BooksBarbecue
Back The Deal Goes Down
Chapters (55)
  1. Cover
  2. Other Titles
  3. Dedication
  4. CHAPTER ONE
  5. CHAPTER TWO
  6. CHAPTER THREE
  7. CHAPTER FOUR
  8. CHAPTER FIVE
  9. CHAPTER SIX
  10. CHAPTER SEVEN
  11. CHAPTER EIGHT
  12. CHAPTER NINE
  13. CHAPTER TEN
  14. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  15. CHAPTER TWELVE
  16. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  17. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  18. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  19. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  20. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  21. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  22. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  23. CHAPTER TWENTY
  24. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  25. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  33. CHAPTER THIRTY
  34. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  35. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  43. CHAPTER FORTY
  44. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  45. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  46. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  47. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  48. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
  49. CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
  50. CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
  51. CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
  52. CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
  53. CHAPTER FIFTY
  54. CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
  55. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

That was enough to flip his switch back to your-policeman-is-a-good-neighbor. “Hey, losing your home is hard. It’s fucked, is what it is. You know there are services and appeals and they have to inform you about them.”

“I know,” I said. I did. I should have had the energy, the will, the caring, to fight. The process could be stretched out for years if you tried hard and got a little bit lucky. But it hadn’t been in me to do it. And still wasn’t. I said, “Thanks.”

“Yeah.” He nodded. He turned around. He got back into his car. Maneuvered it so he was facing the descent and began heading down into the valley. Almost as soon as he started, he slowed, then eased over, trying to make room on the narrow way. There was the sound of another car coming up the hill. That car slowed. Then they squeezed past each other.

It was Madelaine in her shiny new Lexus. They inched past each other at about three miles an hour. They looked at each other. They were both pleased that they’d accomplished it without a thump, a thunk, or a scratch. Rollie was hardly Super-Cop, but I could see that he was looking at her with automatic cop’s eyes—Who’s this? What’s she doing here? He wasn’t suspicious, not at all, just a bit of information into the mental file. If it came to pass that Madelaine became a widow through violence, Rollie would likely flip through his memory and find the image of her driving up to the home of Tony Cassella, a man who had been in documented desperate financial straits at the moment he saw them together but who had subsequently saved his abode by delivering a healthy chunk of cash to the bank.

CHAPTER FOUR

WHAT A DEAL

“That which starts fucked, stays fucked.”

HENRY SHEINKOPF, POLITICAL CONSULTANT

MADELAINE HAD THE TOP-END LEXUS SUV, the LX. It was big. It had a V-8. The exterior was “atomic silver.” The company described the interior as “parchment semi-aniline leather with Open-Pore Brown Walnut trim.” It cost upwards of $90,000. She stopped right in the middle of the drive, blocking my way if I wanted to get out and anyone else if they wanted in. Your subjective, personal impression that it’s always a Mercedes or a Beemer or such that cuts you off is accurate. There are studies that prove that people with expensive cars have a sense of entitlement, expectations of impunity, and less regard for others.