House of Blues

captive
audience.
    " Oh, yeah? You got something better to do? Due
at the White House or something?"
    "What do you want?"
    "I'm so glad you asked. Here are my
non-negotiable demands. First, I'd like you to speak in a normal tone
of voice. Second, apologize for calling me a bitch. Third—"
    " You're full of shit."
    "Now that's better." He had spoken in
almost a normal tone. "I just want to ask you some questions,
Manny boy. About another of your ex- girlfriends."
    "They're all cunts."
    " Now, now. That's not a nice word at all."
    He was silent, eyes smoldering.
    " Evie Hebert."
    "Evie. Shit. Evie."
    "Meaningful relationship, I gather?"
    "Know what? That bitch is poison. You wouldn't
have a cigarette, would you?" His tone was definitely
conversational now. She had his attention.
    "You can't smoke in hospitals."
    "Evie fuckin' Hebert. Evie!"
    "Piece of work, huh?" Skip was actually
enjoying herself.
    "God, I hope I never hear her name again."
    " This is your lucky day, Manny boy. You can pour
out your whole sentimental heart to Auntie Skip."
    " You tryin' to be funny?"
    " Uh-uh, it just comes natural."
    " You're different from that other time."
    " When I arrested you, you mean?"
    " Yeah. You ain't half as mean. What's the
matter, you in love or something?"'
    She had arrested him six months after graduating from
the academy. She winced to think how nervous she'd been, how
frightened that she'd do something wrong, blow the only thing she'd
ever really wanted. She probably was different now.
    " In love with you, Manny boy, if you tell me
what I want to know. You cooperate and you're walking out of here."
    " What the fuck! Why wouldn't I walk out of here?
I haven't done anything."
    "No? Then why'd you take off like that?"
    He actually chuckled. "Force of habit, I guess."
    But there was something. There had to be, and she
could find it if she had to. Manny knew that.
    "What you want to know about Evie?"
    "Where she is."
    "I don't know."
    "Have you seen her lately?"
    " Not for six months." He raised his eyes to
the ceiling. "There is a god."
    " Okay, then, start from the beginning."
    "What do you mean?"
    " Give me the whole Evie story. How you met her,
how she dumped you, and everything in between."
    His pig eyes turned ugly. "What makes you think
she dumped me?"
    "Manny boy, you're really going to have to quit
shouting. This is a hospital."
    " Okay, okay, she dumped me."
    Skip waited.
    " You sure you don't have a cigarette?"
    "It's a great day to quit. You'll feel a hundred
percent better."
    He gave her a look of pure hatred. "I met her in
a bar." He shrugged. "How does anybody meet anybody?"
    "What bar?"
    " Now how in the hell would I remember something
like that?"
    "It shouldn't be that hard. You probably have
different bars you frequent. It must be one of those."
    "Wait a minute. Yeah. Yeah, I was washing my
clothes. It must have been Igor's."
    " Igor's! You've got to be kidding."
Somehow, she hadn't thought of Igor's as a preening place for the
sexually available. It was a bar, all right, but it was also a
Laundromat. In fact, there were two of them—the concept must have
caught on.
    Manny stroked his upper lip, maybe compensating for
not smoking. "No. No, it was definitely Igor's. I remember I got
up from the bar to go put some money in the dryer, and there was this
babe, this incredible blond babe, sorting out her whites and her
darks."
    "Which Igor's was it?"
    " The one on St. Charles. That's where I always
go."

If I ever need to pick you up again, I'll know where
to look.
    " The babe was Evie?"
    " Yeah. Yeah, that was her. She belonged to some
crazy religious group and she wasn't supposed to drink. But she was
in Igor's, you know? I mean, if you're just going to do your laundry,
what do you need a bar for?"
    ''What happened next?"
    He shrugged. "We had a drink. I think that's
what she had in mind."
    "And you got to know each other."
    He laughed. "You could say that, lady. You want
the details?"
    " If they're relevant."
    "Relevant to what? What the hell's going on here
anyway?"
    "You're shouting again."
    "I don't give a shit."
    " Doesn't it make your head hurt? You've got a
concussion, I you know."
    " It's none of your damn business what I have!"
    "Let's get back to your favorite subject."
.
    "Evie's not my favorite subject. Oh, no. You can
think again on that one."
    "Sure she is. The girlfriend you love to hate."
    He stroked his upper lip again, staring at the wall.
For once, he made his voice low, almost too low