“I can see that, though I bet you could really show me why? Couldn’t you?”
“Could I? Yeah. Am I? No.”
“Don’t be hasty, you might enjoy it.”
“I guess I’ll never know.”
“Your loss. So, Mal stood us both up. I’m not sure that’s enough for us to have in common for a social call.”
“It’s not a social call. I’m worried something happened to him.”
“Well, if it did I didn’t do it.”
“We’d be having a different conversation if I thought you did. I do think whatever happened to him was related to what he was seeing you about. I’d like to know what that was.”
“He didn’t tell you?”
“No.”
“But you think I should?”
“It might help me find him.”
Manny thought about that for a second and then said, “I’m not sure this is your business.”
“I don’t want to get in your business, I just want to find Mal.”
Manny considered this for another moment and then said, “He wanted me to set up a meet with a man I did business with. I really can’t tell you more than that.”
“The man have a name?”
Manny smiled again. “This is the funny part. I couldn’t find him. Word is, he is either missing or dead, or more likely both.”
“So, there never was going to be a meeting?”
“No, there was going to be a meeting. Once my missing man’s people heard I was looking for him, they contacted me. I figured my boy was just a middle man anyway. If Mal could go to the source, I figured he’d be okay with it.”
“You still didn’t give me a name.”
“Yeah, I didn’t and I’m not going to. These aren’t the kind of guys I want to be talking about out of school.”
“Cartel?”
“Why would you go there?”
“They are the kind of guys a person wouldn’t want to be talking about out of school.”
“That’s true, but they ain’t the only ones.”
“You said the guy he was originally supposed to meet disappeared?”
“Yeah, maybe he talked out of school.”
“Did he have a name?”
“I’m sure he did, I never knew it though. We just called him the cowboy.”
When Margot didn’t say anything Manny said, “You look like you’ve heard that one before. Maybe I should be asking you the questions.”