Free Cogan's Trade by George V Higgins

and see her Sunday, so of course we hadda go to church, too, the old bat doesn’t get any wrong ideas. And the priest had long hair, for God’s sake. And they could’ve been wearing wigs or something. You can’t tell.”
    “Well,” the driver said, “they were dressed like kids. They had dungarees on and they smelled like
animals
, Trattman said.”
    “Trattman said,” Cogan said. “Look, anyway, there’s lots of guys that stink.”
    “Trattman also said,” the driver said, “the one that talked had a voice like a kid.”
    “Trattman said,” Cogan said.
    “So far’s I know,” the driver said, “there’s nothing wrong with Trattman’s hearing, or his nose or anything.”
    “Nope,” Cogan said. “Nothing I ever heard about, anyway.”
    “But then, of course, when I talked to him …”
    “You talked to Trattman?” Cogan said.
    “No, of course not,” the driver said. “Trattman calledCangelisi, and they got word to him and then I talked to him.”
    “Oh,” Cogan said.
    “Is that important?” the driver said.
    “Probably not,” Cogan said. “I was just wondering, how Trattman decided to call you. I wouldn’t’ve done that.”
    “Well, I do talk to him,” the driver said.
    “Yeah,” Cogan said, “but I don’t, and I didn’t know you, I knew there was somebody, of course, but I never heard of you before in my life. Just seemed funny, is all.”
    “Well, I didn’t talk to him,” the driver said. “Trattman. But I talked to him last night and I talked to him again this morning.”
    “So nobody,” Cogan said, “nobody’s actually talked to Trattman about this.”
    “Just Cangelisi,” the driver said. “Trattman called him from the place and he couldn’t get him and he woke his wife up and everything.”
    “Yeah,” Cogan said. “So all we got right now, to go on, is what Trattman told some guy. And that’s what I’m supposed to go out and find two kids on, what Trattman told some guy, I never even talked to.”
    “That’s not what he said,” the driver said. “He said that I was to call Dillon, and I called Dillon, and then I talked to him and he told me to talk to the fellow that Dillon sent and see what you thought, I assume it’s you, anyway, what you thought ought to be done next.”
    “What happened to Zach?” Cogan said.
    “I’m not really sure,” the driver said. “They had some kind of a disagreement. I think it was about the way he handled the petition for cert. Zach. He didn’t tell me very much about it, but he did say he couldn’t representhim any more. I called Zach when he first called me, naturally.”
    “Zach was with him for a long time,” Cogan said. “I talked to Zach a lot.”
    “Not so long, actually,” the driver said. “About five years. No more’n that. When he first started out he had McGonigle.”
    “Magoo?” Cogan said. “He came up here for a guy and they practically hadda carry him in court in a basket.”
    “He’s had some bad luck,” the driver said. “And that was probably before you were born, when he had McGonigle. Then, Zach told me, well, he didn’t have as many problems then. That was really before he really needed a lot of legal work done. But then he had Mindich and then he had the fellow from New York, Mendoza, and then he used Zach. It’s good trade,’ Zach told me. Tor five years it’s good business. It’ll drive you nuts, but the money’s good.’ See, according to Zach, he blames you when things don’t come out the way he wants them to, and then he gets a new lawyer.”
    “Zach was the guy I had to talk to,” Cogan said. “Nice guy. He helped me set my thing up. Say hello to Zach for me, you happen to see him.”
    “I will,” the driver said. “Now, what do I tell him?”
    “Well,” Cogan said, “the games’re shut down, right?”
    “Most of them,” the driver said. “Somebody called Testa and he said he’d like to see somebody try to come into his operation. So I guess he’s still