The sandwich she'd devoured the moment she stepped off the bus had sated her hunger; but there was nothing that could quell the troupe of dancing butterflies in her stomach as Evelyn Lockhart sat on the edge of the retaining wall outside of the office building. She'd checked three times before sitting down to collect herself. There had been several addresses attached to Billy's name, and she knew that all of them were probably owned by him- but this was the smallest and easiest to access. There were no elevators, no security stations, no off-street access. It was a simple building with several store-front type entrances, and the one with Billy's address was a real-estate law office. That tracked. 

As her watch ticked over to 3:45, Evelyn took a deep breath and stood up. She brushed any collected debris from her denim pedal-pusher jeans and did the same to her black knit top. She even made sure that the clasp of the silver heart locket around her neck was in the back, hidden behind the cascade of honey-colored curls falling over her shoulders. It had been too many years since they'd seen each other; and given the way she'd left, it felt somewhat presumptuous to assume that he'd even take the time to see her now, but she had to try. 

Pushing the door open, a little bell sounded and a middle-aged looking secretary looked up with a polite smile.

"Can I help you?"

"Hi, um, yes, I was hoping to see Mr. Mastrosimone- if he's in."

The secretary looked down at an open appointment book and squinted.

"Do you have an appointment?"

"No, but I think he may want to see me- it's about a property he's familiar with, at 2773 Mercer Street, New York, New York."

She enunciated the address very carefully so that the secretary would get it correctly. If she gave it to Billy, he'd recognize it immediately, and her chances of getting in should be a lot better. The secretary peered at her for a moment, but deciding that it wasn't her decision to make, nodded and disappeared into the back. 

Evie found her heart pounding. She closed her eyes and bit her lower lip. She just needed something to go right, now. 

A moment passed for Evelyn, then two, then three. Finally the secretary stepped out without a word, and following her was the large man who swalloed the doorway. Billy stepped into the front office with a bewildered look on his face. One of two things was going on, either someone very special was coming to visit, or someone knew too much and needed to die. He was more prepared for the second one if he was being honest, especially with everything that had happened in only a few month's time in this life. To his welcome surprise though, there was a sweet-looking too familiar blonde standing in his office.

"Evie? Is... is that you?" He managed to stammer out as he made his feet drag forward across the floor. It's not as if his past often came to visit him, and he had a hard time knowing what to do when it did.

Composing himself, he dragged a chair from the wall and gestured. "Come on, sit, do you want anything? Need anything? Water, coffee, a soda?" He looked toward the secretary then who had almost just sat back down. The woman sighed and waited for a reponse before getting comfortable.

While some people had found Billy's statue to be intimidating, Evie had always felt it to be far more comforting to be around. Then again, she was never on the wrong side of his business. As she watched his reaction to seeing her show up at his doorstep for the first time in nearly seven years, she took some comfort again in that perhaps she hadn't yet crossed that line.

Glancing briefly at the secretary, Evie shook her head. She was just trying to put a sentence together; water would likely just muck everything up. She crossed the few steps to the chair and sat slowly, not taking her eyes off him, almost as if she were afraid that he might disappear if she did.

"No, thank you, I don't need anything. To drink. I need...to apologize. I know that, and I will, I'll explain everything; but..."

She was starting to stumble over her words, like she always did when she was nervous and spoke too fast. Pursuing her lips tightly, she closed her eyes for a second and forced herself to slow down and do exactly what she'd practiced over and over on the bus from Chicago. 

When she opened them again, she looked at Billy steadily. Her dark blue eyes said the words before she did, but her voice remained as calm as she could manage.

"I've done something awful, and I need help. Billy, I need your help."

Billy watched as Evelyn swallowed whatever words threatened to stumble from her lips and then force herself to say something practiced. He had seen a few dozen people ask for help in a practiced manner at this point, he could tell when it wasn't comfortable, when it wasn't quite begging, but when it was a truely difficult thing.

This wwas one of those times. And so, there was nothing to be done about whatever mistake was made. Now was the time to fix shit, later would be the time to be angry, or hurt, or vindictive.

"Right." He said softly and then put a hand on Evie's should blades, just at the top of her back. "How about we talk in my office then? Mary can make sure we get some privacy and some tea if we're not out in half an hour."

For her part, Mary nodded and Billy slowly guided Evelyn out of her chair, and into his office. Once there, they each took a seat, Evelyn in the guset chair across from Billy's desk, and billy in his own spot behind it.

"So, what kind of help are we talking about? Money? A favor? A phone call? You need to borrow the plane? What's going on?" He realized then that he had just casually mentioned the fact that he could get her a plane anywhere she wanted. He couldn't do that the last time they saw each other. That might be a shock to her.

If it was, he would find out soon.

Something in her chest tightened like a vice at his touch, then seemed to slowly burn away and the butterflies in her stomach started to quiet. The next thing she knew, she was sitting in a chair across from him with a large desk in between them and he said something about a plane. Despite feeling like she was the cork holding back a dam of mixed emotions, she wryly laughed.

"A plane? Fuck, I should have just called before I got on a dirty old bus in Naperville."

It was then that everything Evelyn had learned about Billy sort of started to pull together to form a more complete picture. Evelyn had known back in school that his family had connections. She didn't really understand what those connections were then, but when she'd started searching for him a week ago, the newspaper articles started to put things into perspective. But now, she was sitting across from him; and he was more than "just Billy." It occurred to her that Billy was a really powerful man that had a lot of sway and a lot of troubles of his own, more than likely. For a second, Evelyn started to feel quite small, and quite stupid, for showing up at all. But an image of a body exsanguinating in her bathtub spurned her onward. She swallowed a nagging lump in her throat and began. It started slow, but then all came out in a flood of words she hadn't dared say aloud to even the darkness.

"I killed Raymond. I...I stabbed him. Like, a lot. He had come to my house to try and get money again; but I refused, like always. But he was drunk. I mean, he was really drunk; and he grabbed me and tried to...."

She stopped there. It wasn't something she liked to say, and she remembered Billy being quite easy to upset when it came to women being treated improperly. 

"I got away from him, and ran to the kitchen in my apartment to try and get to the fire stairs. He was too close though. All I had time to do was grab a knife. When he reached for me again, I...I just slashed at him and cut his arm. He screamed and pulled back and...god, I don't know, Billy, I just...it was like something just broke in my head. All those times he hit Mom, and me. The way he just showed up after Dad died and took everything we had like it was his...and blew it. I jumped on him, and just stabbed him."

Her voice was quivering, but there was no sign that her eyes would spill over. There was still rage there; maybe a tinge of fear. Finally, she seemed to come back to the present and looked at Billy.

"I couldn't do anything, he was too heavy to move by myself. I managed to drag him to the bathroom- but I didn't know what to do. I just...left. I changed my clothes and put a few things in a bag and ran. He's probably still there, unless the cops or someone have found him. I don't know. I don't know what to do."

Evelyn was lost, and had been for five days straight. 

"Where the fuck is Naperville?" Billy asked mostly under his breath before shaking the question, and his head simultaneously.

"Evie, hey, don't worry. Calm down." He stood from his chair, likely more quickly than he intended based on the snap of her head in his direction as his chari scraped across the floor. His hands went up defensively in response. "You'll be alright." He slowly made his way over, and knelt down next to the chair, reaching an arm around her and slowly, softly rubbing her opposite shoulder, not quite holding her in an embrace, but certainly making her know he was there. "You did good. You did the right thing."

Half of what he said in these moments were just platitudes to try and get people back to a calm state of mind. The other half were real. In this case, he had no idea if she had done well, but she certainly did do the right thing.

"If you take a breath, and let me know when I can ask some questions, then I can help you. I need some things from you though." He nodded, slowly and reassuringly, making his way around her so he was in fron of her. When she finally started to mimic his nodding, he knew she was ready.

"Alright, you just tell me where Ray is and I'll make sure everything else is taken care of." He waggled a finger. "And I know, he's taking a bath, I know, but where is your apartment kid? Where were you living when he came to visit?" That was another thing Billy had learned. If you used benign language, taking a bath, coming for a visit, it helped people to put it out of their minds and pretend to themselves that something bad didn't just happen. Once he had the information he needed, he could get some guys on the job. And depending on where she came from, he might spend a little money making the cops look in a different direction. Or, he might call in a favor from someone else in the organization.

Eight and a half years ago, Billy come by Evelyn's dormitory at NYU to study for an algebra test and found her crying into her text book because some pompous trust-fund brat of a senior in the music department had judged her keyboarding to be "elementary, at best" in front of a group of visiting instructors. She had been so humiliated that she had come within a hairs breadth of quitting her program entirely. It was the same gentleness and reassurance- coming from the tall and broad shouldered man now beside her again- that had calmed her down when an hour and a half of crying hadn't been able to do it. And again, here he was, all these years later with the exact same gentleness and calm in his voice making her feel like things might actually be ok.

"Melrose Park, a neighborhood in Chicago. I can write down the address. It's just a big house that's divided into four apartments, but there are only three tenants. I closed the floor vents before I left, hoping the heat would stay out and keep it from smelling too much. I mean, it's not the nicest neighborhood, no one would really poke around, and I always pay a month ahead on my rent so the landlord wouldn't be coming around for any reason."

She sighed and ran her fingers through her hair, as if trying to think hard.

"Even if no one has figured it out yet, I've been gone from my job too long without calling- I'm sure Vaughn has fired me by now. Damn it. Billy, I was trying to put my life back together after Mom...." She stopped, realizing that was the cork in the other hole. The one for later. Shaking her head, she restarted.

"Thank you. For even letting me in the door. I know there's so much to explain, and if you'll let me I will."

Evelyn looked over, her eyes only leveling with his because he was kneeling there. Her fingers were fiddling with the hem of her sweater.

"I couldn't think of anywhere else I'd be safe."  

Billy stared at Evelyn for longer than he probably should have, she was always beautiful, even when she was upset. Sometimes even moreso during hard times. He shook the thought from his head and spoke.

"No need to worry, you write down that address, and I'll get it taken care of." He stood and walked around the desk again to get a pad and a pen. Chicago was going to be a bit of a pain in the ass, not many connections there, but money talked. "How long did it take you to get all the way out here by bus? You're not wrong, you should have called, I would hate to have smelled that thing by the end of it."

He then realized something, and turned to look at Evie then. "Wait a minute. Where are you staying while you're here?" He looked past her into the front room again and didn't see anything that didn't belong there. "Where are your bags? I know you didn't leave everything behind right? You do have somewhere to stay right?" He picked up a pad and a pen then and handed them over to her.

"Write down your apartment address, and I'll get on that first, then we'll find a place for you to stay. I've got extra rooms at my house if you don't mind company, but if you want some privacy, then one of my guys owns a hotel I can have him put you up there. Although that might be less private come to think of it..." He paused, and shook his head. "Either way, we'll get you set up."

He stood then and made his way to the door, cracking it open. "Mary, would you get us that tea please?" He asked into the hallway. The clack of heels on the hardwood could be heard just before he shut the door again.

"Alright, tea soon, I'll make a couple phone calls and then we can decide what's next. Have you eaten since you got here?"

For a second, catching his eyes, Evie saw them back at NYU; laughing quietly in the library when they were shushed by the staff for chatting too much, or barreling down the freeway in Billy's car on a carefree afternoon-- and for the first time in days that she'd almost lost count of, Evie smiled a little. 

When he got up and went to his desk, she dug in her purse for the bus ticket, quickly counting back.

"Three days. Probably would have been faster if we hadn't had to stop so much, but there was a group of old folks going to Vegas and, you know, old folks bladders."

Billy handed her a pad and pen, and she started writing out her apartment address as he asked about her things and where to stay. She looked up a bit sheepishly as she handed him the pad and pen again.

"I got in this morning. The bus station had a shower, and there are lockers there; my bag is there. I didn't bring much, just a duffle bag. I just brought a change of clothes and a few things. I even left my driver's license. I panicked- I thought maybe if I left important stuff like that the cops would think I got kidnapped instead of ran."

She shook her head and rubbed her eyes for a second.

"I wasn't thinking straight. Nothing made sense except for getting away from there. I didn't really have a plan once I got here outside of finding you and asking for help."

That's when she realized how exhausted she really was. It had been five days since Raymond came into her apartment and breathed his last whiskey-soaked breath, and three days since she'd stepped onto a bus in Naperville bound for Los Angeles. In all of that time, she'd probably slept a total of 12 hours. But tea sounded nice.

Billy was talking to his secretary at the door, so Evie stood and started looking at the pictures on the wall. They were all beautiful landscapes, portraits of fantastic architecture, or cars; but no family. 

"Have you eaten since you got here?"

Evelyn turned and nodded, taking a step toward him, this time looing up a little- more familiar.

"I had a sandwich when I got off the bus. I saved half for later but forgot about it and sat on it."

She gave a tiny frustrated frown, remembering the ten minutes she spent trying to wipe mustard out of her purse lining with paper napkins.

Billy slowly nodded as he turned.

"Right, so first thing to do is to get your things from the bus station. We will gt you set up with a palce to stay, and I'll make some phone calls to my boys and get them to Chicago lickety split."

He followed through as quick as he could on his words too as Mary walked in.

"Mary, you can just set the tray down we can take it from here. Get Frank and Gary on the phone, I need them to go to Chicago now. Send them to this address." He tored off the paper with Evie's apartment on it and handed it over. "They'll scope the places out, it's going up for sale soon and I want to jump on it before anyone else gets any fun ideas." He smiled to the secretary, despite his tone of voice. It was clear what he meant, this was to be done now, before anything else got done, or she might not be working here for very long.

Mary, for her part, got it, and simply nodded, closing the door behind her.

"Now, tea first, then we go to the bus station. Andy will drive us, there will be more than enough room for your things. The only question I have for you is, do you want to stay at a hotel, or at my place for now? We'll get yout your own place soon. He gestured around the room. "I know a guy in real estate that can get it for yoiu cheap." He smirked, and began to pour.

"Still two sugars and a dollop of cream? Or was that just for coffee?"

She watched in amazement as Billy seemed to orchestrate so much so quickly and simply. Within mere minutes, there were men on their way to board a plane to Chicago, her apartment was bound for the market, and a body was going to...disappear?

Then, as if it was all as easy as falling off a log, he turned to her and recalled information about her that he hadn't had to think of in ages while he cracked a real estate joke. Evelyn's eyes creased softly at the corners with a little smile.

"You always did have a remarkable mind for detail. That's exactly how I like both."

She joined him at the coffee table, waiting to sit when he did, and trying to decide how to answer his first question.

"As for where to stay, I don't want to be a bother; it's just that...I haven't really been alone since that night and I'm kind of...not sure I want to be yet."

There was a pause as she tried to put her words together again, but then she realized the pause itself might imply she was asking more than she was. She looked back up quickly.

"Not that I'm asking you to keep me company, I know you're busy. But, if you've got room, maybe I could stay out of the way with someone I know rather than somewhere I don't know?"

She felt so stupid asking. Yes, he had offered, but was it really her place to accept? Then again, maybe this was her best opportunity to make amends. 

Billy finished pouring tea and then slid the saucer and a cup over to her, complete with a little silver spoon so she could stir.

"That's settled then, you can stay in the guest wing. I'll have Mary call the house. He made his way to the door before pouring his own tea and opened it to stick his head out.

"Mary, could you ring the Manor and tell them that we have a guest whi will be staying with me. Tell them to put her in the nearest guest suite, she wants company over privacy."

WIth confirmation that the other woman was going to do just as he instructed, he closed the door once more.

"So..." He said turning back to pouring his own cup of tea. "You'venever been to L.A., and now you're got your shot out here, what do you want to do first? You're on vacation now, you just quit your job, and sold your apartment to an old friend. You've got a free two week long vacation before you move in to your new apartment in L.A. What, miss Lockhart, are you going to do first?" He sat down in his own chair and took a sip from his cup of tea. He had reveled in doing this when they were in college together. He would posit a scenario, sometimes real, sometimes futuristic, and then ask her what she would do next, almost like he was interviewing her. It was always fun for him, to make Evie feel like the start of the show, the center of attention. With the way Evelyn was, he was surprised she wasn't the star more often, but he rarely said that out loud.

She knew she had looks, but was never ostentatious about it. She also was smarter than he was, and they both knew it, even when she didn't admit it. She was going to NYU on a schaolarship, at least he thought she was, and he was going because mom had a lot of money. Nobody took Billy for a genius. And he never was good at books either, so the time in college was spent cheating off other people in more way than one. Sure he would cheat on tests, but he also learned by talking. Evie was a good teacher too cause she could talk about anything.

Gently swirling the warm, aromatic tea in the cup, Evie allowed herself to be taken into Billy's little scenario. Hell, the last time she'd been on vacation was when she was 14 and Dad had taken the family to a lake cabin in the Wisconsin Dells. This was California, and even if it was a flight of fancy, it was easily 30 degrees warmer here than in Chicago.

"I think I would want some sunshine. I would find a beach and lay in the sand until my whole being thawed out from years of Chicago winters. Maybe try surfing. Just spend one good day beach bumming and get some color on this pale Midwestern city girl face."

She thought for a second, letting herself go just a little further into the fantasy.

"And then, I would find a piano somewhere and play until they made me leave."

Evelyn looked up at Billy then, explaining.

"I've been working as a waitress. There weren't any jobs for a music teacher, even with a Master's degree, so I was trying to save to go back and get an MBA. Didn't really leave much time for music anymore. I hated it."

She finally took a drink of her tea and gave him a real smile, with some kind of hope behind it.

"Maybe I can finally get back to that here. I mean, California is the land of dreams, right?"

Billy sipped his tea as he listened and nodded slowly as she asked him a question.

"Certainly is."

He reached over to his desk, and jotted down a note for himself for later, and then continued.

"SO, the beach for a couple of days, and then some piano playing. That gonna take up your whole two weeks? You've got to have something else planned right? What about Vegas? That's only about 8 hours away if you drive, that could be a good time for you. Or maybe you want to take a tour of the city? They have these busses that take you all around town and show you where the fancy people live, the movie stars and such."

He took another sip.

"Oh, and food, you didn't mention food at all! Are you just going to starve while you're here? What kind of places do you plan on visiting for food? I know you're staying with a friend, and they have a cook, so you can always get your meals at home, but what about a fancy dinner or something?"

He put his cup of team down then and reached into his jacket pocket.

"Speaking of which, you need to go shopping, one duffel bag does not a woman's wardrobe make." He took out his wallet, and removed a few bills from it. "I only have a few hundred on me right now, well that's closer to a thousand, but it'll get the job done until I can get to the bank later." He placed the cash on the arm of Evie's chair then and replaced his wallet to take up his cup of tea again.

"Anyway, tell me more about your vacation plans."

With the teacup right at her lips, Evelyn froze for a moment while her eyes fell to the "few hundred" now sitting beside her. Oh shit.

She took a moment, taking a long drink of the tea and suddenly wishing there was whiskey in it, then sat the cup on its saucer and the saucer on the tabletop.

"Billy, I...I know you. I know this is the kind of situation where you want to put everything you can behind that big heart of yours to try and fix what you can; but before you do that, you deserve an explanation for what happened back at NYU. Because right now, whether you want to admit it or not, I'm the woman that walked away from you."

Her hands clasped each other in her lap and she looked down for a second, then back up to him.

"I can't even begin to imagine what has gone through your mind in eight years- and frankly I wouldn't have blamed you if you'd made yourself forget me all together. But I remember. Two nights before after my sophomore recital, when I thought I had blown my vocal piece so badly, but you were there and you finally told me you...how you felt. And I felt that way too...and then I was just gone. You can't look at me now and tell me you're not hurt, Billy. I didn't come here to take anything from you."

Now, despite how desperately hard she was fighting on the inside, the corners of her eyes were beginning to glisten.

"Yes, I need your help; but more than that, I need to make things right with you before I can go on."

Billy stopped taking his tea. He hadn't forgotten. He hadn't written her off. On the contrary, he got busy instead. He dove into family business, and work, and forgot about school entierly. He made his way through life working to regain everything that anyone else had ever taken from him or his family. He did everything he could to not think too hard about Evie or why she left, and made sure that if anyone was ever in that place in his life again, there would be no reason for them to walk away.

And then his lps parted, and he told her the lie he'd been telling himself to make it hurt less.

"Evie, it's fine. You were always smarter than me. You were always destined to marry a doctor, or a lawyer, or the President or something. I just figured you found someone like that and you didn't have the heart to tell me, so you did what anyone would do. You left so you didn't have to."

He shrugged, but put his tea down all the same.

"If you want to explain, go ahead, but I was going to pretend like nothing happened, because truth be told, that's how I've been living my life. I think about it too much and I start to ask questions I don't like the answers to. I don't like the fact that you're too pretty for me. I don't like the fact that you're too smart for me. I don't like the fact that you left. And I really hate the fact that there was never anything I could do about most of those things. Sure, I could apply myself and get book smart, but..." He gestured to the room around him. "This wouldn't have happened if I was book smart, and honestly, this is just the tip of the iceberg. You have no idea what's become of me since NYU. I dropped out you know. Never finished. I did this instead."

He leaned back in his chair then and folded his hands in front of him.

"But I'm not going to stop you or say any more. You go ahead then, say what you need to say. Then we can find out what's worth knowing, and what should have stayed secret."

Hearing the routine of mental gymnastics Billy had been performing for so long shattered her, and it was only then that Evelyn truly understood that maybe she hadn't been protecting him as much as she'd thought. She shook her head.

"No, Billy, it wasn't anything like that. It was...look, you remember that my Mom got sick but they didn't know what it was? Well Raymond eventually had to stop working to take care of her, and that meant that the money from the locksmith business started to dry up; which meant he didn't have as much money to drink and gamble. He was getting mean, Mom would call me and tell me she was starting to get afraid of him; and she was getting more and more sick. I kept begging her to leave him, but he had control of all the accounts and she didn't have anywhere to go."

She cleared her throat as anger started to rise.

"The day I left NYU, Mom called- he had beaten her. She called me from her bedroom closet while Raymond was passed out drunk in the living room. I just dropped everything and left to go to her. As soon as I got home, I realized everything was so much worse than she'd let on. There was nothing left. No money, the business was in shambles. The house was a wreck, and Mom...god she was so sick. He'd been spending her money and she couldn't get treatment. Fuck, was he mad when he realized I was back. He knew he couldn't control her anymore. I started fixing things as best I could with what money I had. Ray didn't know dad left me money of my own. It wasn't a whole lot, but I could at least get Mom some medication and start getting some things straight. When he figured out I had something, he started trying to get it from me- but I wouldn't give it to him. He tried to threaten me, but I didn't take it like Mom did."

Looking down, her voice softened. 

"Mom died not long after. She had left the house to me, but Ray took me to court over it. I got a lawyer, but he was shit. Ray got the house after all and kicked me out. That's how I ended up in Melrose Park. And would you believe it, that bastard kept trying to come after me for money?"

She huffed a sardonic laugh and shook her head, wiping an errant tear that had escaped with the back of her hand.

"Anyway, he got what he deserved. I didn't tell you because it was just so...much. It was this awful mess and Raymond was a vengeful bastard, and I didn't want...I mean, we'd just...this wasn't the kind of thing I wanted to drop in your lap right after you finally told me you loved me, Billy. I wanted to be your girl so much...but I didn't want to make my mess your mess. I thought maybe I could fix things quickly then let you know I'd be back. But it didn't happen that way; and by the time I got back to NYU to finish my degree, you were gone. I figured you'd moved on, too. You had a way better life than the trash I'd ended up in. I didn't want to drag you down."

Saying the words left a bitter taste in her mouth. In her heart, she knew she could fight to be better- now. But at the time, she didn't believe a thing in herself.  Evelyn clenched her eyes shut tightly, remembering the things he'd said moments before.

"But god, Billy, I never forgot you. There was never a doctor, a lawyer, or a President I would have rather had in my life."

She looked up again at his face, just grateful now that she could see it and finally say what needed to be said.

"I'm so sorry. I wish I had told you...given you the choice. I know now that I should have done that."

Billy shook his head. "Probably better that you didn't. I would have wound up in jail." He sighed and looked around the room, not finding anything he needed to help him in that moment, he shrugged and reached over his desk to ope a drawer and pulled out a pistol. It wasn't anything special, just a Colt 1911, but he pulled it out, and placed it on the coffee table.

"Safety isn't on, and it's loaded." He said flatly. "I gotta keep it that way." He looked up to meet Evie's eyes. "Your type of shit is one type, mine is another. I know you are aware I was well off, but nobody ever knew why. My mother was real good about keeping the family money close to her chest. Me? Not so much. I deal drugs, I buy and sell real-estate, I bribe to get what I need, and I kill when they don't listen."

He took a deep breath and let what he said sink in for a second. "Ray would have died well before now if I had known, and then there wouldn't have been anybody to help. At least now I can help you." He smiled then. "And, not to be the bearer of bad news, but there's a silver lining here, you just got the house back. So there's that I guess right? If he's gone, he certainly doesn't own it anymore."

He picked up the pen and wrote another note on his pad.

"And if there's a mortgage or anything he took out on it to get him some cash, well, we can just pay that off real quick and it's yours. No harm no foul." He put the pen back down and looked to Evie then. "So, no regrets okay? We live life with the cards we were dealt. Right now, we just gotta make sure you don't get implicated, which, probably won't happen anyway becaise they'll find Ray near one his frequented gambling halls. They won't ask questions after that. They'll just assume they know what happened. The guy took on debt he couldn't pay and someone was tired of him. Done."

He siad it matter of factly, in such a praciticed and thoughtful manner, as if he had done this all before and probably would again. Sometimes the way Billy talked about other people's lives brought a chill to his spine. This guy though? This guy could burn in hell.

Evelyn looked at the gun, but only briefly before looking back to Billy as he spoke to her, explaining things that she had mostly put together on her own. Even though she knew the things he said were supposed to be frightening or intimidating to some people, they didn't change who he was to her. 

"I know who you are, Billy. I've always known that. As for what you do, the only thing that matters is that it's fulfilling; and that you're happy."

Looking around, Evelyn found her purse and reached inside. From it, she took a small linen bag with a satin drawstring. She opened it carefully, as if it held pure gold inside. She smiled as she pulled the contents out gently; two New York subway tokens and a printed paper program from a Semester Recital eight years ago. Evelyn put them on the table so he could see them.

"That night was probably the happiest I had been in a long time, and would be for a long time after. And I never got to thank you for that. But I can now, and I'll do whatever I can. I'm not going back to Chicago. There's nothing there for me anymore. If I have a chance to start over, maybe it's here."

Billy frowned at the last comment.

"Well that's unfortunate, but I'm not going to just let that house go up for sale. SO I'll buy it with your permission and then if you ever need it, considert it an asset that you own. We don't have to rent it out or anything, and if you're ever down on your luck, you can sell it. It'll be a nice safety net for you."

He nodde as if that discussionw as over before his eyes panned down to the trinkets that Evie had laid on the table.

"That was a whole lifetime ago for both of us huh?" He said, likely more quietly than he had intended. "I know I was a different person back then. I hope I haven't changed too much, but I know I've changed. You have too, we both know it, you don't go through something like you did and manage to come out the other side unchanged." His head shook slightly, almost unbidden.

"Still, you're not wrong, it was a really nice night. I'm still surprised at how good they were considering nobody seemed to know any of those damned people before that night. Maybe that's the trick? To get a really good musician, they have to be secluded until you show em off huh?"

His tea was cold by now, and there were things to do, but he didn't want to move. So he didn't. He sat, quietly, letting memories take him for a few sweet moments until he opened his eyes and looked in her direction again.

"Well, if you're planning on staying here permanently, then you'll need to learn the lay of the land."