Killing Them Softly (Cogan's Trade Movie Tie-in Edition) by George V. Higgins Page A

Cadillac.
    Steve and Barry got into Steve’s metallic blue LTD hardtop, black vinyl roof, and shut the doors.
    The Coupe de Ville headed east on Boylston Street. It crossed the intersections at Hereford, Gloucester, Fairfield and Exeter streets on green lights. Steve kept the LTD three car lengths back, one lane to the right. He went through the Fairfield and Exeter intersections on yellow lights.
    â€œThis isn’t a bad car either,” Barry said.
    â€œYou ever decide,” Steve said, “stop fuckin’ around and
do
something, you can get something for yourself instead of bitching all the time about how everybody else’s got something and you don’t.”
    â€œFuck you,” Barry said. “Last month I hadda lay out close to two hundred and fifty bucks for the fuckin’ dentist. Every time I get a couple bucks ahead, something comes along to fuck it up.”
    The Cadillac stopped for a red light at Dartmouth Street.
    â€œI must be gettin’ old,” Steve said. “All my friends’re having trouble with their teeth. Jackie was telling me, his wife’s all hot and bothered, she’s gotta have, what’re those things, root canals. ‘Which is gonna set me back about nine hundred bucks, I suppose, I’m through.’ I didn’t know stuff like that cost so much.”
    The light at Dartmouth changed and the Cadillac moved forward. The woman in the Cadillac moved closer to Trattman.
    â€œHe’s telling her what he’s gonna do to her now,” Steve said.
    â€œThe thing that really did it to me,” Barry said, “you know what that son of a bitch whacked me for Maine? Five hundred a day and expenses. I hadda pay him almost thirty-nine hundred dollars. Plus what I hadda give him before, a thousand, take the case in the first place.”
    The Cadillac had green lights at Clarendon and Berkeley. The Caprio car went through on yellow.
    â€œThat’s because you’re a stupid shit,” Steve said. “No asshole inna world would’ve gone up there the way you did. You, you haven’t got no complaint. I think he did all right by you. You had anybody else, you would’ve gotten hooked again.”
    The Cadillac stopped for a red light at Arlington Street.
    â€œI’m not putting the hammer on Mike,” Barry said. “He’s just expensive, is all.”
    The light changed and Steve followed the Cadillac, turning right on Arlington Street. A man in a light gray Chesterfield, carrying a briefcase, crossed the street in front of the LTD, walking fast and catching up with atall albino man who wore a lavender cape lined with red satin, and platform shoes. Steve Caprio changed lanes to the right and closed the distance between the LTD and the Cadillac.
    â€œLooks like he’s going down the Envoy,” Steve said. “Must’ve got a cheap one this time, gotta pay for it himself. No, I was just saying, ah, it’s the same thing. You just fuck around too much. You did something, you could get something. You don’t see me or Jackie going up to Maine and being stupid like that, chasing guys around when they’re staying with their families and stuff.”
    â€œWell,” Barry said, “he wasn’t gonna pay. He took the dough off of Bloom and then he wasn’t gonna pay it back. Bloom hadda get his dough outa the guy. You can’t go around letting guys get away with stuff like that.”
    The Cadillac moved into the left lane at the Statler Hilton and turned left.
    â€œNo, he’s not going down the Envoy,” Steve said. “He’s going down the Terrace. She must have some dough after all. Sure, and Bloom gets his dough, and you get, what’d Bloom give you for that shitty thing?”
    â€œSix hundred,” Barry said. “I needed the dough. Ginny was starting to get the caps, there, and that was the first time I hadda pay.”
    â€œSix hundred,” Steve said.