"I told you," Torres said, "the Zip came back. The surveillance guys have him talking on the phone to Jimmy Cap. He's saying, 'I chased him home. He might think he can hide, but there isn't anyplace he can go I won't find him.' That's you he's talking about."
"Of course it's me. So, you going to pick him up? That's a threat on my life."
"All he's saying is he can find you if you try to hide."
"So he can kill me, for Christ sake."
"We know that," Torres said. "The only reason we still have them under surveillance, I want to hear him say it. Otherwise we have to catch him doing it. You want, we can put you in jail till you're nolle prossed. That means the state attorney's office isn't proceeding at this time and most likely won't, but they can refile up to sixty days if they see a reason to."
"Like I shoot another guy they send?"
Torres said, "I'd like to know what you did to those guys. You must've actually been skimming big-time and they found out."
"You don't know how good it is to be home," Harry said, "be able to talk to people again, communicate. Was I skimming on them? I've been skimming on those people all my life, but never once had any kind of trouble till this Bureau asshole set me up. Not even for anything I did. He makes up a story and they buy it. I get a contract put out on me and this Bureau prick McCormick drops his investigation. Decides he doesn't want Jimmy after all, makes up some excuse, right? But the real reason, there's no way he'd ever get a conviction. Meanwhile, I can't walk out the fucking door without very likely getting shot. That's why I told you, Christ, over a month ago, I didn't want any part of being a witness."
"All the years you and Jimmy are partners," Torres said, "why can't you explain to him you had nothing to do with it?"
"Do with what? It never happened. A guy says he lost a bet and paid me ten grand plus the vig. I say I never saw him before in my life and Jimmy believes the guy. Raylan even told the Zip that entire story was made up by the feds. I'll give him that. Christ, a United States marshal trying to help me."
"But it didn't make an impression on the Zip," Torres said. "Raylan told me about it that time he called."
"No, the Zip don't care if I skimmed on him or not, he still wants me."
"That's what Raylan said."
"But why? What'd I ever do to him? I mean that he knows about."
Torres said, "I'm starting to think it doesn't have anything to do with you personally. You know what I mean? They shoot you to prove a point, or to make an impression. Or because the Zip said he would and he's a man of his word. I don't know -- they're your friends, Harry. If you can't figure out why they want to kill you, don't expect me to."
Harry said, "Shit, I'm stuck here, aren't I?" He turned to the window and back again, saying, "You want a drink?"
"The thing was," Nicky said, "they're talking Italian to each other the whole time and I'm suppose to know what's going on. Like they all get up from the table and walk away. I'm still sitting there. Tommy Bucks looks at me. 'What's wrong with you?' Tells me to come on. They meet, they hug and kiss each other? Man, I couldn't believe it. I got to know this one guy, the one I mentioned was killed? Fabrizio. I asked him what certain words meant. I find out Tommy's calling me an asshole all the time."
Gloria said, "How about testa di cazzo?"
Nicky was surprised to hear her say it. "Yeah, he calls me that. What's it mean?"
"Dickhead."
"Really? That's the only one I thought was okay, 'cause my name's in it, Testa. Like he was calling me Testa of the something or other."
"It means dickhead," Gloria said.
"What I want to know," Nicky said, "is if I have to take that kind of shit." He waited for a reaction from Jimmy Cap, but didn't get one.
They were in the Jacuzzi at the shallow end of the swimming pool, three faces in sunglasses above the foamy water: Nicky making his report; Jimmy Cap with his eyes closed, maybe asleep; and Gloria, Jimmy's girlfriend, running her toes up the inside of Nicky's thigh, beneath the foam. Nicky said, "Am I?" and waited.
Gloria nudged Jimmy Cap with her elbow. He said, "What?"
"Am I suppose to put up with that kind of shit, calling me stronzo?"
"Who you talking about?"
"Tommy Bucks, he's always calling me some name."
"Stronzo," Gloria said, affecting an Italian accent, getting a lilt in her voice. "Hey, stronzo."
"What've I got to do with it," Jimmy Cap said, "what he calls you?"
Gloria slipped her toes inside Nicky's athletic shorts and he jumped as he said, "I wooork for you."
"Yeah, so?"
"Okay, how about what he calls you?"
"What're you talking about?"
"With those guys over there, I hear him saying your name."
"So, what'd he say?"
"They were talking Italian. But I could tell by the way he said it, you know, the tone of voice, he was disrespecting you."
"Like what kind of tone?"
"You know, like he says your name and then laughs. One time he said something about you and right away he goes like this." Nicky raised his fists out of the water and punched the inside of his left elbow. "Or what about, I mean the whole idea of you sending us over there was to find Harry and whack him out. Okay, we get hold of this guy that worked for him I told you about, the colored guy? All Tommy has to do is ask him where Harry's at, where's he live. No, Tommy's too busy with this whuer. Spent all his time with her."
Gloria said, "This what?"
"This whuer."
Jimmy Cap said, "Yeah? What'd she look like, any good?"
"You kidding? She was a fucking dog. You put a cat in the room she'd go after it. He's with her when the cowboy called and I had to go back and forth delivering messages 'cause Tommy wouldn't speak to him."
Jimmy said, "What cowboy?"
Jesus, he didn't listen to any of it. "The U. S. marshal I told you about was there. With his star."
Jimmy Cap said, "Tommy's problem -- don't tell him I said this -- he's a Zip, pure Sicilian. That's why he's so fucking serious all the time. I tell him, 'Hey, try to kick back.' He don't know what I'm talking about."
"See, the thing is," Nicky said, "if it'd been up to me I'd've had the colored guy tell me where Harry lived and I'd've gone to his house and whacked him out. Like you asked me one time what would I do to that gas station guy owed you money? It's none of my business but I happened to hear you talking to the Zip a while ago about Harry, saying forget about him, Harry's more trouble than he's worth. And the Zip says you made a deal? He whacks out Harry he gets to run the sports book, so he's holding you to it. You don't mind my saying, I think you got a problem there. You give him the sports book, what's he gonna want next? A guy like him, he don't do what you tell him, what do you need him for?" Gloria said to Nicky, "I can see you taking care of Tommy." Jimmy Cap said to Gloria, "Who the fuck asked you?"
The Zip, wearing one of his beige double-breasted suits today, stood in the lanai, the open-air sitting room off the patio. He watched Nicky come up out of the Jacuzzi, turn and reach down to give Jimmy Cap a hand, popping his biceps to haul that 350 pounds of fat out of the water. Christ, naked, the guy all belly. Next came Gloria, topless; she picked up a towel and tied it around her like a sarong, covering her jugs. Now Jimmy was talking to her; he seemed upset, making a big deal out of something or other and now she was taking the towel off, handing it to him. He took it but didn't seem to want that towel. He threw it aside and it went in the pool. Now the asshole with muscle was saying something to him. Jimmy Cap shook his head, put his hand on the asshole's shoulder and said something to Gloria. She picked up her bra and came this way putting it on.
The Zip waited, pretending to look out at the view, the Fontainebleau and Eden Roc over on the other side of Indian Creek. As she came past him hooking her bra, he said, "What's the problem?"
"He wants his own towel."
"I understand he hasn't seen his dick since he weighed two hundred pounds."
Gloria said, "He hasn't missed anything," and kept going.
The Zip said, "Hey, come here. Wait a minute."
She stopped and stood looking past her shoulder at him, giving him her profile.
"What were you having out there, a meeting?"
"Trying to decide," Gloria said, "if Nicky's a stronzo or a testa di cazzo," giving the Zip her idea of an accent.
He seemed to like it. He said, "You know any more words?"
Gloria said, "No, but I learn fast."
Joyce sat in the dark staring at the front windows. It was going on seven when Harry called.
She said, "You've been drinking."
"I have, as a matter of fact."
"All day?"
"More like fifty years. Why?"
She didn't hear resentment in his tone; that was a plus. But then had to give himself permission, a reason to drink, telling her:
"I'm a little edgy being stuck here. I needed something and that Xanax puts me to sleep. Torres came by. He said you called him."
"To see if he'd heard anything."
"He said you're worried about Raylan. I said, 'What about me? I'm the one they want.'"
"I'm worried about you too," Joyce said.
"Thanks. I asked Torres for a little protection, since it's not my fault somebody wants to kill me, for Christ sake. He says he'll have a squad car keep an eye on the hotel. Like these guys would come in with signs on them saying who they are. He says they'll be ready to respond, in case. That's supposed to be reassuring. And you ask me why I'm having a drink?"
"If you keep it up," Joyce said, "you'll end up doing something dumb. You know that."
"I'll tell you the worst," Harry said, "was one time when I blacked out. I wake up on a plane and have no idea in the world where we're going. I'm thinking, How do I ask the stew without sounding like an idiot? I'm sitting in first class, I have just a Perrier, I don't want to take a chance, maybe black out again. I get in a conversation with the woman next to me about something, I think the movie that was coming on. I know I have to ask her. So I say right out of the blue, This may sound like a stupid question, but would you mind telling me where we're going?' She gives me this look and says, 'Vegas,' like, where do you think we're going."
Joyce said, "Harry, I was with you."
It stopped him for a moment. He said, "You're right, you were the woman, huh?" He said, "You were wearing your hair different then."
She saw the headlights outside moving south on Meridian, creeping along looking for a number, making a U-turn now to pull up in front of the terrace apartments. It was about seven-thirty. Joyce watched from the dark living room. As soon as the figure was out of the car she jumped up and ran to open the front door and wait for the man coming up the walk in a dark suit and a hat like the one Harry Truman used to wear. Joyce put her arms out. He came into them not saying a word.
Chapter
Twenty-Four.
Maybe he would tell her sometime how all the way back across the Atlantic Ocean he thought about her, couldn't wait to see her again, and how much he'd wanted to kiss her when she drove off with Harry and how much he still wanted to but didn't know if he should, thinking: What if he was wrong about the way she seemed to look at him? What if she thought he was dumb? What if, even though Harry was old enough to be her dad, she still liked him? All that. What if after flashing his star through Immigration and Customs and racing over here, she wasn't home?
She was though. And the way they started kissing each other on the front porch in the dark and some more inside the house, like they couldn't get enough of each other, he wondered how he could've had any doubts. He might tell her about them later, let her know how he felt. There were other things to tell her first. Beginning with Robert Gee.
"The Zip said, 'Shoot him,' and the young guy, Nicky, said, 'Right here?' I think he wanted to, but he couldn't just, you know, do it like that; he wasn't ready. So the Zip shot him. The way he did it I guess there wasn't any need for him to get ready. He just looked over, shot Robert twice in the chest, and put the gun back on me and said, 'Where'd they go?' I told him the same thing I'd told him before. You were gone, so I had no reason to lie. I think he realized I was telling the truth and it stopped him. So right then the young guy, Nicky, says, 'This one's mine.' Meaning me. The Zip acted surprised then, putting it on. He said something about Nicky had told him before he was going to shoot me but didn't. The Zip says, 'Now you're ready to do it, is that right? Now that he doesn't have a gun? What if I give him mine? You still think you can kill him?' See, what it was, the Zip had no respect for Nicky, so he wouldn't let him shoot me."
Joyce said, "If Nicky had shot Robert when he was told..."
"You're right, it would've been different."
"They just let you go?"
"I think it was like wanting to show he had power over me. He could kill a man in front of my eyes and let me go and there wasn't a thing I could do about it. They walked out of the room.... I still didn't know what was going to happen. I looked at Robert, didn't find a pulse. I went down the hall knocking on doors, but none of them opened. It wasn't till I was outside I knew for sure they were letting me go. I went to a police station, identified myself, and told them a man had been murdered. It took them an hour to decide I might be telling the truth, but then had to phone Washington, D. C., and check up on me. So by the time we got to the apartment house the Zip's guys were still around but Robert's body was gone, as I knew it would be. I told the police to forget it, we'd settle it when we got home."