He had another saying that I liked, but didn’t necessarily agree with. “Everybody’s autobiography should be told in the passive voice,” he said. “Our lives are shaped more by things we can’t control than those we can. We are worked on by the world, not the other way around. All we can do is react.” Frank was reacting to it the best way anyone could. He was recalculating everything, working to get us back on track. I let him work.

He went back to his coffee and thinking about the horse and how the world took apart our plans as if they were nothing, which they were, of course. Frank knew the way the world worked, more than most, which is why I stayed with him, which is why I was sitting in a diner staring at a cup of coffee when we should be out working, when were expected to be out working. I knew we’d have to answer for it. I’d have to answer for it. Frank never dealt with that side of things. This made me impatient. That’s what Frank tolerated, but he wouldn’t give in.

“So what do you want to do, Frank?”

“That was a cop’s horse,” he said.

“Could be from one of those carriages. Could be anything. We don’t know these things.”

“It’s not good,” he said. “Somebody should have been with him, not just left him in the street like that. It’s not good.”

“What do you want to do?”

Frank had another cup of coffee, but not another word. I sat and waited for him. What else was I going to do? I couldn’t do anything without him.

We’d been hired to come and grab something. We got a call from my usual guy, Froehmer, who gave us an address or the name of the guy and then what we should take from him. It’s easy, Froehmer said, the way they always do. If it’s so easy, I said, then you don’t need us.

I’d done a lot of work with Froehmer. He’d helped me out when I needed it, back when I was just starting out. Froehmer didn’t pay well, but he always had work. Everything was easy for him. For as long as I’d known him, it was all easy for him. I had to remind him that it wasn’t so easy for the rest of us. He didn’t mind. Just get it done, he said. Don’t wait more than a couple of days. The item might be on the move.