Robert Crais - The Monkey

I had ripped the rear bedroom apart and was starting on the little bath next to it when I heard car doors slam down below and a woman’s laugh, light and lutelike.

Kimberly Marsh and Larson Fisk were climbing the steps. She was in shorts and rumpled cream safari shirt tied off beneath her breasts with the sleeves rolled up, carrying her sandals. Sexy. Fisk was in blue gym trunks, beat-up Adidas running shoes, and a black muscle shirt. He was carrying a bag of groceries in each arm and smiling. She was smiling, too.

I went back to the front of the house, took out my gun, and stepped into the little coat closet behind the front door as their key went into the lock. The front door opened. Kimberly Marsh walked in. Larson Fisk followed her. When they were past me, I shoved open the closet door, took one step, planted my left foot, and kicked Larson Fisk on the outside of his left knee as hard as I could. His left knee was the one with the scars.

There was a wet snap similar to what you hear when you joint a chicken. Larry screamed and fell, dropping the grocery bags to catch himself. Something glass shattered and the near bag turned dark and wet. Oranges and pippin apples rolled out across the floor. One made it all the way into the dining room. Kimberly Marsh gasped sharply, spun around to look at Larry, and saw me. Larry was rocking back and forth on the floor, sometimes gripping his leg, sometimes pounding the floor with his right fist. His face was purple.

He called me a sonofabitch.

I waved my gun at him. “Come on, Larry. A sonofabitch would’ve put one behind your ear. Besides, now you can add another scar to your collection.”

He closed his eyes and rocked back, calling me a sonofabitch again, like a mantra, very softly. I shook my head. “You see,” I said to Kimberly, “some people are never satisfied.”

She had backed away until the plank shelves were pressing into her back. The big green fish tank with the dead fish was to her right. Why do blondes look good with green?

She didn’t appear particularly frightened. She said, “What are you doing?”

“Removing Larry as an active threat. He may be stupid, but he is strong. And mean.” I smiled at her.

Larry said, “It hurts! ”

She was relaxing. Her eyes never went to Larry, but her shoulders dropped just a hair, and her hands went down, and she stopped clenching her teeth. I imagined a window in her forehead, behind it little watchwork wheels and gears, spinning and rocking and making ticking sounds. I smiled wider.

She smiled back. “Did you find out what happened to Mort?”

“Unh-huh.”

“Thank God. Can I move back to my apartment now?”

“Nah. Not right now. Now, I want you to give me the cocaine.”

Her eyes got a little bigger, and that was it. She just stood there. The gears spun faster. The ticking got louder. I think of the damnedest things.

I wiggled the gun. I stopped smiling. “Dom wants his dope back, Kimberly.”

Her eyes flicked to Larry then back. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

I cocked the gun and I pointed it at Larry. “She doesn’t know, Larry.” Larry was watching the gun and clutching the knee. I said, “She sees the stuff just sitting around over at Duran’s, right? And thinks, boy, wouldn’t that be great to have. Only she’s got no way to get it out of the house. So she finds a phone and gives you a call and gets you involved. She throws it out the window and tells you where and you sneak over and pick it up. Risky, Larry. That took balls, with all the goons Duran keeps around. You do all that, and here I am pointing a gun at you, and now she doesn’t know what I’m talking about.”

She flipped her head to get the blonde hair out of her eyes and smiled at me as if I’d just told her I thought she had sexy toenails. “That’s silly.” She stepped away from the shelves and cocked her head at me, lifting her ribs to pull her abdomen tight and pushing out her hips to the side. Moving on me. Like she’d seen gun molls do in a thousand movies.

I said, “How about you tell me, Larry? Before I do your other knee.”

Neither of them said anything, but you could hear the breathing.

I said, “Right now you guys are in a survivable position. If the cops walked in, all they could hang on you is possession with intent to distribute and obstruction of justice. They might push for an accessory to murder charge because of Mort but they wouldn’t get it. You give me the dope, then you’re no longer possessing. You give me the dope, and even though you’re a couple of scumbags, I’ll put in a word with the cops.”

Neither of them said anything, but the breathing was louder.

“Okay,” I said, “let’s go back to basics.” I pointed the gun at Larry’s good knee. “It’ll be a bone shot, Larry. You’ll limp.”

Larry nodded. “Okay.” His voice cracked.

“Don’t tell him.” Kimberly was calm.

“Sure,” I said. “It’s not your knee.”

Kimberly Marsh’s eyes got dark. “This stuff is worth a lot of money,” she said. “We could share. We could share a lot.”

“What about the boy?”

“What about him?”

Something hot throbbed in my head and I felt my face grow tight. “No wonder Mort went for you, Kimmie. You’re all class.” I toed Larry’s bad knee. He went purple again. “The dope.”

Kimberly yelled, “No!” then snatched something from the shelves, threw it at me, and plunged her hands into the slimy aquarium. As she did, Larry grabbed my legs. I hit him with the butt of the pistol, but he hung on, digging at my crotch. I hit him again, harder. His forehead split and blood spilled down over his nose and brow. Kimberly pulled what looked like a large brick from the algae and seaweed, and ran back toward the kitchen. Her arms were green from the slime, and the stink of fish was strong. Larry gasped, still trying to pull me down, but his grip was weaker. I hit him twice more, this time over his ear, and he let go.

I stumbled away from him and ran toward the back of the house, around through the dining room, and into the kitchen. Kimberly Marsh was clawing at the back door when I caught her and slapped her as hard as I could. She made an unh! sound and dropped the brick. It was about the size of a five-pound sack of Gold Medal flour. Bits of scum and seaweed still clung to it.

She scrambled after it, kicking at me and making grunting noises. There were flecks of saliva on her chin. I lifted her by the arm and hit her again. It was hot in the kitchen. I shook her and hit her once more, hard enough to knock her down. It hadn’t been necessary, but then, most things aren’t.

On the floor, she started to cry.

I picked up the dope and went back through the house. Larry was where he had fallen, lying on his back, staring at the ceiling. He looked the way pro wrestlers look when they’ve popped blood capsules all over their faces, only he hurt. He hurt bad.

“She went all the way for you, Lar,” I said slowly. “Just like she did for Mort.”

Larry’s eyes began to leak.

I went out the door and down the steps. He was crying. She was crying. But they weren’t crying for the same thing.

I drove to my office, called a woman I know at the phone company, and gave her Domingo Duran’s address in Los Feliz. She told me four phone numbers registered to Duran’s address. The first one gave me a tentative female voice with a heavy accent. When I asked to speak with Mr. Duran, she didn’t seem to understand, then there was a long pause and she hung up. Probably kitchen help.

On the second number a man with a very light accent said, “Mr. Duran’s residence.”

I said, “This is Elvis Cole, calling for Mr. Duran.”