He said, “Oh, God.”
Leanne answered, “Praise be.”
• • •
E
lvin wanted to see her. He wasn’t sure why, other than he wanted to look at her knowing what he knew.
He stopped at a bar right after leaving the beauty parlor. The bartender, watching him throw down that first one, asked had he almost got run over or was some old girl’s husband after him? Elvin still pumped up at the time, but okay now.
He’d waited in the car about an hour, then walked up to the entrance and checked her apartment number, 219. When a couple in casual retirement clothes came along and entered, he went in with them, the guy in his golf hat giving him a look and Elvin said, “I’m going to see my probation officer. Is that all right with you folks?” He walked upstairs to 219, knocked on the door to make sure, then sat down on the floor with his back against the wall. He had to tip his Ox Bow forward as the brim kept hitting.
An old woman in a housecoat came by carrying her trash down the hall. She looked worried glancing at him, but didn’t speak till on her way back.
“Can I help you?”
Elvin had to take his hat off to look up at her.
“Do what?”
“Are you all right?”
“I’m fine and dandy.”
He wondered what the woman would say if he told her he’d just shot two people. Watch her face. He couldn’t help but grin thinking of it.
“I’m waiting on the girl lives here? She’s my probation officer.”
“Oh,” the woman said, and got inside her apartment and shut the door. He could hear her throwing the bolts.
It wasn’t hard to scare people. Knowing it about them could serve you, too. He knew Ms. Touchy was afraid of him. What might work, use it to get her in bed then, hell, she finds out she likes it. You gonna tell on me? No way, Daddy, gimme some more. He wondered if she might’ve heard anything by now about her boyfriend. If she was a person they’d inform. He’d stopped by her office after leaving the bar and was told she was on the street.
Elvin must’ve waited almost another hour before he heard the elevator door open and close and there she was, coming along the hall with a bag of groceries, one finger dangling a ring of keys. Elvin got to his feet and put his hat on, noticing she seemed calm.
“What’re you doing here?”
He said, “Lemme help you,” reaching for the groceries, but she pulled back.
“Elvin, what do you want?”
“Just to talk to you, that’s all.”
“We talk at the office. You were supposed to come in yesterday for a urine test.”
“I forgot all about it.”
“Tomorrow, or you’re in trouble.”
“I was in today, you weren’t there.”
“You came and left.”
“I had some business to take care of. Can’t I come in for just a minute?”
“Elvin, get out of here right now. Leave.”
She didn’t seem upset, like she’d heard anything yet.
“I’m working tomorrow,” Elvin said, trying to keep it going. “You know my job I told you about?”
It stopped her. He could tell the way she was looking at him she wanted to say something.
Just then the phone started ringing inside her apartment.
Now as she turned to the door getting the key ready, he said, “Here,” and took the grocery sack from her. She glanced at him getting the door open, not wasting any time. But now she seemed in doubt whether to take the groceries back or run answer the phone, leaving him out here holding them. He said, “Go on, I’ll set ‘em down inside,” and she did, more anxious to get the phone than worried about him coming in.
Elvin walked over to a table in the dining-L with the groceries. Nice place, pictures on the walls… Ms. Touchy stood at a desk in the living room, her back to him as she talked on the phone, saying “Yeah?” a couple of times, but mostly listening. Elvin set the groceries on the table and stood watching. He heard her say, “Lou, just tell me what happened.” He heard her say, “Oh, Jesus,” and then, “Where is he? Is he all right?” Elvin sure now they were talking about her boyfriend, the hair puller. He saw her turn then to look this way, directly at him, as she said, “He’s dead, isn’t he?” It gave Elvin a funny feeling the way she kept staring at him as she listened to what was said to her. She said something else he didn’t catch and saw her hang up the phone.
Still looking at him.
He said, “You get some bad news?”
She didn’t answer. Just kept looking, like she was in some kind of state.
He said, “Well,” and moved to the door. It was as he reached it, about to go out, he heard her say:
“You followed him, didn’t you?”
Elvin kept going. There was no talking to an upset, emotional woman.
25
S
he 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.”
• • •
E
lvin 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?”
“In the afternoon, before the police came. She’s also Dr. Tommy’s officer.”
“Since when?”
“How do I know. She said the cop was coming back who was here before? Then I look at the paper today, I see why he didn’t make it. I thought they arrested you.”
“For what?”
“Well, you did shoot him, didn’t you?”
This booger kept talking right up, not acting a bit nervous. Elvin stared at him trying to figure it out.
“You think it was me, huh?”
“It was all you talked about the other day. The cop was here—remember how you took hold of me, almost threw me down the stairs?”
Elvin watched Hector roll his eyes, acting cute.
“You little booger, I would’ve you didn’t give me my gun back. But you didn’t mention that time to the law, did you?”
“I’m not crazy,” Hector said.
“I figure you didn’t, else I’d still be up on Gun Club Road with the deputies.”
“I’ve told them nothing and I don’t intend to,” Hector said. He took a sip of his drink. “I have a feeling, without anyone telling on you, you’ll be back in prison before you know it.”
“I’ll pull some stunt’ll get me caught?”
“You’ll do something.”
“You think I’m reckless, huh? Well, the way I see it, taking chances is the hot sauce you put on life to make it tangy. Otherwise I’m no better off’n you are sitting, watching it go by.”
“Did you make that up?”
“Buddy of mine said it and I like the ring of it.”
“A prison buddy?”
“Up at Starke, yeah.”
He watched Hector cock his head to one side, holding the glass at his mouth and peering over the rim. Acting cute again.
“You play at being the hell raiser,” Hector said, “but there’s more to it than that.”
This was good, the booger trying to read him.
“You’re saying I’m not the genuine article? Take a look at my sheet, it’ll make your hair stand up.”
Hector said, “Only my hair?” Raising his eyebrows like he was flirting. Then was serious again saying, “You’re a bad boy, Elvin, but why? I think because you want to get caught.”
Elvin had to grin. “I never heard of that one.”
“So you can go back to prison,” Hector said, “and be with your friend Sonny.”
Elvin wasn’t grinning now.
• • •
R
ay Diaz watched his sister hang up the phone and come over to the sofa.
“That was Lou Falco. There’ll be a service for Gary at St. Ann’s this Saturday and another one—Lou said a military-style ceremony with police from all over Florida—at Queen of Peace Cemetery. Gun salutes, all that. I said to him, ‘When’s Elvin’s funeral?’”
“I heard you,” Ray said, watching her sit down again. She seemed worn out. “TAC has surveillance on him. He’s back at the doctor’s house right now.”
“If he did it they’ll put it on him sooner or later,” Ray said. “If he was in that hair place the chances are they’ll find evidence of it, prints, something.”
She said, “But if the evidence doesn’t show he was there between twelve-thirty and one yesterday afternoon, it isn’t evidence, is it?”
His sister thinking like a criminal investigator when he was trying to console her. Ray said, “Or someone saw him go in or come out,” still trying. “Or they’ll find the gun.”
She said, “If it wasn’t in the doctor’s house or the car Elvin was driving it could be anywhere, in a canal, the ocean… Ray, even if he’s brought up on something circumstantial, what’s his motive? A payback? Because Gary threw him down one time and kneeled on him?” She said, “You know why I think he killed Gary? Because of me. Because he wants me.”
Ray knew she ached; her eyes would fill talking about Gary, what a nice guy he was, sounding like she was in love with him. She was in the middle of this but could talk about it objectively, too, shut out her feelings, and it surprised him, his little sister.
“How do you mean he wants you?”
“In bed. How do you think? That’s why he came here after. To tell me what he did without saying it.”
“That he killed for you?”
“That he killed to get me, yes.”
“I don’t know—”
“He’s primitive, Ray. He says, ‘How many people you take care of ever killed anybody?’ In my caseload. He says, ‘I’m your star.’ I could be seeing him every month for the next five years.”
“He won’t last that long, even come close.”
“I know
I
won’t,” Kathy said. “I’m ready to quit any time.”
“Join the DEA and see Latin America. I’m going to Panama Friday, but don’t tell anybody.” Ray picked up his beer from the table in front of the sofa and sat back again. “You’re good at getting people to talk to you. Like with Hector. That was pretty neat.”
“But I didn’t convince him to tell the police.”
“About what? That alligator business inspiring them? I don’t see a connection between doing the judge and what happened to Gary.”
“No, but Elvin loves to talk,” Kathy said. “I’ll bet he tells Hector and the doctor everything he does. He might even tell me if I ask him.”
“Don’t,” Ray said.
“He’d hint around first.”
“Please don’t.”
“If I wore a wire and TAC was close by?”
“And if he finds it on you,” Ray said, “when he tears your clothes off?”
“It’s just an idea. If I can talk to Hector, that might be enough.”
“What will you do if Elvin’s there?”
“I don’t know, Ray. I’d have to wait and see.”
• • •
E
lvin said to Hector, “I never hit a queer but, man, I can start, you keep talking like that.”
First the booger would do things with his eyes and mouth, acting cute, then look surprised and motion with his hands like a girl as he spoke.
“Why? You and Sonny were lovers, weren’t you? Why can’t you talk about it?”
“We weren’t lovers, for Christ sake.”
“You didn’t make love to him?”
“Jesus Christ, will you quit talking like that? No, I never made
love
to him.”
“What did you do then?”
“You don’t know
nothing
what it’s like in prison.”
“So why don’t you tell me about it? Ten years, you must have had other boys besides Sonny. Unless—did they allow conjugal visits?”
“I’m gonna pop you right in the fucking mouth.”
“What did I say now,
conjugal
? That means your wife, if they let her visit.”
“I don’t have one or never did.”
“I didn’t think so.”
Elvin said, “I want you to get something straight,” watching Hector pour himself some more of the banana shit. “I like girls, women, all shapes and sizes. Even Hispanic puss is okay. You understand?”