Fall Guy

for a little person, deep and resonant. And he knew how to use it. I thought of what he'd told me, that he'd worked with the big cats, not a man to be pushed around. „Parker, your stuff is here, and if it's still here when I wake up in the morning, it'll be there“—pointing to the windows, his finger curved so that if he were actually at the windows, he'd be pointing to the garbage cans. „As for the rest of your things, there's a memorial for Tim on Saturday, at four o'clock, in the garden. Rachel was kind enough to say you could get the rest of your things after that. Meanwhile, you have clothes.“ He looked at Parker. We all did. He was wearing a denim shirt, the wrinkles from being folded on a shelf still visible. His jeans looked new, too, either that or dry-cleaned, the way they do it on the Upper East Side. „As for the rest of you deadbeats...Bill“—he was looking at the one with thinning blond hair, a short-sleeved plaid shirt, green pants, not a fashionista like Parker—“Ricky“—the one who was smoking, the one you wouldn't want to be alone with on an elevator or in a dark alley, unless you had your pit bull with you—“Ape“—the hairy one, the tallest of the three, the beefiest one, too—“you drank enough of his whiskey and stole enough of his possessions to show your ugly mugs there, for decency's sake, pretend you're respectful of the dead, pretend you're saying a little prayer for the good detective. But that's up to you, of course. I imagine if I mentioned that Jin Mei will no doubt be preparing some food for the mourners, you might actually show. But I'm hoping you'll come because it's the decent thing to do.“
    „What would you know from decent?“ Ape asked him. „How about you and Ella, was that decent?“
    Irwin turned to me to explain.
    „This is going to be good,“ Ape added. He had a high voice for such a big man.
    „He's referring to a faux marriage I had at one time with a Miss Ella Vanilla, the fat lady in a circus I was with back then. He thinks I done her wrong, leaving the way I did, Ella still madly in love with me.“ He turned to Ape. „Nothing lasts forever,“ he said. „Except maybe death.“
    „No maybe about it,“ Ricky said. He got up and went to the kitchen. A moment later I realized he'd actually gone to the bathroom because he'd neglected to close the door.
    „Comes from living in a tent,“ Irwin told me.
    „He was with you in the circus?“
    „A rigger,“ he said. „When sober. And not in jail.“ He tapped the deck of cards on the table twice. „Where's Andy? I thought he said he was coming.“
    Parker shrugged. „He did. Must be not. Or coming late. You know how he is.“
    „Time and poker wait for no man.“ He was sitting on two pillows so that he could reach the table. He shuffled the deck and asked me to cut. I tapped the top card. Irwin announced the game and dealt. The conversation, if you can call it that, was clearly over. We anted, bet, folded, played the game. When an hour was up, I decided to stay another. When it was time to go, I was $175 ahead.
    Irwin gave me a pat on the ass when I got up. „It's customary to tip the house before you leave,“ he said. „You know, for the beer, the chips and the dips.“
    I dropped two twenties on the table. Easy come, easy go.
    „Next Thursday?“ he asked.
    „Wouldn't miss it for the world. See you gentlemen on Saturday, I trust.“
    None of the gentlemen at Irwin's poker table got up when I did. Parker, in fact, even failed to say good-bye.
    As Dash and I headed down the stairs, someone was coming up. He was just at the age when hard living starts to show, his skin rough, his face deeply lined, his hair faded and dull, eyes as old as a cop's eyes. Or a drifter's. Hands deep in his pants pockets, he just kept coming, as if I weren't there. I stood aside and let him pass. When I got to the first floor, I heard Irwin's door open. I unlocked O'Fallon's door, grabbed the leash and the briefcase and headed home.

CHAPTER 16
    Something called the Certificate of Preliminary Letters of Testamentary was in the mail from Melanie Houseman's office. So was O'Fallon's death certificate. Dashiell began to explore the garden as if it were a brand-new place, every inch of it worthy of his attention. I sat on the steps and opened the mail, but it was too dark to read. I didn't think reading a death certificate was exactly what Jin Mei had in mind, even though I was, as she had suggested, in a