The Last Precinct

"You can take some soup with you," she tells Marino. "There is plenty. Very healthy. No fat."

"If it don't got fat, it's against my religion. I'm go

"Where is Lucy?" A

"Yeur joint ain't nice enough so she's at the Jefferson," Marino ironically comments.

A

"Of course, she can stay here. She is always welcome and I would very much like to see her," A

Through the open doorway I watch Marino leave. "Why did you move here, A

"Here? You mean this house?" She studies me.

"Richmond. Why Richmond?"

"That is easy. Love." She says this flatly with no trace of feeling one way or another about it.

The temperature has dropped as the night deepens, and Marino's big, booted feet crunch through crusty snow.

"What love?" I ask her.

"A person who proved to be a waste of time."

Marino kicks the ru

"We must get you settled," she says to me, touching my arm and motioning for me to follow her.

I come to. "He's angry with me."

"If he were not angry about something_or rude_I would think he is ill."

"He's angry at me because I almost got murdered." I sound very tired. "Everybody's angry with me."

"You are exhausted." She pauses in the entrance hallway to hear what I have to say.

"I'm supposed to apologize because someone tried to kill me?" The protests tumble out. "I asked for it? I did something wrong? So I opened my door. I wasn't perfect, but I'm here, aren't I? I'm alive, aren't I? We're all alive and well, aren't we? Why is everybody angry with me?"

"Everybody isn't," A

"Why is it my fault?"

"Do you think it is your fault?" She studies me with an expression that can only be described as radiological. A

right through to my bones.

"Of course not," I reply. "I know it's not my fault." She deadbolts the door, then sets the alarm and takes me into the kitchen. I try to remember the last time I ate or what day of the week it is. Then it glimmers. Saturday. I have already asked that several times now. Twenty hours have passed since I almost died. The table is set for two, and a large pot of soup simmers on the stove. I smell baking bread and am suddenly nauseous and starved at the same time, and despite all this, a detail registers. If A

"When will Lucy go back to Miami?" A

"A strong one."

She pulls the cork out of a bottle of Glenmorangie Sherry Wood Finish single malt whisky and pours its precious rosy essence over ice in cut crystal tumblers.

"I don't know when Lucy will go back. Have no idea, really." I begin to fill in the blanks for her. "ATF was involved in a takedown in Miami that turned bad, very bad. There was a shooting. Lucy…"

"Yes, yes, Kay, I know that part." A

"Oh, that's right," I mutter.

A

"I assume Lucy came to stay with you while the incident is investigated," she comments, "I can only imagine the red tape."

The takedown had gone about as badly as one could. Lucy killed two members of an international gun smuggling cartel that we now believe is co

"But I'm not sure you know the part about Jo," I tell A

"I do not know what HIDTA is."

"High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area. A squad made up of different law enforcement agencies working violent crimes. ATF, DBA, FBI, Miami-Dade," I tell her. "When the takedown went to hell two weeks ago, Jo got shot in the leg. It turned out the bullet was fired from Lucy's own gun."

A

"So Lucy accidentally shot Jo, and then, of course, what comes out next is their personal relationship," I continue. "Which has been very strained. I don't know what's going on with them now, to tell you the truth. But Lucy is here. I guess she'll stay through the holidays, and then who knows?"

"I did not know she and Janet had broken up," A

"Quite a while ago."

"I am very sorry." She is sincerely bothered by the news. "I liked Janet very much."

It has been a long time since Janet was a topic of conversation. Lucy never says a word about her. I realize I miss Janet very much and still think she was a very stabilizing, mature influence on my niece. If I am honest, I really don't like Jo. I am not sure why. Maybe, I consider as I reach for my drink, it is simply because she isn't Janet.

"And Jo's in Richmond?" A

"Ironically, she's from here, even though that's not how she and Lucy ended up together. They met in Miami through work. Jo will be recovering for a while, staying in Richmond with her parents, I guess. Don't ask me how that's going to work. They're fundamentalist Christians and not exactly sup-portive of their daughter's lifestyle."

"Lucy never picks anything easy," A

The weight in my chest presses down harder. My blood seems to have turned into a heavy metal.

"What is it with her and killing?" A

"I haven't turned on the TV. I don't know what they're saying." I sip my drink and think about cigarettes again. I have quit so many times in my life.

"She almost killed him, that Frenchman, Jean-Baptiste Chando