DeLuca blinked at me, then looked at Joey Putata. “I thought you got rid of this fuck.” Probably wasn’t laying it on thick enough.

Joey said, “Hey, Charlie, we gave him the word. I took Lenny and Phil with me. We gave him the word real good.”

Charlie turned back to me and went back to work on the pasta. I think he was eating tongue. “You’re the creep from Disneyland, right?”

“Nope. I’m the creep from Los Angeles.”

“What’s the fucking difference? It’s all talking rabbits out there anyway, ain’t it?”

The two guys sitting with Charlie and the little bartender thought that was a good one. One of the guys sitting with Charlie had big arms and a lot of gut and a gray sharkskin jacket over a blue shirt. His collar tips were long and stuck out over the jacket. Twenty years out of style. He said, “Hey, Charlie, you think this mook knows Minnie Mouse? You think he plays hide the salami with old Minnie?” Everybody laughed except the guy back at the pool table. He was staring at the pool table and holding the cue stick as if it were a guitar, gently bobbing his head in time with the music.

Charlie said, “You got some nut coming here. Didn’t Joey tell you to knock it off and go home?”

“Joey didn’t do a good job.”

Joey said, “Hey, fuck you.”

Charlie turned back to me with the same hard eyes he was giving Joey. “Joey’s a piece of shit. I got guys who can do better, Mickey Mouse.” He turned enough to look back toward the pool table. “You think you can do better than this piece of shit, Ric?”

The guy with the pool cue nodded, still staring at the pool table. Ric. He looked almost seven feet tall.

Charlie said, “You’re bothering my friend Karen, Mickey Mouse. That’s not good.”

“Not anymore, Charlie. Now I’m working for her because she’s working for you and she wants to stop. You see?”

Charlie stopped with the knife and fork and said, “Karen.”

“She’d like to retire.”

“Karen been talking to you?” He wasn’t liking it.

“I found out some things and I asked her about them. She’s hoping we can work something out.”

Charlie put down the knife and fork and made a little hand move to the guy with the twenty-year-old clothes. “Tudi, see if he’s wired.”