Elmore Leonard - Out of Sight

"I swear. Cross my heart," Karen said, facing Adele sitting at the end of the table. Karen saw her about to speak and saw her jump at the sound of three quick raps on the door, three and three more and a voice then from outside, in the hole.

"Adele? I want to speak with you, please."

Sounding far away.

Karen watched Adele turn her head.

"Who is it?"

"I'm the man call you about work."

"I said I'd meet you."

"Look, I'm here. Open the door."

"I'm not dressed."

He said, "Listen to me." And in a lower voice, "I'm a good frien' of Jack Foley."

Karen got to her feet, bringing her bag to the edge of the table. She saw Adele staring at her and said, "Ask him his name."

Adele turned her head again, the rest of her rigid, upright in the chair, her cigarette held in front of her between two fingers.

"Who are you?"

There was a pause.

"Jose Chirino."

Karen brought her Beretta out of the bag.

"Or maybe you hear Jack Foley call me Chino. I'm the same person."

Karen moved along the table to Adele. She said, barely above a whisper, "Tell him to wait in the hall, you have to get dressed. Say it loud, raise your voice."

She did, yelled it out and her words covered the sound of Karen racking the slide on the 9-millimeter pistol.

The voice outside the door said, "Tell me where is Jack Foley, I don't bother you no more."

Karen said, "Tell him you don't know."

She did, and Chino said, "Listen, I'm the one help Jack escape from prison. He tole me, I can't find him to see you."

"I said I don't know where he is."

"Listen, why don't you open this fucking door. Okay? So we can speak."

Staring at Karen, Adele said, "Go away, or I'll call the police."

"Why you want to do that, to a frien'?"

Adele didn't answer and there was a silence.

Now he said, "Okay, you don't want to help me, I'm leaving."

Adele started to get up and Karen put her hand on her shoulder.

"I'm going now," Chino said.

"I see you maybe some time, okay? Bye bye."

In her whisper Karen said, "Go in the bedroom and close the door." She waited until Adele was crossing the room before she moved to the apartment door and put her left hand on the knob.

Karen turned it, held the lock open and looked over her shoulder.

Adele, in her makeup coat and plastic mules, was watching from the bedroom doorway. Karen motioned to her, waving the Beretta, to get in there, go on. But Adele didn't move. She stood watching and it was too late now to say anything to her. Karen brought the door toward her, opening it a few inches, listening, then stepped aside, out of the way, a moment before the door banged open and Chino, a solid figure in black, was in the room, Chino going for Adele and was past the table when he stopped, glanced around and then turned to Karen and she saw the gun in his right hand, the.22 pistol, its slender barrel pointing down, close to his leg. Karen brought up the Beretta in two hands, cocked it and put the front sight on his chest.

She said, "Lay it on the table and turn around."

Chino raised his left hand to her saying, "Wait," frowning.

"You not Adele?"

"I'm a federal marshal," Karen said, "and you're under arrest. Put the gun on the table. I mean now."

"For what? I haven' done nothing. If you not Adele," Chino said,

"this must be Adele, uh?" He turned to face her.

And now Karen was looking at him in profile, the pistol in his right hand, away from her. She glanced at Adele.

"Go in the room."

Adele didn't move, staring at Chino.

"Do it. And close the door."

Adele started to turn as Chino said, "No, I come to see you."

He raised the pistol, aiming it point-blank at Adele, and she stopped.

Karen said, "Put it down or I'll shoot."

She watched him look past his shoulder at her, raising his eyebrows, saying, "Oh, is that right? You going to shoot me?

Nice girl like you?" Smiling at her as he said, "No, I don't think so."

That little smile hooked her.

Karen said, "You don't huh?" and started toward him and saw his expression change, the smile gone, saw him glance at Adele, still holding the pistol on her, then look back this way again at Karen moving toward him, Karen saying, "You can live or die," as she reached him and put the Beretta in his face, the muzzle inches from his eyes.

"It's up to you."

His eyes closed for a moment and opened, looking at Karen's eyes past the muzzle.

"You wouldn't shoot me… Would you?"

She said, "What do you want to bet?"

He said, "I could walk out of here."

She said, "If you move, if you look at her again, you're dead."

They stared at each other. She saw him let his breath out, his shoulders sag and saw him lower his arm and heard the pistol hit the carpet and she almost looked down, but continued to stare at his face, his eyes dull now, beyond hope.

"Turn around and put your hands on the edge of the desk."

When he was leaning against it, off balance, Karen raised his jacket, felt around his waist from behind and, when she was finished, kicked his feet out from under him. Chino dropped to his knees, grabbing for the desk and hitting his head on the edge. He looked up at her in pain.

"I think you would shoot me."

Karen picked up his gun and told him to lie facedown on the floor. She stepped around him to the desk, punched a number on the phone and looked over at Adele staring at her.

"Daniel Burdon, please. Karen Sisco."

She waited, Adele still watching her, then turned to the window as she said, "Daniel? I've got a proposition for you."

Said to Burdon, "If I get Chirino, will you put me on the task force? I can work it out with my boss if you okay it."

" Her dad said, "You didn't tell him you had the guy?"

"I felt I had to make a deal first."

Her dad said, "My little girl."

They were on the patio with Jack Daniel's over ice, the sun going down.

Her dad had told her often enough it was Walter Huston's favorite time of day in The Virginian and Walter was right. This evening he didn't mention it.

"Burdon naturally was suspicious. He said, "Girl, are you trying to run some kind of game on me?" I said, "All you have to say is yes or no." He said, "You come up with the Cuban you can call your shot." He got there about twenty minutes later. He took one look at Chirino and got his surveillance guys to take him away. He had to ask how I got an escaped con to lie on the floor, but didn't act surprised or make a big deal about it."

"You sandbagged him," her dad said.

"I don't think I'd be civil with you either."

"He had to decide what kind of attitude to have, how to treat me, and he wasn't sure yet. He talked to Adele, asked her a lot of questions.

She was pretty cool about the whole thing. I was surprised."

"If anybody was cool," her dad said, and raised his glass to her.

Karen sipped her drink. Her eyes raised to her dad and she said, "Once you're into it and you're pumped up and you know who the guy is and you know you can't give him one fucking inch… He has the choice, you don't."

"You tell that to Burdon?"

"No, but he said, "Let's go have us a cold beverage and talk some." We went over to the Cardozo for about an hour."

"What's he drink, water?"

"Yeah, Evian, one of those. He warmed up. For the first time since I've known him he came down from heaven and acted like a normal guy. He asked me if I would've shot Chirino if he didn't drop the gun. I said yes and he said he believed it. He wanted to have dinner. He's asked me before, but always made it sound like he was making my day. Wow, I get to go out with Daniel Burdon. I turn him down and he thinks it's a racial thing with me. When I was in college almost every black guy who asked me out was like that. I'd say no thanks, 'cause the guy was an idiot or an asshole or had bad breath, and he'd accuse me of being racist."