its web, watching the death struggle of a fly, neither curious nor triumphant, just existing until it was time to feed.
Still, the low-class nature of the entire scene irritated Hayes. That’s the downside of getting other people to do your dirty work, I thought to myself. Good help is so hard to find. While he waited for Danny to come back from the bathroom, Hayes stacked Danny’s dirty dishes in a pile and slid them as far away as he could. The waitress swooped down from nowhere, collected the dishes without a word, and was gone within seconds. Hayes did not say anything, but the vein near the corner of his right eye began to pulse. That waitress was getting to him. I knew why. He could not control her.
I wondered what time the waitress got off work.
I wondered if she would make it home.
“Hello, young man.” A creaky voice interrupted my thoughts.
I looked up and was both startled and horrified to find an old lady wrapped in a ragged purple sweater talking directly to me. I was too stunned to answer.
“You just getting off your shift? Catch any bad guys tonight?” Her laugh was wheezy from disuse as she cackled at her joke.
I looked around wildly, wondering if other people could see me. Hayes was staring at the old woman in disgust, the vein in his temple throbbing.
The waitress was bearing down on the old lady. “Now, now, Mrs. Palermo. Go back to your table. The man doesn’t want to be bothered.”
“I’m not talking to the one in the fancy clothes,” the old lady announced indignantly, disdaining Hayes. “I’m talking to him.” She pointed right to me and I fought the urge to slide beneath the table.
Danny had returned and was staring at the old lady. “She’s nuts,” he said to the waitress. “She’s pointing at an empty table.”
“I can see that,” the waitress snapped at him.
“This young man deserves coffee and doughnuts, Elvira,” the old lady insisted, tapping my tabletop with her cane. “He’s had a hard night. I can tell just by looking at him. You bring him some coffee and doughnuts.” The old lady smiled at me. “I understand. I was married to a police officer once. He worked this very neighborhood.”
“Yeah?” Danny asked automatically. “What was his name? Maybe I knew him.”
“Sit down,” Hayes ordered abruptly. Danny sat.
“I’ll bring him a cup of coffee and a doughnut,” the waitress promised. “if you go back to your table and leave these nice men alone.”
The old lady looked Alan Hayes and Danny over. “Nice men?” she said. “I don’t think so.” She swiveled on her cane and hobbled away, but allowed the waitress to install her in a small booth near the front door.
To my surprise, the waitress returned with a cup of coffee and two jelly doughnuts. She sat them down on the table right in front of me. When I breathed in the heavenly aromas, I could remember exactly what they tasted like after a long shift, that first sip of fresh coffee, both bitter and smooth at the same time, that first bite of jelly doughnut when the powdery dough would split open in my mouth and the jelly inside would spill out over my taste buds.
Hayes and Danny were gaping at the waitress.
“You want her coming over here all night?” the waitress demanded. “Or do you want your privacy? Because if you want your privacy, a cup of coffee and two doughnuts sitting on an empty tabletop will not bother you.” She stood, hands on her hips, daring them to argue.
“Fine,” Hayes said, his voice as cold and stiff as steel. “Put it on my tab.”
I laughed while the waitress, almost gloating from her triumph, refilled their coffee and departed. But I stopped laughing at what Hayes said as soon as he and Danny were alone.
“Detective Bonaventura,” Hayes began, as if to remind Danny who he was. “You understand my viewpoint, I presume?”
“Hell, yeah,” Danny said. “That’s why I’m here. It’s an outrage.”
“It is indeed,” Hayes agreed eagerly, making it seem as if Danny were setting the agenda. “To lose my daughter and then to watch as her killer goes free? How much can you ask a father to take?”
“I tried to tell them,” Danny explained. “But wait until you get to be my age. People look right through you. They talk right around you. It’s like you’re not even there.”
Tell it to the marines, buddy. Try being dead. And invisible.
Hayes, who probably