Chapters 5 and 6 Summary

In chapter five, small-time criminal Leroy Fleck reflects on his personal problems. His beloved elderly mother is being kicked out of her nursing home for acts of violence against other residents. There is no way that he can care for her in his apartment and do his job. If Fleck does not get his mother into another nursing home soon, the director, who Fleck calls the Fat Man, will abandon her on the street. Fleck goes to a pay phone and calls a man he knows only as The Client. He reports on the six men he is following and demands $10,000 that The Client owes him. Fleck desperately needs the money to move Mama into another nursing home.

The Client has already paid Fleck $2,000 and refuses to pay him more until the month is up. Fleck has murdered a man, but...