Harrington smiles. “You know what I love about you two bindlestiffs? You still don’t know how far in over your heads you are.”
Jimmy is the one to step forward now.
He and Harrington are very close.
But Harrington doesn’t back up, Jimmy has to give him that. He’s still got brass balls. Literally.
“You got anything else smart you want to say?” Jimmy says quietly.
“You’re the one with the smart mouth,” Harrington says, “not me.”
Harrington, still full of himself, gives a little roll to the wide shoulders. And grins a shit-eating grin.
“Except if you and your pal here are so smart, why am I out here and not still locked up across the street?”
“You’re a disgrace to your badge,” Jimmy says.
They’re about the same size, and still nose to nose.
“At least I still have my badge,” Harrington says.
“I’ll make sure they bury you with it,” Jimmy says.
“Is that a threat, Detective Cunniff? Or should I sayformerDetective Cunniff?”
Jimmy suddenly shoves him with both hands, hard enough to knock him back, but not down.
“Yeah,” Jimmy says. “I guess it is.”
Harrington stares at him for a moment, still grinning, then steps around both Jimmy and Esposito and walks away from them down Center Street.
But when he’s twenty or so yards away, he stops and turns back around.
“You ever been arrested, Cunniff?”
“Never had the pleasure.”
“Always a first time for everything,” Harrington says.
He throws back his head then and laughs.
They can still hear him laughing loudly, and for their benefit, as he disappears around the corner, not looking back again.
“I’m gonna nail that bastard if it’s the last thing I do,” Danny Esposito says.
“Take a ticket,” Jimmy Cunniff says.
EIGHTEEN
Jimmy
One Week Later
BRIGID CALLS JIMMY TO give him the heads-up that Jane is coming home from Switzerland a day early, and Jimmy tells her he’ll go pick her up at JFK.
“How’s she doing?” he asks. “I’ve been trying to leave her alone while they get her started on the juice.”
“So far, so good,” Brigid says. “Everybody’s very optimistic.”
