Big trouble

"No, that would be foolhardy," said Eliot. "They shoot them right here, on the patio, while drinking heavily, attempting to hit targets set up only a few feet from the sidewalk, where i

"Better safe than sorry," A

"Well, I never hit the targets, but I never hit any civilians either, as far as I know. Of course it was pretty dark. But I never heard screams. You wa

"Sure."

They went inside and sat at a table near the window. A

"So," said Eliot, "did the police come up with anything?"

"No," said A

"Dusting for prints!" said Eliot. "Analyzing fibers!"

"Yeah," said A

"Geez, it has to be scary, not knowing who did it."

"Or if they're coming back."

"You think they will?"

"I don't know. But I get the feeling my husband knows something he's not telling me. He's been acting weird, even for him. He left last night and he wasn't back this morning. Which is actually fine with me, although I promise I'm not go

"It's OK," said Eliot. "Dwell away." He kind of liked it when she dwelled on that subject.

"No," she said, "no more talk about me. Let's talk about you. What do you do?"

"Advertising."

"What kind of advertising?"

"Well, today I did a gazomba ad."

"A what kind of ad?"

"Gazomba. As in, Get a load of those gazombas."

"Ah."

"Maybe we should go back to dwelling on your marriage."

"No, I want to know about the gazomba ad."

And so he told her about Hammerhead Beer, and the Big Fat Stupid Client From Hell. He told her about the CPA next door who hated him. He told her about the rise and sudden fall of his journalism career. He told her about how he and Patty met in college and fell in love and went dancing all the time, and then Matt was born and that was wonderful, but they didn't dance as much, but they swore they would, one of these days, when Matt got a little older, but they never did, and after a while they stopped talking about going dancing, in fact they stopped talking about pretty much everything, and they made love only when neither of them could immediately think of an excuse not to, which happened very rarely, because any excuse would do, starting with "I'm kinda tired tonight," which they both were, every night. He talked about the slow, agonizing slide down the slope of divorce, and how guilty he felt, and how understanding Matt had been, and how that made him feel guiltier. He told her that he drove a Kia.

"Now you," he said.

She told him that she had been married twice, the first time to the guy she dated for her last two years at the University of Florida, who was captain of the te

"We had a really great marriage, no problems at all," she said, "until maybe the second hour of the wedding reception, which is when my maid of honor told me in the ladies' room that my new husband had just put his tongue into her mouth all the way down to her tonsils. This guy just could not keep his wee-wee in his pants. He was like Bill Clinton, but without any domestic policies."

But she stuck with him, she said, because her mother told her that you have to Make the Marriage Work.

"The thing was," she said, "while I was trying to make the marriage work, he was trying to make every woman in Dade and Broward Counties, and generally succeeding. Never marry an incredibly handsome man."

"I won't," Eliot promised.

"So," she said, "after Je

"Didn't you have a lawyer?" asked Eliot.

"Oh, sure, I had a lawyer. But my ex-husband had like the entire Supreme Court. So he got basically all the money, and I got Je

The lunch lasted for four iced teas. On the way out of the Taurus, Eliot and A

"Hey, man," he said to Eliot, "can you help out a disabled veteran?"

"No," said Eliot, who recognized Eddie from around the Grove.

"Fuck you," said Eddie. "How about you, pretty lady?" he said to A

Snake grabbed his crotch and said, "Hey, I'll give you something."

A

When they reached A

"Hey, my pleasure," Eliot said. "You want to keep my reading glasses, so we could do this again?"

A

Eliot said, "Do you think I'm incredibly handsome?"

She looked up from her purse and studied his face for a moment.

"No," she said.

"Whew," he said.

She laughed, then studied his face some more. She had the greenest eyes.

"Just so you know," she said, "I love to dance."

"Man," said Eddie, watching Eliot and A

"We didn't do shit," Snake pointed out. "We ain't veterans."

"They don't know that," said Eddie. "And I bet I would of been a vet, if I was old enough."

"I think you have to graduate from at least, like, eighth grade," said Snake.

"Well, that ain't the point," said Eddie. "Point is, these people are some ungrateful fucks." He spat a wad of brownish glop on the sidewalk. "We ain't made but three dollars today."

"Speaking of which," said Snake. "Somethin' I wa

Eddie waited.

"You know that little punk at the Jackal?" Snake said. "Who did my ankle?"

"Yeah."

"I heard he works there now, sometimes."

"So?"

"So I wa

"I du

"His bat don't mean shit if we got a gun."

"We ain't got a gun."

"I know a guy can get us one."

Eddie thought about it. "I du

"Because the cash register is inside."

Eddie looked at Snake.

"So this ain't really about the punk," he said.

"Oh, it's about the punk," said Snake. "And the bartender. And the cash register. Three birds with one stone."

Eddie thought about it.

"I don't know nothin' about no guns," he said.

"Time you learned," said Snake. "Bein' a veteran and all."