Cohen thought a moment more, staring down at the bartop. “I suppose I could get you in and out. I know how to shut down the lot cameras too. Those things malfunction all the time. I could tell my boss they just fritzed out.” He looked up. “You said two things. What else do you want me to do?”

“I want you to go into an alcohol treatment center. Forty-five-day residential. We’ll pay for it.”

Nir had no authorization to offer that, but he’d find a way to make it happen even if he had to pay for it himself. During his mandatory service in the Israel Defense Forces, it was stressed to him and all the other soldiers that Israel leaves no one behind. Using Cohen, then abandoning him in his alcoholic state, felt like he would be deserting a Jewish brother.

Cohen was immediately defensive. “Listen, I don’t need any treatment. I just like to drink. I do it because I want to, not because I have to.”

“Sorry, but that’s the deal, Tommy. You can’t see it. I can. And if I hear you checked yourself out before the 45 days were up, the credit rating drops to where it was, and the cash goes away. Understood?”

Cohen kept swirling his Coke, but then he took a deep breath and turned full on toward Nir. “Listen, you may think money is all I care about. Sure, it’s a problem, and I’m ready to take the offer. But I’m adding one more stipulation, and it isn’t up for debate. You say yes or the deal is off. Got it?”

Nir didn’t answer.

“I love one thing more than money, my ex-wife, the Houston Texans—heck, anything else. That’s my daughter, Lily. That girl is my life.”

“If she’s your life, then why are you drunk in a dive bar on the last night of Hannukah instead of with her?”

Cohen’s temper flared. “Don’t you judge me.” Then just as quickly, his anger was gone, replaced by an obvious regret. “You’re right. I should be with her. I’m not because of my own bad choices. Because maybe I do drink too much. Anyway, I love Lily more than anything, but she’s caught up with this guy. Arturo something, but he goes by Banger. He’s bad news. She’s only seventeen, and he’s, like, twenty-five or thereabouts. He’s done time for auto theft and drugs. He’s going to mess her up, but she won’t listen.”

Tears were in his eyes now. “And that’s my fault. If I’d been around, she wouldn’t have gone looking for love other places.”

Nir wasn’t totally following. “So what do you want us to do? Are you asking me to kill somebody? Who exactly do you think I am, some hired assassin?”