“You have the right to remain silent, so shut the fuck up. If you can’t afford an attorney we’ll find the dumbest son of a bitch on earth to represent you.” James flicked his ashes on the cement and drained his second beer. I could have told him it was from Lethal Weapon 4, but I wasn’t in the mood.
“It’s not funny, James. The CIA is involved and apparently we could get in even deeper than we are.”
“Deeper?” James was close to shouting. “Christ, Skip, they were already trying to kill us. How much deeper can we get?”
“Yeah. And are we running for our lives?”
“We should be scared shitless.”
“And we’re not.”
“We’re invincible, amigo. We think about death but we don’t seriously believe it’s going to happen to us.”
“Is that it?”
“I don’t know. I’d like to know what happened to Vic.” He popped number three, and handed me my second.
“Me, too. I’m tired of getting the runaround from everybody.” Especially from Em, although I didn’t want to admit that to James.
“Speaking of runarounds, was Emily giving you the runaround tonight?”
“What?”
“I noticed she wouldn’t talk to you when you spoke, and she pretty much ignored you the rest of the time.”
“Yeah. She thinks I’m immature, have no future, and I’ve got a jerk for a roommate. I’m not husband material. Apparently not father material either.”
“Jesus. I wasn’t serious last night when I said that.”
He was. “ She was. I think she wants to distance herself.”
“From you?”
“Seems to be the plan.”
“Sorry, pard.”
“So do we call Fuentes? Forget about what the CIA guy said?”
James stared into the darkness, waving his cigarette, making a bright orange arc in the air. We were both quiet for a moment.
“We’ve got another party involved here.” He sipped his beer.
“Emily? Jackie?”
“No.”
“Who?”
He smiled. “Angel.”
“And your point is?”
“He’s had pretty good instincts so far, Skip. I say we tell him about our meeting and see what he thinks.”
“I agree.” Angel had probably saved my life twice. Once when he stopped the Cubans at the storage unit, and just last night when he shot out the floodlight at the warehouse. It wasn’t a bad idea to see what his opinion was.
“How about I swing by Gas and Grocery tomorrow on my way to work, and I’ll see if he’s around. I’ll take a break about three. Any chance you can swing by Esther’s?
“I’ll do it. I may not have to worry about a job.”
“Oh, come on, pard. I have a feeling your sales are going to soar.”