Elmore Leonard - Maximum Bob

You had to be ready for Elvin.

Armed. A gun on you he didn’t know about.

A gun in your hand beneath the cloth they put over you to cut your hair, the moment you saw him come in.

She slipped out of bed in her T-shirt and got the.38 revolver from the top drawer of the dresser: a stubby S amp;W Chiefs Special with a two-inch barrel: the same model she had fired at the Academy during her training and again with Tony, when he gave this gun to her. He said she was a pretty good shot. A little more than a pound of metal fitting her hand. She brought the revolver back to bed with her and laid it on the night table.

She could see it in the wash of light from the window and began to think, You can’t change any of that. What are you getting ready for? He doesn’t want to kill you, he wants to play. He’ll make you come to check on him, kid about his urine and one day open his pants with that stupid grin on his face and get on top of you. That’s what it was about, what she saw in her mind and heard him saying, “Did you get some bad news?” He wanted to talk about it. Wanted you to tell him and then he’d put on his act and hint around, because if you don’t know he did it…

You have to know. It’s important to him. Gives you that stupid grin waiting to see what you’re going to do about it.

She was looking at tomorrow now instead of yesterday and could feel her heart beating with the idea of walking up to him. Look him over. Give him a chance to put on his act. Ray said, “You’re good at getting people to talk to you,” and she had thought of wearing a wire. But that could come later, if TAC went for the idea. The thing to do now was give Elvin a chance to show off, give his opinion maybe tell something that wasn’t in the paper. Talk to Hector first, if that was possible. Check out Dr. Tommy. Get a feel of what was going on in that house.

She was wider awake now, a few minutes past midnight, than when she came to bed. She set the alarm for 5:30 and thought about what she’d wear. Jeans, her navy blazer, a shoulder bag with the.38 in it. They could fire her, she was going to pack it from now on.

Wesley, the young TAC cop, sat low behind the wheel of the Thunderbird with a clear view of the doctor’s property, the brick posts with lamps still lit where the drive circled in and came out. There wasn’t much going on this early, a few cars now and then; people living in the big homes were still in bed, or else they’d gone north and their places were closed till next season. He heard a horn beep behind him, once, looked at the mirror and saw a VW close to his rear end. Wesley got up higher in the seat as he saw the girl-the judge’s friend, Kathy-coming up on his side. His window was already down. He was glad to see her and got ready to ask what was she doing here, but she beat him to it saying hi.

“Just want to tell you I’m going to Dr. Vasco’s. He’s one of my cases.”

“You know what time it is?”

He saw her look at her watch. “Twenty past six.”

“I mean, don’t you think it’s kinda early?”

“It’s how you check on Community Control cases,” Kathy said. “Drop in when they least expect a visit. What’s happening, anything?”

“Not much. The Lincoln went out last night. I tailed it to a go-go bar.”

“That must have been Elvin.”

“The one with the cowboy hat.”

Hunched down by the window she nodded her head. “Alone or with Hector?”

“By himself.”

She said, “I hope he isn’t hung over this morning.”

“He wasn’t there a half hour. Came right back.”

Now she said, “Oh, picking up a rock for the doctor.”

“Well, shit, I better go in there with you,” Wesley said.

“No, it’s okay. Let’s keep the doctor happy; I can violate him anytime. He’s not the one you want.”

Wesley knew she meant the one with the hat and said, “If it was the cowboy shot Hammond, we’ll get him.”

She said, “Did you know Gary?”

“I met him. I hear he was a good guy. I’ll tell you something,” Wesley said. “If that cowboy’s the one, I’d sure like to get a crack at him. Have him come at me.”

“Cocked?” Kathy said. “The tension off the trigger?”

“You recall my telling you about that, huh? At the crack house that time?”

“I remember,” Kathy said. “But what if he shot you first? I mean Elvin.”

“I wouldn’t let it happen,” Wesley said. “What you do, you watch their eyes.”

She said, “Oh, I wondered,” and walked away.

He watched her VW pull out past him, drive up the road and turn in at the doctor’s place, disappearing into all the foliage there. She was a pretty good-looking girl but weird. Makes a house call before anybody’s up. Goes out with that old-man judge…

No one answered the chimes. It was possible they weren’t heard upstairs in the bedrooms. Kathy left her car by the front entrance and walked around to the ocean side of the house in clear morning sunlight. She could hear the surf breaking off beyond the pool, the sweep of lawn, the edge of the bluff lined with palm trees. Not the typical home of a crack cocaine addict. A rubber raft lay upside down on the patio. She gazed up the stairway at the deck, sun reflecting on the windows, walked past the stairs to a door with glass panes and put her hand on the knob as she looked in at the kitchen. The knob turned.

Inside, she was immediately aware of Elvin, his presence in dirty dishes, a skillet of grease, beer cans, banana peels, an empty Jim Beam bottle. It looked as if Hector had given up; decided, why bother? She walked through the dining room to the center hall and stopped to listen, looking up the stairway. The house was silent.

There was an odor of grass in the room with glittery wallpaper, the den. Kathy opened the sliding glass door and looked out at the patio again: at the lounge the doctor had been lying on nude; at the rubber raft she hadn’t noticed the other day-it might’ve been there; at the wrought-iron patio table and three chairs. Where was the fourth? Nowhere on the patio that she could see. And thought, What are you looking for? He’s upstairs.

Elvin woke up having to piss and found out before opening his eyes he was hung over. Not too bad, but enough to kick in a door. Last night he was going to wait till he’d done his chores before having the Jim Beam, but had got to talking with Dr. Tommy and cracked the bottle earlier than planned. Drinking helped him think. Hung over, he tended to follow his urges. Talking about Hector, the doc wanted to know if Elvin had caused him to be mad or upset. This while the booger was still in the broom closet. Elvin said no, he hadn’t made him cry since the other day. The doc got tired thinking of Hector and moved on to the judge. This was a different story and what got Elvin started on the Jim Beam. Dr. Tommy saying he was calling the deal off, forget it. So then Elvin had to give the doc a talking-to, get through to him with his head all lit up that a deal was a deal, you didn’t back out of one less both parties agreed. Dr. Tommy saying then, if you’re going to do it, then do it. What was he waiting for? He told the doc he was ready, had his killer instincts working and would do it tonight if the law wasn’t sitting out front. They’d followed when he’d gone to see the go-go whore and would follow anyplace he went. The doc saying he didn’t care. Do it by the end of this week or no deal. Four days. And kept saying it in his rocked-out state, this week or forget it. The thing was, Elvin believed he did have to do it soon, else the doc might stuff himself with enough crack to o.d. on him or turn his brain to oatmeal. There was always something trying to fuck up your life.