Elmore Leonard - Cat Chaser

“You finally realize that?”

“I’ve always known it. But he’s got to learn on his own, right? I’m not gonna lead him by the hand.”

“You bring him into the deep end, now it’s up to him to get out, huh?”

“It’s hard out there,” Nolen said. “You can strike it rich or break your pick. It’s up to you.”

“That from a play or a movie?”

“It’s an outtake. I’m on cutting-room floors at all the major studios. So I’m going into a different field.”

“You remember anything I said last night?”

“Every word. I never experience blackouts.”

“But you don’t want to talk about it.”

“I don’t care. Get me a beer, I’ll listen.”

“Jiggs was at de Boya’s last night.” Moran waited.

Nolen spooned in bright red chili, his face down close to the bowl. “Yeah?”

“Why do you think he went there?”

“I think to tell de Boya some dirty Comminists want to kill him. Also set the stage for what’s coming up in the next couple of days. Time’s getting short, George. Then you know what I think he did?”

Moran had to ask because he didn’t expect all this.

“What?”

“Then I think he gave this crazy Cuban-the one drives his Donzi at night with sunglasses on? I think he gave the Cuban five bills and a twenty-two rifle and told him to take a run past de Boya’s house and see if he can bust a few windows, then throw the twenty-two over the side, deep-six it, whether anybody comes after him or not. That’s what I think, George. What do you think?”

He thought of Mary, little else. He went back to his house, called Leucadendra and had her paged in the grill and at the tennis courts, knowing she wouldn’t be there. He thought about calling the Holiday Inn in Coral Gables; but would that make sense? He tried anyway. There was no Delaney or Moran registered. In the afternoon he tried her home again and listened to the recorded voice tell him the number he was calling was temporarily out of service. He thought about driving over there but knew he’d better wait. Mary would get in touch with him when she could.

It was a dismal, overcast day. The surf came roaring in making a spectacle of itself, but failed to interest him. Grocery-shopping at Oceanside didn’t either. Until he was putting a six-pack of Bud in his cart and remembered something Nolen had said. Something about setting the stage for the next couple of days… time getting short. Christ, were they ready to move? He’d better put Nolen against the wall and get some facts.

But by the time Moran got home Rafi had returned and Nolen was gone.

Rafi said, “No, I didn’t find her. But I went in the Fountainebleu and let my eyes see the most beautiful hotel in the world. I think I like to stay there before I go home.”

Moran said, “There’s a Miami to Santo Domingo at one tomorrow afternoon, they give you your lunch. Why don’t you get on it?”

Rafi said, “Oh, am I being ask to leave? You have so many people staying you don’t have room for me? Certainly, I’ll be happy to leave a place where they don’t want me.”

Moran said, “Rafi, you’re full of shit, you know it?… Where’d Nolen go?”

Rafi said he didn’t ask him and if this was the way Moran felt he would leave as soon as he made arrangements to move to a resort that suited him. In the meantime, because Loret had taken his money, could he borrow a few dollars for something to eat? Moran gave him a ten and checked with Jerry, just before Jerry left for the day, to see if he’d had any calls.

None. He tried Mary and got the recorded message again. All right, he’d wait until later tonight-after the maid was in bed and hope de Boya didn’t answer-and if the phone still wasn’t working he’d drive over there, or drive past at least; he wasn’t sure what he’d do. He fixed half of a yellowtail with tomatoes, onions and a touch of garlic for dinner, sautéed it, trying to keep busy, looking at the clock. He read. He watched a little TV. He read the latest on Stevie Nicks and an interview with Lee Marvin, former U.S. Marine, in Rolling Stone . Still looking at the clock. Anxious. Looking at it a few times each half-hour, waiting to call about eleven. It was the reason he would remember Jiggs Scully came at exactly 9:40.

Moran opened the door and Jiggs said, “You not doing anything I’d like you to come see somebody.” Moran stood with his shirt hanging out, barefoot. When he didn’t say anything Jiggs said, “Mr. de Boya wants to have a word with you.”

Moran said, “You serious?”

“Put your shoes on. I’ll take you, bring you back.”

Moran said, “What about?”

Jiggs said, “George, come on. We get there you can play it any way you like. But don’t try and shit a shitter, okay?”

Moran put on his sneakers and stuck his Hawaiian shirt into his jeans. He walked with Scully in silence across the patio and through the dark office to the street. Corky was waiting by Jiggs’s two-tone Cadillac. Corky got in back as he saw them coming.

Walking around the front of the car, Jiggs said, “Sit in front.”

Moran had the door open before he saw Rafi in the back seat with Corky, Rafi hunched forward. He said, “George? I don’t want to go nowhere.” Trying to sound calm but scared to death. “George? Tell them, please.”

Jiggs said to Moran, “It’s okay. Get in the car.”

The servants would be speaking to each other in Spanish and stop when Mary entered the room. They always did this; but today, for some reason, it had an air of conspiracy. The phone would ring. Altagracia would tell Mary it was someone for Mr. de Boya. Only once did she call Mary to the phone. She spoke to a man from the company replacing the window panes, half-listened to an involved tale of glass availability, why they couldn’t come out until later in the day. Twice she tried Moran’s number and got no answer.

And after that, for no apparent reason, the phone went dead. She called the telephone company on Andres’s private line, in his den, with Corky standing by. Several times she returned to the den to try Moran again and each time there would be Corky. Finally she said, “Excuse me, will you? I have to make a call.” But he didn’t move.

Corky said, “I have to stay here if Mr. de Boya wants me. He say not to leave for any reason.”

She said, “It’ll take me two minutes.”

He said, “Yes, please,” offering the phone. “But I have to stay here until the other phone is fixed.”

She said drily, “Mr. Corcovado, if he can’t reach you while the line’s busy, why do you have to stay here?”

Corky said, “It’s what he told me.”

Is this your house? Mary thought. She said, “Well, in that case I’m going out. Do you stay by the phone or do you have to drive me?”

He said, “I’m sorry, Señora. Mr. de Boya say we not suppose to go out. Because what happen last night.”

She said, “That’s not the reason.”

Mary went into the kitchen to speak to the cook about dinner, tell her not to bother, and came face to face with two men she had never seen before. They sat at the butcher-block table having coffee. Hispanic, confident, shirts open beneath summer jackets, both wearing strings of red and white beads. They looked her over but did not get up. Mary left the kitchen.

She felt she was in someone else’s house. Corky, sitting behind Andres’s desk now, told her the two were the Mendoza brothers, Chino and Nassin. They had been hired to replace the two Mr. de Boya fired after the boat dock was exploded. He told her the Mendoza brothers were Cuban and only one of them spoke English, but not very much.

Mary said, “Do they know who I am?”

Corky said, “Yes, of course.”