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the place I had avoided so long. She looked across the street to the blank face of the brick walls, then at me. “Does it hurt that much to look at it, Joe?”
    The house I lived in, I thought, where hunger was a constant hazard that separated living into feasts and famines. Downstairs a guy had murdered his wife and kids while they slept and blew his own brains out afterwards. One floor up Bloody Mary started in business, first with abortions that got her the name, then to a three-bed shag joint until she made enough loot to move to the corner.
    “It doesn’t really hurt at all,” I said.
    “They’ll be ripping them down in a few months. All three of those buildings were condemned.”
    “Twenty years too late,” I said, still picturing half-forgotten faces that seemed to be perpetually leaning out of windows staring vacuously into the street, their arms propped on faded old pillows.
    “You still hate it, don’t you?”
    I nodded. “I’ve always hated it. Not only the houses. This whole place. This dirty end of the city, the poverty, the squalor. Hardly a chance to get out.”
    “You got out”
    I said, “Hardly. Besides, I hated it enough.” I looked at the indifference on her face. “I can’t see how you stood it.”
    “Maybe I couldn’t hate anything that much. Come on, take me home. Tomorrow’s another day.”
    “Sure. Let’s go.”
    I said so long in the vestibule, quick, because I didn’t feel like talking to anyone nice. The old house had turned me inside out again, and right now all I wanted was something to wash the taste out. I walked back to Donavan’s Dive, went in and got a beer. In the back something big and fat made a hurried exit through the family exit, and I felt a little better.
    When I finished the second the little guy who had been watching me so intently finally caught my eye and I knew what he meant. When I left I headed west, halted in the shadow of a doorway and waited. Five minutes later the little guy came by and when I said, “Here,” he ducked in beside me.

CHAPTER FIVE
     
    “YOU’RE Scanlon… Lieutenant Scanlon, right?” It was a statement rather than a question.
    “Read off your dog tags, mister,” I told him.
    Nervously, he poked his head out and peered down each direction before huddling back in the shadows, “Harry Wope. I got a flop upstairs over Moe Clausist’s hock shop. Work around some, but mostly it’s Social Security.”
    “Done time?”
    “Six weeks on a vag charge ten years ago.” He shrugged and added, “It was a bad year. Look, you won’t say nothin’ about…”
    “Don’t sweat it, Harry. What do you want?”
    “That fat slob Reese is after your can, Mr. Scanlon. He got the word in and…”
    “I’ve heard it”
    “Hell, I don’t mean downtown only like city hall. He’s lookin’ for somebody to hand you lumps. Trouble is, he can’t find nobody, but if he keeps lookin’ he sure will. He’ll blow five hundred to see you dragged out of an alley.”
    “Where did you pick this one up?”
    “Big ears. I was dumpin’ garbage for Hilo when he was on the phone inside. One of the windows is broke and I heard him.”
    I said, “I’m not handing out favors, Harry. Why put me wise?”
    Harry Wope leaned toward me, his wrinkled face turned up toward mine, his eyes squinting at me. “You don’t remember me, do you? Nope, guess you wouldn’t at that No reason to after all. Me and your father was in France together during the First World War. He saved my ass once. I used to come around when you was a kid. He only had four then when I seen you last. Knew your ma too.”
    Then I remembered him. A funny guy who wore his uniform until there was nothing left of it, having Saturday breakfasts in our kitchen and eating like a wolf to make up for a week of missed meals. “Thanks, Harry. I’ll remember it”
    “If I hear anything more, I’ll let you know.”
    “Don’t stick your neck out,” I said.
     
    I toured the area slowly, letting