Page 3 of Havoc

"He's right."

"You don't even know what it's about."

"Don't matter."

I take the stool at the corner where I can see the door. Blitz says something about how the two of us are the same animal and Tyrant writes another line in the book without answerin' him, and behind me Cricket comes through with the broom still in his hands, and Tyrant's head comes up like a dog hearin' a truck in the drive.

"Prospect."

"Yes, sir." Cricket stops dead.

"Where's your rag?"

"My what?"

"You carry a rag. Left hip. Every hour you're inside this buildin'." He's already writin'. "Five."

"Nobody told me about a rag."

"It's in the book."

"Can I read the book?"

"No."

Junie sets a beer down in front of me without me askin' for one and stays where she is with her hip against the bar. Eight years in this place. She's heard this exact argument enough times to mouth along with it, and she watches Cricket dig out his phone and type RAG into it with the face of a woman watchin' a dog figure out a door latch.

"He's gonna do it, too," she says.

"Yep."

"Gonna have a rag before mornin'. Gonna have four."

Down the other end, Gigi's got a lime in one hand and a knife in the other, and she's tellin' somebody a story usin' both, and whatever the end of it is, it lands, because Junie snorts into her own shoulder before it's even out.

"You didn't hear it," Gigi calls down.

"Didn't have to. You do a face."

"I do not do a face."

"You do a face, baby."

Raider's still by the door with his jacket on. Been in this room four minutes and he's already halfway gone, one shoulder turned toward the lot the way he always sits, always stands, always is.

He looks over at Gigi.

Once. Then back at the door, and he's out of it before anybody thinks to say anything about it.

"Duplessis square up?"

"Friday."

"Friday." She says it back like she's puttin' it somewhere on a shelf. "That's the third Friday that man's had."

"Second."

"Third. He had one in May over the trailer." She hauls a bag of limes out from under the bar and sets it down by Gigi's elbow without lookin' over at her. "I keep better books than Tyrant does, and I don't charge anybody twenty dollars for the privilege."