Jesse parked in front of the footbridge that led to his house and got out of his Explorer. As he was gathering the supermarket bags from the backseat, he spotted Fat Boy Nelly leaning against one of the bridge stanchions, his face pointed up at the sun.
“We have to stop meeting like this,” Jesse said.
Nelly smiled.
“You want to come in?”
“I never been inside no policeman’s house before,” Nelly said.
“There’s a first time for everything.”
“Yeah,” Nelly said.
“Willing to carry some groceries?”
“No problem.”
They emptied the Explorer and carried the groceries across the bridge and into Jesse’s kitchen.
Nelly was dressed pretty much as he had been the last time Jesse saw him, except now he was wearing a blue-and-white New York Giants jersey, embroidered on the back with the number ten and the name Manning. His Nikes remained unlaced and floppy. He looked around the house.
“This is nice,” he said. “Remote.”
“Remote’s good,” Jesse said. “Drink?”
“No alcohol. Water is good.”
Jesse fixed Nelly a glass of ice water, and the two men went out onto the porch. Nelly sat on one of the two armchairs, and Mildred Memory, Jesse’s cat, jumped onto his lap and stood there, staring at him. Nelly stared back.
“Cats love me,” he said.
As if to prove his point, Mildred settled herself onto his lap and began to purr loudly.
“See?”
“Is there a reason you’re here,” Jesse said.
“Yeah.”
“You going to tell me?”
“Word is that Thomas Walker be goin’ around saying he out to kill you.”
“Me?”
“Yeah. Motherfucker be carrying on about how you trespassed into his arena.”
“His arena.”
“Said you messed with his bitch’s head. Riled her all up. Aroused her suspicions.”
“He’s not over that?”
“Apparently not. Leastways, that’s the word on the street.”
“And the warning he gave me?”
“He gave you a warning?”
“Yes.”
“Had to be a lie. He say it to put you off your guard.”
“And now he’s saying that he’s going to kill me.”
“Yeah.”
Jesse didn’t say anything. Nelly stroked the cat.
“You were the last person to see Janet Becquer alive,” Jesse said.
“Not me,” Nelly said.
“You came to see her on the day she died.”
“I did. But I never did see her. Not alive, that is.”
Jesse didn’t say anything.
“She phone me,” Nelly said. “She say she ready to talk deal. Tell me she want to work with me. Say she have a lot of ideas.”
“What about her conditions,” Jesse said.
“How you know she had conditions?”
“Jimmy Sloan.”
“Dumbest white man on the planet, that guy. He try to sell her a bill of goods ’bout how he could look after her if she work exclusively out of his rat-trap motel.”
“So she wanted him involved?”
“She wanted Nelly involved. Much more so than she did that dumb ass. She ask me to come around so’s we could talk about it. We never did, though.”
“Because?”
“’Cause when I get there, I see Thomas Walker’s Mercedes parked a block away.”
“Walker was with her?”
“Walker and his stiletto was with her.”
“How do you know?”
“I find a place to hole up, and I wait around for a while.”
“And?”
“I hear a scream. Then I hear another scream, this one choked off. Then I see Thomas leave the bungalow in a big rush.”
“And?”
“After he gone, I go look for myself. Through the window. I see what he done to that girl and then I get right the fuck out of there.”
“Why should I believe you?”
“You can believe whatever you want to believe. But this be the truth. I got no reason to lie to you.”
Jesse sat silently for a while.
Then he said, “Once Walker figured out she was going into business with you, he had no choice but to kill her.”
“Retribution?”
“Embarrassment, too. He had been seen publicly with her. More than once.”
“So when he get wind of her plannin’ to hook up with me, he off her.”
“Be my guess,” Jesse said.
“You figure Walker knows you know?”
“Yes.”
They sat silently for a while.
“I’m gonna take that son of a bitch down.”
“Vengeance?”
“Defense,” Nelly said. “Vengeance, too. Janet be one of my ladies. I can’t let nobody get away with doin’ in one of my ladies.”
Jesse didn’t say anything.
Nelly ran his hand along Mildred Memory’s spine, watching her rear end spring upward every time he got anywhere near her tail.
“What you think about me havin’ your back,” he said.
“My back,” Jesse said.
“Watchin’ out for you. You know, coverin’ your ass.”
“What do you mean?”
“Thomas know I be lookin’ to get even for what he done to Janet. So he be making hisself real scarce. He ain’t showin’ his ass around town so much nowadays. See, he’s real concerned about me. But since he producin’ so much noise about offing you, I figure he’s gone and backed his ass into some kind of corner. Now he has to show hisself. Soon, too. He has to make his move.”
“He has to kill me.”
“Yeah. If he don’t, then he gonna lose face.”
“To whom?”
“To those who count in Walker world.”
“Gino Fish.”
“And his associates.”
“So why would he go around making the threat?”
“’Cause he stupid, that’s why.”
Jesse didn’t say anything.
“See, Thomas never had no challenge to his position before,” Nelly said. “Now he do.”
“You?”
“Fuckin’ A, me.”
“So he’s got no choice.”
“That’s right. And if I be watchin’ your back, then I be right there when he make his move. Two birds, if you get my drift.”
“Two birds?”
“Oh, yeah. I take Thomas down same time I save your ass. Pretty neat, huh.”
Jesse didn’t say anything.
“I be like the invisible man.”
“What if I say no,” Jesse said.
“You can’t stop what you can’t see.”
“Meaning?”
“You won’t even know I be there till Thomas make his move. Not till the very moment when it counts.”
Neither of them spoke for a while.
“Ironic,” Jesse said.
“Yeah. Ironic. I like that. What’s ironic is me watchin’ out for some cop. Some police chief, no less. Ha! Make for a great story to tell in my old age.”
“Optimistic, aren’t you?”
“Oh, yeah. I been keepin’ my eye on Mr. Thomas Walker for some time now. Watchin’ how he operate. Conceit. You know conceit?”
“I do,” Jesse said.
“Conceit what gonna kill that motherfucker.”
Jesse didn’t say anything.
“Conceit and a Glock nine-millimeter semiautomatic pistol,” Nelly said.