Wouldn't be much of a threat if you knew who he was, would he, Bob?"
    "But he helped you kill Richie Whalen?"
    Eric said, "That's the rumor, Bob."
    "More than a rumor." Bob wiped in front of Nadia, saw red marks on her wrists where Eric had yanked them. He wondered if there were other marks he couldn't see.
    "Well then it's more than a rumor, Bob. So there you go."
    "There you go what?"
    "There you go ," Eric scowled. "What time is it, Bob?"
    Bob placed ten thousand dollars on the bar. "You don't have to call me by my name all the time."
    "I will see what I can do about that, Bob." Eric thumbed the bills. "What's this?"
    "It's the ten grand you wanted for Cash."
    Eric pursed his lips. "All the same, let's look in the safe."
    "You sure?" Bob said. "I'm happy to buy him from you for ten grand."
    "How much for Nadia, though?"
    "Oh."
    "Yeah. Oh."
    Bob thought about that new wrinkle for a bit and poured himself a closing-time shot of vodka. He raised it to Eric Deeds and then drank it down. "You know, Marv used to have a problem with blow about ten years ago?"
    "I did not know that, Bob."
    Bob shrugged, poured them all a shot of vodka. "Yeah, Marv liked the coke too much but it didn't like him back."
    Eric drank Nadia's shot. "Getting close to 2 here, Bob."
    "He was more of a loan shark then. I mean, he did some fence, but mostly he was a shark. There was this kid? Into Marv for a shitload of money. Real hopeless case when it came to the dogs and basketball. Kinda kid could never pay back all he owed."
    Eric drank his own shot. "One fifty-seven, Bob."
    "The thing, though? This kid, he actually hit on a slot at Mohegan. Hit for twenty-two grand. Which is just a little more than he owed Marv."
    "And he didn't pay Marv back, so you and Marv got all hard on him and I'm supposed to learn--"
    "No, no. He paid Marv. Paid him every cent. What the kid didn't know, though, was that Marv had been skimming. Because of the coke habit? And this kid's money was like manna from heaven as long as no one knew it was from this kid. See what I'm saying?"
    "Bob, it's fucking one minute to 2." Sweat on Eric's lip.
    "Do you see what I'm saying?" Bob asked. "Do you understand the story?"
    Eric looked to the door to make sure it was locked. "Fine, yeah. This kid, he had to be ripped off."
    "He had to be killed."
    Out of the side of his eye, a quick glance. "Okay, killed."
    Bob could feel Nadia's eyes lock on him suddenly, her head cock a bit. "That way, he couldn't ever say he paid off Marv and no one else could either. Marv uses the money to cover all the holes, he cleans up his act, it's like it never happened. So that's what we did."
    "You did..." Eric barely in the conversation, but some warning in his head starting to sound, his head turning from the clock toward Bob.
    "Killed him in my basement," Bob said. "Know what his name was?"
    "I wouldn't know, Bob."
    "Sure you would. Richie Whelan."
    Bob reached under the bar and pulled out the 9mm. He didn't notice the safety was on, so when he pulled the trigger nothing happened. Eric jerked his head and pushed back from the bar rail, but Bob thumbed off the safety and shot Eric just below the throat. The gunshot sounded like aluminum siding being torn off a house. Nadia screamed. Not a long scream, but sharp with shock. Eric made a racket falling back off his stool, and by the time Bob came around the bar,