Elmore Leonard - Raylan

“I can see it,” Layla said in her easy way. “You left them for dead?”

“I never heard they made it or passed.”

She reached across the table to lay her hand on his.

“But if you don’t do the Crowes they’ll tell on us.” She said, “Starting a new practice things always happen you didn’t plan on.” She said, “Once the Crowes are caught they’ll give us up. You know that.”

“I suppose,” Cuba said. “Only I never walked up to a man I’ve done business with and shot him. Or got into any kind of gig I ain’t positive it’s gonna pay off.”

“It’s like learning a new procedure,” Layla said. “Once you have it down… Our first week we scored both times, no surprises, four kidneys at ten each. I’m glad I found a good body broker. We can deal with some at the hospital, but you have to get the right ones when you’re freelancing. If we do just one a week for a year, extract both kidneys, you know what we make? A million bucks. While Dr. Blow Job’s working his ass off five days a week.”

“Your idea of usin masks,” Cuba said, “made it a scene. The guy in the motel room opens the door, tired, just come off the road. Sees these faces lookin at him-”

“They had to be the right ones,” Layla said.

“Man can’t believe what’s goin on. Starts to grin as I’m shakin his hand. You jab the needle in the man and I catch him as he goes down.”

“We started laughing,” Layla said, “I think with relief. Remember?”

“It was funny, ” Cuba said. “We laughin in our rubber masks cause it was funny. I always felt, you don’t have a good time doin crime, you may as well find a job.”

Layla grinning at him till she said, “If I had any idea Angel knew the brothers-”

“I told you he did. You thinkin we sell ’em back the same day for a hundred grand, your mind busy. Hmmmm, maybe this is how we do Mr. Harry. The man still botherin your mind.”

“You’re right,” Layla said, “I was looking ahead. We know Harry can pay whatever we ask. Like a half mil for the pair?”

“Sounds about right,” Cuba said.

“But how do we collect,” Layla said, “without exposing ourselves?”

“I was thinking,” Cuba said, “we could take the Crowe brothers’ kidneys.”

He waited.

“That’s not a bad idea,” Layla said. “The boys have to be good for some thing.”

“Take out the kidneys,” Cuba said, “and forget about callin a hospital.”

“You’re off the hook,” Layla said. “Letting a person die isn’t the same as killing him. Or is it?”

“A course not,” Cuba said, “they two different things.”

“It’s okay with me,” Layla said, “either way.”

R aylan had to wait while Art was on the phone talking-Raylan believed-to Lexington, Art showing respect to whoever it was. “Yes, sir, we’re on that one. I was just now discussin the situation with Raylan… Raylan Givens… No sir, he’s doin his job. Okay, I’ll tell him.” Art hung up the phone and looked at Raylan across the desk.

“What’re you doing?”

“Lookin for Crowes. What’d they want to know?”

“If you’d shot anybody this week.” Art picked up a photo from his desk, a color print, and handed it across to Raylan.

“We have a detainer on Bob Valdez, works security for Pervis Crowe. Though Bob actually works for the Mexican Mafia.”

“What they call themselves. I heard Pervis calls ’em the Taco Mafia,” Raylan said. “Tell me why we let ’em grow weed here in the U.S.” S"0e Ta

“I don’t know,” Art said. “Cause they’re good at it?”

He watched Raylan study the color shot of a man named McCready, a laid-off miner.

“He was growing a patch of weed out back of the house. Bob Valdez shot McCready through the leg-you see him pressing the towel to his thigh-and the other guy snapped a varmint trap to his bare foot. Ed took it off, but you can see where it cut him.”

“Who shot the pictures?”

“His little girl Loretta, fourteen. She’s been keeping house and going to school since her mama passed, Loretta ten at that time.” He handed Raylan a few more photos. “That’s Ed while they’re waitin for the doctor. See his foot? The doctor never made it, got tied up deliverin a baby. Loretta doesn’t have a license but can drive. So she took her dad to town.”

“I met Loretta,” Raylan said, “at Pervis’s, she’s havin an RC Cola. She asked if I thought she was bold she inquired what I did for a living. She’s gonna have a hard time with boys, finding one good enough for her.”

“Anyway,” Art said, “get the cops to ask Bob about his shootin McCready and bring him in to make his statement.”

“If Loretta said he shot her dad and has pictures of it… Why don’t we arrest him? Get Loretta’s statement, not Bob’s. That girl comes right at you.”

“Handle it,” Art said. “Meanwhile, two young men, both salesmen, woke up in hospitals without their kidneys. One in Lexington, the other Richmond, two days apart and the week before Angel lost his.”

“I remember seein it on the news,” Raylan said, “but didn’t relate it to anything we’re doing-yeah, until we found Angel in the tub. I didn’t know right away he’d lost his kidneys. You’re the one tole me. No, it was Rachel, her mom had transplants. Then I wondered if the Crowes were in on the first ones, the salesmen. Their incisions were closed by a doctor. Angel’s, somebody made a mess with the staples. Right away I think of the Crowes, Coover. Why didn’t the doctor close Angel? He could’ve got tired of putting up with the brothers and walked out.”

Art said, “Where you getting that?”

“It’s what I would’ve done,” Raylan said, “knowin those dumbbells. A doctor working under pressure in a motel room, he’s had enough of the brothers, leaves them to close up. But why’d he hire them to begin with?”

“To heft bodies,” Art said.

“Cuba Frank’s there Sank="0.”

“One thing we know for sure,” Art said, “it wasn’t the Crowes wearing the rubber masks. Both fellas said a man and a woman.”

“The president and Mrs. Obama out havin fun,” Raylan said. “Making about twenty grand every time they put on their masks.” He said, “Imagine you open the door and there the Obamas calling on you? They come in the motel room talking.” He said to Art, “Who’s playing Michelle?”

Art said, “I guess the doctor brought… a nurse?”

“Who did…? Cuba Franks?”

It stopped Art. Now he was shaking his head.

“What’s wrong with me-Michelle Obama’s the doctor.”

“It can’t be anybody else, can it?” Raylan said. “Don’t we have tapes of their statements? What the two guys remember?”

“If you want to believe it,” Art said.

“It sounded good to me,” Raylan said. “Michelle walks up and kisses the guy on the mouth.”

“They both said pretty much the same thing. How she approached, got real close-”

“She lifts her mask from under her chin,” Raylan said, “to free her mouth and presses it into his. The last thing he remembers is getting turned on. As they come apart she hits him with the needle. He dreams of the First Lady tonguing him while she’s taking out his kidneys.”

Art said, “I wonder if she’s black.”

Raylan shook his head. “They both said she was white.”

A rt said a couple times he wondered if she might be a doctor. Raylan said he did too, but couldn’t see a woman stealing kidneys in a motel room. Even one pissed off at having her license pulled. “I’m dyin to meet her.”

“Check on Bob Valdez first,” Art said, “it having been handed down from above. Then I want the Crowes brought in while I’m getting the warrants.”