Elmore Leonard - Maximum Bob

“Then he was good?”

“Knew he better behave hisself.”

“When you’re holding the pillow over his face,” Hector said, “did that excite you?”

The booger giving him that flirty look with his eyes as he said it and Elvin grabbed him around the neck, wrenched him down against his side in a headlock, the booger’s face in his blue suit, and held him there.

“You gonna quit talking like that? Are you?”

He let up on him to hear an answer and the booger slumped to the floor at Elvin’s feet, lying against them. Elvin gave him a kick with his cowboy boot as he stepped back. The booger didn’t move. Elvin stooped over, noticing Hector’s neck bent funny. He reached to touch it and felt around good. There wasn’t any pulse.

Elvin said, “Shit,” out loud.

He poured himself a short one from the blender and took a sip. It wasn’t too bad this time. He took another sip and looked down at Hector thinking, Man, you’re on a roll, aren’t you?

It was dark by the time Dr. Tommy came sleepwalking out to the kitchen. Elvin was fixing himself bacon and eggs and asked was he hungry. No, he was looking for Hector.

Elvin said, “I haven’t seen him.”

Which was true. Not since he’d stuck him in the broom closet. Dr. Tommy said he needed Hector to get him something. He walked through the back hall saying he might have already gone, and opened the door to the garage. No, both cars were there, the Lincoln and the Jaguar, the one Hector would have used. The doc asked where he could be, sounding pissed and in bad shape, in some pain.

“Went for a walk on the beach,” Elvin said, “looking for seashells. Don’t worry about it, I’ll go out after I eat, get what you need. I’m going out anyway.” The idea, to look around good, see if one of their unmarked cars was parked on the road and would it follow him if he was to go anywhere.

Peering over the doc’s shoulder into the garage, he said, “You don’t have a boat, do you?” Thinking of something else he had to do. Dr. Tommy said he didn’t care for boats. Not since coming here on one from Cuba in ‘59. What he had, Elvin noticed, was a rubber raft hanging on the wall, yellow with a blue bottom. It was small but would do the job he had in mind.

They went back in the kitchen and Elvin poured Dr. Tommy a banana drink, telling him, “Here, you work on this while I eat. Then you can give me the money for what you need.” The doc wanted to go right then and get it, but Elvin made him wait while he had his bacon and eggs, mopping up the yolk on his plate with bread. The bread was stale and the bacon strips had green spots on them, these dinks not being serious eaters. Elvin was hungry so he didn’t complain.

After, they went upstairs to Dr. Tommy’s bedroom for the money, Elvin dying to see where he kept it. They went in a walk-in closet and the doc started poking through his shoes, what must’ve been thirty pair on shelves that sloped down, a wood strip holding them by their heels. Elvin had never seen so many shoes outside of in a store. The doc went along feeling inside them. He pulled out clear-plastic Baggies of coke, grass, different colored pills-there, he found a shoe with cash in it. He said Hector hid the money in different places; that’s why he had to look for it.

Elvin wondered why the cops hadn’t grabbed his dope. It must be ‘cause they were looking for a gun held mag loads and that wouldn’t fit in any of these pointy shoes. He said, “You keep all your money here?” The doc didn’t answer, unfolding a wad of hundred-dollar bills. He handed one to Elvin, telling him to get what it would buy. Elvin kept after him, asking, “How much you keep in the house?”

The doc thought about two thousand. He called it “walking-around money,” except he couldn’t go anywhere.

“Well, where’s the rest?” The doc told him it was in the bank and Elvin said, “A bank , don’t you know banks get robbed?” kidding with him. Then was serious again. “Don’t forget we still have a deal.”

Man, where was he? His head all fuzzed. He looked up to ask, what deal? His eyes red and shiny.

Elvin said, “When things quiet down and I do the job, I’ll drive you to the bank to get my money. No checks. This’s a cash deal.”

The doc wasn’t following the conversation. He said he had a terrible taste in his mouth and to hurry up and get him his rock.

While they were still upstairs Elvin said, “I had to chuck that piece you give me. Where’s your other one, up here?”

He’d dropped the Speed-Six in a Dumpster behind a liquor store when he went in to get a fifth of Beam. After leaving Ms. Touchy’s. He had not wanted to part with that gun till he remembered there was another one in the house. Now he remembered that fifth was still in the car from yesterday.

The doc was telling how the police found his rifles and confiscated them. Elvin said, “I mean that gun Hector pulled out of his jockstrap. When was it? Saturday. I bet you still have that one.” Dr. Tommy asked why he needed it, not wanting to give it to him. Elvin said, “Keep talking, see if I go get you your rock.” A junkie was the easiest person in the world to handle.

Now they went into Hector’s room where there were all kinds of different shaped pillows and a couple of stuffed animals-Jesus Christ-on the bed, a little white doggie and a furry green alligator. Dr. Tommy hefted the one, then the other, zipped open the gator and pulled out the bluesteel automatic Elvin recalled. A little seven-shot Walther.32 you wouldn’t even know was in your pocket. Elvin had felt naked not having a gun. Now he was back in business, looking toward what he saw would be a long night.

The first thing, drive over to the club where Earlene worked and have her make a buy for him. She’d do it right on the premises, all the dealers and dope fiends they had in there; she’d be happy to in her scared state.

Look to see if he was being tailed, of course. They might even try to give him a hard time in that smarty way cops had of talking; but they weren’t going to run him in on any two-bit dope charge.

The second thing, later on in the dead of night, load Hector onto the rubber raft, something heavy tied to him, paddle out in the ocean a ways and put him over the side. Come back and open that fifth of Beam. Hear Dr. Tommy moaning, Where’s Hector at? Have you seen him? I don’t know, Doc, maybe he went swimming.

God damn , he wished there was somebody he could tell all this to and watch their face.

She stared at the ceiling in the dark bedroom wondering if there was a way to turn off your mind.

Thinking that if she had cut Gary’s hair Monday night he wouldn’t have gone to Betty’s.

Imagining the place, Elvin walking in, Gary in the chair, Elvin knowing what he was going to do, speaking to Gary. She could hear his voice but not the words.

Then wondering if she would have shot Elvin standing by the table, the bag of groceries, if she’d had the chance. If he had waited while she came in here to get her revolver, walked back into the living room…

Then seeing it a different way, looking at him with the gun in her hand when Lou Falco said yes, he was dead. She might have shot Elvin in that moment. Might have . And thought, That’s the best you can do. Maybe you would. The gun in your hand. But then realized she was thinking about it now , after the fact or as a fantasy, and thought, So you don’t know what you would’ve done in that moment, the gun in your hand.

She imagined Betty’s Hair Studio again and saw Gary dead with his gun in his hand. Never fired, the paper said. She remembered Gary saying to Elvin the other day, “If I pull it, I shoot it. You understand?” That was the trouble, he did understand. He would know enough to walk in and start talking and Gary would think, oh no, have to sit here and listen to this guy and his bullshit, trapped, and Elvin would have him off guard, the nice guy putting up with him. It could have happened that way. Gary pulling his gun too late.