Elmore Leonard - Maximum Bob

She thought of it looking in Dale’s windows and right now wished she had the.38 snubnose Tony had given her. In case Elvin was home and got funny. Maybe asleep when she knocked on the door. But all she saw through the windows was trash, low-class living, discarded stuff, cans, longnecks, empty pizza cartons… She wished now Gary Hammond had come with her. Talk, get to know more about him.

Driving home she wondered where he lived. She was still in the apartment off West Atlantic in Delray Beach. No more Keith with his attitude and his sporty outfits she used to gather from the floor. Finding out about the blond nurse hadn’t bothered her as much as picking up after him. The blond nurse gave her a quick way out. She couldn’t imagine Gary Hammond leaving his clothes lying around, or the top off the toothpaste. But maybe she wouldn’t care if he did. Little things became irritations when you weren’t getting along. The last she had heard of the major irritation, Keith-excuse me, Dr. Baker-he had switched his specialty from psychiatry to anesthesiology. It was Ray who told her about it. He still didn’t trust Keith. She said, “I’ve almost forgotten him.”

Except now he was popping into her mind again when she thought about Gary Hammond, in a way comparing them. She had never caught Keith looking at her unless he wanted something. Looking just to look. In the shower she wondered what Gary Hammond saw when he looked at her with his nice eyes. The phone rang as she was getting out.

“This is Bob Gibbs.”

Kathy stood at her desk in the living room, felt the towel slip and held it with an arm across her breasts. She said, “Yes, Judge,” as if he called her all the time.

“You get my message at work?”

“I wasn’t in this afternoon.”

“You were supposed to call me.”

“No, I’m sorry.”

“How’s your boy Dale Crowe doing?”

“I’m going to stop by his house this evening.”

“Good. I want you to come by here after. I’m at home. Be a good chance for us to talk.”

“Judge?…”

“Mainly about my wife’s condition.”

“How is she?” Kathy said, stalling. It wasn’t the question she wanted to ask.

“You mean is she normal? Hell no, I told you that.”

“Is she home?”

That was the question. It got a moment of silence.

“I suppose you heard about the alligator business.”

“It was in the paper.”

“I know it was. I didn’t want Leanne to get mixed up in it, her mind the way it is. I sent her to Orlando for a few days, visit friends she has there. You have a pencil? I’ll give you directions.”

“Judge, I’m not the least bit qualified.”

“Hon, let me decide that, okay? You want to help me, don’t you?”

She wanted to say, Look, I’m not going to bed with you. You mind? So leave me alone. If she could say that… But then wondered, what if she could learn something? If they did talk about his wife… Something Gary didn’t know about. Maybe help him. Get to see him again…

“Judge, it might be late.”

“That’s okay, hon. Long as I know you’re coming.” Kathy put on jeans and a polo shirt, opened a can of beer and made herself a tunafish sandwich. Now she was hon . What was she supposed to call him, Big?

Dale’s junkyard pickup was in front of the house when Kathy returned, almost six-thirty, starting to get dark. But it was Elvin in his cowboy hat and boots who opened the door.

“Well, look it who’s here. You come to check my wee-wee?”

“I want to talk to Dale.”

“Come on in.” She moved past him into the dim living room and Elvin called out, “Dale? Where are you, boy?” He paused, listening, and said, “I guess he ain’t home. I just got back myself from a business deal.”

Sounding like the judge. Both with that country-boy way of talking.

“You have a job?”

“One’s been offered me. A good’n too.”

“What kind of work?”

That got a smile.

“One that gives you peace a mind. Makes you feel good.”

“What does that mean?”

“Oh, nothing.”

Playing with her. If he had a job he’d tell her.

“You know where Dale might be?”

“I ‘magine he’s in town hunting beaver. Get himself some of the real thing ‘fore he goes away.”

Kathy turned to leave. He reached out to take her arm and she pulled it away saying, “Don’t touch me, Elvin. You try it again you’re in trouble.”

That got another smile. Elvin holding his hands up, innocent. “I saved your butt the other night and you act like we’re strangers.” He moved past her, hands still raised. “Come on, sit down a minute. Remember I said I’d tell you about this dink I wanted to shoot?” Elvin eased his big frame into the sofa. “The time I got the wrong guy?”

Kathy said, “Will it take long?” Interested, but not wanting to show it.

“Lemme ask you one. How many people you take care of ever killed anybody?”

She came over to sit at the opposite end, not answering, on the edge of the sofa that smelled of mildew, aware of the stained walls, the bare light bulb in the lamp without a shade. It was behind Elvin’s cowboy hat as she looked at him, waiting.

“I’m the only one, huh? I’m your star you get for five years, if you make it. How long you been with Probation?”

“You want to tell me about someone you didn’t shoot or someone you did, or what?”

“Both,” Elvin said, smiling just a little. “You heard of my brother Roland?”

“Is he in prison?”

Elvin took his hat off saying, “He’s dead,” and put it back on. “Roland was working for the Eyetalians down in Miami when a woman shot him, said he broke into her house. See, the woman was married to an Eyetalian guy that died. Good-looking woman, wore sunglasses all the time, this hat with a big wide brim on it. Roland was taking care of her needs and this dink come along and edged his way in with her. On account of, see, she’s got all kinds of money. It was her pulled the trigger, yeah, but was this dink set it up. He knew it was Roland in the house and told the woman it was somebody broke in. ‘Cause he didn’t have the nerve to do it hisself. Understand?”

Kathy moved to get up. “I have to go.”

“I’ll cut it short, get to the good part where I find him tending bar and living in a two-bit motel on Dixie, up in Lake Park. That’s all Niggerville there now and wasn’t much better then. You know where I mean?”

She said, “Elvin, listen-”

He held up his hand. “I’m there now, wait. I’m watching him, I know it’s the guy. I’m deciding when to hit him when he takes off on me. I follow him, before I know it we’re out on the Turnpike heading north and I’m thinking, shit, I could end up touring the country after this boy. Well, he turns in at the first plaza, you know, the rest stop? There wasn’t hardly anybody there, it was late at night. I spot him going in the men’s room, so I take a minute to check this.38 revolver I got on me. Now there’s two doors to the men’s, so I go in the one he did that takes you in where the toilets are… Wait, I forgot to mention, there was a Greyhound bus pulling up as I come inside, so I know I don’t have more than a half a minute.”

Elvin squinted now, acting surprised, adjusting his hat.

“I look around, there’s nobody in the men’s. I’m thinking, What’s going on here? Till I notice, looking at the doors to the toilets, I see feet under one of ‘em. So I walk over and bang on his door, start yelling, ‘Come on out of there quick. The place is on fire.’ I hear him, this voice saying, ‘What? What?’ and then I hear the toilet flush.” Elvin grinning now. “Far as he knows the place is burning up and he’s in there flushing the toilet. I step back. Soon as the door starts to open I’m squeezing that trigger, wham , wham . See, I want him standing, but I want him to fall in there, not out in the open. I shot him four times in the heart.”