Dead Harvest

  We strolled down the street a ways, Johnnie strutting along like he owned the whole damn town, me limping just a couple steps behind. He fetched a cigarette from behind his ear and struck a match; I tapped a fresh one from my pack and lit it as well. "So, Sammy," he said, smiling, "any luck on the job front?"

  "That's kind of why I'm here."

  "Yeah? You reconsider my proposition?"

  "I'm coming around."

  "That girl of yours – how's she feelin'?"

  There was no point lying – the answer was written all over my face. "Not good. Something's gotta give, and quick. You said you know a guy could use a little help?"

  "That's right," Johnnie said. "He's gonna hafta meet you first, of course. A nice, upstanding fella like you is just the kind a guy he's lookin' for, though, so you don't got nothin' to worry about. Your old lady's gonna be just fine – you wait and see."

  "Set up the meeting – I'll be there. Just tell me where and when."

  For a moment, I thought I saw a flicker of black fire dancing in his eyes, but it was gone just as quickly as it appeared. "All right, Sammy," he said, extending his hand to me. It hung in the air between us for a moment, and then I took it. His grip was cold and hard as stone. Johnnie shook my hand like we'd just concluded some high-powered business meeting, no trace of humor or irony in his eyes. "Looks like you got yourself a deal."

  It turns out when was 3pm Tuesday. Where was Mulgheney's, a tacky little gin joint on the Upper East Side, just a block north of Midtown. Mulgheney's was the kind of place that sprung up three to a block across the whole city in the years after Repeal, all chrome and neon and drunken good cheer. Problem was, at Mulgheney's, the chrome was just a touch too gaudy, and the neon lights a hair too bright, their harsh glare revealing that what appeared to be drunken good cheer was a perhaps a little desperate, painted-on. The cumulative effect was a place too classy for the guys who worked the loading docks across the street, and too coarse for the moneyed set that populated the surrounding blocks. All of which sounded just about right for a cohort of Johnnie's.