LITMIR.BIZ

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the first words out of the newcomer’s mouth were those of a bigot or a political nut, or the wrong kind of fool, Tim could morph from a pose of spiritual or nostalgic reverie to one of bitter silence and barely repressed violence. Few people would try more than twice to break the ice when the only response was a glacial chill.

      Tim preferred quiet contemplation at this altar, but he enjoyed the right kind of conversation, too. The right kind was uncommon.

      When you initiated a conversation, you could have a hard time putting an end to it. When the other guy spoke first, however, and revealed his nature, you could shut him down by shutting him out.

      Diligent in the support of his yet-to-be-conceived children, Rooney arrived. “What’ll it be?”

      The stranger put a thick manila envelope on the bar and kept his left hand on it. “Maybe … a beer.”

      Rooney waited, eyebrows raised.

      “Yes. All right. A beer,” said the newcomer.

      “On tap, I have Budweiser, Miller Lite, and Heineken.”

      “Okay. Well … then … I guess … Heineken.”

      His voice was as thin and taut as a telephone wire, his words like birds perched at discreet intervals, resonant with a plucked note that might have been dismay.

      By the time Rooney brought the beer, the stranger had money on the bar. “Keep the change.”

      Evidently a second round was out of the question.

      When Rooney went away, the stranger wrapped his right hand around the beer glass. He did not take a sip.

      Tim was a wet nurse. That was the mocking title Rooney had given him because of his ability to nurse two beers through a long evening. Sometimes he asked for ice to enliven a warm brew.

      Even if you weren’t a heavy drinker, however, you wanted the first swallow of beer when it was at its coldest, fresh from the tap.

      Like a sniper intent on a target, Tim focused on his Budweiser, but like a good sniper, he also had keen peripheral vision. He could see that the stranger had still not lifted the glass of Heineken.

      The guy did not appear to be a habitué of taverns, and evidently he didn’t want to be in this one, on this night, at this hour.

      At last he said, “I’m early.”

      Tim wasn’t sure if this was a conversation he wanted.

      “I guess,” said the stranger, “everyone wants to be early, size things up.”

      Tim was getting a bad vibe. Not a look-out-he’s-a-werewolf kind of vibe, just a feeling that the guy might be tedious.

      The stranger said, “I jumped out of an airplane with my dog.”

      On the other hand, the best hope of a memorable barroom conversation is to have the good luck to encounter an eccentric.

      Tim’s spirits lifted. Turning to the skydiver, he said, “What was his name?”

      “Whose name?”

      “The dog’s.”

      “Larry.”

      “Funny name for a dog.”

      “I named him after my brother.”

      “What did your brother think of that?”

      “My brother is dead.”

      Tim said, “I’m sorry to hear it.”

      “That was a long time ago.”

      “Did Larry like sky-diving?”

      “He never went. He died when he was sixteen.”

      “I mean Larry the dog.”

      “Yeah. He seemed to like it. I bring it up only because my stomach is in knots like it was when we jumped.”

      “This has been a bad day, huh?”

      The stranger frowned. “What do you think?”

      Tim nodded. “Bad day.”

      Continuing to frown, the skydiver said, “You are him, aren’t you?”

      The art of barroom banter is not like playing Mozart on the piano. It’s freestyle, a jam session. The rhythms are instinctual.

      “Are you him?” the stranger asked again.

      Tim said, “Who else would I be?”

      “You look so … ordinary.”

      “I work at it,” Tim assured him.

      The skydiver stared intently at him for a moment, but then lowered his eyes. “I can’t imagine being you.”

      “It’s no piece of cake,” Tim said less playfully, and frowned to hear a note of sincerity in his voice.

      The stranger finally picked up his drink. Getting it to his lips, he slopped beer on the bar, then chugged half the contents of the glass.

      “Anyway, I’m just in a phase,” Tim said more to himself than to his companion.

      Eventually, this guy would realize his mistake, whereupon Tim would pretend that he, too, had been confused. Meanwhile, there was a little fun to be had.

      Sliding the manila envelope across the bar, the guy said, “Half of it’s there. Ten thousand. The rest when she’s gone.”

      As he finished speaking, the stranger turned on his stool, got to his feet, and headed toward the door.

      As Tim was about to call the man back, the terrible meaning of those eleven words clarified for him: Half of it’s there. Ten thousand. The rest when she’s gone.

      First astonishment—and then an uncharacteristic clutch of fear—choked off his voice.

      The skydiver was intent on bailing out of the bar. He quickly crossed the room, went through the door, fell away into the night.

      “Hey, wait a minute,” Tim said, too softly and too late. “Wait.”

      When you skate across the days, leaving a wake as thin as spider silk, you’re not accustomed to shouting or to chasing after strangers with murder on their minds.

      By the time Tim realized pursuit was obligatory and got up from his stool, a successful chase could not have been mounted. The quarry had covered too much ground.

      He sat again and finished his beer in one long swallow.

      Foam clung to the sides of the glass. Those ephemeral patterns had never before seemed mysterious to him. Now he studied them as if they embodied great meaning.

      Feeling disoriented, he glanced at the manila envelope, which looked as portentous as a pipe bomb.

      Carrying two plates of cheeseburgers and fries, Liam Rooney served a young couple in one of the booths. No waitress worked on a slow Monday.

      Tim raised a hand to signal Rooney. The tavern keeper didn’t notice; he returned to the bar gate at the farther end of the room.

      The envelope still had an ominous significance, but already Tim had begun to doubt that he had correctly understood what had happened between him and the stranger. A guy with a sky-diving dog named Larry wouldn’t pay to have someone killed. All this was a misunderstanding.

      The rest when she’s gone. That could mean a lot of things. It didn’t necessarily mean when she was dead.

      Determined that the world would quickly be put right, Tim pried up the prongs of the brass clasp, opened the flap of the envelope, and reached inside. He withdrew a thick wad of hundred-dollar bills bound together with a rubber band.

      Maybe the money wasn’t greasy, but that was how it felt. He returned it at once to the envelope.

      In

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