Big Easy Bonanza

done all right if the deal had been consummated, and even better if we had snatched the payroll. I didn’t make any plans for ending up with no dope and no dough. Now I’ve got more dissatisfied partners than you’d ever believe. And I’ve got to break up my happy marriage with you.”
    “Why didn’t you ask Darryl for a refund?”
    “Darryl refused to give it back until he saw what we were going to do to take care of his case. He knew you weren’t in on the transaction, but he was unusually clever when he gave you the money to hold. He knew it wouldn’t occur to us right away that you had it. At least that’s what I think Darryl was thinking. He never told me. Then the fool got killed.”
    Tubby handed over the few bills from his wallet. Reggie took them and said, “Toss your wallet on the ground and hand me the bag, homeboy. You’re staying here.”
    “It’s all yours,” Tubby said and passed the bag like a basketball right at the gun. He stepped in with it and tried for a field goal at Reggie’s crotch. He connected at the same time Reggie fired. The muzzle was in the gym bag so some of the sound was trapped. Tubby felt a pain in his side but it did not stop him from catching Reggie on the chin with his right fist. It was a solid shot, making upward contact while Reggie was bending downward to deal with the pain in his groin, and it caused Reggie to stumble backward over the stack of pipe and into the hole behind him. He didn’t even yell. And he had the gym bag with him.
    Was that it? Tubby’s adrenaline was pumping. He boxed the air, looking for an opponent. Come on, Reggie. Stand up and fight, he was thinking. You’re not going down that easy, are you? It’s all on the line now, partner. He pivoted, fists up, but nobody was sneaking up behind him. He faced off to the sides. Nothing. So he dropped his hands.
    Tubby leaned over the grimy pipes and tried to see down in the ditch. There was a little light from the boarded-up convenience store on the corner, and he thought he could make out something floating around that could be Reggie. There was a rough wooden ladder leaning against the side of the excavation. Tubby was tempted to leave Reggie where he was, but the thought that he might need medical attention bothered Tubby. Also, he hated the idea of leaving all that cash down there for some Boh Brothers employee to find.
    He got on the ladder and started down. It was like a cave. After his first step, he remembered that his right side was hurt. He felt the area around his belt, and it smarted, but it did not feel too serious. He went down a little farther. The bottom rungs were in gray soupy water, being sucked gently along by the pumps making the racket overhead. He tentatively put one foot into the water and connected with something solid about calf deep. It all smelled like ripe sewage, but it was cool down here. Tubby splashed along until he reached Reggie’s legs, which were sticking up out of the water. The rest of Reggie was submerged. The gym bag bobbed up and down by his feet.
    “Looks like one for me,” Tubby muttered to Reggie’s feet. “You were a hell of a lawyer, but not much of a street fighter.”
    Tubby picked up the wet bag and sloshed over to the ladder with it. He lodged it against the wall. Then he went back and got Reggie. He floated him over to the ladder and hoisted him onto his shoulders. Good thing he wasn’t a heavy guy. “Looks like my ol’ partner ain’t going to make it,” Tubby told himself out loud. Being around death was uncomfortable. Tubby’s hands were shaking. But he had been there before. He collected himself.
    It took a struggle, but he got the body and the money back up the ladder. He lay beside the quiet form on the grass and panted. Nobody seemed to have taken any notice of anything that had happened. Cars still drove by on the other side of the construction, and the pumps droned on. What could he do with Reggie?
    Tubby looked around while he caught his breath. The gray cat came over to investigate, then leaped away when Tubby blew at it. He started to pay attention to a pile driver at the far end of the playground. It was cordoned off by plastic fencing. What he was looking at was its massive cylindrical weight, taller than a man, suspended by cables in the air. He got to his feet and went over to get a closer look. Climbing over the fence, he saw that the weight was positioned over a hole bored in the ground. Tubby couldn’t see what was