Write me a Letter

also to make sure he didn’t try going anywhere in the immediate future.
    ”Now, now,” I said. ”Relaxez-vous, there’s nothing to worry about, I just want a quiet word with you and I figured here’d be as good a place as any.”
    ”Who the fuck are you?” he said.
    ”Well, if he’s the ham,” I said, pointing to Marlon, ”I must be the glaze.”
    ”What does that make me?” the twerp said.
    ”The sweet patootie,” I said.
    ”Well I don’t want a word with you here or anywhere,” William said, ”whoever the fuck you all are. Beat it or I’ll call a cop.”
    ”Spill any more of that suds on the guy in front and you’d probably get all you want without calling,” I said. ”Fuck off!” he said.
    ”William,” I said. ”Calm down. I’ve come from your mom and sister, OK? That’s how I knew where you were.” Which wasn’t totally untrue. ”And if I was going to do anything unpleasant, like breaking both your legs with a goalie stick, which is the farthest thing from my mind, my associates and I would hardly have chosen the Forum as a meeting place, now would we?”
    ”How should I know,” he muttered. ‘All I know is your fat fucking friend Fats must have sent you, right?”
    ”In a way,” I admitted. ”But he ain’t no friend of mine, I can assure you.”
    ”Oh, no?” he said. ”So what d’ya want, then?”
    ”Maybe I can help,” I said. ”I hear you can use a little help these days.”
    ”I bet,” he said. ”Help dump me in the river someplace.” He stared gloomily into his paper cup, then thrust the second cup he was holding in my direction. ”Here, fucker,” he said. ”I ain’t thirsty no more. Hope you choke on it.”
    ”I hope it’s hot cocoa.” I said, taking the cup and peering into its depths. ”Oh, darn, beer, but thanks anyway.” I took a satisfying swallow. A roar went up as the teams skated back onto the ice. I felt William tense up; he started looking around furtively.
    ”No chance, William,” I said, tightening my grip on his skinny arm. ”Anyway, I’ve got Mrs. Leduc’s attractive house over there on St. Michel staked out, too. Loved the snowman next door.” William sighed and slumped in his seat. The organist played a series of ascending chords, the crowd shouted encouragement. The second period got underway; we watched without talking for a minute. A dastardly Capital body-checked a Habitant from behind, sending him crashing into the boards. He bounced once, then lay still. William jumped to his feet. So did I, just in case.
    ”Jeez, did you see that!” he shouted. ”Send the bum off!” He subsided into his seat again. I did likewise. The Washington player skated slowly off toward the sin bin to the boos of the crowd. The announcer said something in French. The crowd cheered. A minute later, the Canadiens, playing with the extra man, scored their third goal from a slap shot from just inside the blue line. The announcer said something in French again.
    ”Look at it this way, William,” I said as soon as the cheering had died down. ”Worse shit you could not be in. It took me all of ten minutes to find out where you were, and if I could do it, so could someone else, someone a lot more unpleasant than I could ever be even in my wildest dreams.” The twerp leaned up against me trying to listen in; I gave her a friendly shove away. ”I’ll tell you something else. Not only is Fats not a friend of mine, I do not like him overmuch. I don’t trust him overmuch, either. I’ve taken his money for services performed once or twice but that doesn’t mean he owns me. Or my brain. He did hire me to find you. When I did, I was supposed to let him know where you were. I found you. I have not yet let him know where you are, which is watching a hockey game from a seat so high up you got shown to it by a stewardess.”
    ”How much?” William said then, finishing off the last of his beer. I did likewise.
    ”'You mean how much not to let him know I found you?”
    ”Right on, bro’.”
    ”How much you got?”
    ”I got a few bucks put away,” he admitted.
    ”Saving up for a new car?”
    ”Saving up to buy off cheap fuckers like you,” he said bitterly.
    ”Cheap is puttin’ it mildly,” the twerp tossed in. I ignored her uncalled-for and totally untrue interruption.
    ”As for how much, if you give one good reason why I shouldn’t tell Fats where you’re holed up, nothing is what it’ll cost you, I’m already getting a fair whack