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Conner Samson bounced a check for a dollar draft in Salty&039;s Saloon and decided it was ti for work

Sid, the eternally bald and surly bartender, set the draft beer at Conner&039;s elbow and handed him the phone from behind the bar Sid took Conner&039;s check and frowned at it before cru it over his shoulder He wiped the length of the bar with an old rag,in his amiable cranky way

"Thanks, Sid"

"Yeah, yeah"

Conner looked up again at the TV hanging over the bar to see if the night had been a bad hallucination The score: Atlanta 6, St Louis 7, and Chip Carey telling everyone about the outfielder&039;s error, which had cost Conner five hundred bucks

Hell

Salty&039;s Saloon was old and dark and filled with quiet regulars anted to watch sports, nurse drinks, and be left alone Conner&039;s kind of place Salty&039;s had been through a few transformations: a disco, a Chinese takeout place, a pool hall A wooden cricket bat still hung on the wall frolish pub Conner liked the current incarnation Neon beer signs, a jukebox nobody played, a TV with a ball game always on, and cheap suds And Sid A crusty retired Marine, but a good guy who knew the nalanced at the television, shook his head "You got the worst luck of anybody I&039;ve ever known" He was still shaking his head as he stacked clean glasses behind the bar

Conner drank his beer and looked at the phone

He didn&039;t want to h the Wall Street Journal DesertTech was up three points A friend of a pal of a guy soo Conner kept tabs The stock was going up and up That would have been great, except Conner hadn&039;t bought any He&039;d been trying to put soet a stake so he could buy a hundred shares Then the stupid fucking Atlanta Braves

"I guess you ain&039;t a millionaire yet," Sid said

"Would I be in this dump if I were a millionaire?"

"Yeah, I sorta think you would," Sid said "My sister owns an alpaca far"

"No anis"

"I want my money to work for me Not the other way around"

"Yeah, but it takes money to oing write that down"

"Oh, blow it out your ass"

Conner couldn&039;t stall any &039;s Bail Bonds Harvey souys to chase down a skip Conner didn&039;t consider hi like that, but he was tall and had souy standing there would keep soht Harvey didn&039;t have any work for hied

Next, Conner dialed Ed Odeski at Gulf Coast Collections He really didn&039;t want to, but repossessing cars for Odeski was usually worth a couple of bucks Last tiuar The delinquent owner had caught him in the middle of the job He hit Conner, and it hurt a lot Conner hit hiuy They went on like that for a little while By the end, Conner had ot paid for the repo almost covered the cost of his stitches

" Gulf Coast Collections," said the secretary

"Tell Ed it&039;s Conner Sautter ball voice cauy can&039;t call up an old buddy?"

"No"

"Okay, so I need work"

"Ain&039;t got none"

"Co pathetic was the best way to get a job out of Ed He liked to save most of his repo work for a squat little hunk of meat he called his kid brother "I&039;theed" He was from Albania or Lithuania or soot where, but Odeski&039;s accent was thick with spit

"It was only that one tiood"

"The guy had a tire iron He was trying to cave in reen"

"Then you back over hihts and bend the bu back to see if he was okay It wasn&039;ton a beach ball "You wait Stay on phone"

Conner waited again, wished for the tenth tiht another draft Conner waved the checkbook, arched his eyebrows into a question

"Yeah, right," Sid said "Don&039;t h"

Conner mouthed "thanks" at hiood for you You got a pencil?"

Conner reached over the bar for a pen, spread a napkin to write on "Go ahead"

Odeski told hiht have work for you, Samson You call His name is Derrick James Okay You call Okay?"

"Okay"

"You call," Ed said "Tell him my name Ed Odeski"

"I&039;ll tell hi up

Conner called Derrick James next He had a business in Mobile, boats and marine supplies, etc James said to drive out and see him the sooner the better

Conner said he was on his way

Jariht, and Conner e in just under an hour Ja, warehouse-size shop The girl behind the counter directed Conner down an aisle of big nets and winch equipment He found the door all the way back and knocked

"Come in"

Conner went in

"You must be Samson," he said