Page 103 of Hanging and Burning

Propped up in the fancy bed, bathed in natural light, Arman looked a bit healthier.

I sat atop the sturdy little table.

“You lookin’ pretty good, man,” I said.

“Ever since they brought me here, I been off the poison.”

“You givin’ up?”

“Uh-uh. I never learned how to do that. Brenda’s old man put me on the same regimen they doin’ on her.”

“Same cancer?”

“I don’t think so. It’s just that their medicines have a good effect on anything they touch. I would’a never believed it but I guess it’s true that rich people live in the workingman’s future.”

It didn’t surprise me that the gangster still saw himself as a workingman.

“We got to talk, Mr. Babylon.”

“Look, Oliver… Joe. You already found Twyla, and Dalia said that they gonna come out and see me. I’m gonna set us all up in a place where they can’t get at us. I got friends can help me with any problems after that.”

“Sounds like I’d play it,” I said to the once-dying man who now had one foot out of the grave. “But I’m in this shit now and I’m not stoppin’.”

“Job’s over, and I never hired you t’get in my way.”

“No, you hired me to take the risk, and now that there are long knives in the night, I need to look after me and mine.”

These words got through to the old man. Squinting with his left eye, he gave a nod that was almost imperceptible.

“All I need from you is information,” I added.

After going over and over in his mind how to deal with me, he asked, “What’s your plan?”

“I need to figure out who is going after your people,” I said. “Paulie Jr., Melton, or somebody else. I’m pretty sure that this man in black, Kenneth Rouche, is the trigger, but who has their finger on him?”

Arman glared a little longer. Long enough for the challenge to become a threat. That wasn’t so bad. It was only when he bit his lower lip that I began to worry.

“Paulie’s the problem,” he said. “I mean, he might not be the actual threat, but he’s the cause.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“He wants the information about his father’s killers. And the only thing he can think of is to squeeze those names outta me.”

“Why don’t you just tell him?” I asked, unconcerned with any answer he might give.

“Two reasons,” my employer allowed.

This made my curiosity itch.

“And what are they?” I asked.

“First, Malto is dangerous in any situation.”

“I don’t know about that, I got to him easy enough.”

“You blindsided the motherfucker,” he said. “He knows about Paulie. He knows about me. You better believe that he’s got all kindsa people on this.”

“So you’re saying that Paulie’s threatening your people, trying to get his father’s killers’ name outta you. But you’re the one who got Melton to kill Paulie Sr. So what’s the answer?”