“No.”
“Or that he was acting on your behalf?”
“No.”
“What about the restaurant staff?”
“They’ve seen him but don’t know what he was doing for me tonight, and they don’t ask questions about anyone I take into my office.”
Allen removed the sleep mask and got out of bed. Carrying his can of soda with him, he padded over to a cheval glass and checked himself from several angles as he thought over everything Roland had told him.
“The kid said the homeless man hadn’t moved for an hour and then came up fighting?”
“‘Sprang up.’”
“When he saw the knife.”
“Right. Until then, he’d just sat there hunched over and took the abuse.”
“Seems strange that he was so passive, then suddenly got aggressive.”
“Survival instinct, I guess,” Roland said. “Although I don’t entirely trust El Paso’s story.”
“You don’t believe he actually cut the guy?”
“He might’ve stretched the truth to impress me, get back in my good graces. Yeah, there was blood on his knife, but I’ve explained that. And if El Paso did injure the other guy, it couldn’t have been as bad as he made out, or else the man wouldn’t have been able to run away like he did.”
“Hmm.”
“Lucky for us, El Paso got away, too. Both were motivated to clear out quick.”
“No idea where the homeless man went?”
“None. The delivery truck missed him by a hair. Would have been better for us if it had killed him.”
Allen couldn’t agree more. “At least then we would know he wasn’t a threat.”
“We don’t have to worry about that. I let on to El Paso that we did, but I don’t actually think it. I laid it on pretty thick, told him he’d put the operation in jeopardy, but I said that only to knock him down several notches.”
“Did it work?”
“No.” Roland paused. “He’s arrogant as hell. I’ve told you as much. I thought he’d be a handy guy to have around, you know? Lots of guts. Zero fear. I like that about him. Still do. But he’s gotten way above himself, way too fast. I told him to scare a few people, not to create the friggin’ circus he did.”
“He didn’t do as told,” Allen said. “He seized the initiative and overstepped.”
“Yeah, and if things had ended different, it could’ve been bad for us. So, what do you think? Kiss him goodbye before he becomes more of a liability than an asset?”
Allen took a sip of his soda, wandered back over to the bed, and sat down on the edge. Looking down at his bare feet, he realized he needed to call his pedicurist in the morning. “You need to ask?”
“Figured,” Roland said.
“When will you handle it?”
“As early as tomorrow.”
“I’m getting a pedicure tomorrow. Wait until the day after. I’d like to be there to personally bid El Paso farewell.”
After several seconds of dead silence, Roland said, “Excuse me?”
