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Gunner Ardoin, whom Father Jimmie referred to as Phil, looked at me briefly, then out the window at a trusty mowing the grass.
"You want to tell me something, Gunner?" I asked.
"Yeah, sure," he replied.
Father Jimmie nodded and left the room. I told Gunner to take a seat in front of my desk. He breathed through his mouth, as though he were inside a walk-in freezer.
"I'm doing this for Father Dolan," he said.
"You're doing it to save your ass," I said.
His eyes didn't look at me but his face hardened.
"You went to confession?" I said.
"They call it reconciliation now. But, yeah, I went," he said.
"So who put the contract on Father Jimmie?"
"I got a phone call. From a guy named Ray. He don't have another name. He just said I was supposed to take care of Father Dolan. When I got a delivery to make, Ray is the guy who calls me. I told Ray I didn't do stuff like that. He says I do it or I find a new source of income. So .I called up a guy. He rolls queers in the Quarter and at some sleaze joints on Airline. For a hundred bucks he does other kinds of work, too."
"Do you have any idea what you did to a decent and fine man?"
"You want the guy's name?"
"No, I want Ray's last name and I want the guy Ray works for."
"Man, you don't understand. Father Dolan's got enemies all over New Orleans. He's trying to shut down drive-by daiquiri windows and trash incinerators and these guys who been dumping sludge out in the river parishes. He told the Times-Picayune these right-to-life people were committing a sin by putting these women's pictures and names on the Internet."
"What are you talking about?"
"These anti-abortion nutcases. They take pictures of women going into abortion clinics, then put the pictures and the women's names and addresses on the Internet. Father Dolan spoke up about it, a Catholic priest. How many enemies does one guy need?"
"Our time is about up, Gunner," I said.
"The queer-bait from the Quarter was supposed to scare Father Dolan, not go ape shit with a pipe. Hey, are you listening? It's on the street I snitched off Sammy Fig. You must have given up my name to Fat Sammy."
"Sammy says he never heard of you. You shouldn't have anything to worry about."
"I knew it." His face turned gray. He wiped his mouth and looked at the trusty gardener clipping a hedge outside the window. "Why you staring at me like that?" he said.
"I think you're using the seal of the confessional to keep Father Dolan from testifying against you."
"Maybe that was true at first. But I'm still sorry for what I done. He's a good guy. He didn't deserve what happened to him."
I glanced at my watch. "We're done here. So long, Gunner," I said.
He rose from his chair and walked to the door, then stopped, his shoulders slightly stooped, his impish features waiting in anticipation, as though an act of mercy might still be extended to him.
"What is it?" I said.
"Call Sammy Fig. Tell him I didn't rat him out."
"What's Ray's last name?" I asked.
"I don't know."
"Adios,"I said.
