He found the Buyer sitting at a table in Jarrow’s Cafeteria.
  "Thought you might be taking the day off." Danny said, putting the case down.
  The Buyer shook his head sadly. "I got nobody. So what’s Christmas to me?" His eyes traveled over the case, poking, testing, looking for flaws. "What was in it?"
  "Nothing."
  "What’s the matter? I don’t pay enough?"
  "I tell you there wasn’t nothing in it."
  "Okay. So somebody travels with an empty suitcase. Okay." He held up three fingers.
  "For Christ’s sake, Gimpy, give me a nickel."
  "You got somebody else. Why don’t he give you a nickel?"
  "It’s like I say, the case was empty."
  Gimpy kicked at the case disparingly. "It’s all nicked up and kinda dirty-looking." He sniffed suspiciously. "How come it stink like that? Mexican leather?"
  "So am I in the leather business?"
  Gimpy shrugged- "Could be." He pulled out a roll of bills and peeled off three ones, dropping them on the table behind the napkin dispenser. "You want?"
  "Okay." Danny picked up the money. "You see George the Greek?" he asked.
  "Where you been? He got busted two days ago."
  "Oh… That’s bad."
  Danny walked out. "Now where can I score?" he thought. George the Greek had lasted so long, Danny thought of him as permanent. "It was good H too, and no short counts."
  Danny went up to 103rd and Broadway. Nobody in Jarrow’s. Nobody in the Automat.
  "Yeah," he snarled. "All the pushers off on the nod someplace. What they care about anybody else? So long as they get in the vein. What they care about a sick junky?"
  He wiped his nose with one finger, looking around furtively.
  "No use hitting those jigs in Harlem. Like as not get beat for my money or they slip me rat poison. Might find Pantapon Rose at Eighth and 23rd."
  There was no one he knew in the 23rd Street Thompson’s.
  "Jesus," he thought. "Where is Everybody?"
  He clutched his coat collar together with one hand, looking up and down the street. "There’s Joey from Brooklyn. I’d know that hat anywhere."
  Joey was walking away, with his back to Danny. He turned around. His face was sunken, skull-like. The gray eyes glittered under a greasy felt hat. Joey was sniffing at regular intervals and his eyes were watering.
  "No use asking him," Danny thought. They looked at each other with the hatred of disappointment.
  "Guess you heard about George the Greek, " Danny said.
  "Yeah. I heard. You been up to 103rd?"
  "Yeah. Just came from there. Nobody around."
  "Nobody around anyplace, " Joey said. "I can’t even score for goofballs."
  "Well, Merry Christmas, Joey. See you."
  "Yeah. See you."