“Well, you listen to me. It happens I like noise and I got a way with a corpse so he don’t talk!”

“Nevertheless, Alverato, I would always consider you a liability. In fact, it escapes me how you ever got to where you are.”

Pendleton did the trick with his shoulder and continued to look bored. Even when Alverato jumped up from the table, his face livid, Pendleton did not stir.

“Escapes you?” Alverato roared. “Escapes you, you sonafabitch? I’ll show you in a second how I got where I am! Scotty, get over here,” and he waved at one of the hoods. The man stood close to the table while Alverato kept bellowing: “And I’ll show you how I’m going to stay where I am!” Without the slightest sign of preparation Alverato’s massive fist swung out and cracked hard into the gunman’s face. Scotty’s head snapped back and he hit the floor with a dull thud. His gun clattered down next to him. “Did you see that, Pendleton? Did you catch the meaning, Pendleton? Hey, Scotty!” Alverato walked over to the man on the floor and prodded him with his shoe. “Get up, Scotty.”

The man tried his best, but there was blood in his eyes and he started choking on a broken tooth.

“Get up, damn it,” Alverato took him under the arms. When Scotty was up, Alverato leaned down and picked up his gun. He gave it back to the man and nodded toward the wall.

“You got any other questions in your mind, Pendleton? You got any other ideas about what’s outmoded or something?”

Benny looked over at Scotty. The man was standing as before, gun in hand, watching Pendleton the way he had been told. He was breathing open-mouthed because of the blood in his nose. Benny reached in his pocket, pulled out a handkerchief, and started to walk to the other wall when Pendleton pushed himself up from his chair.

“My hat, Tapkow,” he said.

Benny stopped and gave Pendleton a short look. Then he walked over to Scotty and put the handkerchief in his hand.