Free When the Sacred Ginmill Closes by Lawrence Block

that. This way we get the chance to do something. If he went and dropped a dime on us, all we could do is bend over and take it."
    "Did you talk to your partner?"
    "Not yet. I called his house, he wasn't in."
    "So you sit tight."
    "Yeah.That's a switch. What the hell have I been doing, hanging loose?" There was a water tumbler on his desk, a third full with a brownish liquid. He took a last drag on his cigarette and dropped it into the glass. "Disgusting," he said. "I never want to see you do that, Matt. You don't smoke, do you?"
    "Once in a great while."
    "Yeah?You have one now and then and don't get hooked? I know a guy takes heroin that way. You know him, too, for that matter. But these little fuckers"- he tapped the pack- "I think they're more addictive than smack. You want one now?"
    "No thanks."
    He stood up. "The only things I don't get addicted to," he said, "are the ones I didn't like that much in the first place. Hey, thanks for coming by. There's nothing to do but wait, but I figured I wanted to keep you in the picture, let you know what's going on."
    "That's fine," I said, "but I want you to know you don't owe me anything for it."
    "What do you mean?"
    "I mean don't go paying my bar tab for this."
    "Are you sore?"
    "No."
    "It was just something I felt like doing."
    "I appreciate it, but it wasn't necessary."
    "Yeah, I guess." He shrugged. "When you're skimming you get to be very free with cash. You spend it on things that don't show.The hell with it. I can stand you a drink, though, can't I?In my own joint?"
    "That you can do."
    "C'mon then," he said, "beforefuckingRuslander gives the whole store away."
    EVERY time I went into Armstrong's I wondered if I'd run into Carolyn, and each time I was more relieved than disappointed when I didn't. I could have called her, but I sensed that it was perfectly appropriate not to. Friday night had been just what each of us had evidently wanted, and it looked as though it had been complete in itself for both of us, and I was glad of that. As a fringe benefit, I was over whatever had had me bugged about Fran, and it was beginning to look as though it had been nothing much more complicated than old-fashioned horniness. I suppose a half-hour with one of the streetwalkers would have served me as well, if less pleasurably.
    I didn't run into Tommy, either, and that, too, was a relief, and in no sense disappointing.
    Then Monday morning I picked up the News and read that they'd pulled in a pair of young Hispanics fromSunsetPark for theTillary burglary and homicide. The paper ran the usual photo- two skinny youths, their hair unruly, one of them trying to hide his face from the camera, the other smirking defiantly, and each of them handcuffed to a broad-shouldered grimfaced Irishman in a suit. There was a caption to tell you which ones were the good guys, but you didn't really need it.
    I was in Armstrong's that afternoon when the phone rang. Dennis put down the glass he was wiping and answered it. "He was here a minute ago," he said. "I'll see if he stepped out." He covered the mouthpiece with his hand and looked quizzically at me. "Are you still here?" he asked. "Or did you slip away while my attention was somehow diverted?"
    "Who wants to know?"
    "TommyTillary."
    You never know what a woman will decide to tell a man, or how a man will react to it. I didn't much want to find out, but I was better off learning over the phone than face-to-face. I nodded and Dennis passed the phone across the bar.
    I said, "Matt Scudder, Tommy. I was sorry to hear about your wife."
    "Thanks, Matt. Jesus, it feels like it happened a year ago. It was what, a little over a week?"
    "At least they got the bastards."
    There was a pause. Then he said, "Jesus. You haven't seen a paper, huh?"
    "Sure I did. Two Spanishkids, had their pictures."
    "I guess you read this morning's News."
    "I generally do. Why?"
    "But not this afternoon's Post."
    "No. Why, what happened? They turn out to be clean?"
    "Clean," he said,