"Whaddya want?" he said.

"Some Russians tried to kill me last night."

"Good for them."

"Depends how you look at it," I said.

"Two of them are dead."

Broz shrugged.

"I know you're good," he said.

"Never said you weren't good."

"I got no fight with any Russians," I said.

"Somebody sent them."

Broz kept looking at me with his clasped hands under his chin.

He had a powder blue show hankie in his breast pocket. It matched the tie perfectly.

"And there's some, ah, realignment, maybe, going on in the rackets in town. There's something happening with Gino Fish and Julius Ventura. I hear the Russians are trying to move some people up from New York."

Broz nodded silently.

"Thought you might be able to tell me a little something."

Broz didn't move. He didn't say anything. Looking past him through the big window all I could see was sky and the kind of light you get over water. I waited. Joe unclasped his hands and rested them on the dark walnut arms of his leather chair and tilted the chair back slowly.

"You want a drink?" he said.

"Little early in the day for me."

Joe nodded.

"Early, late, don't make much difference to me anymore. I don't sleep much and when I do, I don't know I'm sleeping unless I have a dream. I eat when I'm hungry. I drink when I want to."

He stood and moved slowly to the ebony bar with the blue leather padding in the corner of the room where so many years ago a guy named Phil had made me a bourbon and water, with a dash of bitters. Things hadn't worked out between me and Phil. I had to kill him a couple of weeks later. He took some ice from a silver ice bucket and put it in a lowball glass and poured some Wild Turkey over it. He carried the drink carefully back to his desk and put it down and sat carefully back down in his chair. Then he picked up the drink and looked at it and took a sip and put it down carefully.

He looked at me for a moment and then shifted his eyes so that he was staring past me.

"I know I owe you," Broz said.

"You don't say anything about that, and I notice that you don't. But you coulda killed my kid, when was it? Three years ago?"

"More like five," I said.

"Five years ago. You coulda killed him, and you' da been justified."

He picked up his drink and had another sip, put the glass down carefully without spilling any, and looked at it absently.

"Kid's out of the business," Broz said. He could have been talking to himself for all the notice he seemed to take of me.

"Set him up in a nice tavern out in Pittsfield. Wasn't cut out for the business. And Vinnie's gone."

"He's with Gino now," I said, just to remind him I was there.

"You know Gino's a fairy?"

I didn't answer. Broz didn't care.

Broz shook his head.

"When I got Gerry settled in the tavern I was gonna pass the business on to Vinnie."

He drank some more Wild Turkey.

"I was gonna retire," he said.

"I was gonna give the business to the kid and Vinnie coulda helped him, but it didn't work out. My wife's dead. I got nothing much going on at home, I got nothing to do, so I figure I may as well work some more. Tony Marcus is away, and his deal is up for grabs, and Gino and Julius are starting to move in 'cause they think I'm over the hill, you know? And I'm thinking about all this and one day this Russian comes in to see me from New York, and he says they'd like to get an operation going up here, and I tell him there's no room for anybody else, and he says they want to join my crew and get rid of Gino and Julius and take over the Marcus operation and they want me to run the whole deal."

Broz smiled a little and tasted a little more of his Wild Turkey.

"And I ask the Russki what his people get out of it? And he says they don't know the territory up here, they want to get set up and sort of ease in, and all they want from me, when I die, they get the business."

"What about Fast Eddie Lee?" I said.

"I asked him that. He says they don't do business with Chinks.

Says they leave Fast Eddie alone, long as he leaves us alone."

"You believe that?" I said.

"They think Fast Eddie's too tough a nut for them right now, they figure they get everything else and isolate Fast Eddie and then when they're ready they move on him. Be what I'd do."

I nodded. We sat quietly. Me looking at Broz. Broz looking past me. Broz was taking a lot of time to get there. But I had time. The plane to Vegas didn't leave until 4:05 in the afternoon.

"I told him no," Broz said.

"I told him there wasn't much outfit left, certainly not enough to take on a partner. He says they bring in new business as they expand. I tell him I don't want to expand. I got no heart for it anymore. I tell him I don't care what happens to the outfit after I die. They can have it as well as anybody else. But, I told him, if anybody makes a move on my outfit while I'm still around I will chew them up and spit them into the harbor like mackerel chum. He says okay would I consider acting as a kind of consultant for them, being as how I know my way around this city.

I say if the price is right I got no problem giving them advice. So the price is right and we make that deal. They leave my crew alone, they can consult me on whatever else they want to do."

"An elder statesman," I said.

"So they ask me who they should start with. I tell them Tony Marcus. He's in the place. Stooge is running the operation."

"They say they don't want to do that because it would make Gino and Julius suspicious. And it might push them together and the Russkies might have to fight them both before they want to.

They want to take them out one at a time, and I say in that case start with Julius. And they say why? And I tell them that Gino's got Marty Anaheim running number two, and Julius got that asshole son-in-law."

"He's not number two for Julius," I said.

"No, but he's waiting around to take over, you don't get a good number-two man, you know what I mean. I know, I lost Vinnie 'cause of the kid."

"So, did they?"

Broz did a big elaborate shrug.

"I'm a consultant, they call me when they need me."

"How would they go about it?"

Again the flamboyant shrug.

"Don't know."

"How would you go about it?"

"Make a deal with Gino. Then after he helps me drop Julius, make a deal with Tony Marcus's stooge to drop Gino. When I got that done, I could pick the stooge off at leisure. Then Fast Eddie could have the Chinks, and I'd have everything else."

"You think they'll leave you in place?" I said.

"I got no place no more," Broz said.

"They got no reason to fuck with me."

"So why did they hit me?"

"Don't know," Broz said.

He leaned forward in his chair and picked up the phone and dialed.

"Broz, lemme talk to Vie… Broz, couple your people tried to hit a guy named Spenser. How come?… Yeah, I know he did. He's sitting here with me in my office… yeah?… yeah?… no he ain't my friend but I owe him something and I pay my debts… yeah… who asked you to do it?… yeah… I don't know, maybe it's personal. Can you lay off Spenser this time around? I only owe him this one, next time you can blow him into caviar, you wanna… Okay? Okay."

He hung up the phone.

"Marty Anaheim asked them to hit you."