Killing Them Softly (Cogan's Trade Movie Tie-in Edition)

just a guy, is all. I never been in here before in my life.”
    â€œHow’d you happen to come in today?” Frankie said.
    â€œLooking for you,” Cogan said. “I was looking for you and a guy told me, he said you told him you come in here a lot, ’round this time of day, see if you can get up nerve enough, talk to a girl. So I came in. Simple, huh?”
    â€œWho’s the guy?” Frankie said.
    â€œJust a guy,” Cogan said, “guy, a friend of yours, actually. Knows a little about you, told me where to look you up. Well, he didn’t tell me himself. He told a guy, and the guy was up here and he told me. Because I asked the guy, this friend of yours.”
    â€œWho’s this friend?” Frankie said.
    â€œChina,” Cogan said.
    â€œNever heard of nobody by that name,” Frankie said. He finished his beer and started to straighten up.
    Cogan put his right hand on Frankie’s right arm. “China’ll be surprised to hear that,” he said, “very surprised. Here’s a guy, concerned about you, your friends’re concerned about you, you know that, Frankie? They’re worried. Guys like China. China was really, he, well, he in
sis
ted I hadda go and talk to you, is what he did. I wasn’t sure I oughta bother you, you know? Got yourself a place and everything? ‘Sounds like he’s doing all right to me,’ is what I said. ‘No reason I should go around and bother him.’ You have got a place, haven’t you, Frankie?”
    â€œYeah,” Frankie said.
    â€œSomewhere south of New Hampshire, I bet,” Cogan said.
    â€œRight onna peg,” Frankie said.
    â€œNorwood, to be exact,” Cogan said. “Why’d you do that, alla them trucks?”
    â€œI dunno,” Frankie said.
    â€œNow whyn’t you relax a little, Frankie, okay?”
    Cogan said. “You know how it is when a guy, when China wants a guy to do something, you got to do it, is all, China’s all down there, locked up and everything, he’s gotta depend on his friends, do the right things for guys he’s worried about. I’d be embarrassedin front of China, I hadda tell him, he ever found out, a guy he wanted me to talk to, I didn’t talk to him. You know how China is.”
    Frankie leaned back again.
    â€œHave another beer,” Cogan said. “Look at the girls. Jesus, I dunno how you can stand the noise out there. Still, I suppose, guys got all kinds of reasons for doing things. Gotta car, too, I understand.”
    â€œYeah,” Frankie said.
    â€œLemme give you some advice, all right?” Cogan said.
    Frankie did not answer.
    â€œI had one of them things myself,” Cogan said, “they first come out. You got the hood scoops, right?”
    Frankie did not answer.
    â€œAh, come on,” Cogan said, “you got the green Geetoh with the scoops. Don’t fuck around with me, right?”
    Frankie nodded.
    â€œYou’re gonna have trouble with it,” Cogan said, “couple months or so. January, when it gets cold. Fuckin’ thing won’t run. It’ll start but it won’t run. You can do anything you want to it, it won’t run, and when it’s really cold, down around seven, eight below, it won’t start.
    â€œNow lemme tell you what you got to do,” Cogan said. “You got to pack them scoops. Mine just had the one, the split one in the middle. But, well, you got the two, I bet you’re still gonna have the same trouble, the car just won’t warm up. You’re gonna have to pack them scoops. It’s the scoops. Your engine can’t get warm in that thing when it’s cold unless you run it about ninety miles an hour the minute you get her going, and you do that, you’re gonna bend a fuckin’ valve, is all. What I used to do, I used to put maskingtape right over them scoops. Looks like hell, but it works. Got that? Masking tape.”
    Frankie nodded.
    â€œYou see what I mean,” Cogan said.
    â€œUh,” Frankie said, “uh, no. No, I don’t.”
    â€œYour friends,” Cogan said. “Your friends’re worried about you. See? I even heard, you’re carrying.”
    â€œFuck, no,” Frankie said.
    â€œWell,” Cogan said, “now, that’s good. Because, you wanna be careful about that. You, what, you been out a month?”
    â€œSix weeks,” Frankie said.
    â€œRight,”