Werth clears his throat. Nods at the door. “We going downstairs?”

Thinks, Soon as he opens that door, I’m going to kick him down those goddamn steps.

But Candlefly ignores him. Keeps holding the door closed. “What we have here in the Organization is a business. But we have those with specialized knowledge. Effective while they’re here, but…”

“You mean Mookie.”

“I do mean Mr Pearl, yes, yes. He runs his own crews. He knows where the veins of Blue are. He knows and does so much in this business.”

“He’s just a soldier. I know everything he does.”

“Do you? Really? Twenty years… I’m sure by now he does things his own way. Without your prompting. And when was the last time you went… downstairs?” He doesn’t mean the basement. “Been a while, hasn’t it.”

“You don’t know that.”

“You let him handle things. That OK. It’s a scary place.”

“I’m not afraid of shit, pal.”

But he is. He is afraid. Candlefly knows it somehow. Candlefly laughs.

“Oh, I’m afraid of it, too. It’s perfectly normal to be frightened of the Great Below. You know, I have a theory. It’s because of the Underworld that we – we as in mankind – are afraid of the dark. Because down there, the dark is real. Tangible. Isn’t it? Horrible things, unknowable things, hiding down there in the shadows. Sometimes those things come up. Sometimes they eat. Sometimes they kill. Sometimes they…” A cruel twinkle in his eyes – he doesn’t have to finish the sentence: Sometimes they rape young women who end up having little goat babies just before dying. “You come from that place. Part of you. And you hate it. And that’s OK.”

Werth is shaking now. He’s trying not to but he is. He tells himself it’s the Vicodin wearing off, that he needs a hit of Blue to calm him.

“I come from there, too, in a way. And I am not… able to return.” Candlefly’s entire body tenses as if he’s experiencing a small moment of pain. “That’s why I want to know what Mookie Pearl knows,” Candlefly says plainly. “I want him to tell us what you and I do not know. I want to create a little redundancy. I don’t want to kill him. I just want to talk.”

“And then you’ll kill him.”

Another laugh. “No. Not necessarily. You say he’s innocent.”

“And you say he killed Casimir Zoladski. And in this town – in this Organization – we deal with that kind of thing one way and one way only.”

“Maybe it’s not true. Maybe I’m wrong.”

“You really willing to find that out?”

“Of course. A good employer is a fair employer.”

Werth watches Candlefly’s eyes. Another difference between him and the Boss. The Boss has sincere eyes. Hard like bullets. Hot like cigar-tips. Candlefly’s eyes are flashing lights. Shifting left, right, shining bright.

Candlefly’s got liar’s eyes.

Werth nods. Lies right back. “Good. I trust you.”

“Now,” Candlefly says, “before we go into the cellar and I show you something, I just want you to think about what you want out of all this.”