The lawyer stroked his chin, pondering.

“And as far as the zoning plan,” Smith continued, “that side of the block is zoned residential and light commercial and no one gets to sell alcohol or present live entertainment to the public unless they are grandfathered in.”

“Which means, the bar has to have been in continuous operation for a long time?”

“Right, and she’s only been open for a year.”

“Well, it was closed for a while because of Katrina. There’s an exception for that.”

“You are correct again, but before the hurricane that building was a residence.”

“No ma’am, it was a bar.”

“No, sir, it was a residence.”

“So is that the real issue?”

“Correct. That and the loud music they play. It doesn’t help that crowds of college students congregate there at all hours and urinate in the neighbors’ bushes.”

Tubby was about to ask what evidence she had of that, but he caught himself in time.

Janie, it seemed, had a series of regulatory hearings coming up over the next two weeks, and that was all she wrote. The complaining neighbors’ names were not on the notices.

XI

Raisin was enjoying the early show at Monkey Business. A solo artist was on stage, a spectrally thin man whose bushy white beard hid his mouth, and almost his nose and eyes as well, belting out the blues and loudly strumming a twelve-string steel guitar. His amp was the size of a small microwave but still made plenty of sound as he worked through “Mannish Boy.”

Raisin’s date was there with him, the oil company engineer who had given him his car. She’d told Raisin she truthfully didn’t care much for the music, but he figured she liked him a lot. Her name was Sadie, and exploring the cultural depths of New Orleans with this weathered but entertaining man with the soft curly black hair seemed to suit her just fine.

“The artist certainly looks like he lives his music,” she whispered into her boyfriend’s ear.

“That’s Scotch he’s sipping from that paper cup,” Raisin whispered back. “And believe me, honey, we’re gonna have lots of fun.” He stroked her neck lightly with his fingers, then went back to drinking. He had bought them each a beer and an order of cheese fries to share, which was about the limit of the financial contribution he planned to make to the night’s entertainment.

“Tell me about your day,” she said hopefully.

“I did some work on the boat. Mostly just cleaning it up.”

She was envious. “I bet it felt wonderful to be outdoors and on the Lake.”

“Yeah, it was. What did you do today?”

“Still working on the Centurion Project. Four months to installation, and the countdown is on. Mostly, I was in meetings all day, but I did get to take a short walk on my lunch break. I went over to Lafayette Square and, you know, just looked around.”

“You love what you do,” he said understandingly.

“There are some days I wish I could just hang out like you, uh…” she bit her lip. “I mean hang out with you.” She patted his leg, looking to see if she had hurt his feelings.

Not a chance. Raisin’s hide was tough. He changed the subject.

“I saw a funny billboard today driving up by the lake,” he said. “It was for Ochsner Hospital. It says, ‘Ochsner, #1 in the Nation for Liver transplants.’ ” He chuckled.

“I don’t get it.”

“Kind of a New Orleans specialty, don’t you think?”

“Raisin dear, you see things nobody else would see.”

“It’s my complicated mind that keeps you interested.” He reached into his shirt pocket where his cigarettes usually were, then remembered he had quit.

“That’s right,” she agreed, and she meant it.

“Where’s Janie tonight?” Raisin asked the barkeep, who had come over to check on them.

“She’s upstairs,” the young man answered. “Is your lawyer friend coming over?”

“Should be here any minute.”

“She told me to let her know.”

At that moment Tubby appeared beside Sadie’s elbow and she offered him her cheek for a quick peck.

“How is everybody?” he asked.

“Life is good,” Raisin said, raising his voice to be heard over the tinny wails of the steel guitar.

“I don’t see why anybody would complain about the noise level in here,” Tubby yelled. “It’s just normal New Orleans music to me.”

“I think they’ll have other stuff going on later. The sign says ‘Last Rites at 11.’ ” He pointed to a pair of big Bose amplifiers, unplugged but waiting, at the rear of the stage. “This blues man is just the early show.”

Janie showed up behind the bar, a ring of silk flowers around the brim of her Stetson. Her bosom strained against the buttons of her khaki shirt. “What are y’all drinking?” she bellowed.

“I’ll have an Old Fashioned,” Tubby called over the counter, “if he can make one.”

“I don’t know about Jack, but I can. You kids want another beer?”

Raisin and Sadie both nodded.

The blues singer launched into “Seventh Son.”

“Have you ever measured the decibels in here,” Tubby asked Janie when she set the tawny red concoction in front of him on its tiny napkin.

“They keep talking about decibels, decibels,” she complained. “What are they anyway, and how do know how many you got?”

“It’s a measure of sound level. I guess you use some kind of meter,” Tubby opined.

“Where would you get one? Is there a sound store?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted.

“I could ask around at work,” Sadie offered.

“What about your friend Jason Boaz?” Raisin suggested. “Isn’t he some kind of engineer? He’s a tinkerer and probably knows all about any crazy device you can think of. Or he could probably just invent one.”

That wasn’t a bad idea. Jason was an occasional client of Tubby’s. He invented things, like radios that masked the origin of email messages, apps that could tell you where your boss was standing in the office, blenders that could turn peach pits into livestock feed. Some were less likely to make it than others but those that did earned good money.

The blues singer got to the end of his set, to scattered applause. He came around the room with a tip jar. “Great sound,” said Tubby and tossed in a five. Sadie threw in a bill, and Raisin passed. Someone plugged in the jukebox and out came George Jones. But, comparatively speaking, the joint was quiet, and private conversations were able to resume.

Tubby stood up and stretched. “I guess I’ll call Jason while I’m thinking about it. Let’s see what he knows about measuring decibels.”

* * *

The man with the troubled past was styling his hair with an ergonomic clipper he had invented. It fit into the palm of his hand and was elongated to reach behind the head. He had a date tonight with Norella Peruna, a Honduran who often looked him up when she was in New Orleans without her current husband, whoever he might be. She had briefly been a widow when Max Finn died, but after that misfortune, she had soon walked down the aisle again. Norella liked a good time, as in casinos, fancy Latin dance parties, the tango, shopping at the outlet malls, and Jason tried his best to oblige her. Tonight he had a pair of tickets to the Azúcar Ball in the lobby of the Whitney Bank, a charity event with a big band that went on till dawn.

Of course, he was almost certain to run into some of the old crowd, but they normally ignored him. Because he wrote generous checks, when he was flush with cash, to the correct liberation organizations and churches, he was afforded some peace and quiet.

He heard the phone buzzing in the kitchen but declined to answer it. It took major concentration to trim his chin and cheeks and leave just the right aura of heavy whiskers, and only the slightest suggestion of a beard.

* * *

Tubby left a message and dropped the phone back in his pocket.

“Oh well, Janie, we’ll do something about all these decibels in good time. But to a more important problem, what was in this building before Katrina? The city is saying it was a residence.”