Mohawk

have a cup with me. You can blame the desk.”
    Diana shook her head. “Go see Dan. He’d love the company, and he’s better at it.” Before Anne could object, her cousin added, “Dallas stopped by around noon.”
    Anne took a sharp breath. “Oh, no.”
    “We didn’t mind, really. I wish it could’ve been more.”
    “But you don’t have it.”
    “If we didn’t have it, we couldn’t have given it. Besides,we hadn’t seen him in years. Why don’t you and he grow old?”
    Anne reluctantly watched her cousin walk down the corridor and wait patiently for the elevator that wouldn’t come.
    Dan was watching television when she came in. “Don’t worry,” she said. “I haven’t come to seduce you.”
    “Hmmm,” he said. “Tonight I could be had, maybe.”
    “Not me. I feel like I’ve been had. And had.”
    “Things don’t look good,” he said. “I’ve been hearing some stuff. Turn that down, if you want.”
    Anne turned it off. “Tell me.”
    “They found a van full of stolen leather out there. Speculation is that one Gaffney brother has been stealing for years, probably with his brother’s knowledge. Randall was involved somehow, probably driving the stuff downstate.”
    “I don’t believe it.”
    “That’s their thinking, is all. There must’ve been some kind of blowup. When the cops got there, they found Randall all bloody, the dead cop a few feet away. Apparently the kid was wearing gloves, too. That makes it look worse. They figure he shot the cop, then tried to make it look like suicide.”
    “The son was killed too? Billy?”
    Dan nodded. “They found him and his old man someplace downtown. Nobody knows how they got there. The good part is that there are some things that don’t add up, at least according to my sources. All of which is private, by the way. Bail is going to be out of sight, in any case.”
    “You shouldn’t have given Dallas the money.”
    “I didn’t mind.”
    “You can’t make up for things that way. You can’t make up for them at all.”
    “That’s not why I did it. I’d just rather him have it than Milly. Next time she goes in, it’s the ward.”
    “God, Dan.”
    “Don’t look at me like that. You’ve got your own worries, kiddo. Besides, when the bank officers arrive, I’m going to be the happiest man in Mohawk County.”
    Anne sat next to him on the sofa and took his hand. “Let’s run away,” she said. “Like I wanted to twenty years ago.”
    “It hasn’t been me stopping us.”
    “Nonsense. It’s been your ethics, not mine.”
    “And you’ve been counting on them.”
    “Meaning what?”
    “Meaning you aren’t as wild as you think. You’re Mather Grouse’s daughter, after all. And a good deal more, thank God.”
    “But not an abject sinner?”
    “No. Just a sinner. Garden variety. Garden of Eden variety.”
    When Anne got home, the living room light was on downstairs. Anne went in, never suspecting her mother might have a visitor at this hour. She did, though. Mrs. Grouse sat very straight, smoothing her thin housecoat over her slender knees. Across the room, looking even more uncomfortable, sat the man in the alpaca suit.

60
    Dallas Younger arrived to meet his ex-wife at the hospital hours after the prearranged time. The place was quiet, idling between the end of visiting hours and the closing time at the bars. The wing that had burned the night before looked charred and desolate. Two rent-a-cops were protecting the ruins from adventuresome boys. In the lobby, a pretty young girl was alone at the reception desk, and Dallas smiled at her when she looked up. “Younger,” he said.
    The girl told him Room 237. Since he was late anyway, he decided to call Benny D., locating him eight dimes later at the Oak Lounge. “Where you been?”
    “Looking for you,” Dallas said.
    “I’m right here. Dominic went out to the hospital.”
    “That’s where I’m at now. I haven’t been up yet.”
    “Don’t be surprised if they don’t let you in. According to Dom, he has a bad concussion and the cops haven’t had a real go at him yet. They won’t let anybody in until they do. Rumor has it they fucked up and let him sit in the car while the hospital was burning and then took him down to the station for questioning before admitting him. A couple of the doctors are all bent out of shape, and they’ll probably testify if you decide to sue. That’s the good news.”
    “The bad?”
    “Twenty grand, Dominic figures.