The Power of the Dog (Power of the Dog, #1)

by Don Winslow

He takes her to an expensive place on Restaurant Row, just outside the Kitchen but well within his and O-Bop’s sphere of influence. Not a piece of clean linen arrives in this place without him and O-Bop give it the pass, the fire inspector don’t notice that the back door stays locked, a beat cop always finds it convenient to stroll past the place and show the colors, and sometimes a few cases of whiskey come straight off the truck without the hassle of an invoice, so Callan gets a prime table and attentive service. “Jesus,” Siobhan asks as she scans the menu. “Can you afford this?” “Yeah.” “What do you do?” she asks. “For work?” Which is an awkward question. “This and that.” “This” being labor racketeering, loan-sharking and contract murder; “that” being dope. “It must be lucrative,” she says, “this and that.”