Marvin locked up and we walked downstairs to the lot. The girl in the shorts was no longer visible in front of the bike shop, but I checked just in case.
“Now, what exactly is it we’re saying we’re gonna do?” I asked Marvin as we walked. “We’re all up in Cason’s face, and we’re all behind you, and we don’t even know what we’re talkin’ about.”
“That isn’t new for you, is it?” Marvin said.
“Ha. Ha,” I said.
“For all we know,” Leonard said, “you’ve signed us up to jack off donkeys at an animal sperm bank.”
“And the way I hear it,” I said, “you get through with the donkeys and go home, they don’t even call or write.”
“I’ll explain at lunch,” Marvin said. “You get the money back?”
“We did,” Leonard said, “and a teeny bit more. We figured it wasn’t dishonest for him to tip. Mrs. Johnson can use as much of it as she can get.”
“What I’m wondering,” I said, “is what if Thomas and his friend Chunk want revenge on us or the client?”
“Would they?” Marvin asked.
“Well, one of them is missing a kneecap,” Leonard said, “and the other one will have to have his girlfriend pick his nose, wipe his ass, and pull his crank because his hand is kind of swollen up.”
“He had it comin’,” Marvin said. “The sonofabitch.”
“Some people might think the same of us,” I said.
Marvin gave me a confused look.
“He’s been reading some self-help books or somethin’,” Leonard said.
I took the hundred I had taken from Thomas’s wallet and gave it to Marvin. “Here’s the booty.”
“We’ll take it to her,” Marvin said, and put it in his wallet.