Claire kept her eyes on Vincent.
“Should I?”
He considered the question.
Then he said, “No.”
The room changed.
It wasn’t dramatic.
Nobody shouted.
Nobody reached for a weapon.
But for the first time that night, the two younger men seemed to realize they were no longer controlling the conversation.
Vincent reached into his coat again and removed a small card.
He slid it across the table.
“My lawyer’s number.”
The taller man gave a humorless laugh.
“A lawyer? That’s what you’ve become?”
“Alive,” Vincent said.
“That’s what I’ve become.”
The laugh died.
Vincent tapped the folder Claire had watched him open.
“The deed was one piece.
There are others.”
“What others?”
“The ones you should’ve asked about before you came here threatening people in front of witnesses.”
Now the second man looked toward old Danny.
Danny calmly lifted his coffee and drank.
The young couple suddenly found courage in being noticed together rather than individually.
Neither looked away.
Vincent continued.
“For six months, people have been using my name to collect from businesses I never touched.
They’ve been telling owners I approved it.
Telling them I was too sick, too old, or too frightened to show my face.”
Manny looked at him sharply.
“That’s why you started coming Thursdays.”
Vincent nodded once.
Claire understood.
He hadn’t been sitting in booth seven because he liked the pie.
He had been watching the room too.
Listening.
Seeing who entered.
Seeing who avoided him.
Seeing which frightened owners came to Manny after closing.
The taller man sneered.
“You think sitting in a diner makes you important again?”
Vincent’s burned fingers curled around the cloth.
For a moment Claire wondered if he might explode.
Instead he looked at her.
It was the strangest thing.
The most feared man in the room seemed to be waiting for the opinion of a waitress he’d met six weeks earlier.
Claire remembered what he’d told her.
Curious people were dangerous when they weren’t afraid enough.
She stepped closer.
“You asked me why I took Thursdays,” she said.
Vincent waited.
“Because Thursday is when everybody acts weird.
Manny checks the door twice.
Customers pay early.
Men in nice coats come in without eating.
