Marvel and her friends would have delivered the doctored printout detailing Longstreet corruption and would also be singing a quiet chorus in the background. A hundred thousand? Probably dope, she’d say. Cocaine and crack. Run through the fire department. And with Marvel providing the details, there’d be enough meat on that bone to interest the state.

“I worry about you, Harold,” I said as we were leaving. “It all sounds good in theory, but these guys

you don’t run a machine like Longstreet’s without being tough. They might not roll over so easy.”

“I grew up in Longstreet,” Harold said with an unhappy grin. “I know how it works. I can take care of myself. And Marvel thinks-“

“Yeah. Well. Good luck.”

Back in Longstreet, LuEllen and I climbed up on top of the Fanny’s cabin with gin and tonics, to watch the sun go down, and I told her about the change of plans.

“I don’t like it,” she said. “I’m getting spooked. In the bad old days, if I got spooked, I called off whatever I was doing. Walked away. I figured there might be a reason for being spooked, something unconscious

If Harold can blackmail Dessusdelit and St. Thomas and Rebeck off the council, more power to him. We won’t have to hit City Hall.”

A small boat’s bow light appeared downriver and cut an arc through the darkness as it came into the marina. A commercial catfisherman in a fat green jon boat. His wife was waiting up the levee with their station wagon and a stack of drywall buckets for the catch.

“I don’t know,” I said, finishing the drink. I crunched the ice cube between my teeth and sucked on the pieces. “It doesn’t feel right.”

We sat for a couple more minutes in silence; then LuEllen scraped her chair back and stood up. “Mosquitoes coming out,” she said.

As I looked out at the river, in the hot, humid night, with the water burbling under the hull and the sound of car radio rock ‘n’ roll floating down the levee wall, it was hard to remember that winter always comes.

CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER 12

John called an hour later.

“Harold talked to Dessusdelit. She says she’ll see him at her house tomorrow morning.”

“Did he tell her-“

“No. He just said it was important, that it involved corruption and high city officials. She agreed right away - nervous, I guess. He’s supposed to be there at ten o’clock.”

“Terrific,” I said. John sounded unnaturally cheerful, and I heard Marvel’s voice in the background. “Is that Marvel?”

“Yeah, I’m at her place.”

“Let me talk to her.”

“Just a minute,” he said. I heard him call her; then there was a delay; then he came back on and said, “You gotta wait a minute; she can’t talk to you unless she got her pants on.”