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.But with Delmar being older, and withshoplifting and car theft and assault already on his books, they would try himas an adult.Fleck had only got sixty days in the D Home and a year'sprobation out of that one.Mama had always been good at handling things.But now she was just too old and her mind was gone.Fleck's reverie was ended by a woman hurrying around the corner toward him.She wore a raincoat, something shiny and waterproof over her head, and wascarrying a plastic sack.She walked past Fleck's Lincoln without a glance.While he watched her in the rearview mirror, another figure appeared at thecorner ahead of him.A man in a dark blue raincoat and a dark gray hat.Hecarried an umbrella and as he hesitated at the curb, looking for traffic, heopened it.It had started to rain, streaking the car windows, pattering against thewindshield.Fleck glanced at his watch.Seventeen minutes until two.If thiswas his man, the man was early.He crossed the street, slanting the umbrellaagainst the rain, and hurried down the sidewalk toward the telephone booth.Hewalked past it.Fleck slumped down in the seat, too low to see or be seen.He waited.Then hepushed himself up.He used the electric control to adjust the side mirror,found the man just as he turned the corner behind the car.Probably someonewith nothing to do with this business, Fleck thought.He relaxed a little.Heglanced at his watch again.Waited.Page 55 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlWhat Mama had always taught Delmar and him had saved him there in the JolietState Penitentiary, that was certain enough.It had been hard to do it.Thingsare always hard when you're a little man, and you're young.He thought they'dkill him if he tried it.But it had saved him.He couldn't have lived throughthose years if he'd let them spit on him.He'd have died.Or worse than that,been like the little pet animals they turned their baby dolls into.Three ofthem had been after him.Cassidy, Neal, and Dalkin, those were their names.Cassidy had been the biggest, and the one Fleck had been the most afraid of,and the one he'd decided he had to kill first.But looking back on it, knowingwhat he knew now, Dalkin was really the dangerous one.Because Dalkin wassmart.Cassidy had made the move on him first, and when he got away from that,the three of him had got him into a corner in the laundry.He'd never forgetthat.Never tried to, in fact, because that had been the black, grim,hard-rock bottom of his life and he needed to think of it whenever things weretough, like today.They'd held him down and raped him, Cassidy first.And whenthey were all finished with him, he had just laid there a moment, not evenfeeling the pain.He remembered vividly exactly what he had thought.He'dthought: Do I want to stay alive now? And he absolutely didn't want to.But heremembered what Mama had taught him.And he thought, I'll get even first.I'llget that done before I die.And he'd got up and told them all three they weredead men.Three or four other cons had been in the laundry by then.He hadn'tnoticed them.He wouldn't have noticed anyone then, but they got the word outin the yard.Cassidy had beaten him after that, and Dalkin had beaten him,too.But getting even had kept him alive.It was raining harder now.Fleck turned on the ignition and started thewindshield wipers.As he did, the man with the umbrella turned the corneragain.He'd circled the block and was walking again down the opposite sidewalktoward the telephone booth.Fleck turned off the wipers and glanced at hiswatch.Five minutes until two.The Client was punctual.He watched him enterthe booth, close the umbrella and the door.Cassidy had been punctual, too.Fleck had gotten the note to him.Printed on toilet paper."I'll havesomething just for you five minutes into the work break.Behind the laundry."He gambled that Cassidy would think only of sex.He gambled that a machotwo-hundred-and-forty-pounder who could bench press almost four hundred poundswouldn't be nervous about a hundred-and-twenty-pounder, the kid the yardcalled Little Red Shrimp.Sure enough, Cassidy wasn't nervous.He came aroundthe corner, grinning
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