“I believe it was cops started it,” he said. “You know how they got to carry a gun when they off duty? Only they don’t want no gun weighin’ down their pocket or spoilin’ the lines of their suit. Then a lot of the players, they was usin’ these shoulder bags, but that’s a little too much like a purse, you know? ’Sides, anything you carry like that, there be times you put it down an’ forget to pick it back up again. The Kan-garoos, they sell ’em everywhere, you don’t even know you wearin’ one. Leave the zipper open, you ready to quick-draw. An’ they cheap. Ten, twelve dollars. ’Course you can buy one in leather an’ spend more. I seen a dope dealer has one in eelskin. That be a fish or a snake?”
“A fish.”
“Didn’t know you could make leather out of no fish. Charge a lot for it, too. I guess you could get a Kangaroo made out of alligator if you was fool enough to want it.”
“I guess.”
I asked about Julia. “She a strange one,” he said. “How old you think she is?”
“How old?”
“Take a guess, Les. How old you think?”
“I don’t know. Nineteen or twenty.”
“Twenty-two.”
I shrugged. “Well, I was close.”
“She seem younger,” he said. “An’ she seem older. One minute she this little girl an’ you want to keep her safe. Next minute she your teacher, gone keep you after school. She know a whole lot of things, you know?”
“I’ll bet she does.”
“Not just what you thinkin’. She knows all kind of shit. She made those pajamas she was wearin’. You believe that? Designed ’em herself, too. Lotta ways she could make money. She don’t have to be gettin’ in cars on Eleventh Av-enue. ’Course, right now she need the money.”
“What about you?”
His eyes turned wary. “What about me?”
“I just wondered how we stand as far as money is con-cerned. Did you make out all right on the gun?”
“Yeah, we cool. Got a good deal on the gun. Only real ex-penses I had was all the dope I had to buy.”
“What dope?”
“Well, hangin’ out by the Captain an’ all. You want to start askin’ a bunch of questions, people got to know you all right. Best way is buy some drugs. They makin’ money off you, they got a reason to like you.”
“Did you have to spend very much? Because it’s only right for me to reimburse you.”
“No need, Reed. I made out fine.”
“What do you mean?”
“Mean I took what I bought and sold it right here on the Deuce. Lost money on one deal but made some on another one. All said an’ done, I come out a few dollars ahead.”
“You sold drugs.”
“Well, shit, man, what else was I gonna do? I don’t use none of that shit. I wasn’t gonna throw the shit away. That’s bread, Ed. I ain’t in the business, not any more’n I’m in the gun business. Only business I want to be in is the detectin’ business, but if I has to buy the shit I might as well get my money back. There be anything wrong with that?”
“I guess not,” I said. “Not when you explain it like that.”
In my room I took the gun apart and cleaned it. I didn’t have the right tools, but Q-tips and Three-in-One oil were better than nothing. When I was done I put the gun in the drawer with the five thousand dollars. I’d been meaning to put the cash in my safe-deposit box, but I had missed my chance. I’d have to wait until Monday.
I turned the TV on and off, then picked up the phone and called Jan. “I think I’m going to be able to get that item we discussed,” I told her. “Before I follow through, I just wanted to make sure you were still in the market.” She as-sured me that she was. “Well, I should have something by the end of next week,” I said.
I hung up and checked the dresser drawer, as if the gun might have magically dematerialized while I was on the phone. No such luck.
That night I reprised most of my conversation with T J for Elaine, of course leaving out the part about the gun. I told her how he’d bought and sold dope on my behalf, and how he seemed to be getting involved with a pre-op transsexual.
“Entranced by a transsexual,” she said. “Or transfixed. Just how fascinated is he, do you know? What do we do if he shows up with tits?”
“That’s a stretch. He’s just experimenting.”
“That’s all they were doing at the Manhattan Project, and look what happened to Hiroshima. What’s the story? Are they an item?”
“I think she probably took him to bed and showed him a good time. I think the novelty of it impressed him and shook him up a little. That doesn’t mean he’ll be running down to the nearest clinic for electrolysis and hormone shots. Or that the two of them are going to be picking out drapes together.”
“I guess. Have you ever tried that?”
“Picking out drapes?”
“You know. Have you?”
“Not that I know of.”
“Not that you know of? How could you do it and not know it?”
“Well, strange things happen when you drink yourself to Bolivia. I did lots of things I don’t remember, so how can I say for certain who I did them with? And if the girl was post-op, and if the surgeon did good work, how could you tell?”
“But you never did it that you know of. Would you?”
“I’ve already got a girlfriend.”
“Well, this is hypothetical. I wasn’t propositioning you on behalf of Julia. How did you feel about her? Did you want to do her?”
“It never entered my mind.”
“Because you’ve got a cleaner greener maiden in a neater sweeter land, except I just got it backward, didn’t I? A neater sweeter maiden. Will I ever get to meet Ms. Julia? Or do I have to take a walk on Eleventh Avenue?”
“No need,” I said. “I’m sure they’ll invite us to the wed-ding.”
I spent Saturday night at Elaine’s. Sunday morning I went back to my hotel right after breakfast and turned off Call Forwarding. I checked the drawer, confirmed the continuing existence of the gun and the money, and called Jan.