Phone reinstated in the boarding house, Mac ceased to receive the calls in regard to his celebrity status. He cornered Kelly on the courthouse lawn and asked if someone got caught and charged with the murder would they re-run the videotape of him talking about Sarah's body's discovery.
"Out of my hands Mac."
"Naw, I just mean would they?"
"Sure, Mac. Probably so. But look, I gotta run."
"You ever need to interview me again, just call right up!" he yelled.
He decided to go with the 7-11 job, and drove over with the gas gauge on less than empty and found it had been given to someone else. "We tried to call you. Line was always busy."
"Huh. Musta been the guy in 4. He's always on it."
"Yeah, that's what it was. Sorry."
"Caught any big ones lately?" Paletello baldly referred to Mac's finding the corpse.
Mac shrugged and Paletello wiped down the counter. It was mid-morning, open early, and no one was in save Mac.
Paletello said cops were coming in twice a day hunting for Glasseye. Mac seemed perplexed, yet authoritative; "Ahh—they've got to be kidding. Kelly talked to his grandmother and he was at her house."
"The one he beat up."
"Well . . ." Just then Ret entered and they ceased to talk. He appeared angry and indisposed to receive Mac's handshake. Mac began to tell the fishing story.
"I heard it already, man," Ret said. Paletello turned on the police scanner and they waited for the lunch crowd to come in. Ret asked Palletello to switch the radio off and after a moment he did.
"How's your car, man?"
"Ain't no car, man."
"But . . . "
"End of story, okay?"
Paletello watches them, Mac at a loss. But he leaves it there. Ret sips uniced water.
Mac rises, walks out to the sidewalk, heads east. Different, Paletello notes.
