"Brendan?" " Emily?" " Yeah." " How's things?" " Status quo." " Yeah?" " That's good." " What's going on, Em?" " You know, it's good to see you, Brendan." " It's been some time." " Two months." " Yeah, I didn't even know your locker." " I had to ask Brain." " Em, why don't we meet somewhere?" " I can't." " Why not?" " I screwed up real bad, you know." " I really screwed up." " Screwed up how?" " Look, I did what she said with the brick." " I didn't know it was bad, but The Pin's on it now for poor Frisco, and they're playing it all on me." " Slow down, now." " What?" " You gotta help me, Brendan." " Please." " I think Tug..." "Oh, no!" " Brain!" " Brendan, it's been awhile." " Where you been eating?" " Back of school." " Yeah, no one's seen you." " What's it been, a couple of months?" " It's been awhile." " You gave Emily my locker number?" " Few days ago, was I wrong?" " No." " You know, it's been so long I don't know your two's stats." " Yeah, it's been awhile." " Who's she been eating with?" " I don't know, that's hard to keep track." " Is it?" " Can be." " Can be hard to keep track of those things, because lunch is..." "Lunch is a lot of things." " Lunch is difficult." " She hadn't been doing too good, Brendan." " Yeah, well, I'm not looking for a patch up." " Em's life is her own, but she asked for my help." " Help with what?" " I don't know." " I don't even care." " It's not my business." " I just want to know she's okay." " So I gotta find her." " That's all this is." " Well, I know she's been poking in with the Ivy-bound cheerleading elite, Laura Dannon's crowd." " Laura Dannon there on the Linc'?" " And Brad Bramish." " Cream on the upper-crust." " Anyway, Em tagged after them for a bit, but it didn't work out." " She picked her way down the food chain." " Last I saw, she was with what's her name, the drama vamp." " Small-time dealer, the evil one, the one you dated." " Kara." " That's my bus." " You know her locker number?" " Kara's?" " Em's." " 269." " Thanks, Brain." " Keep your specs on." " Find me if she shows." " Will do." " Hello, Kara." " Hello, Brendan." " Kara." " Come to see the show?" " No, I didn't." " Lapdog, blow." " Stay." " I need words." " Well, I'm listening." " About Emily Kostich." " Run and get my purse." " Go on, hurry up." " Still picking your teeth with freshmen?" " Well, you were a freshmen once." " Way-once, sister." " You and Em tight for a bit." " Who's she eating with now?" " Eating with?" " Eating with." " Lunch." " Who?" " You're a cutie." " Brendan." " I don't know where she is." " I know you do, so why don't you want me to find out?" " Well, maybe I'm looking out for you." " Oh, I appreciate that." " Brendan." " If you're ever looking to get back into things," "I could use you." " Okay." " So..." "Go." " Say your line." " Okay." " Go." " So I just..." "No, he's got to come in first, and then you can say your line." " Hello?" " Yes, hello, ma'am, this is Tom." " I'm a friend from school." " Could I speak to..." "Oh, sure, Tom." " Laura's here." " Just a sec." " Yes?" " I'm calling for details." " For what?" " Details about the party." " Who is this?" " Or I'll hang up." " You don't know me." " I'll save you some time." " I know everyone, and I have all the time in the world." " Folly of youth." " Ask whose invitation I've got." " What you said..." "Emily Kostich." " 15 Busch Street, in Stockton Cove." " Buzz 42 at the gate." " 9:00." " But who gave you..." ""The sun, whose rays Are all ablaze" ""With ever-living glory," ""Does not deny His majesty" ""He scorns to tell a story!" "" He don't exclaim," ""'I blush for shame So kindly be indulgent.'" "" But, fierce and bold," ""In fiery gold His glories all effulgent!" "" I mean to rule the earth As he the sky" ""We really know our worth The sun and I!"" " And the stupid coach, the coach won't let me play." " So, cheers." " Beautiful." " I mean, I am Brad Bramish, Coach." " You gotta let me play." " How am I supposed to put in my best game if I'm worried about whether or not I'm gonna be in there?" " Hey." " Hey!" " What are you doing here?" " Leaving." " Oh, yeah?" " Brad's not the kind of guy you wanna mess with." " Fearless flyer." " Quit your yapping and fix me one." " I'll never get through all this." " So why are you here tonight?" " I'm looking for Emily." " Em's been AWOL for a good month." " Nobody's seen her." " I saw her yesterday." " Nearly nobody." " Listen, you're scratching at the wrong door." " I didn't know Em well enough to know the details of what she was in." " I just got wind of the downfall." " If you haven't got a finger in Em's troubles, then why did her name get me into your rather exclusive party?" " Keep up with me now." " I don't know, but it sounded like you did." " And a body's got a right to be curious." " Now I'm not so sure." " Well, put that body to bed." " I don't know a damn thing about whatever troubles and that works for me." " I just want to find her." " Coffee and Pie." " Coffee and Pie, Oh My?" " And you didn't hear it from me." " It's Tugger." " All right." " Will you wait here for me?" " Sure." " You'll sit right here and wait?" " I'll just be five minutes." " Yes." " Okay." " Why don't you say something?" " I will not talk about this." " We'll talk about this right now!" " I won't!" " I'll talk about this now!" " Where's Dode?" " Hey, Brendan, maybe you shouldn't be here." " Kara told me you know where Em's at." " And why you looking for Em?" " She asked for my help." " Well, listen, man, I got plenty on my plate without dealing with some jilted ex." " It's not about that." " Well, whatever it's about, act smarter than you look and drop it." " Where's she at?" " You better get while it's good." " Heel it now, dig?" " Throw one at me if you want, hash-head." " I got all five senses and I slept last night." " That puts me six-up on the lot of you." " Just easy, bro." " Where's Em?" " All right!" " All right!" " All right!" " Where's Em?" " She's with me." " She was tight when she called you, man." " Came to me freaked." " Told me to shake you if you came by." " Said you'd only make things worse." " Deal with whatever this ain't about and drop it." " Tell Em I wanna see her." " Tell her if she wants my help or not, it's her business." " But I want to hear it straight from her." " She don't want..." "Today!" " She knows where I eat lunch." " And stay out, man!" " I must've sounded pretty crazy on the phone yesterday." " You just gotta forget about it." " That's how you can help me out, is just, please, forget about it." " Brendan," "I know that you're mad at all these people, because you think I went away from you and went to them." " But you got to start seeing it as my decision." " You know, stop getting angry just because where I wanna be at is different from where you wanna be at, okay?" " Who fed you that line, Em?" " Stop picking on Dode." " Okay?" " He's a good guy." " The Pie House rat?" " He's a good friend." " So what am I?" " Yeah, I mean, what are you?" " Eating back here, hating everybody." " I mean, who are you judging anyone?" " God I..." "I really loved you a lot." " I couldn't stand it." " I had to get with people." " I couldn't handle life with you, anymore." " I'm sorry, Brendan." " I'm sorry." " You gotta come back to me, Em." " No!" " You're in a spot but I can get you out of it, if you just come back to me." " No, you're not hearing me!" " I don't wanna be put away and protected." " Whatever befalls you, I'll deal with." " No." " Just tell me about the trouble with the brick, The Pin." " What?" " Are you gonna fix things, like you did with Jerr?" " No." " Okay?" " I came here to say goodbye." " Okay?" " For good." " Whatever you have to do to let me go, you gotta do it." " You gotta promise me, though, okay?" " You have to." " That you're not..." "You're not gonna torture yourself." " Please." " That you're..." "You're just gonna let me go." " Just let me go." " Do you know anything else about this?" " No." " Slim pickings." " Why did you let Dode fly when he went back to, who's her name, at the theater?" " Kara." " It's their turf." " I couldn't hear them without being seen, and that would only biff their play." " Best to know that it's there, let it ride and see what comes of it." " Anyway." " Well, if this is what I think it is, it didn't come straight from Dode, unless he's playing out of his league." " I can only give you my best guess." " Yeah." " When the upper crust does shady deeds, they do them in different places around town." " One of them is by the pier, another one is by the bike trails in State Park." " I mean, there's a lot of them." " And the pitch is, they've got little symbols for each one." " So they can tell each other the place without word getting around." " This might be that." " But Dode wouldn't know it?" " No, this is the upper crust." " Dode's pie-pan grease." " Call anything up?" " How many places start with "A"?" " Or if it's a shape, could be just a random symbol." " Even if you figure it out, what good would you do?" " You said her business was none of yours." " So she's all right." " Forget it now, go home." " Sleep." " Brendan, you're up early." " Couldn't sleep." " Find Emily?" " You all right?" " Yeah." " What are you here for, zero?" " Forced into taking the early bus." " The others don't run by my street." " So what's the word with Em?" " She's gone." " Can't raise her?" " No, I can't." " So what now?" " Now, I don't know." " I guess..." "I don't know." " I can't let her go, Brain." " I was set to, but I can't." " I don't think I can." " Do you think you can help her?" " No." " You think you can get the straight, maybe break some deserving teeth?" " Yeah, I think I could." " Well..." "Tell me to walk from this, Brain." " Tell me to drop it." " Walk from it." " Drop it." " But you're thick, Brendan." " Yes, I am." " I need you to op." " Like on Jerr, but that was cake to this, and unlike Jerr, there's not much chance of coming out clean." " 24/7 on this one." " You okay to op for me again?" " So what first, tip the bulls?" " No." " Bulls would gum it." " They'd flash their dusty standards at the wide-eyes, probably find some yegg to pin, probably even the right one." " But they'd trample the real tracks and scare the real players back into their holes." " If we're doing this, I want the whole story." " No cops, not for a bit." " So what's first?" " I don't know." " Your mom still have that cell?" " In her car." " Can I borrow it for a few days?" " Get me the number?" " Yeah." " Wait for my word." " And cover for me first." " I'm gonna be a little late." " Stop it." " What did you do, Brendan?" " Are you crying for him?" " You're crying for Jerr?" " Trueman went straight for him." " He knew the lay!" " You ratted on Jerr!" " Stop it now, Em!" " What, you telling me it isn't true?" " Look at me!" " You ratted him out, because you were jealous!" " No, I spun on him and I bulled the two-bit toker, 'cause I know what his world would do to you!" " I love you too much to see that!" " You don't love me, you just wanna keep me!" " You're the only thing I love!" " You're the only thing I love!" " And this is how I do it." " I wanna keep you safe." " You can't keep me safe, Brendan, all right?" " I'm in a different world now." " And you can't keep me out of it, and you can't beat it." " Not if I don't want you to." " Here's the cell number." " Yeah." " Keep it on vibrate." " Better stop meeting me in the open, too." " I'm gonna start getting visible." " I need you on the underneath." " I'll call." " Trueman, the Ass." " VP, wants words." " I'll bet he does." " Keep him off me." " Stonewall him, he won't bite." " Just keep him away from me." " I'll try." " So what's first?" " Make Em's troubles mine." " Emily said four words I didn't know." " Tell me if they catch." " Brick." " No." " Or bad brick." " No." " Tug?" " Tug." " Tug, might be a drink." " Like milk and vodka, or something." " Poor Frisco." " Frisco." " Frisco Farr was a sophomore last year." " Real trash." " Maybe hit a class a week." " Didn't know him then and haven't seen him around." " Pin." " Pin." " The Pin?" " The Pin, yeah?" " The Pin's kind of a local spook story." " You know the kingpin." " I've heard it." " Same thing." " Supposed to be old, like 26." " Lives in town." " Dope runner, right?" " Big time." " See, The Pin pipes it from the lowest scraper to Brad Bramish himself." " Maybe." " I mean, ask any dope rat where the junk sprang, and they'll say they scraped it off that, who scored it off this, who bought it off someone." " After four or five connections, the list always end with The Pin." " But I bet you, you got every rat in town together and said show your hands if any of them have actually seen The Pin, and you'd get a crowd of full pockets." " You think The Pin's just a tale to take whatever heat?" " But what's first?" " A show of hands." " Hello, Brendan, are you here for the show?" " No." " Well, then, could you go then, honey?" " 'Cause I have this headache." " Try smoking like a chimney." " I've heard that helps." " Hey, isn't this Dode's brand?" " You don't know Dode's brand." " I do now." " I'm gonna start shaking things up." " Give me the story, you might miss the bite." " The story about what?" " All right." " The story about what?" " I don't want to play games if you've got a headache." " Get me if you want to spill it, but I can't guarantee safe passage after tonight." " I don't know..." "Tell The Pin that Brad was my calling card, and I need words." " Brad Bramish?" " Tail Kara at lunch." " She's got rehearsal, but she'll blow early." " She goes home, drop her, or else wait for my call." " Will do." " I mean, am I crazy, huh?" " I mean, this is all I am trying to say here!" " Okay, if you put me in the game," "Brad Bramish is gonna do what needs to be done, baby." " Okay?" " But they don't put me in!" " What needs doing, ain't gonna get done!" " Huh?" " And then don't come crying to me." " Boo-hoo-hoo-hoo!" " If you don't put me in the game!" " Now, am I right?" " Of course I'm right!" " And don't come to me if you don't let me play!" " Didn't." " Shut up!" " Hey!" " What are you doing here?" " Just listening." " All right, you got me." " I'm a scout for the Gophers." " Been watching your game for a month, but that story right there, just clenched it." " You got heart, kid." " How soon can you be in Minneapolis?" " Yeah?" " Cold winters, but they got a great public transit system." " Yeah?" " Yeah." " Oh, yeah?" " There's a thesaurus in the library. " Yeah" is under "Y."" "Go ahead, I'll wait." " You know, who invited you?" " To the parking lot?" " Gee, I guess I invited myself." " Maybe you wanna go somewhere more private." " With you?" " Sure." " If this boy knows what's good for him, he'll just beat it." " Whooping this small fry's butt ain't gonna help me none." " Sure ain't gonna help him, neither." " Come on, Brad!" " Hey, was there a fight?" " Yeah." " You're quite a pill." " Uh-huh." " Where are you going?" " Home." " Why did you take a powder the other night?" " Same reason I'm taking one now." " Hold it!" " I wanna help you." " Go away." " Look, I can't trust you." " You ought to be smart enough to know that." " I didn't shake up the party to get your attention, and I'm not heeling you to hook you." " Your connections could help me, but the bad baggage they bring could make it zero sum gain or even hurt me." " Better off coming at it clean." " I wouldn't have to lead you in by the..." "I can't trust you." " Brad was a sap, you weren't." " You're with him, so you're playing him." " So you're a player." " With you behind me, I'd have to tie one eye up, watching both of your hands." " I can't spare it." " You're not Brad." " No, I'm not." " You didn't call." " Sorry." " Kara went home though, didn't she?" " Yeah, but she stopped at a payphone and made two calls that she didn't want on her phone bill." " Get the numbers?" " No." " Sorry." " It's all right." " Me and Brad front-page news?" " All the buzz." " You really do that?" " Yeah." " Why?" " Is Brad The Pin?" " Brad is a sap." " I downed him on his field, and his crew didn't bite." " So now I know he's a sap, and anyone who acts like he isn't is profiting by it." " That's not why I roughed him, though." " For kicks?" " Economics." " Brad's the school's biggest jake buyer, so if this Pin is behind all the selling, I just got his attention." " Anyway, now we've shaken the tree, let's wait and see what falls on our heads." " Will do." " So you didn't know this boy?" " No sir, never seen him." " And he just hit you?" " Like I said, he asked for my lunch money first." " Good thing I brown-bagged it." " Okay, Brendan, I've been looking to talk to you." " And you've helped this office out before." " No, I gave you Jerr to see him eaten, not to see you fed." " Fine." " Very well put." " Accelerated English." " Mrs. Kasprzyk." " Tough teacher." " Tough, but fair." " Okay, we know you're clean." " And you've..." "Despite your motives, you've always been an asset to this office." " And you're a good kid." " I want to run some names past you." " Hold it, we're not done here." " I was done here three months ago." " I told you then I'd give you Jerr, and that was that." " I'm not your inside line, and I'm not your boy." " That's not very..." "You know what I'm in if the wrong yegg saw me pulled in here?" " What are you in?" " No." " And no more of these informal chats, either." " You got a discipline issue with me, write me up or suspend me, and I'll see you at the parent conference." " Hold on!" " I could write you up for talking back to a VP and for looking at me in that threatening way." " I would exercise a little tact, Mr. Frye." " You can't pull a stunt like that unless there's something I need you for." " So is there?" " Maybe." " Maybe." " Maybe there's something you need from me." " Maybe." " All right, I need you off my back completely for the next few weeks." " There might be some heat soon." " If it's something I can't cover, I won't go to bat for you." " If I get caught like that, it's curtains anyway." " I can't have brass cutting me favors in public." " I'm just letting you know now, so you don't come kicking in my homeroom door once trouble starts." " Okay." " Okay, here's what I can do." " I won't pin you for anything you aren't caught at." " But if anything comes up with your prints on it, I can't help you." " Also, if I get to the bottom of whatever this is, and it gets too hot, and you don't deliver," "VP's gonna need someone to turn over, police-wise." " And I'll have you." " So there better be some meat at the end of this, like you say." " Or at least a fall guy." " Or you're it." " Nope, Dode is MIA." " I'm 9 of 10 that Kara's got him, but who knows where." " I shook, but she's not spilling." " No more job offers, so she's gotta play." " And I know enough about Kara to let that worry me." " All right, keep your specs on for him." " Any other news?" " Some." " Laura Dannon came to me, looking for you." " She did, huh?" " Fourth period." " Nearly shook me upside down." " Can't say I didn't enjoy it." " But why'd she come to me?" " She's tapping Kara, and Kara knows you know me." " Yeah, well, she's some piece of work." " If I had known where you were, I might have told her." " That's the spirit." " Ask around for Dode." " Tail Kara again at lunch." " I got knives in my eyes." " I'm going home sick." " I'll call you tonight." " All right." " I wanna see The Pin." " I wanna see The Pin." " I guess you do." " You The Pin?" " Yeah." " So now I'm very, very curious what you're gonna say next." " Maybe I'll just sit here and bleed at you." " Helled, if you're gonna go breaking my best clients' noses and expect me to play sandbag." " Anyway, you've been sniffing me out before then." " Sniffing for me like a vampire bat for a horse with a nick on its ear that he can suck on." " They do that." " So now you got Tugger to bring you in, which he never does." " And you got me listening." " So I'm very curious what you have to say that better be really, really good." " Why don't you call Ms. Dannon in from the hall first?" " She ought to hear this." " No dice, soldier." " Would've been a neat trick, though." " I was just gonna come up with some bit of information or set up some phony deal, anything." " She'd let me walk." " Then I was gonna go to the Vice Principal and spill him the street address of the biggest dope port in the burgh." " He knows zippo." " 1250 Vista Blanca, the ink blotter on the desk, in the den, in the basement of the house with the tacky mailbox." " You gonna do what now?" " No good, soldier." " All right, Tugger, enough." " Tug!" " Tug, stop!" " My glasses?" " The hell with you then." " Which wall is the door in?" " Sorry about this, kid." " But what the hell with what you said before?" " Where you were at, with all of us and Tug a fist away." " You gotta use your nut." " Allay the situation." " So, yeah, you're not scared of me." " I got it." " But I'm also thinking you're a little nuts, now." " So you've got that tradeoff with your situation." " But nuts isn't all bad, so maybe it was a good play." " I don't know." " So Laura talked me down." " Why don't we take you upstairs, back with the living?" " I thought we had orange juice, Brendan." " I'm sorry." " How about some Tang?" " No, that's more like soda, isn't it?" " Water's fine, ma'am." " Thanks." " Wait a minute, we have apple juice here, if you'd like that." " Or we've got milk, but you're having that on your corn flakes." " Apple juice sounds terrific." " It's country style." " That's perfect." " And I'll even give it to you in a little country glass." " How about that?" " Boys?" " I'm fine, Mrs. M." "Thanks, Mom." " Okay, well," "I'm gonna go do something in the other room." " So how abouts we take another snap at hearing your tale?" " I don't know." " It starts out same as before." " I mean, this floor ain't carpeted." " We're cooled off." " Your muscle seemed pretty cool putting his fist in my head." " I want him out." " Looky, soldier..." "The ape blows or I clam." " So clam!" " What've you got I can't beat out of you back in the basement?" " Give us a few minutes, Tug." " I'll call you if whatever." " So?" " About a year ago, I had a small-time dealing partnership with Jerr Madison." " Know him?" " Till he took the fall for you." " Yeah, well." " I didn't ask him to, but he was a straight player, and I got out clean, almost." " Nothing on my official record, but the VPs play it like I owe them one." " When I made it clear I wasn't gonna be playing their hound dog, well, they didn't like it." " They keep badgering me, calling me in." " Gee, that's tough." " I don't like being told whose side I'm on." " So now they think I'm on your trail." " I'm in a nice spot to know their movements, feed them yours." " I got you." " You haven't got me, yet." " What?" " Price?" " Considering the benefits my services could yield," "I don't think that's unreasonable." " And what are your services exactly?" " So I can be specific on the invoice." " Whatever serves your interests." " Fair enough." " I'll have my boys check your tale, and seeing how it stretches, we'll either rub or hire you." " You'll know which by the end of the day tomorrow." " We're done." " I'll drive you back." " Just drop me at school." " How long was I out?" " Half an hour." " It took all of it for me to cool The Pin down." " Thanks." " You trust me now?" " Less now than when I didn't trust you before." " Maybe if you can tell me your angle in all this, I could." " Emily tried to get with Brad and I about three months ago." " Three months ago." " And you stonewalled her." " Oh, all right." " If you've already got the world's address..." "Three months ago." " And I liked her, but she wasn't us and it didn't work." " And when she left, she took some souvenirs with her." " Dirty habits she wasn't strong enough to control and a connection to The Pin to keep them going." " A few months pass, and the next I hear," "The Pin's raging over a certain situation with the junk Em's partial to." " And it's all coming down on her head." " You're saying Em scraped the junk off The Pin?" " I don't care how hard she was hooked, I don't buy that." " You weren't there." " She wasn't herself." " It had dug deep." " It was awful." " And whether she scraped or copped or just ran her tab around the world and into her own back, it must've been grand." " I've never seen The Pin so hot." " And when he thought his precious, his bricks of whatever it was, when one of them was missing, he scared me." " Why are you telling me all this?" " What's your play?" " You think nobody sees you." " Eating lunch behind the portables." " Loving some girl like she's all there is, anywhere, to you." " I always seen you." " Or maybe I liked Emily." " Maybe I see what you're trying to do for her, trying to help her," "and I don't know anybody who would do that for me." " Now you are dangerous." " Devlin, should I actually kiss her here?" " No, no." " Move on to the next scene." " Brendan." " Brendan." " Brendan." " Where's Dode flopped?" " I know you two are cozed up, so you tell me or you won't." " Now, last time I checked, you were giving me ultimatums." " It worked." " You went to Laura, told her my tale." " Part of the plan?" " Turned out to be." " I just feel so cheap and used." " Gol, I must seem a real cad." " Sometimes I just hate myself." " Whatever happened to us, Brendan?" " Where's Dode flopped?" " We used to be a pair and a half." " Sometimes I miss having someone to talk to." " Do you ever miss having someone to talk to?" " Oh, yeah." " You must." " I need to hear Dode's tale about Emily." " It's important." " Well, you better be sure you wanna know what you wanna know." " Laura's working with me now, and I'll have The Pin and Tug in my corner soon." " The sooner I get the truth from Dode, or the truth about Dode from you, the safer you'll both be." " No?" " Pass it on to Dode, anyway." " Maybe he'll have the sense to get out from under you before he gets hurt." " You didn't." " Did you?" " So Dode and Kara are shacked up, but what's their play?" " I don't know, Dode passed Emily the note." " He knows something." " Now Kara's got him under her thumb, she's gonna use him somehow." " But I don't know and I don't know." " So all we can do is wait until she shows some cards." " Anyway, tomorrow we see if The Pin hires me or breaks my knees." " I give us 70-30." " And if we're in, I get under his skin and see what's what." " You stick to Kara." " Keep your specs peeled for Dode." " And stay away from Laura." " I think she's with us, Brendan." " I'll let you know when she is." " Okay." " You the Pin's?" " What's his answer?" " Chuck Burns." " Long-haired lug, deals, shines a blade." " I know him." " I just can't pin him to any crowd." " He's definitely not muscle for anyone." " He taps the Carrows crowd, but doesn't hang with them." " I mean, if you've got a guess, I could check it out." " Pin." " If he's with The Pin everything's kablooie, and I gotta blow the burgh." " I'll check it." " I'm in third now." " Never mind." " If I don't call by 3:00, call in the bulls." " So?" " So." " That's what you'll get every week for your services." " Unless, of course, there's some specific job, in which you'll get sliced in with my crew." " Square?" " Yeah." " We're doing a thing tonight down at the Hole." " Know it?" " South of T Street." " Yeah." " It's a little welcome-you-in thing." " 6:00." " I know what you did." " I was in the tunnel." " I saw you hide her." " Dode." " Anyone I tell, it would ruin you some way." " And I'm gonna tell someone." " Are you making an offer?" " Maybe." " Or maybe I'll just do you in." " Hire another hash head to blade me?" " Don't need no blades, shamus." " I just gotta squawk." " What do you want?" " Just to see you sweat." " Brendan?" " Brain." " Are you all right?" " So I'm gonna start you on the dope circles." " Anyway, there's not much else doing." " I'm tailing out this big deal, but it's almost done." " Oh, yeah, what was it?" " It was big time." " Biggest I ever done." " And there was a snag in it, but it's almost done now." " What was it?" " You're going to make me curious, being so curious." " I want to lay something out." " You're coming into a certain situation, and I'm sort of bringing you in because of it." " I didn't tell Tug to hit you for the Brad Bramish thing." " He got hot and he just hit you." " He's been doing that." " Yeah?" " Yeah." " Muscle you can't control's no good at that." " You're working for me, not for Tug." " That's all." " All right." " It's tough sometimes." " It's twisted." " Complicated." " I don't know." " Everyone's got their thing." " You read Tolkien?" " What?" " You know, The Hobbit books." " Yeah." " His descriptions of things are really good." " Oh, yeah." " He makes you want to be there." " Don't go to class." " What?" " Fifth period, Trueman and the VP come in, asking for you." " Did they call your mom?" " Probably, I got in late." " Get out of there, too, then." " Meet me behind the library." " I've got some stuff." " Frisco Farr was found on a sidewalk, three weeks ago, outside of Pinkerton's Deli." " He was in a coma." " His stomach contained a sausage sandwich, a horse dose of heroin and traces of choleric tricemate," "which is a poisonous chemical found in laundry detergent." " He's still under." " Nobody's talking, so nothing's come of it." " OD?" " No." " The chem the junk must've been cut with put him down." " Bad junk, bad brick." " Could that form of heroin be called brick?" " It was a concentrated powder." " Its street handle's "whip," "rock" or "brock."" " From Laura." " I told you to stay clear of Laura." " You tell her to stay clear of me?" " I got to get voicemail." " No, tell her I'll be at The Pin's at 1:00." " Any news with the Lug?" " No." " No news." " This isn't good." " No." " Ask." " Administration." " Gary Trueman's office, please." " This is Trueman." " What the hell are you doing, asking for me in class?" " What the hell are you doing out of class?" " What?" " The VP and I needed to ask you a few questions about Emily Kostich, who you might have heard is missing." " It's a very serious thing." " The police are involved." " The VP and I knew you two were close, so the VP and I came to ask you questions, but you were truant." " What?" " I've been cut loose." " I'm not safe here." " We shouldn't have met in the open." " All right, lay low, but ask on the underneath for Dode." " He set up whatever Emily walked into." " It's getting more and more urgent that we talk." " What are you going to do?" " I would have liked to have played it safe, but there's no time." " The Pin's not letting anything drop." " I have to push things a bit." " How?" " I don't know." " Find Dode." " What with the poking, genius?" " Maybe you're poking for your bull friends!" " Don't be a sap." " I can't even face up at school, the VP's so hot for me!" " Yeah, maybe you're looking to make good!" " I'm looking to find this big game The Pin's played." " Not to gum it, but just so when its tail jams in my back," "I know who to bill for the embalming!" " You ought to ask him what you wanna know." " I did, he didn't tell me!" " The Pin's not giving me the straight." " That makes me nervous." " Makes me angry." " Yeah." " That's understandable." " There was 10 of them." " I don't know where he picked them." " He didn't tell me." " So we get 10 kils of brock." " There ain't enough marks in the whole burgh to eat that." " So he unloads eight up north, even up to the docks." " I don't know who." " Didn't tell you." " Yeah." " That was eight." " So that's the 10th in there." " We gotta break it off into doses." " Sell off around the High, maybe some by Shorecliffs." " What about the ninth brick?" " Yeah, there were some problems with that." " Yeah?" " Yeah." " It disappeared." " Someone skimmed it." " We started raising hell with all the likely suspects, and what do you know?" " It came back." " But it came back bad." " One of ours took a dose off the top, laid him out." " Frisco." " Yeah, poor Frisco." " You heard about that?" " We'll catch the rat." " Just takes time." " I heard something fell with Emily Kostich." " Emily who?" " Kostich." " Don't know her." " Has The Pin talked about her?" " Not to me." " He might know something." " Ask him." " Tell me what he says, 'cause, you know, if you heard something, I wanna check." " Sure." " Pow-wowing?" " Just shooting the shat." " Yeah, just shooting it." " Good." " Tug, I got a call, someone who says they know something about Emily." " Emily?" " Emily Kostich." " Where she's at now." " Says we'd want to know." " He wants to meet." " Yeah?" " So we'll meet." " 4:00." " Emily used to be Tug's girl." " You know Emily, didn't you?" " A while back." " You've heard she's missing." " Yeah, I heard that." " So maybe you want to come along, too?" " What does Emily got to do with you?" " Show, maybe we'll find out." " 4:00." " That's my ride." " 4:00." " Payphone, anywhere." " The mobile customer you have called is not available..." "What time is it?" " Brendan, you've fallen..." "What time is it?" " 3:40!" " You're exhausted." " You've swallowed a lot of blood!" " Get back in the car." " Shut up!" " Shut up!" " You need to go to the hospital." " You're sick!" " Shut up, please!" " Please!" " Okay." " What you gotta do is drive around to the Pie House lot." " So Dode's gotta go by you or me to get down to the tunnel." " If you see Dode, then honk four times, long-short, long-short." " And don't be seen." " Get back in the car." " Do it!" " Please, I need you to do this." " I need you here." " Please." " What are you doing, Dode?" " You gonna stop me?" " What do you think you're doing, Dode?" " I saw you." " I saw what you did." " What did you see?" " I saw you." " What'd you see me..." "I was in the tunnel, and I saw you!" " You were with her, dead, and you took the body!" " I saw you hide it!" " Yeah, I did." " That's all you saw." " What about before?" " Before what?" " Before I got there." " Did you see who killed her?" " You killed her." " I found the body, Dode." " No, you..." "I thought you didn't." " But we figured you out." " I got the news on you, 'cause you hid the body." " Who's we?" " Shut up!" " Shut up!" " You're always talking, always this and that, smartso!" " You gotta shut up!" " I didn't kill her, Dode." " You're not going to talk!" " Dode, I know what you think of Em." " Shut up!" " And I know you tried to help her." " You're going to shut your mouth!" " Me and Kara, we're gonna bury you, and we're gonna get paid doing it, dig?" " We're gonna put it over real nice!" " I'm telling you now, you're in over your head." " You don't want to put your hand in this!" " She's dead!" " You..." "Why was she scared, Dode?" " She came to me." " Who was she scared of?" " I think I know why, I just gotta know who!" " You're trying to confuse me." " Dode." " You couldn't stand it, your little Em." " She was gonna keep it." " It was mine, and you couldn't stand that!" " What was yours?" " I had you pegged." " What was yours?" " I loved her, and I would have loved that kid." " I'm gonna bury you." " What'd I miss?" " Dode here says Emily Kostich is dead." " Oh, yeah?" " He says he knows who did it." " He says he knows where the body is." " He says he wants more money than I think the information is worth." " That so, Dode?" " So walk." " What's the info have to do with you, anyways?" " Plenty." " Plenty, he says." " And he wants cash on the nail." " That's a pot-skulled reef-worm with more hop in his head than blood." " Why pay for dirt you can't believe?" " No." " You'll believe this." " Maybe you will." " No, you will." " 'Cause it's someone close to you." " Real close." " Maybe it's hot, but it's Dode." " You can't trust it." " Real close." " I'm not getting my shoes wet for this." " Let him milk you if you want." " Stay." " It's still too much." " No, it isn't." " You won't complain when you hear it." " So maybe you should." " You had her up against the wall with the brick." " I know my business." " It's still too much." " No, it isn't, 'cause that's not why she was killed, but it's real important to you, 'cause the person who killed her is real close." " 'Cause he's got a lot to lose." " And he knows if I don't bury him by spilling to you," "I spill to the bulls and I bury him for real." " And he's really, really scared." " She had a kid in her, and he couldn't stand it!" " Tug, it's all right!" " Tug, stop!" " Tug!" " Tug." " She sprung it on me, just..." "It's a hell of a thing to spring on a guy." " I don't remember much." " Laura talked me down after." " Said whatever..." "She knew her, said it wasn't true." " But I still think sometimes." " I think about it being true," "about it being mine." " Maybe I did it 'cause I thought it was true." " It's a hell of a thing." " You up?" " What's the stats?" " Everyone's just laying low." " You're here with us now, at my folks' place." " Everyone's assuming it's war." " No one's said anything, yet." " Everyone's laying low." " War?" " You're with us." " The hell I am." " All right, I'm with you." " So just lie low." " Sleep some more." " Laura, she said you should sleep." " Brendan?" " Yeah." " Are you..." "What?" " Man, have you heard about Dode?" " I was there." " You..." "Where were you yesterday?" " I called." " Kasprzyk took my phone, turned it off." " I just now got it back." " All right, listen." " Are you okay?" " Just listen." " Is my name in the papers with the story?" " No." " All right." " Is it just Dode's name in the papers?" " Yeah." " What do you mean?" " Listen, I'm gonna be calling you tonight, probably late." " So sleep with your phone on." " Could you get a car if you needed to?" " If it's late enough I could take my mom's." " Be ready then." " I'll call." " Brendan, did you hear about Dode?" " You scheming tramp." " You set that poor kid up." " You held Dode like a card till you could play him." " For money!" " I don't know what you're talking about." " You'd bury me at the same time, but it was mostly for the money." " You got Dode thinking Em had his kid, thinking I did it, and that was enough for him, but he stuck to the money, 'cause you had your claws in him!" " 'Cause he couldn't come away from the deal without it and make you happy!" " Brendan, I think you just need to just sit down for a second." " I think you're just a mess right now." " Can you please, sweetheart, could you go run and get my shoes from my locker?" " Still wish you knew what you wanted to know?" " You know, if it's any consolation, it probably wasn't Dode's kid." " It might have been Tug's kid." " Frankly, I wouldn't bet a horse." " It was kind of a crowded field there at the end, if you know what I mean." " Meanie." " What are you doing?" " Showing your ace." " Far enough." " Everyone's paying social calls." " So what are the stats?" " The stats are war." " Tug got hot." " He panicked." " Tug's been after my digs from the get-go." " No, he's been anxious, 'cause he thought if you found out he killed Emily, you'd turn him over." " He was right." " Yeah, well." " I told him to get this straight, no roughing." " I wasn't even there." " All right, so he's a hothead." " So you don't want him on your side." " At least let's have a pow-wow before we start digging trenches." " Maybe we can all walk away amiable enemies." " Yeah, all right." " 4:00." " Tomorrow?" " Tonight." " Let's clear it all before it boils up again." " Wait!" " I'll drive you back." " So here's the sit." " You and The Pin are gonna pow-wow, tonight." " 4:00, his place." " Bring all the muscle you want, you won't need it." " He wants to talk straight, and you're gonna work with him for whatever he needs." " 'Cause you don't want war." " The hell I don't." " The Pin's sitting on the brick profits." " Hitting him now would be post." " Make peace, wait for your chance." " He's right, Tug." " Smooth it out." " Besides, he's got you on the Dode thing." " War will mean you versus him and every bull in the burgh." " Yeah, we'll talk." " You going?" " Yeah." " Go away." " I'm sorry, Brendan." " I'm so sorry." " Don't go tonight." " I gotta make sure everything plays out smooth." " It'll play out however it plays, without you there." " I gotta make sure." " Why?" " 'Cause if there's war, I'm in it, too." " I'm just scared." " If things go bad tonight..." "Just be careful." " Your folks left a car here?" " Yeah." " Take it and Laura's." " I'll go first in yours." " The hell you'll take mine." " The scenic route." " Draw off any tailers." " They'll think it's you, might even radio back you're alone." " Mr. Smarts." " You got a cigarette?" " I don't smoke." " I've seen you smoke." " I don't smoke cigarettes." " Give me 15 minutes, then go." " Write this down." " I'm gonna be out of The Pin's by 4:15." " So at exactly 4:15, you put an anonymous call into the bulls." " You tell them there are drugs in the trunk of the black Mustang outside The Pin's house." " Can you get the car?" " Yeah." " All right, after you call the cops, go to Tug's house.  12 Elm." " Park outside and wait." " Laura's inside." " She hasn't got a car, but if she blows on foot or gets a pick, tail her." " All right?" " All right?" " Okay." " I'll call you when it gets light." " Thanks, Brain." " Talk." " I want full assurance that any heat rom Emily and Dode is on just you." " I don't even want my name pulled into the shindig." " Second, you owe me six C's." " No rush." " But I want your shake that they'll be home in not too much time." " That's square." " You did them, after all." " Lay low, it'll blow over." " Stick on this, one of you will dish it to bury the other." " You'll both get the rap." " As for the six, did you borrow it?" " Yeah." " Then you owe it." " Shouldn't need a shake on that." " All right to both." " Good." " Let's seal it up and blow for keeps." " Third thing, the last brick..." "It's yours." " That's not the point." " I'm gonna start selling it." " How do I know it's not bad?" " Why would it be?" " Why was the last one?" " Because someone got greedy." " Tug here's had the means to swipe half of it and cut it bad for a long time." " Now we're splits, the loss of my trust is retroactive." " Did you, Tug?" " No." " All right, let's shake and blow." " Not good enough." " What would be good enough?" " I want to see him dose it, just to prove it." " Then we're square." " Hell for that." " I didn't touch your junk!" " That's all!" " I wanna see it." " To hell!" " Your not wanting to dose, it's proving something to me right here." " Oh, it better be." " It's telling that I ain't under your thumb no more!" " That I ain't playing lapdog to no gothed-up cripple!" " I'll dose it." " What?" " If that'll shut you two apes up, I'll take the dose." " If I don't die, we're all right as rain." " Deal?" " Fine." " Tangles." " Johnny, go with him." " Where is it?" " Where's the brick?" " What's happening?" " What did you do with it?" " I didn't touch the brick." " You better give it back." " What's happening?" " Cops?" " No." " The brick..." "The brick is gone." " Make peace, huh?" " Talk it out?" " Get your boys in my den so's you could snag it under my nose!" " No, it's not that!" " Was it bad, Tug?" " Snag it so I don't know, or sell it off to flat the war odds!" " You're right!" " I really did all that!" " Pin, think about it!" " Tug, no!" " Brendan!" " No!" " Help me!" " No!" " No!" " Brendan!" " Please!" " Please help me." " It's the cops!" " Cops!" " Help me." " Brendan, please." " Hey, where are you?" " Library." " Where are you?" " Did she blow last night?" " No, stayed there until 6:30, then walked to school." " You didn't give her a ride, did you?" " No." " She came to school, straight from Tug's?" " Yeah." " She there now?" " Yeah." " Not with me, but here." " All right, tell her I wanna meet up on the field in half an hour." " Then go home, get some sleep." " Will do." " Did you see it all?" " With The Pin and Tug?" " No, I took your advice and didn't go." " No?" " What happened?" " The papers say six dead, three around the house, girl in the back of Tug's car, and The Pin and Tug." " Yeah?" " Tug tried to shoot his way out when the police got there." " They tied him to Dode, too." " Same gun." " And the girl." " Huh." " Well, it's a good thing you weren't there." " Yeah." " Do you think the girl was Emily?" " Probably." " You loved her." " Yeah, I did." " You did all of this because you loved her." " And now it's finished." " No." " What?" " It's not finished." " Tug pulled the trigger on Em, and he got the fall for it." " But the bulls could have found that out without me." " I set out to know who put her in the spot, who put her in front of the gun." " That was you, ángel." " What are you talking about?" " It was you." " Brendan." " What?" " You want the whole tale?" " You want me to tell it to you?" " Tell it to me." " All right, from the top." " You had your fingers in Brad Bramish for appearances and to keep him buying from The Pin, who you were hooked with." " When Emily came to you and Brad, you saw her for what she was, an insecure little girl trying to get in." " She goes on the back burner." " Meanwhile, maybe you're getting bored, or maybe just greedy, but when The Pin scores big with the bricks, you take your shot." " You hook one, take half, cut it back to size, but you cut it back bad." " Maybe accidentally, maybe to down The Pin's operation, doesn't matter." " You put it back." " Poor Frisco doses off it and lands in a coma." " So now The Pin's fuming, maybe he's jealous of Brad, so he comes to Brad's car looking for blood, or at least a scape." " You're in big trouble." " There's gonna be a war over this." " And there's Emily." " She trusts you." " She wants in." " It's duck soup." " No!" " You frame her for the bad brick, then you cut her loose." " You turn on your heel and bite her in the throat." " Last week at the payphone, Del Rio and Sarmentoso, she saw something she was scared of." " Tug's car driving by, The Pin riding shotgun." " But she wouldn't have seen The Pin." " No, she was across the street, ángel." " She saw the driver's side." " She saw you." " She saw you, and she ran like she saw some devil." " Brendan, why..." "She took the hit, Dode hid her away, but The Pin was on to her." " He tracked her down and told her to meet, that they'd make good." " He gave her a time and a place and sent Tug." " Just to get the straight." " But maybe you had talked Tug up." " Or maybe he just blew a fuse." " But when Em sprung it on him that she had her kid, he did what anyone could count on Tug doing." " He hit her." " She took the hit for you, and you let her take it." " Stop!" " Stop!" " That's the tale." " Are you gonna tell me it's not?" " Stop it." " It's not." " Will you tell me it's not?" " It's not." " It isn't true." " I hope it isn't." " I want you to have been on my side all along, not just trying to get me under your thumb, like Brad and The Pin and Tug." " But I think you knew that party was gonna blow up." " I think that was your final play." " But I hope I'm wrong." " I hope everything I wrote in the note that I dropped at Gary Trueman's office this morning is wrong." " About your and Brad's involvement in The Pin's runnings." " And I hope you didn't steal the brick last night in your purse." " I didn't." " Good." " That means you didn't let me walk into a slaughterhouse." " And you didn't lead The Pin and Tug and their crews to the slaughter." " And when Trueman reads my note, takes my cue and searches your locker, he won't find a damn thing." " Brendan, don't do this." " It's done." " Done?" " Well, that's most of it." " Nine out of 10." " I told Em to tell Tugger it was his." " Told her it would soften him up." " She said she wished she could keep it, but she didn't love the father." " I was gonna drive her down to the doctor the next day." " Most wouldn't." " She was already starting to show." " Three months." " Do you know whose kid that makes it?" " Or have you known all along?" " Mother..." "You get your straight?" " Yeah." " I wouldn't have, if I..." "It's all right." " Chuck Burns came to." " The knife guy." " He spilled it all to the bulls." " Turns out Brad Bramish hired him on his own." " It was just a grudge thing." " Fits." " You did good, Brain." " Go sleep." " Yeah." " You, too." " What'd she whisper to you?" " She called me a dirty word." " All right, you don't have to tell me."