"So you ditched the stuff," Balazar said. "That"s fascinating. You must tell me how one ditches two pounds of c.o.ke when that one is on a jet plane. It would be handy information to have. It"s like a locked room mystery story."
"I didn"t ditch it," Eddie said, "but I don"t have it anymore, either."
"So who does?" Claudio asked, then blushed when his brother looked at him with dour ferocity.
"He does," Eddie said, smiling, and pointed at Enrico Balazar over the tower of cards. "It"s already been delivered." does," Eddie said, smiling, and pointed at Enrico Balazar over the tower of cards. "It"s already been delivered."
For the first time since Eddie had been escorted into the office, a genuine expression illuminated Balazar"s face: surprise. Then it was gone. He smiled politely.
"Yes," he said. "To a location which will be revealed later, after you have your brother and your goods and are gone. To Iceland, maybe. Is that how it"s supposed to go?"
"No," Eddie said. "You don"t understand. It"s here. here. Delivery right to your door. Just like we agreed. Because even in this day and age, there are some people who still believe in living up to the deal as it was originally cut. Amazing, I know, but true." Delivery right to your door. Just like we agreed. Because even in this day and age, there are some people who still believe in living up to the deal as it was originally cut. Amazing, I know, but true."
They were all staring at him.
How"m I doing, Roland? Eddie asked. Eddie asked.
I think you are doing very well. But don"t let this man Balazar get his balance, Eddie. I think he"s dangerous.
You think so, huh? Well, I"m one up on you there, my friend. I know know he"s dangerous. Very f.u.c.king dangerous. he"s dangerous. Very f.u.c.king dangerous.
He looked at Balazar again, and dropped him a little wink. "That"s why you"re you"re the one who"s gotta be concerned with the Feds now, not me. If they turn up with a search warrant, you could suddenly find yourself f.u.c.ked without even opening your legs, Mr. Balazar." the one who"s gotta be concerned with the Feds now, not me. If they turn up with a search warrant, you could suddenly find yourself f.u.c.ked without even opening your legs, Mr. Balazar."
Balazar had picked up two cards. His hands suddenly shook and he put them aside. It was minute, but Roland saw it and Eddie saw it, too. An expression of uncertainty-even momentary fear, perhaps-appeared and then disappeared on his face.
"Watch your mouth with me, Eddie. Watch how you express yourself, and please remember that my time and my tolerance for nonsense are both short."
Jack Andolini looked alarmed.
"He made a deal with them, Mr. Balazar! This little s.h.i.t turned over the c.o.ke and they planted it while they were pretending to question him!"
"No one has been in here," Balazar said. "No one could get close, Jack, and you know it. Beepers go when a pigeon farts on the roof."
"But-"
"Even if they had managed to set us up somehow, we have so many people in their organization we could drill fifteen holes in their case in three days. We"d know who, when, and how."
Balazar looked back at Eddie.
"Eddie," he said, "you have fifteen seconds to stop bulls.h.i.tting. Then I"m going to have "Cimi Dretto step in here and hurt you. Then, after he hurts you you for awhile, he will leave, and from a room close by you will hear him hurting your brother." for awhile, he will leave, and from a room close by you will hear him hurting your brother."
Eddie stiffened.
Easy, the gunslinger murmured, and thought, the gunslinger murmured, and thought, All you have to do to hurt him is to say his brother"s name. It"s like poking an open sore with a stick. All you have to do to hurt him is to say his brother"s name. It"s like poking an open sore with a stick.
"I"m going to walk into your bathroom," Eddie said. He pointed at a door in the far left corner of the room, a door so un.o.btrusive it could almost have been one of the wall panels. "I"m going in by myself. Then I"m going to walk back out with a pound of your cocaine. Half the shipment. You test it. Then you bring Henry in here where I can look at him. When I see him, see he"s okay, you are going to give him our goods and he"s going to ride home with one of your gentlemen. While he does, me and..." Roland, Roland, he almost said, "... me and the rest of the guys we both know you got here can watch you build that thing. When Henry"s home and safe-which means no one standing there with a gun in his ear-he"s going to call and say a certain word. This is something we worked out before I left. Just in case." he almost said, "... me and the rest of the guys we both know you got here can watch you build that thing. When Henry"s home and safe-which means no one standing there with a gun in his ear-he"s going to call and say a certain word. This is something we worked out before I left. Just in case."
The gunslinger checked Eddie"s mind to see if this was true or bluff. It was true, or at least Eddie thought it was. Roland saw Eddie really believed his brother Henry would die before saying that word in falsity. The gunslinger was not so sure.
"You must think I still believe in Santa Claus," Balazar said.
"I know you don"t."
"Claudio. Search him. Jack, you go in my bathroom and search it. it. Everything." Everything."
"Is there any place in there I wouldn"t know about?" Andolini asked.
Balazar paused for a long moment, considering Andolini carefully with his dark brown eyes. "There is a small panel on the back wall of the medicine cabinet," he said. "I keep a few personal things in there. It is not big enough to hide a pound of dope in, but maybe you better check it."
Jack left, and as he entered the little privy, the gunslinger saw a flash of the same frozen white light that had illuminated the privy of the air-carriage. Then the door shut.
Balazar"s eyes flicked back to Eddie.
"Why do you want to tell such crazy lies?" he asked, almost sorrowfully. "I thought you were smart."
"Look in my face," Eddie said quietly, "and tell me that I am lying."
Balazar did as Eddie asked. He looked for a long time. Then he turned away, hands stuffed in his pockets so deeply that the crack of his peasant"s a.s.s showed a little. His posture was one of sorrow-sorrow over an erring son-but before he turned Roland had seen an expression on Balazar"s face that had not been sorrow. What Balazar had seen in Eddie"s face had left him not sorrowful but profoundly disturbed.
"Strip," Claudio said, and now he was holding his gun on Eddie.
Eddie started to take his clothes off.
5.
I don"t like this, Balazar thought as he waited for Jack Andolini to come back out of the bathroom. He was scared, suddenly sweating not just under his arms or in his crotch, places where he sweated even when it was the dead of winter and colder than a well-digger"s belt-buckle, but all over. Eddie had gone off looking like a junkie-a Balazar thought as he waited for Jack Andolini to come back out of the bathroom. He was scared, suddenly sweating not just under his arms or in his crotch, places where he sweated even when it was the dead of winter and colder than a well-digger"s belt-buckle, but all over. Eddie had gone off looking like a junkie-a smart smart junkie but still a junkie, someone who could be led anywhere by the skag fishhook in his b.a.l.l.s-and had come back looking like... like what? Like he"d junkie but still a junkie, someone who could be led anywhere by the skag fishhook in his b.a.l.l.s-and had come back looking like... like what? Like he"d grown grown in some way, in some way, changed. changed.
It"s like somebody poured two quarts of fresh guts down his throat.
Yes. That was it. And the dope. The f.u.c.king dope. Jack was tossing the bathroom and Claudio was checking Eddie with the thorough ferocity of a s.a.d.i.s.tic prison guard; Eddie had stood with a stolidity Balazar would not previously have believed possible for him or any other doper while Claudio spat four times into his left palm, rubbed the snot-flecked spittle all over his right hand, then rammed it up Eddie"s a.s.shole to the wrist and an inch or two beyond.
There was no dope in his bathroom, no dope on Eddie or in him. There was no dope in Eddie"s clothes, his jacket, or his travelling bag. So it was all nothing but a bluff.
Look in my face and tell me that I am lying.
So he had. What he saw was upsetting. What he saw was that Eddie Dean was perfectly confident: he intended to go into the bathroom and come back with half of Balazar"s goods.
Balazar almost believed it himself.
Claudio Andolini pulled his arm back. His fingers came out of Eddie Dean"s a.s.shole with a plopping sound. Claudio"s mouth twisted like a fishline with knots in it.
"Hurry up, Jack, I got this junkie"s s.h.i.t on my hand!" Claudio yelled angrily.
"If I"d known you were going to be prospecting up there, Claudio, I would have wiped my a.s.s with a chair-leg last time I took a dump," Eddie said mildly. "Your hand would have come out cleaner and I wouldn"t be standing here feeling like I just got raped by Ferdinand the Bull."
"Jack!"
"Go on down to the kitchen and clean yourself up," Balazar said quietly. "Eddie and I have got no reason to hurt each other. Do we, Eddie?"
"No," Eddie said.
"He"s clean, anyway," Claudio said. "Well, clean clean ain"t the word. What I mean is he ain"t holding. You can be G.o.ddam sure of that." He walked out, holding his dirty hand in front of him like a dead fish. ain"t the word. What I mean is he ain"t holding. You can be G.o.ddam sure of that." He walked out, holding his dirty hand in front of him like a dead fish.
Eddie looked calmly at Balazar, who was thinking again of Harry Houdini, and Blackstone, and Doug Henning, and David Copperfield. They kept saying that magic acts were as dead as vaudeville, but Henning was a superstar and the Copperfield kid had blown the crowd away the one time Balazar had caught his act in Atlantic City. Balazar had loved magicians from the first time he had seen one on a street-corner, doing card-tricks for pocket-change. And what was the first thing they always did before making something appear-something that would make the whole audience first gasp and then applaud? What they did was invite someone up from the audience to make sure that the place from which the rabbit or dove or bare-breasted cutie or the whatever was to appear was perfectly empty. More than that, to make sure there was no way to get anything inside. inside.
I think maybe he"s done it. I don"t know how, and I don"t care. The only thing I know for sure is that I don"t like any of this, not one d.a.m.n bit.
6.
George Biondi also had something not to like. He doubted if Eddie Dean was going to be wild about it, either.
George was pretty sure that at some point after "Cimi had come into the accountant"s office and doused the lights, Henry had died. Died quietly, with no muss, no fuss, no bother. Had simply floated away like a dandelion spore on a light breeze. George thought maybe it had happened right around the time Claudio left to wash his s.h.i.tty hand in the kitchen.
"Henry?" George muttered in Henry"s ear. He put his mouth so close that it was like kissing a girl"s ear in a movie theater, and that was pretty f.u.c.king gross, especially when you considered that the guy was probably dead-it was like narcophobia or whatever the f.u.c.k they called it-but he had to know, and the wall between this office and Balazar"s was thin.
"What"s wrong, George?" Tricks Postino asked.
"Shut up,""Cimi said. His voice was the low rumble of an idling truck.
They shut up.
George slid a hand inside Henry"s shirt. Oh, this was getting worse and worse. That image of being with a girl in a movie theater wouldn"t leave him. Now here he was, feeling her up, only it wasn"t a her her but a but a him, him, this wasn"t just narcophobia, it was f.u.c.king this wasn"t just narcophobia, it was f.u.c.king f.a.ggot f.a.ggot narcophobia, and Henry"s scrawny junkie"s chest wasn"t moving up and down, and there wasn"t anything inside going narcophobia, and Henry"s scrawny junkie"s chest wasn"t moving up and down, and there wasn"t anything inside going thump-thump-thump. thump-thump-thump. For Henry Dean it was all over, for Henry Dean the ball-game had been rained out in the seventh inning. Wasn"t nothing ticking but his watch. For Henry Dean it was all over, for Henry Dean the ball-game had been rained out in the seventh inning. Wasn"t nothing ticking but his watch.
He moved into the heavy Old Country atmosphere of olive oil and garlic that surrounded "Cimi Dretto.
"I think we might have a problem," George whispered.
7.
Jack came out of the bathroom.
"There"s no dope in there," he said, and his flat eyes studied Eddie. "And if you were thinking about the window, you can forget it. That"s ten-gauge steel mesh."
"I wasn"t thinking about the window and it is is in there," Eddie said quietly. "You just don"t know where to look." in there," Eddie said quietly. "You just don"t know where to look."
"I"m sorry, Mr. Balazar," Andolini said, "but this crock is getting just a little too full for me."
Balazar studied Eddie as if he hadn"t even heard Andolini. He was thinking very deeply.
Thinking about magicians pulling rabbits out of hats.
You got a guy from the audience to check out the fact that the hat was empty. What other thing that never changed? That no one saw into the hat but the magician, of course. And what had the kid said?
I"m going to walk into your bathroom. I"m going in by myself.
Knowing how a magic trick worked was something he usually wouldn"t want to know; knowing spoiled the fun.
Usually.
This, however, was a trick he couldn"t wait wait to spoil. to spoil.
"Fine," he said to Eddie. "If it"s in there, go get it. Just like you are. Bare-a.s.s."
"Good," Eddie said, and started toward the bathroom door.
"But not alone," Balazar said. Eddie stopped at once, his body stiffening as if Balazar had shot him with an invisible harpoon, and it did Balazar"s heart good to see it. For the first time something hadn"t gone according to the kid"s plan. "Jack"s going with you."
"No," Eddie said at once. "That"s not what I-"
"Eddie," Balazar said gently, "you don"t tell me no. That"s one thing you never do."
8.
It"s all right, the gunslinger said. the gunslinger said. Let him come. Let him come.
But...but...
Eddie was close to gibbering, barely holding onto his control. It wasn"t just the sudden curve-ball Balazar had thrown him; it was his gnawing worry over Henry, and, growing steadily ascendant over all else, his need for a fix.
Let him come. It will be all right. Listen: Eddie listened.