He caught Nick's eye and tilted his head and when Nick walked over he said something.

"What?"

"It's called grand theft. You know this phrase?"

"What do you mean?"

Mike leaned across the counter, speaking quietly.

"You think word don't get around? What's the matter with you? I thought you were smart. That chooch over there, Juju, I don't expect better. You, I'm surprised."

"Mike, the car is a throwaway. I honestly don't think the guy ever meant to drive it anymore. He left the keys in the car so somebody could take it. It's the kind of car you take it out in the woods and shoot it. So we saved him the aggravation."

"You're gonna think it's funny when you're booked at the precinct. I picture your mother, Nicky."

The dog came over and sniffed at Nick's shoes, a mutt, a stray that Mike the Book took in one day. Somebody named it Mike the Dog.

"All right. I'll see what we're gonna do."

"Get rid of it. That's what you're gonna do."

"I won't need it anymore. I'm getting a job. I can take taxis whenever I want."

"Wise guy. You're like your father."

Nick wasn't sure he wanted to hear this.

"Your father liked to put himself in a corner and then edge himself out. He was always at the edge. Not that I knew him that well. We were in the same business but he was downtown and I was over here and he always kept a distance, anyway, your old man. Like he's somewhere else even when he's standing next to you."

"I'll do something."

"See what you're gonna do."

"I'm this close to getting a job. My life of crime is over, Mike."

They were shooting pool at two other tables now and when Juju started racking balls at a third table Nick went over to shoot a game.

He said, "Mike knows."

"What? He knows?"

"I think everybody knows. How could they not know? The fucking dog knows."

"Then we're shit out of luck," Juju said. "We put the key back in the ignition and just walk away."

"Good idea. Give me the key I'll do it," Nick said.

In the middle of the game he went to the phone on the far wall and called Loretta. George the Waiter saw him and raised his stick and Nick tipped an imaginary hat.

"Loretta. What are you doing?"

"Trying on those shoes I bought."

"Those shoes."

"I bought. You were with me."

"That was three days ago."

"So I'm still trying them on. So what?"

"You're alone?"

"My mother's here."

"You're not alone?"

"My mother's here."

"She's there now?"

"She lives here. It's her house. She has a right."

"I just thought if you were alone."

"My mother's here."

"I could come over."

"She's still here. She was here when you first asked and she's still here."

"So meet me at the car. I'm parked across from Mike's."

"Meet you at the car? Now you want me to meet you?"

"We'll drive somewhere."

"What am I supposed to say? Ma, I'm going out for a bottle of milk."

"Tomorrow's off. You don't have to get up for school."

"I have to get up for the turkey. We have twenty-two people. I'm up at six-thirty Maybe when they all leave. Tomorrow night."

"Wear your shoes," he said.

He went over and watched George run the table. George had a floury face and hollow eyes and he talked to Nick with his nose compassed on the cue ball.

"What's this about you're not going to school no more?"

"No more, no more. Waste of time, don't you think?"

"Stay in school."

"Stay in school. Okay, George."

"Ifbu're working?"

"I got something I'll be doing part-time."

"What?"

"In an ice-cream freezer. Packing and unpacking."

"This is union?"

"What union? The union wants ice-cream packers to do twenty minutes in the freezer, twenty minutes out. So they don't freeze their peckers off. So the company's hiring fools like me."

George slammed in the four ball with a flourish, nearly driving the stick up into the ceiling. It was interesting to see a clammed-up guy like George become a showman at the table.

"You want some money in your pocket."

"That's right."

"And you're not thinking about the right or wrong of the situation or your own danger to your health."

"That's right."

"But they're gonna pay you shit-ass wages. What are they paying you?"

"Shit-ass wages."

"And they're gonna keep you in the freezer for unsafe periods. Let me talk to a guy I know. Maybe I can get you something better. You'll work like a beast of burden but at least you don't wear no mittens."

Vito Bats had taken Nick's place at the other table. Nick went over and watched, smoking, pointing out errors in their game.

"Everybody knows," he said.

"We just have to leave it," Vito said. "We don't go near it anymore. I'll take my uncle's plates off, late tonight. They'll see a car with no plates, they'll tow it away. Goodbye, good riddance."

"You'll never get laid, Vito. Both of you guys. That car is your only hope."

"I rather die a saint in my coffin than go to jail with ten thousand tizzoons."

"Give me the keys. I told Juju. Give me the keys, I take care of everything."

"Give me my uncle Tommy's plates, maybe I'll give you the keys."

"Take the fucking plates. I'm taking the keys."

"Ifou're taking ugazz. That's what you're taking."

"Hard-on. Give me the keys."

"U'gazz. All right?"

"See that stick? The stick you're holding. The stick you're holding."

"Alls I'm saying, Nicky."

"Cuntlap. Give me the keys."

He was talking to Vito even though he knew Juju had the keys. He didn't want to put Juju in a position where he would lose pride or standing. But Vito with those thick glasses and big lips, fish lips-he had those wet lips he was always licking.

"I don't get the keys, you know what happens to that stick? The stick you're holding. I give you one guess where it goes."

George the Waiter paid and left and soon the cardplayers came in, blinking in the smoke, the high-stakes poker players, they played till four, five in the morning, chips massed in the pot and a guy named Walls sitting by the door.

Walls carried a.38, this was the story, somewhere on his hip.

Four of the players were here and they stood at the counter talking to Mike and after a while two more players arrived and the lights over the pool tables began to go off and the poolshooters drifted out.

Somebody croons in a clear tenor, "Bluer than velvet was the night."

Walls was sitting by the door, different from the others, a narrow face and long jaw, hair cut short, and Nick watched him from the counter and Walls caught the look and raised his eyebrows slightly. In other words there's something you want to say to me?

Nick smiled and shrugged, taking his change.

"Be good," Mike said.

Vito borrowed a small folding knife off Mike's key chain and the three thieves went down to effectuate removal of the plates.

Mike the Dog went with them.

Nick watched them work and pointed out flaws in their method. He pissed against the hospital wall, drawing the dog's attention, and then went back to the car, where they were still disengaging the plates, and he commented freely.

Vito said, "Hey. Don't be such a scucciament'. All right?"

"Give me the keys," Nick said.

"We're not finished."

"You'll never be finished. Because you're a scumbag in the shape of a human. You're a scumbag that's gonna marry a dooshbag when you're twenty-one, Vito. God bless you. I'm serious. You and your lovely children."

When they got the plates off, Juju handed the keys to Nicky. It was his car now, a green heap, naked of documentation, gas tank close to empty.

Nick said he'd take the dog back up to Mike's and the two guys went their separate ways and Nick crossed the street with the dog alongside.