Lieberman's Folly Read Online Free PDF Page B

for them, at least it was until Emiliano Del Sol had chosen to call it home away from home.
    The place was quiet. Tentaculos waited for El Perro to tell them what to do or think in the presence of two cops.
    â€œYou heard I was here and you just came back to the neighborhood to say hello to an old amigo,” Emiliano said, using a chunk of bread like a clamp and plunging it into the platter of meat. He snared a rare piece and held bread and meat out to Lieberman. “Taste this. I had Angelica add more sugar and a little more jalapeño sauce.”
    Lieberman took a bite. It was sweet fire. He chewed, knowing he would pay dearly for it later. Emiliano watched and smiled benevolently. Hanrahan gulped meat and bread down without chewing it.
    â€œGood, huh?”
    â€œPiquant,” Lieberman said.
    â€œYou want a beer?” Emiliano asked, dipping the bread back into the meat for himself. Before Lieberman could answer a dark hand with a scorpion tattooed on it handed him and Hanrahan open bottles of beer.
    Emiliano leaned toward the policemen, breathing fire, to whisper, “Like the ad says, it don’t get no better than this. Now,” El Perro whispered, “why you here?”
    â€œResnick’s hardware,” Lieberman said.
    â€œResnick’s hardware,” Emiliano repeated around a mouthful of food.
    â€œYou ran up a bill with Resnick,” Lieberman explained. “You owe two hundred dollars and forty cents.”
    â€œInteresting,” said Emiliano looking around at his fellow Tentaculos, who didn’t seem to find it very interesting. “What if I say I ain’t paying no two hundred dollars and forty cents?”
    â€œThen we can negotiate,” Lieberman said.
    â€œNegotiate what?”
    â€œWe can forget the forty cents,” Lieberman said.
    â€œThat’s generous,” El Perro said seriously, nodding his head. “Very generous.”
    â€œTwo hundred bucks is toilet paper to wipe my nalgas ,” El Perro whispered, with his face now only inches from Lieberman’s. He reached down, miming a wipe.
    Someone laughed, but it was the wrong reaction. El Perro squinted into the dark corner from which the laughter had come. Then someone stirred at the table behind Lieberman and he could hear whoever it was get up and move toward them. A large figure leaned down, whispered into Emiliano’s ear, and then backed off.
    â€œPiedras says we should cut off your cajones and throw both of you in the Garfield Park Lagoon,” El Perro confided, sitting back. “Piedras is a good warrior but he is a little crazy. We wouldn’t have to cut off your balls. We could just throw you in. So much shit in the lagoon, you’d choke on an old rubber before you came up for air.” He turned to Piedras, who sat behind the policemen, and shouted, “You hear what I just said, Carlos? I said you can fight. You got more balls than an umpire but you crazy nuts, right? You don’t kill cops if you don’t have to. Besides, the Rabbi is special. He was the first cop to arrest me. I was a little shit, maybe ten, right, Rabbi?”
    â€œA little shit,” Lieberman agreed.
    â€œSay you’re crazy, Carlos,” El Perro said softly.
    â€œI’m crazy,” Piedras admitted soberly.
    â€œIt’s bad for the reputation of the Tentaculos to run up bills and not pay them,” Lieberman said. “You pay your debts, you pay my good friend Resnick, word goes through the neighborhood, your neighborhood, that Emiliano Del Sol is a patron .”
    El Perro guzzled a bottle of beer and looked around the room.
    â€œThere are no women in here,” he said. “How come there are no women in here?”
    â€œLas mujeres estan a la casa donde usted dija …” someone began.
    â€œI know that. I know that,” El Perro said in exasperation. “It was just a … a …” He looked at Lieberman for help.
    â€œA