New Orleans Noir

open all along the street side of the saloon and a raucous voice echoed from the next corner: jagged laughter, a blunt shout, and a couple raw curses. Valentin heard the thump of boots on the banquette and finished the liquor in his glass in one quick swallow. Then he leaned back a few inches from the table. The front door flapped rudely open and a short barrel of a black man pushed inside, dressed in brown trousers, a soiled white shirt, and a vest that had seen some dusty miles. A misshapen gray Stetson was cocked sideways on his head.
    Eddie McTier stopped to glance around with a cunning sort of smile, almost a childish thing, as if pleased with himself and all he surveyed. He took the Kalamazoo guitar that was strapped on his back and set it in the corner next to the door. Then he let his oily eyes roam past Valentin, circle the saloon, and come back.
    He stared into the corner, looking unsure. “Who the hell’s that?” he asked the bartender.
    The bartender swallowed.
    McTier smacked a palm on the bar and said, “Twine! You hear me?”
    “Fellow come over from New Orleans,” Twine stuttered quickly. “He’s lookin’ for a game.”
    McTier peered at the man at the back table. “That right, friend?” he called.
    Valentin didn’t move or speak.
    “You looking for a game or not?” McTier demanded.
    Valentin leaned forward so that his face came out of the darkness and into the light. Without a word, he reached into the inside pocket of his jacket and produced a new deck of cards, which he tossed to the center of the table.
    McTier peered at the faces as if looking for someone to let him in on the joke. All he got were averted eyes, so he started a slow stroll along the bar.
    From the table in the opposite corner, Mr. Roy cleared his throat. “You ort to leave your pistol with Twine there.”
    McTier cocked his head toward Mr. Roy and then swiveled it to look at the bartender. Twine didn’t make the slightest move.
    “Let him hold onto it.”
    All three men turned to toward Valentin. McTier was the only one who spoke. “And what are you carryin’ this evening, mister?” he asked.
    “That ain’t none of your business,” Valentin said in an off-hand way.
    There was another pause while Eddie McTier decided whether or not to take offense. It was as if an invisible artist had drawn invisible lines in the air, defining the two men and the cold drama that was being staged within those four clapboard walls. Twine stared between them, feeling sweat run from beneath his hair and down his forehead.
    It took another few seconds for it to dawn on Eddie McTier that if he did anything except stand there, he’d be finished in Algiers and in New Orleans, for that matter. Meanwhile, Mr. Roy was idly imagining that he could have sold tickets to this event.
    Valentin broke the silence. “Did you come to play cards or talk about firearms?”
    McTier grinned with his gray, uneven teeth. He turned and called over his shoulder for Twine to bring him a pint and a glass. With a hitch of his shoulders, he pulled out the chair opposite the Creole and sat down.
    “I come to play,” he said.
    Valentin nodded. “That’s good,” he said. “But, so you understand, you cheat and you’re out.”
    McTier had been reaching for the deck. Now his lazy hand stopped in midair. He cocked a quizzical eyebrow. “What’d you say?”
    “I said if you cheat, you’re out. And you don’t come around here anymore.”
    McTier let out a disbelieving little snicker. “Is that so? And who says if I cheat?”
    “We’ll let God be the witness,” Valentin said, his mouth curving into a smile that his eyes didn’t share.
    McTier hiked his eyebrows and snatched up the deck with a brusque motion. “God, huh? You gonna need God if you play cards with me. ’Cause I got the devil on my side. I brought some voodoo from Georgia y’all ain’t even heard of.”
    Valentin gave him a dubious look, as if suffering some boastful child. “Put your money on the table,” he said. He reached into his own pocket, took out an envelope, opened it, and dumped out twenty gold dollars. He raised his eyes to meet McTier’s. “And I mean all of it,” he said.
    McTier had three choices. He could get up out of the chair, leave, and never come back. He could play it straight and lose his poke. Or he could brazen it out and chop this Creole character into pieces.
    While he waited for the guitar player to make up his mind, Valentin gazed past him toward