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God help me.” He began to weep.
    Uncle Billy took up the slack. “We need to know what she’s buying and who her contacts are. She leaves the house every day. We think she goes to Chinatown. I want to know if she’s buying on the street. If she has to have it, I would rather get her good stuff. I don’t want her dying from shit.”
    Uncle Billy glanced at his brother who nodded and I knew it had all been prearranged. “We want you to follow her. We want to hire you, Artie. Just keep an eye on her for a few days,” Uncle Billy added. “Ricky would do it, should do it, but he can’t.”
    It was the unspoken thing: Rick was sick, because of me.
    Martin Tae gestured to his brother, who took a checkbook out of the tweed jacket. I pushed it away. “I’ll do anything I can, but I don’t get it. Why don’t you just put her in a clinic?”
    â€œShe won’t stay. Pete tried. She runs away. She’s become a cunning girl.” Martin Tae’s eyes filled up again. “It’s killing her mother. First Ricky, now Dawn.”
    â€œI’m sure you can use some money.” Billy Tae echoed Hillel; everyone knew I was broke. “Also, there’s a detective we know. He’s very talented. His uncle is my friend. Perhaps he can help you. I hope you don’t mind, but we already asked him to give you a call.”
    â€œIf you know a good cop, why don’t you ask him for help?”
    â€œHe’s not family. Not like you. There are things we don’t take outside. You are family, Artie.”
    â€œPlease take the money,” Martin Tae said. If I was going to help anyone, I knew I had to take it. And I knew that I’d hate myself;
    I got up. “I’ll do whatever I can,” I said, and we all shook hands. Then Billy Tae ripped the check from its holder; it made a brutal noise.
    â€œWhat’s his name, your cop?”
    Uncle Billy tilted his head back and finished the Scotch in his glass. “Jeremy Chen. His name is Jeremy Chen.”
    After I left the brothers, before I went home, I walked over to the dumpling joint where Rose had worked—it was only a couple of blocks—and ordered a beer. I had been meaning to do it all day. Another girl had replaced Rose, another shy nameless girl, this one with a weary smile. I drank up quickly and left. I don’t know why I went.
    At home, I checked the locks on my door, poured the remains of some Merlot into a glass and flipped on the answering machine. The club, where I work some nights doing security, called to say it was closing early. Lily had gone to the movies with a friend and I could meet them if I wanted, at the Angelika, but I didn’t want to see a movie or meet her friend. All I wanted was Lily. There was also a message from Eljay, my camera guy. He said he’d be in touch.
    And there was Jeremy Chen. A summons, not a message. Meet me in the morning, it said. Breakfast. I had no intention of obeying some cop I never met. I swallowed the rest of the wine and looked out the window at the street.
    Usually it was around this time of night that Ricky would stop in, and we’d drink some beer and gossip. His own apartment was locked up. I hadn’t been up there in months. All day people had been asking for help, needing help, wanting things—Hillel, Pansy, now the Taes.
    Across the narrow street, snow filled the curlicues and dusted the pediments of the cast-iron buildings. The fire escapes that criss-crossed them sagged under the quivering piles of white stuff. Snow was falling so fast the snowplows couldn’t keep up. Below, a solitary man with a shaggy dog trudged through the drifts and Mike Rizzi put his head out of the coffee shop, then pulled down the metal gates. The green neon sign—The Athens Café, it read—flickered and went out, Mike got into his car to go home to his family. I was alone.

4
    â€œOh, cheer the fuck up,” I