The Kings Of Cool

139

Duane Crowe cracks an egg on the side of the cast iron skillet and carefully squeezes it into the hot canola oil.

He used to cook his eggs in bacon but his doctor busted his balls about his body-fat percentage, so it was either the beer or the bacon and Crowe chose the beer.

He tried turkey bacon, but… it’s turkey bacon.

Crowe has one of those one-cup coffeemakers that even he sees the sad symbolism of. A one-cup coffeemaker is what you get when you’ve had two marriages go south, and now even if you have a woman stay the night, it’s easier to take her out for breakfast because that way she’s, well… out.

Last thing in the world he needs is another divorce settlement taking half of what the last two wives left him, not to mention child support.

Two kids he rarely sees, and Brittany is already applying for college (shit, where does it go?) and she’s a really bright kid-a great kid-with good grades.

Last time she called she was looking at Notre Dame.

Crowe gets a percentage from Chad Meldrun for every client he sends through the door. It sounds like a lot of money, but he has to kick 20 percent up to the Powers That Be, so every dollar coming in means something, and every dollar lost means more.

He scoops the eggs onto a plate, shakes pepper and salt (fuck the doctor) on them, sits down at the breakfast counter, and turns on the news.

The talking head is chirping about “drug violence in Mexico” (This is news? Crowe wonders), and then a still photo of Filipo Sanchez comes on the screen.

Apparently, he’s now the late Filipo Sanchez.

Crowe is surprised, but not surprised.

Filipo has developed a nasty habit of not paying his fees. Maybe it was him trying to prove his chops to the Lauter family, trying to show them that he could do more than just marry Elena, but Filipo was on a campaign to cut the Powers That Be out of the payment loop. Always bitching about the money, trying to negotiate the rate downward, missing payments, a real pain in the culo.

Crowe didn’t blame him-you do what you can do-but Filipo’s rebellion was unwise given the Lauters’ ongoing war with the Berrajanos. He just became too much of a pain in the ass, and the Powers That Be decided to switch sides. It’s not that they whacked Filipo, they just signed off on the Berrajanos’ doing it.

Filipo didn’t want to pay the fees, the Berrajanos did.

That simple.

Crowe hopes that this Ben Leonard also saw the news and took a lesson from it.

He finishes his breakfast and heads out.

Should be an interesting day today.

A real popcorn movie.

The Empire Strikes Back.