Elmore Leonard - Cat Chaser

“She was kill.”

“She was killed,” Rafi said. “Shot to death.”

Moran said, “During the war?”

“Loret,” Rafi said, “he asks when she was killed.”

“Four years ago,” the girl said, “but I think it was yesterday. She was so good to me. I live with her and she send me to school, but now I got nothing. I live in a terrible place by the Ozama River. It’s very terrible.”

“Loret,” Rafi said. “Tell him how she was killed.”

“Yes,” the girl said, “they took her from the house at night, beating her and put her in an automobile and took her away.”

“Tell him who did this,” Rafi said.

“The men of the government. Like soldiers.”

“Regular soldiers?”

“The bad ones, the det squad.”

“The death squad,” Rafi said. “Continue.”

“They took her out in the country and shot her twenty times. She was like my mother…”

“Someone found her and told you?” Rafi said.

“Yes, and then I went out there and she was dead. They rape her too. It was like I loss my mother. Now I’m alone.”

“Tell him why…” Rafi began.

“They kill her because she was, she belong to the New Revolutionary Party…”

“The NPR,” Rafi said.

“… which she join because she want to do something for the poor people, but they kill her and do terrible things to her.” Loret’s chin trembled. “She was my sister. I love her and miss her so much I don’t know what to do.”

Moran watched her cover her face again and begin to sob. He reached over to touch her shoulder. He wanted to say something, but felt Rafi watching him and wondered what he would say if Rafi-frowning, shaking his head in sympathy-wasn’t here.

“She misses Luci very much,” Rafi said. “Their mother died and Luci became the mother for her. But Luci”-Rafi sighed-”you know how she was, the spirit she had as well as kindness. When the revolution failed she began again, working for the new party… She wanted to go to Nicaragua.” Rafi shrugged, weary. “It’s a shame, a fine girl with spirit.”

“Was she married?” Moran asked.

“Loret,” Rafi said.

“No, she never get married,” the girl said.

“Do you know why?” Rafi asked.

Loret paused. Then looked at Moran. “She never marry because, well, I believe she was always in love with you.”

Moran said, “What? Come on-I hardly knew her.”

“She told me,” Loret said to Rafi, who gestured toward Moran with a quick movement of his head. “She told me,” Loret said, now to Moran, “she had a feeling for you in her heart. She want to write to you but was afraid.”

“Afraid of what?” Moran asked.

“I think she didn’t want to bother you. You happy living in the United States with everything you want. You don’t need a poor girl to be crying to you.”

She began to sob and Rafi gave her the handkerchief from his breast pocket. He said to Moran, “She becomes very upset with the reminding of it.”

Moran was silent. He wanted to put his arm around the girl, comfort her, wipe the eye makeup smudged on her cheeks. She reminded him of a little girl playing dress-up in her mother’s clothes… Except for those breasts that seemed to have a life of their own. And except for Rafi sitting in his business suit prompting, making sure she told it all, holding his drink in his left hand, sipping, taking small hesitant sips in the presence of sorrow.

It gave Moran a strange feeling, to be moved by the girl’s performance while knowing it was part of Rafi’s scam. The two of them working so hard but so obvious about it; amateur night at the Coconut Palms.

He asked Rafi, “Where’re you staying?”

“We have no place yet. We came from the airport.”

“Well, you’ve got a place now.”

“No, I have friends in Miami if I can find them,” Rafi said. “I don’t want to inconvenience you.”

Moran said, “How can you inconvenience a motel? We’re not the Fontainebleu, but…”

“No, you’re not,” Rafi said.

Moran called Mary at 10:30. She answered and he said, “Can we talk?”

“The great stone face went out in his boat. He takes business people out, entertains them.”

“Do you ever go?”

“No, I think he entertains with girls. I’m hoping he falls in love with one of them… How did it go?”

He told her Loret’s story, the way Loret recited and Rafi prompted. “But I really felt sorry for her.”

“Do you cry in movies, George?”

“I choke up now and then.”

“Where are they now?”

“Well, I told them they might as well stay here. Rafi wants to look up some old friends in Miami. I still don’t know what he does for a living.”

“Are you charging them?”

“Well, the place’s empty anyway.”

“You already bought him dinner. But that was for shooting him, right?”

“ If I shot him. I bought another dinner tonight and found out Loret doesn’t like Italian.”

“That’s a shame,” Mary said. “Has Rafi made a pitch yet?”

“He’s working up to it. But you know what?”

“You feel sorry for him.”

“In a way, yeah.”

“He’s gonna try to take you, George.”

“I know… but the poor guy, he’s working his ass off and you can see it coming a mile away.”

“Well, have fun. Are you gonna show them the sights tomorrow… while cute little Loret shows you hers?”

“No, I was planning on being at the Holiday Inn in Coral Gables at one. I feel horny.”

“God love you,” Mary said. “Stay that way.”

Moran was watching the late news when Nolen stumbled at the door and almost came through the screen. Moran said, “Wait and I’ll open it, it’s easier.”

Nolen made himself comfortable and Moran handed him a beer. Nolen said, “Well, if you insist.” He drank the can down about a third and said, “That broad in the pool ain’t from Fort Wayne or Findlay, Ohio, I know that much. She’s got a pair of lungs on her she could float across the ocean on ’em.”

“That’s Loret,” Moran said. “I didn’t know she was a swimmer.”

“She isn’t, she’s a floater. Fernando Lamas was nervous, kept telling her to get out, but she wouldn’t. I think she told him to get fucked in Spanish.”

“That’s Rafi Amado.”

“Yeah, he says you shot him one time. He showed me.”

“What’d it look like to you?”

“It looked like he had one tit.”

“The scar.”

“It looked like somebody cut him.”

“Yeah, and I hit him lower. You hit somebody at about thirty meters you remember it. You can play it back and look at it.”

“What’s he want?”

“He comes all this way-I don’t think just so I can meet cute little Loret. He tell you about her?”

“I wasn’t paying much attention; I was watching her float. She’s the sister of the girl you went down there looking for and life’s been dumping on her and he thinks you’re a swell guy. Something like that. What else?”

“I’m waiting for the rest of it.”

“So you don’t trust this boy.”

“Not too far.”

“There’s somebody doesn’t trust you either,” Nolen said, giving Moran a sly look. “The old Cat Chaser.”

“What’re you talking about?”

“Gimme another beer I’ll tell you.”

“You got one.”

“Time you pop another it’ll be gone.”

Moran walked around the counter into the kitchen and got the beer rather than take Nolen by the throat and choke him. It seemed easier; the man was half in the bag and had something he wanted to tell. Moran came over with the can of Bud to where Nolen was sprawled on the sofa, neck bent against the cushion, his legs sticking straight out. He was wearing a pair of old curl-toed cowboy boots. Nolen handed Moran his empty and took the full one.