doing, you got that little monster to act like a human being. So maybe you're not all bad. Forget about the bill. I mean it."
"No, I insist." She held out some bills.
Billy pushed her hand away and sat down across from her. "What you owe me is to listen to what I have to say," he told her quietly.
She stiffened, but remained silent.
"Around here," he said softly, "people have two faces. The faces everyone in the neighborhood sees. Those are the happy, smiling 'I'm a great guy, let me buy you a drink' faces. And then you have the faces that tell the true story. The faces that come out the second a door is shut and it's okay to let down your guard."
"What do you mean?" Auntie Lil asked, suddenly frightened.
"What I mean is that I can tell you were feeling sorry for that kid. And I got to admit, he acted okay in here tonight. But I've seen him punch old ladies in the stomach for their pocketbooks. I've seen him wave over greasy old men with one hand and pick their pockets with the other. He's an animal and he'll turn on you like one. And he's like just about everyone else in this neighborhood. I know because I grew up here. And the name of the game is survival."
"Even for you?" she asked softly.
"Even for me. If someone or something ever threatened my family, for instance, this nice guy you see here would disappear. Like that." He snapped his fingers and Auntie Lil jumped at the sharp crack. When he saw she had not yet been cowed, he continued. "I'll tell you another story," he said. "Last week a couple of guys came in. They looked kind of familiar to me. We stared at each other for a few seconds—and then we all remembered. We'd gone to Sacred Heart together twenty, twenty-five years ago. Played stickball, ran in the streets when we were bored. Stood around looking at girls walking by. Tried to get beers out of old man Flanagan. Those guys had been my best friends in third and fourth grade. And I'd known them all through high school. And here they were, back bigger than life. Both of them decked out in gold chains and floor-length fur coats. Italian loafers. Hundred-dollar haircuts. Thousand-dollar suits. A tan BMW parked out front. And a wad of cash that would choke one of those horses over in Central Park."
"Mafia?" Auntie Lil asked.
"Doubt it. They're Irish boys. Mafia don't trust them." He leaned forward again. "The point is, after they'd been here about fifteen minutes, they ask me if I'm interested in something very, very special. I say, 'Sure. Why not?' One of the guys goes out to the car, brings back a box, says I'm not going to believe this. 'You'll really get off, Billy,' he tells me and pulls out a stack of magazines."
Billy stopped and his mouth turned down in pain and disgust. "I can't tell you what was in those magazines because it would make you sick. But it could have been my Megan on those pages. Or my son. And it damn sure was somebody's kid. And those guys, those smiling buddies who had been my best friends at one time, had grown up and grown fat and rich on that filth. Those magazines sold for twenty-five dollars apiece. When they saw I wasn't interested, they acted a little hurt that I didn't appreciate the favor, but hey, there were no hard feelings. The Fifty-Second Street gang faces came back in an instant. They were the boys again—joking with me, slapping my hands, everything was buddy this, buddy that. Like they'd pulled out Sports Illustrated instead. And you know what? I was buddy, buddy back to them."
He looked down at the table, as if ashamed of himself. He shook his head sadly. "Everyone is out for themselves, Miss Hubbert. So be careful. I'm just asking you to be very, very careful. I liked that old lady, Emily. She was a sweetheart. But she obviously put her nose where it didn't belong and now she's lying on a slab in the morgue." He looked up and stared at Auntie Lil.
He had succeeded in thoroughly frightening her, yet she could not quite understand why. She thanked him profusely, assured him she understood and, flustered, hurried out the door. She needed a friend just then and Herbert Wong was the closest one she could definitely trust.