Elmore Leonard - Maximum Bob

She called her DEA brother, Ray, and he came up from Miami late Wednesday afternoon. She said, “You know what it’s like? It’s like getting kicked in the stomach.”

Ray said, “I know.”

She said, “I haven’t seen him yet. They’re doing a post today. Then he’ll be at the funeral home. I don’t know which one yet. He was shot four times, in the stomach and the chest, and they’re doing a post to determine cause of death.”

Ray nodded. There were silences because he didn’t ask her questions, not at first. They had the same features, the same thick dark hair. Both wore jeans and T-shirts sipping beer Ray had brought.

“A girl who works there found them,” Kathy said. “Isabel something. She called nine-eleven and Fire Rescue rushed them to Good Samaritan, on Flagler and Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard; it’s not too far from the hair studio. They worked on Gary, but he was dead on arrival.

“The woman, Betty, lasted a little while. I think she was shot in the back. She was never conscious long enough to tell what happened, give a description… I know who did it,” Kathy said, “but it doesn’t seem to help much. He was standing right by that table when I got the phone call. I was looking at him. I said to Lou Falco, ‘He’s dead, isn’t he?’ Lou said yes and I’m looking right at the guy who killed him. You know what I thought of doing? I wanted him to wait there while I went in the bedroom and got the.38 Tony gave me. Remember that gun? I still have it, I clean it every once in a while, keep it loaded… The guy is standing right there by the table. Elvin Crowe. I said, ‘You followed him, didn’t you?’ He walked out. Oh, but before that. I hung up the phone and he said, ‘Did you get some bad news?’ The guy who shot him.”

Her brother raised his eyebrows at that one, but still didn’t say anything.

“I called Lou back,” Kathy said. “I told him about Elvin, everything I knew, where he’s staying, the people he’s been hanging out with… They couldn’t find him, not till this morning. They picked him up for questioning and he was released this afternoon. Lou called just before you came. He said they have nothing to hold him on. I said, ‘What about Earlene?’ There’s a girl involved I mentioned to him last night. Lou said they put Elvin in a lineup and she failed to pick him out. I know she was with him Saturday, she told me. Sunday she spent the night with him… But she saw the paper today, Gary’s picture… They talked to the doctor, he owns the house where Elvin’s staying, and his houseman. They both know it was Elvin, they have to. But if they were afraid of him before… now, you know they won’t say anything.”

Ray said, “You’re getting ahead of yourself.”

She said, “Gary was really a nice guy. And he was good . I mean at his job, I saw him, he was tough, he was careful… What I can’t understand, how he let a guy like Elvin, this clown… You know what I mean?”

“I know,” Ray said. “Listen, why don’t you tell me the whole thing, from the beginning.”

She said, “He’s dead because of a fucking alligator, if you can believe that. An alligator he killed. Now it’s killed him.”

Elvin found Hector in the kitchen running the blender.

“Well, life goes on, don’t it? You guys sure like to party. Act like nothing bad can ever happen to you. The doc’s out there in the gold room with his music on, talking to a dead zebra else he’s talking to hisself. Smokes rock and then weed, up and then down, I said to him, ‘Why don’t you make up your mind?’ He goes, ‘Huh?’ Like, where am I? Stoned and smashed at the same time. What’re we making there?” The booger didn’t hear him, or pretended not to. “Shut that goddamn thing off.”

He let it go another few seconds before flicking the switch. There were banana peels on the counter and the color of the mixer was pale yellowish. Hector was getting a couple of glasses ready. He had on clothes for a change, what looked almost like a regular shirt tucked into tight black silky pants. His high-heel Cuban boots brought his ponytail up even with Elvin’s chin, Elvin leaning against the butcher table.

“Making more of that banana shit?”

Hector turned his head to the side. “You want one?”

“Not if I was on fire. What’d you tell the cops?”

“Nothing much.”

He had to be drunk to sound this calm.

“They get tough with you?”

“Why would they do that?”

“Scare you. People get scared, they tell things before you even ask. What’d they want to know?”

“Last night it was all about you. Where are you? What do you do here? Today they had a warrant and searched the house. They took the doctor’s hunting rifles.”

“Aw, his flamingo shooter? That’s too bad. They find where you hide the money?”

“They weren’t looking for money. They asked about the Cadillac, what happened to it.”

“Yeah, they knew it was gone, didn’t they?”

Hector turned from the counter wiping his hands on a dish towel. Elvin watched the way he laid the towel over his shoulder then and picked up one of the drinks.

“I told them you took it.”

Speaking right up. Elvin judged he’d drunk a load of that banana shit already.

“Well, what I told ‘em when they asked, I said yeah, I had the car at one time, but my nephew Dale borrowed it. ‘Cause he did. They’re gonna find him anyway. I said he prob’ly went up to Disney World to see Mickey and Goofy. What’d you tell ‘ em about Earlene?”

Thinking it would catch the booger off guard. But all Hector said was, “Not much,” and took a big sip of his drink, still calm.

“Wipe your mouth.” He had foam all over it. “They ask if I knew her?” Elvin watched him pass the back of his hand across his mouth and then lick his hand, his tongue turning that yellowish color.

“I said she was here that one time with you.”

“What’d you tell ‘em about me, last night?”

“They wanted to know where you were. I said I didn’t know.”

“I expected they might come by. What they like to do, they think you’re a suspect, is put you in jail overnight and not talk to you till the next day. So I was gonna stay at a mo-tel, come back here this morning and let ‘em take me. Which they did as I drove up.”

“I saw it,” Hector said.

“But then last night I thought, why spend the money on a mo-tel? I’ll go on over to Earlene’s when she gets done working. I went, I had to throw this dink out just taking his clothes off. Earlene looks at me, she goes, ‘I never said a word to nobody. Honest.’ See, there she was telling me something I never asked, ‘cause she was scared. I go, ‘When was this you never said nothing to nobody?’ I find out the hair-puller cop and Ms. Touchy was both talking to her the other night.”

“I don’t know who you mean,” Hector said. “But did you beat her up, Earlene?”

Listen to him. “No, I didn’t,” Elvin said. “I don’t hit girls or queers.”

“Which do you like better?”

Elvin squinted at him. “You must’ve had a couple jars of that banana shit talking like you are. When I was in the joint I cut one or two of you, but I never hit any. So you’re fairly safe, less I decide to shoot you in the head. You understand me?”

“Why are you so upset?”

“Why’m I upset? Listening to you? All I want to know is how the law found out about Earlene. You told ‘em, didn’t you?”

Hector shook his head, still calm. “They already knew.”

“How could they?”

“I don’t know, but they did. The woman knew it, your probation officer.”

“She was here too?”