Dawn Patrol

39

Dan Silver is already irritable.

And concerned.

What had Eddie said? “Open mike night at Ha Ha's is over, big man. It's time you got serious, you feel me?”

Yeah, Dan felt him. Felt him like a rock lodged in his belly. Felt what Red Eddie was telling him, too. Clean up your mess. And what a fucking mess it is. That dumb goddamn roid case Tweety going out and killing the wrong gash.

Amber is scared. She looks small and pale and weak next to him, which she is, all of those three things. He has her sitting in a plain wooden-back chair in the VIP Room and he stands over her, staring down.

“I didn't tell him anything,” Amber says.

“Didn't say you did,” Dan says in his best calming voice. “What I'm asking you is, where is Tammy?”

“I don't know.”

“Do you like working here?” Dan asks.

“Yes.”

“They treat you good, don't they?”

Amber nods. “Uh-huh.”

“So you don't want to get fired.”

“I need this job.”

“I know,” Dan says. “You have a kid, right?”

“Yeah,” Amber says. “And, you know, food, rent, day care…”

“I feel you,” Dan says. He slowly walks behind her, then hauls off and hits her with a lazy punch to the kidneys. Lazy for him, but with his strength, it's enough to knock her off the chair and send her sprawling on the floor, gasping in pain. “Now you feel me. ”

He picks her up with one hand and sets her back down again, very gently. Squatting in front of her, he says, “If I hit you in the kidneys one more time, you don't dance for a month or two. It hurts you just to try to get up off the couch, don't even think about going to the bathroom.”

Amber drops her face into her hands and starts to cry. “She baby-sat my kid for me so I could go to a movie sometimes.”

“That's nice.” He walks behind her and raises his fist.

“All I know is that she has a boyfriend,” Amber says quickly. “His name is Mick Penner.”

“Where does he live?”

“I don't know,” Amber says. “I swear.”

“I believe you, Amber,” Dan says. He takes a roll of bills out of his jeans pocket, hands her a hundred-dollar bill, and says, “You buy something nice for that kid of yours.”

“Let's go get Tweety taken care of,” Dan says back in the main room.