A Dance at the Slaughterhouse by Lawrence Block Page B

he dressed?"
    "Blue blazer, gray trousers. Blue polka-dot tie with large dots on it."
    "The tie's the first thing that doesn't sound like everybody else. I might have noticed a tie like that, but I don't believe I ever saw it."
    "He had a boy with him. Early teens, light brown hair. Might have been his son."
    "Oh, I did see them," Chance said. "At least I saw a father and son in the front row, but I couldn't tell you what either one of them looked like. The only reason I noticed them at all is he might have been the only child in the place."
    "But you know who I mean."
    "Yes, but I can't tell you who he is." He closed his eyes. "I can almost picture him, you know what I mean? I can just about see him sitting there, but if you asked me to describe him I don't think I could do it, beyond parroting back the description you just gave. What did he do?"
    "Do?"
    "It's some kind of case, isn't it? I thought you were in Maspeth just to watch the fights, but I guess you were working, weren't you?"
    On another case, but there was no reason to go into all that. "I had business there," I said.
    "And this fellow's a part of it but you don't know who he is."
    "He might be a part of it. I have to identify him in order to know."
    "I get you." He considered it. "He was right up in front," he said. "Must be a real fan. Maybe he goes all the time. I was about to say I haven't seen him at the Garden or anywhere else, but the truth is I've only been getting to the fights regularly since I bought an interest in Rasheed."
    "You have a big piece of him, Chance?"
    "Very small, what you'd call minimum participation. You still like him? You said you did last night."
    "He's impressive. He got hit too much with the right hand, though."
    "I know he did. The Kid was saying the same thing. That Dominguez, though, his right came over the top very quickly."
    "He was sudden, all right."
    "He was indeed. And then, suddenly, he was gone." He smiled. "I love boxing."
    "So do I."
    "It's brutal, it's barbaric. I can't justify it. But I don't care. I love it."
    "I know. Have you been to Maspeth before, Chance?"
    He shook his head. "Way at the ass end of nowhere, isn't it? It's actually not that far from where I am in Greenpoint, except I didn't leave from Greenpoint when I went out there, and I didn't go to Greenpoint when I left there, so it didn't make me a whole lot of difference. I only went there because we had the fight there."
    "Will you be going back?"
    "If we get another booking there, and if I don't have something else requiring my presence. Next bout scheduled is three weeks from this coming Tuesday in Atlantic City." He smiled. "Donald Trump's place, it should be a little more luxurious than the New Maspeth Arena."
    He told me who Rasheed was matched up with and said I ought to come down. I said I'd try. They wanted Rasheed to fight every three weeks, he said, but it was working out more like once a month.
    "I'm sorry I can't help you," he said. "I could ask around if you'd like. The people in Rasheed's corner, they're at the fights all the time. You still at the hotel?"
    "Same place."
    "If I hear anything-"
    "I appreciate it, Chance. And, you know, it's nice to see how everything's turned out."
    "Thank you."
    At the door I said, "Oh, I almost forgot. Do you know anything about the placard girl?"
    "The what?"
    "You know. Prances around the ring holding up the number of the next round."
    "They call that a placard girl?"
    "I don't know. I suppose you could call her Miss Maspeth. I just wondered-"
    "If I knew anything about her. I can tell you she had long legs."
    "I noticed that myself."
    "And skin, I seem to remember she had a lot of skin. I'm afraid that's the extent of my knowledge, Matthew. I'm out of that business, thanks to you."
    " 'Out of that business.' You think she looked like a working girl?"
    "No," he said, "I think she looked like a nun."
    "One of the Poor Clares."
    "I was thinking a Sister of Charity. But you could be right."

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