Gone, Baby, Gone (Kenzie & Gennaro #4)(105)

Broussard and John Corkery held court in the back, their voices rising loudly in toasts to the prowess of the DoRights, Broussard alternating a napkin and a cold beer bottle against his damaged lip.

“Thought you guys were buddies,” Oscar said. “What, your moms won’t let you play together anymore, or’d you have a spat?”

“The moms thing,” I said.

“Great cop,” Devin said. “Bit of a showboat, but all those Narco-Vice guys are.”

“But Broussard’s CAC. Hell, he’s not even that anymore. He’s Motor Pool.”

“CAC was recent,” Devin said. “Last two years or so. Before that he did like a nickel in Vice, a nickel in Narco.”

“More than that.” Oscar belched. “We came out of Housing together, did a year in uniform each, and he went into Vice, I went into Violent Crimes. That was ’eighty-three.”

Remy’s head turned away from two of his men as they each chatted in his ear, and he looked across the bar at Oscar and Devin and me. He raised his beer bottle, tilted his head.

We raised ours.

He smiled, kept his eyes on us for a minute, then turned back to his men.

“Once Vice, always Vice,” Devin said. “Those fucking guys.”

“We’ll get ’em next year,” Oscar said.

“Won’t be the same guys,” Devin said bitterly. “Broussard’s packing it in, so’s Vreeman. Corkery hits his thirty in January, heard he’s already bought the place in Arizona.”

I nudged his elbow. “What about you? You gotta be close to thirty in.”

He snorted. “I’m going to retire? To what?” He shook his head, threw back a shot of Wild Turkey.

“Only way we’re leaving the job is on stretchers,” Oscar said, and he and Devin clinked their pint glasses.

“Why the interest in Broussard?” Devin said. “Thought you two were bonded in blood after Trett’s house.” He turned his head, slapped my shoulder with the back of his hand. “Which, by the way, was a righteous piece of work.”

I ignored the compliment. “Broussard just interests me.”

Oscar said, “That why he slapped a water bottle out of your hand?”

I looked at Oscar. I’d been pretty sure Broussard had blocked the move with his body.

“You saw that?”

Oscar nodded his huge head. “Saw the look he gave you after he clotheslined Rog Doleman, too.”

Devin said, “And I can see how he keeps looking over here while we talk so friendly and casually.”

One of the Johns nudged his way between us, called out for two pitchers and three shots of Beam. He looked down at me, his elbow all but resting on my shoulder, then at Devin and Oscar.

“How’s it going, boys?”

“Fuck you, Pasquale,” Devin said.

Pasquale laughed. “I know you mean that in the most loving way.”

“But of course,” Devin said.

Pasquale chuckled to himself as the bartender brought the pitchers of beer. I leaned out of the way as Pasquale passed them back to John Lawn. He turned back to the bar, waited for his shots, drummed the bar with his fingers.

“You guys hear what our buddy Kenzie did in the Trett house?” He winked at me.

“Some of it,” Oscar said.

Pasquale said, “Roberta Trett, I hear, had Kenzie dead to rights in the kitchen. But Kenzie ducked and Roberta shot her own husband in the face instead.”

“Nice ducking,” Devin said.

Pasquale received his shots, tossed some cash down on the bar. “He’s a good ducker,” he said, and his elbow grazed my ear as he pulled his shots off the bar. He caught my eye as he turned. “That’s more luck than talent, though. Ducking. Don’t you think?” He turned so that his back was to Oscar and Devin, his eyes locked with mine as he threw back one of the shots. “And the thing about luck, man, it always runs out.”

Devin and Oscar turned on their stools and watched him as he walked back through the crowd toward the back.

Oscar pulled a half-smoked cigar from his shirt pocket and lit it, his flat gaze staying on Pasquale. He sucked back on the cigar, and the black, torn tobacco cackled.

“Subtle,” he said, and tossed his match into the ashtray.

“What’s going on, Patrick?” Devin’s voice was a monotone, his eyes on the empty shot glass Pasquale had left behind.

“I’m not sure,” I said.

“You made an enemy of the cowboys,” Oscar said. “Never a bright move.”

“Wasn’t intentional,” I said.

“You got something on Broussard?” Devin said.

“Maybe,” I said. “Yeah.”

Devin nodded and his right hand dropped off the bar, gripped my elbow tight. “Whatever it is,” he said, and smiled tightly in Broussard’s direction, “let it go.”

“What if I can’t?”

Oscar’s head loomed around Devin’s shoulder, and he looked at me with that dead gaze of his. “Walk away, Patrick.”

“What if I can’t?” I repeated.

Devin sighed. “Then you might not be able to walk anywhere soon.”





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