Two ladies walked through the parking lot, one carrying a bouquet of flowers. They both wore light grey business suits and the one with the flowers had a colorful silk scarf. She handed a card to the other one. “You give her this,” she said.When they got inside they stood at the end of the swimming pool and waited as swimmers did laps. A young girl finished a lap and swam up to them. “Who are those for?” she asked the one with the flowers, holding the edge of the pool with wet hands. “We were going to give them to your sister,” said the woman. Then she burst out crying. The other woman comforted her, stroking her arm gently. Then she held out the card to the girl in the pool. She knelt by the edge and handed it down. The girl opened it and several hundred dollar bills fell out of it, dropping into the water. The girl grabbed them out of the water and went on to read the card. “This is for Cassie,” she said, trying to hand it back up.

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Melvin stepped out of the white armored car, carrying one of the deliveries, and was gunned down immediately. He only had time to say, “Spthutt–! Whaduhhh—!!” before his various body parts rained down across the concrete, creating an image on the sidewalk resembling a Rorschach test. The forensics guys looked at the mess. “I think it looks like two boobies and that’s like a kitty-cat’s face- see that’s the ears and that’s the whiskers,” one said.“No,” said the other. “I see a witch leaning over a cauldron. See, there’s the pointy hat, there’s the pot.”

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Cherney was a little guy, smoked a cigar, little mustache, shirt with a busy, abstract pattern. He paced back and forth outside the office, filling the waiting room with smoke and nervous energy. When his name was finally called, his shirt was drenched with sweat and he wiped some off his forehead with the back of his hairy arm. Then he burst into the office and Mr. Brenner told him to have a seat but he only got halfway into his seat before he popped up again. “Do you realize what this little piece of paper is worth?” he said, spittle spraying across the desk. Mr. Brenner regarded him calmly. “Calm down, Cherney. Take a deep breath.”

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