Dead Money Read Online Free Page B

Shit happens.
    He snorted.
    So, what exactly kind of shit happened?
    There was a fight.
    A fight?
    Yeah. A fight.
    What kind of a fight?
    A fight, man. A fight. What kind of a fight do you think?
    I don’t know. That’s why I’m asking the questions. Listen, Jules, this is going to take a very long time if it keeps going like this. I’m not the cops. I’m your lawyer. I can’t help you if you don’t help me.
    Meaning?
    Meaning, can you just answer the damn questions?
    He considered this for a while.
    Okay, he said. You got a smoke?
    As a matter of fact I do, I said, but I doubt they’re your style.
    I fished out my pack of ultra-light menthols.
    Shit, he said. My brand.
    For the first time, he’d surprised me.
    I thought you’d be a Marlboro-type guy, I said.
    Yeah, me too, he replied. But I like these. Maybe I’m half black or something. Or half a fag.
    Right, I said, lighting his and mine, I guess I am too. So, let’s get back to the story.
    The fight story?
    Yeah. The fight story. Who was fighting?
    Me and this guy.
    What guy?
    A buddy of mine. Larry.
    Larry who?
    Larry Silver.
    What were you fighting about?
    Money.
    What money?
    Money he said I owed him.
    How much?
    Two grand.
    Two grand? That’s a lot of money.
    That’s a lot of money.
    And you don’t agree that you owe him the money?
    Owed him. No. I didn’t.
    Why ‘owed’?
    What do you mean?
    Why the past tense?
    You don’t owe a dead man money, do you?
    It depends. But wait a minute. I guess we need to back up a bit here. He’s dead?
    Yeah. He’s dead. What the fuck. They didn’t tell you that?
    They didn’t tell me anything.
    I’d been thinking simple assault. Aggravated at most. Plead it down. Make Daddy happy. Get back to the quiet life of litigation, drink and gambling.
    Were there any weapons involved in this fight? I asked.
    Nah. Hands. Feet.
    How did he die?
    I don’t know.
    He didn’t die right there?
    Shit no. Broke his nose maybe. That’s all.
    So how did he die?
    I told you, I don’t know. They found him later.
    Who found him later?
    I don’t know.
    Then why did you say ‘they’?
    I don’t know. It’s what you say.
    Where was he when they found him?
    I don’t know. I don’t know shit.
    What did they find?
    They found him dead, man. Shit. I’m getting a little tired of this crap. Okay, okay. You don’t know shit. All right.
    He put out his hand for another cigarette. I gave him one. I took one for myself.
    We smoked awhile.
    Okay, I said. I’m going to have to get some information.
    Sounds like it.
    Before I go, just tell me the whole story again. What you do know. The fight. From the beginning. I’ll stop asking questions.
    That’d be good.
    All right then. Shoot.
    Larry came over. He was pissed. He said I owed him money. From the poker game.
    Poker game. Hm. Maybe I had some expertise to bring to this case after all.
    Two grand, he said. I said, Fuck you, man, I don’t owe you no two grand. We settled up last night. I mean, he was too wasted to remember shit anyway.
    And?
    So he starts yelling and shit, all kindsa bullshit. I could tell he waswired. I don’t know what he was doing, mescaline or something. He had that paranoid thing in his eyes. I couldn’t even understand what he was saying half the time. So I told him to fuck off and come back when he came down. But that just got him more pissed off. He picks up a bottle, and he’s waving it at me, a beer bottle, and he’s saying he’s going to kill me. So I dive at him, low, going to take him out at the knees. And then it was just punching and wrestling and shit, and I guess he let go the bottle at some point, ’cause he never hit me with it. And sometime in there I must’ve busted him in the nose, ’cause he’s bleeding all over from it, and after a while we’re just both all tired out, and we lie there for a while, breathing heavy, and I say, Shit, Larry, what the fuck? And he’s, Fuck you, man, and he gets up and walks out, and he slams the door.
    And