The Damned - Three Days Dead

They say dead men tell no tales, but that just ain't so for some of us. Why we were in with the stiff anyway? The bulls will find him soon enough once he starts stinking. But your belly aching Dutch? You ain't paid the gripe and I ain't paid nearly enough to hear your gums flapping. I'll get his feet, you get his hands. You should have known better than to play the double-crossed Dutch. I smell like ----. How long have I been out here? Not nearly long enough, Eddie. They offer me a ride, but I tell them I don't mind walking. As I wipe away the smell of death from my face, I remember to prepare myself so I don't end up getting killed again. That means arming up my revolver. The evil bastard I'm about to meet is everything you might expect in a crime boss. He's cunning, ruthless, and a son of a bitch. Miguel. Eddie. Come in, take a load off. How you doing? Dead. But you knew that already, so why bother asking? Well, there's no law that says you can't be courteous to your old friends, is there? We're friends again? Is that it? Not to mention, he's a demon. Last I heard, you didn't care if I lived or died. Makes a guy wonder why you pulled him out of the gutter. You're an ungrateful piece of work, you know that, Eddie? As far as I'm concerned, the world would be a better place without you in it. So the boss here wants to dust you off. It's fine by me, but I'll be bent if I'm gonna let you spit in his face. Now, Tony, I'm sure Eddie here didn't mean to ruffle our feathers. You need me, otherwise you wouldn't have dug me up and muzzled your dog. Why? Tony, why don't you go get some air? You know, blow off some steam. Yeah, take a bath. Poor Tony's looking rough. Maybe you're working him too hard. You know, you got a lot of enemies around this town, Eddie. You don't want to make Tony or me among them. Letting bygones be bygones? I'm talking opportunities. It's no secret. You and I, we don't see eye to eye. We have some differences. But you have a special talent, one that makes you very valuable to my organization. Yeah. You don't care if I get whacked. And if I do, you can just dig me up and put me back to work. Here's the thing, Eddie. Me and Bruno York, we've been working out a deal. It'll put an end to the squabbles over the territories. Meaning you finally muscled over, old Bruno. Call it a mutual beneficial agreement. Yeah, sounds real peaceful. How do I fit in? There's a lot of red tape that come around in negotiations like this. Outside parties are brought in to finalize the deal. But the demon who was there to make the arrangements vanished. Right up through my very nose. This demon got a name? Maslow. I take it he's a big shot? High order. You don't think he just got the urge to go sightseeing, do you? Well, that's what I want you to find out. Real quick. Real quiet. The arrangement goes down in a week. And the works are already getting twitchy. If this falls through, well, that's just bad business. How do you know works didn't have anything to do with it? He hasn't got the whole orange. Who'd you have watching Laszlo? I got me by the name of Bito. One of Tony's boys. You leave Tony out of this. He didn't have anything to do with this. Never thought you'd let a grudge cloud clear thinking. Come off it, Al. You can't trust any of your boys. And you can't go to work. Because it'll make you look weak. Right now I'm your best friend. Because I was tits up when Laszlo vanished. As for the rest of your boys? You can trust them about as far as the butt end of that stogie you're smoking. That's what I like about you, Eddie. You're a thinker. So think about this. You do this for me and we're square. You can go about your business. And if you get yourself killed again, I won't dig you up. But after this, we're square. Whatever you say, Eddie. I'm no different than the next fella, really. I lace up my shoes one foot at a time. I drag my carcass out of bed every morning in hopes of scraping through another day. And I do my best not to get maimed, mutilated, or murdered. Only I'm not as good at that last part as most people. Now here I go again, digging up another grave for myself. Even though being dead never seems to stick for me, I've always thought the dying part was a pain in the ass.