"De He shook hands with me. He was enormous. He had a casual competence about him which made me glad he was on my side. He looked like my type of a guy. Like he could be very useful in a tight corner. I suddenly felt a flood of encouragement. I stood aside to let him into Charlie's house.
"OK," Picard said to me. "I got all the details from Jeremiah. Real sorry about your brother, my friend. Real sorry. Somewhere we can talk?"
I led him through to the kitchen. He loped beside me and covered the distance in a couple of strides. Glanced around and poured himself the dregs of the stewed coffee. Then he stepped over next to me and dropped his hand on my shoulder. Felt like somebody had hit me with a bag of cement.
"Ground rules," he said. "This whole thing is off the record, right?"
I nod
