Billy wonders if the story is true. It might not be, it has a fairy tale fabulism to it, but it somehow feels true. ‘You want me to hit a hitter.’ Like he’s getting it straight in his mind.
‘Nailed it. Joe’s in a Los Angeles lockup now. Men’s Central. Charged with assault and attempted rape. The attempted rape thing, tell you what, if you’re not a Me Too chick, it’s sorta funny. He mistook this lady writer who was in LA for a conference, feminist lady writer, for a hooker. He propositioned her – a bit on the hard side, I’d guess – and she pepper-sprayed him. He popped her one in the teeth and dislocated her jaw. She probably sold another hundred thousand books out of that. Should have thanked him instead of charging him, don’t you think?’
Billy doesn’t reply.
‘Come on, Billy, think about it. The man’s offed God knows how many guys, some of them very hard guys, and he gets pepper-sprayed by a dyke women’s libber? You gotta see the humor in that.’
Billy gives a token smile. ‘LA’s on the other side of the country.’
‘That’s right, but he was here before he went there. I don’t know why he was here and don’t care, but I know he was looking for a poker game and someone told him where he could find one. Because see, our pal Joe fancies himself a high roller. Long story short, he lost a lot of money. When the big winner came out around five in the morning, Joe shot him in the gut and took back not just his money but all the money. Someone tried to stop him, probably another moke who was in the game, and Joe shot him, too.’
‘He kill both of them?’
‘Big winner died in the hospital, but not before he ID’d Joe. Guy who tried to intervene pulled through. He also ID’d Joe. You know what else?’
Billy shakes his head.
‘Security footage. You see where this is going?’
Billy does, absolutely. ‘Not really.’
‘California’s got him for assault. Which’ll stick. The attempted rape would probably get thrown out, it’s not like he dragged her into an alley or anything, in fact he fucking offered to pay her, so it’s just solicitation, DA won’t even bother about that. With time served, he might get ninety days in county. Debt paid. But here it’s murder, and they take that very serious on this side of the Mississippi.’
Billy knows it. In the red states they put stone killers out of their misery. He has no problem with that.
‘And after looking at the security footage, the jury would almost certainly decide to give old Joey the needle. You see that, right?’
‘Sure.’
‘He’s using his lawyer to fight extradition, no big surprise there. You know what extradition is, right?’
‘Sure.’
‘Okay. Joe’s lawyer is fighting it for all he’s worth, and the guy ain’t no ambulance chaser. He’s already got a thirty-day delay on a hearing, and he’ll use it to figure out other ways to stall, but in the end he’s gonna lose. And Joe’s in an isolation cell, because somebody tried to stick a shiv into him. Old Joey took it away and broke his wrist for him, but where there’s one guy with a shiv, there could be a dozen.’
‘Gang thing?’ Billy asks. ‘Crips, maybe? They got a beef with him?’
Nick shrugs. ‘Who knows? For now, Joe’s got his own private quarters, doesn’t have to get slopped with the rest of the hogs, gets thirty minutes in the yard all by his lonesome. Also meantime, the lawyer-man is reaching out to people. The message he’s sending is that this guy will talk about something very big unless he can get a pass on the murder charge.’
‘Could that happen?’ Billy doesn’t like to think so, even if the man this Joe killed after the poker game was a bad person. ‘The prosecutors might take the death penalty off the table, or maybe even step it down to second-degree, or something?’
‘Not bad, Billy. You’re on the right track, at least. But what I’m hearing is that Joe wants all the charges dismissed. He must be holding some high cards.’
‘He thinks he can trade something to get away with murder.’
‘Says the guy who got away with it God knows how many times,’ Nick says, and laughs.
Billy doesn’t. ‘I never shot anyone because I lost money in a poker game. I don’t play poker. And I don’t rob.’
Nick nods vigorously. ‘I know that, Billy. Just bad people. I was only busting your chops a bit. Drink your drink.’
Billy drinks his drink. He’s thinking, Two million. For one job. And he’s thinking, What’s the catch?