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It’s freezing. Roll them up.”
    I checked the lot and ignored the complaint.
    â€œYou hear me? Roll the windows up. Ma, tell him.”
    â€œIt keeps the glass from fogging up,” Ruby said.
    Rick crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m just saying. It’s cold. There’s no need to freeze to death.”
    â€œMaybe you should do less saying and more listening,” I said.
    â€œMaybe you should remember who scored you this job.”
    I turned my head so I could look at Rick. He was rubbing his knee and it took him a second to realize that I was staring at him.
    â€œRight now your job is nothing more than a bit of drunken bathroom gossip. That little bit of knowledge is all you brought to the table. You can’t call that a job. If it was a job, your mother wouldn’t have found me. This thing will only become a job when I say it does, so sit there and shut up or I’ll have your mother wash your mouth out.”
    Rick started to muster a protest, but Ruby’s hand touched his shoulder. “Don’t, baby. We need his help.”
    I chuckled to myself. The kid couldn’t have been more of a pussy if he tried.
    We had been in the parking lot almost an hour when The Market finally opened its doors for business. Rick did nothing but fidget and bitch the whole time. He whined about being cold, about being sore, and finally about having to pee. I made him use the bathroom in the Wendy’s five hundred metres away from the grocery store. He put up a fight and I let his mother explain that going into the place you were casing was a bad idea. When he finally understood, he got out of the car with a lot of complaining. He limped towards the restaurant and I watched him go. The limp slowly dissolved as Rick got farther away from the car. By the time he got to the Wendy’s, he was walking fine. When I turned my head towards Ruby, she said, “You don’t have to say it.”
    â€œBut I’m going to.”
    She sat back in the seat. “Fine.”
    â€œRuby, you know he can’t do this job. He’s not made for it. I could map the thing out from start to finish and he’d still fuck it up. He’s probably already started. I’m betting he’s already been hanging around the grocery store attracting all kinds of attention.”
    â€œIt’s all my fault,” she said. “He never had a father growing up and I spoiled him.”
    â€œYou mean you ignored him while you gambled,” I said.
    I saw her face in the rear-view and the reflection sneered back at me for the briefest of seconds. I had touched a nerve. Ruby’s gambling had always been a problem. I could remember my uncle always knowing where to find her. She’d be playing cards in some back room or sitting in some bingo hall every time he needed her. She was always pissed when we showed up, because we were cooling her hot streak or we were bothering her when she was just about to turn things around.
    â€œThe kid’s got your disease, but he’s got a worse strain than you. He plays bigger stakes and he doesn’t have your skills. He can rack up debt like a pro, but he can’t earn enough to pay his debts. You could always cover your losses well enough, but you can’t do double duty, especially when part of that is Rick’s debt.”
    â€œSo what are you saying?”
    â€œI’m saying the ship is sinking and it’s time to get in a lifeboat.”
    â€œI can’t do that. He’s my flesh and blood. I can’t give up on him. You know what would happen?”
    â€œWho’s he owe?”
    â€œBig River.” Ruby said the words quietly as though they were heavy on her tongue.
    I whistled a low note. Rick liked to lose his money in Toronto poker games instead of bingo halls. The Big River triad planted their flag in Chinatown over a decade ago and wasted no time in assimilating the different local tongs that held on to