A woman wearing a long coat unbuttoned over a short dress approaches from the docks. She looks to be in her twenties. Her hair is a tangle about her shoulders, and she appears to be weeping. We watch her disappear. About a minute later a man at least three decades older than her follows. He’s in a tuxedo, strolling off like he doesn’t have a care in the world.

I sense the hatred rolling off Nolan because I feel it now, too. Whoever he is, I feel a certain level of disgust for this man who lets a weeping woman he has taken to bed walk alone in this state of distress. That he is somehow the cause of her distress and that the power he emanates, one that seems somehow inherent, is part of why she went to this boat with him in the first place.

“After your friend came to see me, I called my guy at the club and asked if there was a shift for me tonight. They’d wanted me to work, but I didn’t really want to come here no more. But your friend got me thinking, so I asked for the shift. I need the money, anyway.”

I wonder where this is all going, but I don’t have it in me to interrupt. I don’t have to wait long. “There’s a man who’s always at these parties,” he continues. “I recognized him the first day I started working events at the club,” Nolan says. “He didn’t recognize me.”

“How do you know him?”

“Drove Jimmy to some restaurant in Richmond once, one of those ritzy spots by the casino, then went inside to use the men’s. Saw him with that guy. Got a good look at him, too. But when I went over to talk to Jimmy, he pretended I didn’t exist. After Jimmy left, I went into a different line of work altogether. Worked construction for years; then I get some gigs working the doors.” He shrugs. “It’s okay money. Easier than breaking my back all day every day. A friend recommends me for the Van Club, and first night on the door, I see him. The guy from the restaurant.”

“Who is he?”

He doesn’t answer. I feel him wavering, regretting perhaps that he’s said this much. Or maybe he’s remembering what it’s like to be a snitch. It’s already familiar territory, so I give him a little push. “I have a kid sister, too. Along with my daughter. I know what it’s like to have to protect the family.”

He considers this, looks in the direction we saw both the woman and the man disappear. He could be feeling melancholy at the memory of the weeping woman, or perhaps his years doing backbreaking labor have sloughed off some of his hard shell.