Gin Palace 01 - The Poisoned Rose

photo taken.”
    Augie showed me another photo. In this one Scully was looking straight at the camera. He was on the sidewalk outside The Dead Horse. It was obvious that he was aware of the camera. It was obvious, too, by the look on his face, that he was pissed off. The next photo Augie placed in front of me showed Scully turning away from the camera and waving someone over. In the photo after that a blur was entering the frame. It was man, or part of one. I could barely see him, never mind who he was. That was the last photo.
    “I got out of there after that,” Augie explained. “I didn’t much like the look of his friend.”
    “When did you take these?”
    “Last spring, when I found out that shit was being sold at Tina’s school. It was the night before I was ambushed.”
    “You think maybe these were what your attackers were after? Your photos?”
    “I don’t know. I sure would like the chance to talk to this guy Scully, though.”
    “What else can you tell me about him?”
    “Like I said, not much. He’s good at keeping out of sight and underground. Actually, he’s a fucking ghost. Very, very hard to find. Very cautious. But if you want to find him, I’d say the Dead Horse is the place to start looking.”
    I took another look at the photos. I looked closely at the one of Scully looking angrily into the camera. If he was the man who had sacked Augie, it was a face and an expression I wanted to see in person now more than ever.
    I handed the photo back to Augie and said, “Thanks.”
    He shuffled the photos together and retuned them to their envelope. He seemed a little lost in thought. I thought I knew by the expression on his face what it was he was thinking about. I remembered Frank forbidding me to look for the men who had almost killed Augie. It was hard to believe I might have stood so close to one of them. It was hard to believe I had looked him in the eye.
    Augie was quiet for a while. I left him to his thoughts and followed my own. When he spoke finally his voice was low, his eyes focused on his hands.
    “Remember in the hospital when I told you that everything was going to be fine?”
    “Yeah.”
    “It’s easy to think that way when you’re in a hospital room, all safe and sterile. But it isn’t so easy when you’re back out in the world. I wasn’t prepared for how hard it was to come back into this house. I thought that in the three months away from it I had come to terms with what had happened here. But it isn’t that easy. It took me a whole day before I could go down the hall and into my study. I sleep with a loaded .45 by my bed. That’s when I’m actually able to sleep. Mainly I just lie awake at night, listening for sounds. I was so convinced that last night was the night they were coming back for me that I sat up in a chair with my .45 on my lap and stared at my front door. I didn’t dare fall asleep. I’ve come to realize that all the happy horseshit I said to you back in the hospital was just that, happy horseshit. Nothing is going to be fine till I find the bastards who did this to me. My life can’t start again till I do that.”
    “Come and stay at my apartment for a while,” I said. “You and Tina. We can make room.”
    Augie shook his head. “I wouldn’t make it up and down all those stairs. Besides, being scared in my own house is one thing. Running away from it is another thing all together.” He watched my face for a moment. I held his eyes and thought of the night we’d first met. “Look, Mac, if this Scully guy is the one, then I want him. Do you understand? I want him.”
    I nodded.
    “Your enemy is my enemy, Mac. Remember that.”
    On my way to Sag Harbor it started to rain. Things weren’t any cooler for it, though, just all that more humid. Inside the Dead Horse I sat in a corner and waited for Scully. I didn’t have a thing to drink, not even a club soda. People stared at me all night but I didn’t care. I waited till the bartender called last call. It was early, just past two. My eyes were fixed on the door the whole time. But Scully was nowhere to be seen. I waited outside in my car for a while, till the bar was all closed up and the bartender was gone. Still nothing. Finally, a little before three, I drove home through the rain.
    I went back up to my apartment, pausing at the top of my stairs to look down my hallway before proceeding. No one was there.
    I unlocked my door and went inside. Before I could close it behind me, Tina came