Page 7 of Dodge

Marlowe didn’t answer but gave him a look. The bartender slid the glass toward her, ice-free, worried he’d gotten it wrong.

She drank half down. Then opened the clutch bag, got her gun out and tucked it away. Rudy’s went into her pocket.

The round man said to the two at Rudy’s table, “Get him home.”

They rose quickly.

Marlowe said, “Tell him his gun’ll be in one of the trash cans outside. He can figure out which one.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Hoodie frowned, wondering if this word fell into the same bad-call category as “Little Lady.”

They walked to Rudy and helped him up. The lumberjack was muttering something. Maybe explaining that she’d cheated, took advantage of the fact she was a woman. They helped him out the door onto Douglass Street, the main avenue in downtown Upper Falls.

The redheaded man in the back, nodding at the mess on the floor, said to the bartender, “Clean that up.”

“Yessir.”

He asked Marlowe, “So who are you?”

The bartender said, “She was—”

“I wasn’t talking to you, Des.”

“No, sir.”

The big man sat at the just-vacated table. She joined him.

“I was watching.” He nodded to the ceiling. A camera.

“You need better security guards.”

A sigh. “Man is a trial. He’s my half brother. From my mother’s third marriage.”

Marlowe had no interest in dissecting weird genealogy. “You’re ...?”

“Wexler. Tomas Wexler.” He added that he was the owner. “What did he do to you? Rudy?”

“He touched me.”

“But youwerebothering my clientele.”

She scoffed. The only thing these barflies would be bothered by was a short pour.

He seemed to get it and gave a faint smile of concession.

Out came her phone. “I’m looking for this man.”

Wexler glanced at the screen, shook his head.

She sighed, slipped the mobile away. She looked over the room slowly, left to right, up and down. “You own a place like this, I’m guessing you’re ... connected.” Emphasis on the word.

“Some.”

“And I assume you and the police or deputies or whatever passes for law here aren’t best of friends.”

“That would be a correct assumption.”

“You help me find him, it’ll be worth $5K.”

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