“Sure, Hogg,” Ray said. “They’re inside. Both of ’em was walkin’ last time I looked.” Ray started to turn, but got another thought. “That young guy you was talkin’ to last time—Denny—he’s here too.” The new thought became a frown, but maybe that was because a corner of the crate was slipping. “You know, Hogg—” Ray raised his knee to prop up the carton and staggered a little on one foot—“that feller is strange! I let him sweep up a few times, you know? He’s a nice kid, even if he is a little dim. But five times I’ve come in the back here to get something—and found him in here, jerkin’ off!”

Hogg laughed. “Now that don’t sound so strange. You gonna tell me you never get to pullin’ on your own?”

“Sure. Sometimes I do,” Ray said. “But when I come in, he didn’t even try to hide it or nothing—just give me this big, funny-toothed grin he got, and goes on workin’ on it like that was the most normal thing in the world; and goes on working on it, too. That ain’t normal.”

Hogg laughed again. “I’ll tell you, Ray. I usually wait a little while before I call any man normal or not. And even with the waitin’, I still ain’t sure, when I get around to it, if it’s a compliment. You know somethin’?”

“What?” Ray raised his knee and staggered again.

“You say he was jerkin’ off back here when you come in to get something? Well you know why I started talkin’ to him in the first place—?”

“Yeah, I heard what you was sayin’ to him.” Ray’s chin went up, and the carton slipped lower down. “Talkin’ to him about the kind of crap you’re doin’. Now, I don’t hold with interferin’ in a man’s job, don’t care what side of the law it’s on. But tellin’ a half dim kid who jerks off all the time that—”

“Ray,” Hogg said, “the first time I see him standin’ at the back end of the bar, he had it out and was jerkin’ on it right under the edge of the counter. I admit, I thought it was unusual. But that’s why I went over and struck up the conversation you heard the last of.”

I thought Ray was going to drop his carton. “You mean that son-of-a-bitch was out there, beatin’ his meat in front of all the goddamn customers?”

“The kind of customers you get, that ain’t gonna make no never mind. He ain’t pretty, but he got a piece of meat on him. Half the toothless bums who come in here is faggots anyway. He’s more likely to bring ’em in than drive ’em off.”

“Jesus Christ,” Ray said. “Sneakin’ back here to do it is one thing, but doin’ it right up in the front there—”

“When you go out to get Nigg and Dago, you see if Denny’s at the back end of the bar. And if he’s sort of leanin’ forward on the counter with this very serious expression, you just take a peak on down where he’s—”