Chapter 21Death comes in threes, I had long heard. First was Louie, next came Scarlett, and now…I usually put such dark thoughts out of my mind and immerse myself in the activities of the living. But it took me a few days to find myself back to the land of the living after Kong had manhandled me. During those days I lay around the apartment reading, listening to the radio, eating, boozing, and sleeping. My Smith & Wesson never lay far from my aching side since a possible visit from Kong, his partner, John, or one of Blatt's paid head-bashers hung in the air like a bad smell.
But slowly my kidneys began to recuperate and John Philip Sousa ceased to conduct his liveliest marches in my head. The shiner my right eye had received was still doing a pretty good imitation of Hoagy Carmichael's “D
