Free Mortal Lock by Andrew Vachss

he wanted was some information about this photographer guy.
    “Now hippie types weren’t all that different from cons back then, at least when it came to giving out information to the cops. Cops had a way of thinking you had long hair you had to be something from Mars out to destroy Mom, apple pie, and the American way.”
    “Does that mean Texas too?” Leonard asked.
    “I believe it did, yes.”
    “Well, I can see their point. And the apple pie part.”
    “I could tell this guy was no cop. And he wasn’t asking me for evidence-type stuff anyway. Just when the guy had showed up, stuff like that.”
    Leonard yawned. Sometimes he can be a very crude individual. Veil looked like he always does. Calm.
    “Anyway, I started to say I didn’t know the guy, then … I don’t know. There was something about his manner that made me trust him.”
    “Thank you,” Veil said. I wasn’t sure if he was being sarcastic or not.
    I nodded. “I told him the truth. It wasn’t any big deal. Like Isaid, he wasn’t asking anything weird, but I was a little worried. I mean, you know, the gun and all. Then I got stupid and—”
    “Oh,
that’s
when it happened?” Leonard asked. “That’s like the moment it set in?”
    I maintained patience—which is what Leonard is always complaining he has to do with me—and went on like he hadn’t said a word: “—asked him how come he wanted to know all about this guy, and maybe I ought not to be saying anything, and how he ought to take his pistol and go on. I didn’t want any trouble, and no one at the place did either.
    “So Veil asks the big question. Where is the guy right now? I told him he was out somewhere. Or maybe gone, for all I knew. That’s the way things were then. People came and went like cats and you didn’t tend to get uptight about it. It was the times.”
    “Groovy,” Leonard said.
    “We talk for a while, but, truth was, I didn’t know anything about the guy, so I really got nothing to say of importance. But, you know, I’m thinking it isn’t every day you see a guy looks like Veil walking around with a gun almost the size of my dick.”
    “Jesus,” Leonard said. “Can’t ever get away from your dick.”
    “No, it tends to stay with me.”
    “How about staying with the story,” Veil said, still calm but with an edge to his voice now.
    “So I ask Veil, it’s okay with him, I’m going back in the house and get some sleep, and like maybe could he put the gun up ’cause it’s making me nervous. I know I mentioned that gun several times. I’m trying to kind of glide out of there because I figure a guy with a gun has more on his mind than just small talk. I thought he might even be a druggie, though he didn’t look like one. Veil here, he says no problem. But I see he’s not going anywhere so I don’t move. Somehow, the idea of getting my back to that gun doesn’t appeal to me, and we’re kind of close, and I’m thinking he gets alittle closer I got a small chance of taking the gun away from him. Anyway, we both stick. Studying each other, I think. Neither of us going anywhere.”
    “Neither the fuck am I,” Leonard said. “Matter of fact, I think moss is starting to grow on the north side of my ass.”
    “All right, partner,” I told him, “here’s the finale. I decide to not go in the house, just sit out there with Veil. We talk a bit about this and that, anything but guns, and we’re quiet a bit. Gets to be real late, I don’t know, maybe four in the morning, and we both hear a motor. Something pulling into the driveway. Then we hear a car door close. Another minute or so, the front door to the house closes too. Veil, without a word to me, gets up and walks around to the drive. I follow him. Even then I think I’m some kind of mediator. That whatever’s going on, maybe I can fix it. I was hell for fixing people’s problems then.”
    “You’re still hell for that,” Leonard said.
    “Sure enough, there’s the guy’s van. I’m