The Friends of Eddie Coyle by George V. Higgins

we don’t because we won’t spend the fucking money. The Deetzer knows about as much about what’s going on as I do, only he’s honest and admits it.”
    “The Bureau’s supposed to have something in there,” Waters said.
    “Did we call the Bureau?” Foley said. “No, I bet. Nobody got around to it.”
    “We called the Bureau,” Waters said. “I did it myself. They didn’t know anything about it. They said they’d look into it.”
    “And thank you very much for calling,” Foley said. “How about SP, they doing anything?”
    “Everything copacetic as far as they know,” Waters said. “Boston PD, the same. I think Coyle was jerking you off.”
    “I think so, too,” Foley said. “What I want to know is, what the fuck is he up to? That bastard, he’s about this high in the bunch, but he gets around more’n any man I ever see. One day he’s here and the next day he’s there, you’d think he was a fucking stray dog. I wish I had a line on half of what he’s doing.”
    “Does he work anywhere?” Waters said.
    “Yeah,” Foley said, “he’s an expediter over at Arliss Trucking, night expediter, but you just try to find him there. He works about as much as Santa Claus.”
    “Arliss Trucking,” Waters said, “now where have I heard that one before?”
    “It’s in eight or ten files,” Foley said. “It’s a goddamned front for the boys. They all get reportable income from Arliss, and none of them work there. That company hires more people on less business than I ever see. They’re the owners of record for about nine Lincoln Connies and at least four Cads. The Kraut spotted Dannie Theos the other day in a big maroon Bird and ran the number, it’s registered to Crystal Ford, lease card, rented to Arliss Trucking.”
    The Frost Show ended and the news began. The announcer said: “In Wilbraham, early today, four gunmen burst into the home of a young bank officer, terrorized his family, and compelled him to hand over the contents of the vault at the Connecticut River Bank and Trust Company branch in that town. Officials estimated the take in excess of eighty thousand dollars, noting that the robbery was almost identical to one committed last Monday at the First Agricultural and Commercial Bank and Trust Company in Hopedale. The FBI has been called in on the case, and a full-scale investigation is underway.”
    “Did Scalisi ever operate that way?” Waters said.
    “I don’t know much about Scalisi,” Foley said, “you want the honest to God’s truth. My friend says Scalisi’s been awful busy lately, can’t stay at one phone long enough for anybody to call him back there. But I thought Scalisi was pretty much of a hit man, didn’t do much of anything else.”
    “They branch out,” Waters said.
    “I know it,” Foley said. “My friend there, he runs a saloon, and I know fucking well he’s got an undisclosed interest, andhe knows I know. But he’s sure to have all kinds of other action going that I never dreamed of, let alone owning the saloon. He’s a strange guy. I bet I talked to him a hundred times, and I couldn’t tell you how much good stuff he’s given me. I’m always handing him twenty, and he’s always poor-mouthing me, and yet I know he’s got something cooking all the time, you can feel it. It’s like you’re in a movie, and the other guy’s in the movie with you, but he
knows
you’re both in a movie, and what comes next. And you don’t. I get the feeling, all the time, he’s playing me.”
    “What do you think he’s doing?” Waters asked.
    “It’s hard to say,” Foley said. “What he’s doing with me, that’s easy. He’s keeping a hook in. If he gets grabbed, he’s going to come around to me and say: ‘Hey, I need some help. I helped you. Are you a stand-up guy or not.’ But half the stuff I get from him is stuff I get by listening to what he says, he doesn’t know what he’s telling me. And the other half, well, it’s usually about somebody