When the Sacred Ginmill Closes by Lawrence Block Read Free Book Online Page B

the bar and tried to ignore the man standing next to me without being actively hostile. He wanted to tell me how all the city's problems were the fault of the former mayor. I didn't necessarily disagree but I didn't want to hear about it.
    I finished my drink and headed for the door. Halfway there Skip called my name. I turned and he motioned to me.
    I walked back to the bar. He said, "This is the wrong time for it, but I'd like to talk to you soon."
    "Oh?"
    "Ask youradvice, maybe throw a little work your way. Yoube around Jimmy's tomorrow afternoon?"
    "Probably," I said."If I don't go to the funeral."
    "Who died?"
    "Tillary'swife."
    "Oh, the funeral's tomorrow? Are you thinking about going? I didn't know you were that close to the guy."
    "I'm not."
    "Then why would you want to go? Forget it, not my business. I'll look for you at Armstrong's around two, two-thirty. If you're not there I'll catch you some other time."
    I was there when he came in the next day around two-thirty. I had just finished lunch and was sitting over a cup of coffee when Skip came in and scanned the room from the doorway. He saw me and came on over and sat down.
    "You didn't go," he said. "Well, it's no day for a funeral. I was just over at the gym, I felt silly sitting in the sauna after. The whole city's a sauna. What have you got there, some of that famousKentucky coffee of yours?"
    "Just plain coffee."
    "That'll never do." He turned, beckoned the waitress. "Let me have a Prior Dark," he told her, "and bring my father here something to put in his coffee."
    She brought a shot for me and a beer for him. He poured it slowly against the side of the glass, examined the half-inch head, took a sip, put the glass down.
    He said, "I might have a problem."
    I didn't say anything.
    "This is confidential, okay?"
    "Sure."
    "You know much about the bar business?"
    "Just from the consumer's point of view."
    "I like that. You knowit's all cash."
    "Of course."
    "A lot of places take plastic. We don't.Strictly cash. Oh, if we know you we'll take your check, or if you run a tab, whatever. But it's basically a cash business. I'd say ninety-five percent of our gross is cash. As a matter of fact it's probably higher than that."
    "And?"
    He took out a cigarette, tapped the end against his thumbnail. "I hate talking about all this," he said.
    "Then don't."
    He lit the cigarette. "Everybody skims," he said. "A certain percentage of the take comes right off the top before it gets recorded. It doesn't get listed in the books, it doesn't get deposited,it doesn't exist. The dollar you don't declare is worth two dollars that you do, because you don't pay tax on it. You follow me?"
    "It's not all that hard to follow, Skip."
    "Everybody does it, Matt.The candy store, thenewsie, everybody who takes in cash. Christ's sake, it's the American way- thepresident'd cheat on his taxes if he could get by with it."
    "The last one did."
    "Don't remind me. Thatasshole'd give tax fraud a bad name." He sucked hard on the cigarette. "We opened up, couple years ago, John kept the books. I yell at people, do the hiring and firing, he does the buying and keeps the books.Works out about right."
    "And?"
    "Get to the point, right? Fuck it. From the beginning we keep two sets of books, one for us and one for Uncle." His face darkened and he shook his head."Never made sense to me. I figured keep one phony set and that's that, but he says you need honest books so you'll know how you're doing.That make sense to you? You count your money and you know how you're doing, you don't need two sets of books to tell you, but he's the guy with the business head, he knows these things, so I say fine, do it."
    He picked up his glass, drank some beer. "They're gone," he said.
    "The books."
    "John comes in Saturday mornings, does the week's bookkeeping. Everything was fine this past Saturday. Day before yesterday he has to check something, looks for the books, no books."
    "Both sets gone?"
    "Only the dark set, the honest