“Nineteen forty-one. It was still solid white then, a very classy address.”

“That was thirty-five years ago-you don’t have anything else? Something current?”

“Jackie, if I had something current I’d have called the guy up by now. This is why I’m talking to the pro, guaranteeing a hundred and a half.”

The “Jackie” stopped Ryan. Jay Walt was the only person he knew who ever called him that. Ryan didn’t consider himself a Jackie. It hooked him, Jay saying it in his loud voice.

“You want me to do it,” Ryan said, “it’ll be twenty bucks an hour. A hundred and a half gets you one day. But I’ll probably have to make some inquiries and they’ll have to be followed up the next day or maybe even the day after, so it looks to me like we’re talking about three hundred guaranteed. If that’s too steep for you, then put your shitheads back on it.”

Jay Walt was staring at him through his tinted glasses. “What’d I say?”

“You didn’t say anything.”

“All of a sudden, on the muscle.”

“I’m telling you the terms, my rate on something like this.” Ryan kept his voice low, calm but with a little edge to it. “Since you’re not paying, what do you care what I charge, right? Or do you have to get an okay?”

“I got a little flexibility in negotiating,” Jay Walt said. “Naturally. It’s pretty much up to me.”

“So maybe I’m low,” Ryan said, “and we should start over.”

“No, I think you did pretty good. You’re coming along, Jackie.”

“Also, a hundred and a half in advance,” Ryan said. “I don’t mean in ninety days, I mean before I do anything.”

“I’ll call the guy,” Jay Walt said, “have him mail you a check.” He hesitated. “No, wait a minute-”

“How about if I pick it up? Save him the trouble.”

“Well, actually, see, he doesn’t want to deal with too many people. This guy, he’s from out of town, doesn’t have a lot of time.” Jay Walt was thinking and talking at the same time.