Dark Maze

unless they take extra time with their grooming. She did not.
    Her hair was dull yellow with white streaks in it that made her look youthful, oddly enough. But her skin was doughy and wrinkled, especially around the mouth and neck. She smelled of strong soap.
    “What’re you writing in that book there if you don’t mind my asking?” she asked.
    This could have been worse, I told myself. I could be on an airplane, trapped for hours with a chatty seatmate. But this was only the subway and I could get off at the first stop over on the Manhattan side, at Essex Street. It would not be long.
    “Just notes,” I told her. “To remind myself of what I’ve got to do tomorrow.”
    “Oh, well that’s okay.”
    She had a big leather bag with her which she now spread out across her lap. She rooted through it, elbowing me in the process. She pulled out a silver flask and a small plastic bottle.
    “Here’s to you,” she said, unscrewing the top of the flask and then slugging back a drink. She capped the flask and returned it to her bag.
    I said nothing, hoping to discourage conversation.
    “I don’t much like traveling these trains when I’m by myself at night,” she said. Then she let out a long sigh. “But let’s face it, I’m alone day and night now since my Henry’s been gone.”
    “I’m sorry, ma’am.”
    “How come?”
    “I’m sorry your husband’s gone.”
    “Husband? Don’t make me laugh. Christ, I never married him!”
    “Well, anyway, I’m sorry he died.”
    “Oh, that’s okay. Henry was a shit.” She took the flask out from her purse, unscrewed it and slugged back some more. “You’re a married guy, right?”
    “I used to be.”
    “Yeah, you got the face of a married guy.”
    “Is that good?”
    “That’s the best. That’s how come I sat down here beside you.”
    “I see.”
    “Henry was a hotshot business executive down in Wall Street. What’s your racket?”
    “Cop.“
    “Yeah, well it don’t surprise me.” She opened up the plastic bottle and took out a white wafer and put it in her mouth. “So you prob’ly busted lots of robbers in your time?”
    “A few.”
    “So now when you retire you can look back on your brilliant career in law enforcement and claim you did your part to vouchsafe the city for truth, justice and the American way. Right?”
    “I don’t know about that....“”
    “Well I do, boy. You never touched my Henry, so in my personal book you’re a big flop as a cop.”
    “What did Henry do?”
    “I told you, he was in Wall Street.”
    “What was his crime, I mean?”
    “I just told you!”
    “Working in Wall Street’s not a crime.”
    “Oh really, Snow White?” She took out her flask again and drank it dry. “Shit, it’s empty.”
    “It’s just as well,” I said. “It’s against the law to drink in the subway.”
    “Yeah, and it’s also against the law for the poor to beg. So you know what you can do with your law, right?”
    “Lady, are you all right?”
    “Of course not. I get on this train expecting that if I sit down next to a good-looking man, I’ll be safe out by myself. So you turn out to be a cop with this goddamn overexaggerated respect for the law—which by the way is an ass. How safe do you think you’re making me feel right now?” She took another wafer from her bottle and started chewing it slowly.
    “You want to tell me exactly what it was your Henry did when he worked in Wall Street?”
    “Ever read the business page, Snow White?“
    “Sometimes.”
    “You ought to be reading it every day. It’s a police blotter. Ever hear of junk bonds?”
    “Yes.”
    “Ever buy one?”
    “No.”
    “What a dope! You own any life insurance, you have a bank account?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Then you bought junk bonds, chump. Who do you think my Henry sold that crap to? Grads from Harvard and Wharton? No way. He peddled them to the savings and loan crooks and the insurance dorks and the bankers who are already pretty notorious about making dumb loans. He collected five percent of the action he peddled; his lawyer pals got four hundred an hour easy for drawing up the indentures, then kicked over some to Henry for tipping them business; and Henry’s other cronies at the banks and thrifts got promotions for these really shrewd deals he conned them into, and they kicked back on their Christmas bonuses.
    “And here’s the part where the law is an ass: just about nobody goes to jail when the whole house of cards falls down!