Blue Smoke

around when we were kids.” He pointed a grease-stained finger. “I didn’t have anything to dowith that, that’s not on me. I don’t hit girls—women. You see anything on my sheet about hitting women?”
    “No. I don’t see anything on your sheet about violent behavior, period. Just like I see you kept your lip zipped when you got busted for chopping. Didn’t name names. You think this is about loyalty, Tony? We’re looking at Joey in connection to murder. You want a piece of that, accessory after the fact?”
    “Whoa, wait. Hold on.” He stepped back, the wrench dangling from his hand. “Murder? I don’t know what you’re talking about. Swear on my life.”
    “Tell me about Joey.”
    “Okay, maybe he’s breezed through a couple of times. Maybe we had a beer. There’s no law against it.”
    “When? Where?”
    “Man.” He pulled off his cap, showing Reena his hair was thinning, veeing back from his forehead to form a long, sharp widow’s peak. “First time I heard from him, after the fire, all that crazy shit, was right before I hooked up with the chop shop. He came back around, said he had some business to take care of. Said he knew these guys if I was looking to make some money. He took me over to the shop. That’s how I got into it.”
    “You were busted in 1993.”
    “Yeah. Chopped for about a year before I got busted.”
    She felt the clutch in her gut. “So Joey plugged you in in ’ninety-two?”
    “That’d be right.”
    “When? Spring, summer, winter?”
    “Well, God, how’m I supposed to remember?”
    “Give me a weather picture, Tony. Joey comes around, all these years since, you hit a couple of bars maybe. You walk? Was there snow?”
    “No, it was nice out. I remember. I was smoking some weed, listening to the ball game. I remember now. Early in the season, but it was nice out. April or May, I guess.”
    It was hot in the garage, hot and close, but the sweat that had beaded on Tony’s face was from more than steamy working conditions. “Look, if he killed somebody, he didn’t tell me about it. I’m not saying I’m surprisedhe did, or could, but he didn’t tell me.” Tony wet his lips. “Talked about you some.”
    “Is that so?”
    “Just bullshitting. Asked me if I still saw you around . . . if, you know, I’d ever gotten any of that.”
    “What else?”
    “I was pretty loaded, Reena. I just remember we talked the kind of shit you talk, and he hooked me up with the operation. I did three years for that, and I got clean. Been working here since. He blew through again a few years after I got out.”
    “ ’Ninety-nine?”
    “Yeah. I had a drink with him for old times’ sake. He tells me he’s got a lot of lines dangling, can help me out. But I wasn’t going back down that road, told him. Pissed him off, and we got into it a little. Took off, left me stranded on The Block ’cause he was driving. Nearly froze my ass off trying to get a cab home.”
    “Cold out?”
    “Witch’s tit. Slid on some ice, fell on my ass. I met Tracey a few weeks later. That cleaned me up some more. She doesn’t take any bullshit.”
    “Good for her.”
    “Good for me. And I know it, Reena. Next time I saw Joey I told him flat out I couldn’t do that shit anymore.”
    “When was this?”
    Tony shifted his weight. “Couple weeks ago. Maybe three. He came by the house. I don’t know how he found out where we’re living. It was close to midnight. Scared Tracey. Woke up the kid. He’d been drinking, wanted me to come out with him. I wouldn’t let him in, and I sent him away. He didn’t like it.”
    “Was he on foot?”
    “No. Ah, I watched, to make sure he kept going. I saw him get into a Cherokee. Black Jeep Cherokee. Looked like a ’ninety-three.”
    “Catch the plates?”
    “No, sorry. Never looked.” He kneaded his cap between his hands now, but what she saw wasn’t guilt nerves. It was fear. “He upset my wifeand kid. Things are different now. I’ve got a family. If he’s done murder, I don’t want him coming around my family.”
    “He contacts you again, I want to know about it. I don’t want you to tell him we’ve had this talk. If you can, find out where he’s staying, but don’t press it.”
    “You’re scaring me some, Reena.”
    “Good, because he’s a scary guy. If he works up a mad about you, he’ll hurt you. He’ll hurt your family. That’s not bullshit, Tony, that’s straight.”
    She walked out with O’Donnell, then turned when