Authors: Elmore Leonard
"Then he knew it," Davis said.
"I came back . . . I felt him, I breathe in hi
s mouth . . ."
He took her face in his hand and raised it to loo
k at him and waited until her eyes opened.
"He's dead," Davis said. "They killed him." He
r eyes closed and she tried to turn her head. "Look a t me. They killed him."
"But it wouldn't have happen . . ."
"Look at me!"
Her eyes opened--her face close enough to se
e into her eyes and what she was feeling, the little gir l experiencing something beyond her imagination, i n a place she had never been before.
"They killed him," Davis said. "But they don'
t know it."
She was listening now, beginning to come bac
k into the world. "We tell them?"
Davis shook his head. "No, we don't tell them."
"But if we say we want to take his body with u
s for burial, they would understand. Everyone respects that."
Davis' hand relaxed and brushed her cheek as h
e let it drop to her shoulder.
"I think if they knew he was dead they'd leav
e and wouldn't bother about us. Mr. Rosen said i t was like a business with them. They don't have personal feelings about it. If it's done, then they're no t gonna sit out there in the heat just to get at us. See , I don't think they care. I don't think they're afrai d of what would happen if we told on them. They'
d already be gone."
"I don't understand," the girl said. "We don't d
o anything?"
"I don't want them to leave yet," Davis said.
"Why?"
"I'd like to talk to them again."
"But why?"
He was staring out the window at the first trac
e of morning, pale strips of light rising beyond th e desert and the sea and the Arabian mountains.
"I've got something to say to them," Davis said.
"Call to them to come out."
"I don't know yet how I want to say it," Davi
s said. "But I will."
Tali made coffee and sat with her cup, staring a
t Mr. Rosen, remembering him saying funny thing s to her. At times she would smile. She didn't bothe r the Marine now, who sat with his legs folded an d his back sloping, staring out the window at th e yard and at the opening in the stone fence that wa s wider now with part of it blown away. She let hi m be with himself.
Valenzuela's shoulder hurt where he had fallen on i
t going into the wadi. His head hurt, too, but not a s much as Teddy's. Teddy needed stitches. He ha d tied a patterned scarf around his head and with hi s hair and bodyshirt he looked like an art deco pirate.
Rashad was the only one who sat on the cutban
k of the wash and seemed to enjoy the lukewarm bee r and dry-roasted peanuts they had for breakfast. H
e was very patient. He had let Valenzuela sleep an d wake up stiffly to see the morning before showin g Val and Teddy all the money in the alligator briefcase. Courtesy of Mel, the little lawyer, sitting over there inside the gray Mercedes that would be lik e an expensive oven pretty soon. Mel inside and hi s keeper, the Arab kid, sitting in the sand outside th e car, playing with the sand, picking up a handfu l and letting it sift through a fist like time runnin g out. Rashad liked the picture.
He said, "What's a little temporary discomfor
t when it's almost done? This is the number gonn a bring him out, a hundred and ninety-five." And h e tapped the alligator skin of the briefcase, doing a drum roll with his fingers. "Then, I assume, w e gonna cut it? Otherwise, I'll tell you I though t about it seriously, I'd never have brought it."
"We cut it," Valenzuela said. "Comes to what?
Sixty-something."
"Sixty-five each," Rashad said, "a day's wage."
He looked over at Teddy. "Make your head fee
l better?"
"You want to know something?" Teddy said.
"That fence blew, I got fucking stoned. With rea
l stones, man." Yeah, he was feeling better, grinning , thinking sixty-five and five for the job was sevent y and he wouldn't have to blow anybody up for tw o years. He said to Valenzuela, "We don't have t o renegotiate, Val, I think this'll be fine."
"You like the picture?" Rashad said. "We us
e the man's car, now we using the man's bread to tak e the man out. It's like he's committing suicide, huh?
Killing himself with his own bread. Lawyer says t
o me, 'What money? I don't have no money.' Standing there bareass pleading no, I don't have no money, and the whore, she's like this on the bed , leaning on her elbow?"--Rashad placed his ope n palm against the side of his face--"and with th e other hand she's scratching her cooz, listening t o us, don't even know she's doing it."
"That lawyer," Teddy said, "I think he likes t
o go around naked. Time we went to see him he wa s bareass."
"Cuz of his beautiful body," Rashad said. "H
e like to show it to people. He saying, 'What money , man?' It's under the bed with his airplane ticket. H
e say, 'Oh, the comp'ny money.' He was taking tha t back to the comp'ny today."
Valenzuela wasn't joining in or smiling. He wa
s thinking about the money, yes--sixty-five each , that was all right, he'd split with them and i t wouldn't matter to Harry, he'd get a kick out of it , using Rosen's money--but he was also thinkin g about the Marine.
"How much do we offer him?"
Rashad looked over. "All of it. The whol
e thing."
"He's gonna smell something," Valenzuela said.
"Sure he is, he's gonna smell money," Rasha
d said. "We let him look at it and feel it. There it is , sitting on the ground. Pick it up, man. Walk over t o your car and drive away."
"Why would we offer him that much?" Valenzuela said. "Don't we want any? I'm talking about what he's thinking."
"Tell him the truth, it's Rosen's money," Rasha
d said. "We not out anything. See, he knows ho w much there is. What Mel say, he delivered five o f the two hundred grand was sent here. So, we tel l him the truth. Here's the rest of it. It ain't ou r money, he can have it if he walks away. Enough t o retire on for life."
"What if he can't be bought?" Valenzuela said.
Rashad shook his head. "Who can't be bought?
Name somebody. Shit, we got enough here to bu
y the whole United States Marines."
"He's gonna see it," Valenzuela said. "It isn't, yo
u know, realistic, handing him that much money."
"That's the whole idea," Rashad said. "Make hi
s eyes big and fuck up his head. When we talkin g about that much--look, it's sitting right there--th e man knows he's taking a chance. See, it's got to b e enough to take a chance for."
"No." Valenzuela was shaking his head now.
"It's too much. There's a limit. You go over it and i
t isn't real or even possible anymore. Something i n his head right away'd say no, don't touch it."
"All right, then don't offer him the whole thing,"
Rashad said. "Offer him what?"
"Half," Valenzuela said. "A hundred grand. It'
s a big number, but it sounds real, you know? Also i t sounds like we're letting him in on something.
We've talked it over and decided to split with him
, like we're partners. We're all in it together. You se e what I mean?"
"Yeah." Rashad was nodding. "I think mayb
e you're right. Like we're bringing him in. Uh-huh , so he can feel he's in it enough and can trust us, bu t not far enough he's helping to kill the man. Yeah , let his head work out that part of it."
"Gene--"
It was Mel's voice, Mel inside the gray Mercede
s looking out at them.
"Hey, can I talk to you?"
"Probably has to go pee-pee," Rashad said.
"Two times we had to stop so he could go in th
e ditch."
"You want to use him, huh?" Valenzuela said.
"You want to walk up to the house?" Rasha
d said. "The Marine gets nervous--that's fine, m e and Teddy'll split the money. The lawyer can do i t fine. Tell the Marine whatever we want to say."
Valenzuela waved to Mel to come over. The
y watched him get out of the car squinting, moppin g his face with a handkerchief, adjusting the crotc h of his light blue trousers, very busy as he approached them.
Rashad said, "Hot enough for you?"
"Man, this is a vacation spot, huh? Eilat?"
"Down closer to the water," Rashad said.
"I know dis ain't de place." Mel was being on
e of the boys. He said, "You know, I'm supposed t o be on a TWA flight out of here--out of Tel Aviv, I m ean--at nine o'clock. But doesn't look like I'
m gonna make it, does it? I gave up trying to se e Rosie. I decided stay out of it; it isn't any of m y business."
"You might see him anyway," Valenzuela said
, "but the man we want you to talk to is the Marine."
Mel opened his hands to show his innocence.
"Look, I got nothing to do with this. What do yo
u want to get me involved for?"
"He doesn't ever know nothing. One of thos
e guys who doesn't know anything," Valenzuela said.
"Have I interfered with you in any way?" Me
l said. "Have I given you any trouble? No, I've staye d out of it. You've got the money, okay, I can be ver y realistic about that. It's company funds. I gave th e money to Rosie and something happened to it. It'
s too bad, I tell the company, but it's their problem o r Rosie's. I mean I'm not out anything personally."
"He doesn't want to get involved," Valenzuel
a said.
"I'm not involved. You know that as well as I
d o."
"He gonna tell the comp'ny we took it from hi
m and the comp'ny tell the FBI or somebody," Rasha d said, playing with Mel.
"For what? What good's that do anybody?" Me
l said, standing in the hot sun in the Sinai desert wit h two guys who killed people and didn't believe him.
"Look, the company gave it to me to give to Rosen.
Okay, as far as anybody knows, I gave it to him.
That's the only thing I tell. Otherwise, shit, the
y might think I kept the money and put it somewher e for a rainy day."
"Which was your original idea," Rashad said.
"Okay, you're gonna think what you want," Me
l said. "But believe this, because it's true. There's n o way in the world I could finger you or testify agains t you. I mean even if I wanted to. Because there's n o way in the world a complaint could be filed agains t you in court. What court? Here? Who's the complaint? Not me. In the U
. S
.? No way. Where are the witnesses? The proof? It would be strictly hearsay , my word against yours. But you think I'd ever be irritated enough to make a statement? What do I get out of that? As I said, I'm not out anything personally and I've kept my nose out of it because it's none of my business. So what more can I say?"
Mel raised his hands in a helpless gesture, looking from Rashad to Valenzuela to Teddy Cass and back to Valenzuela.
"Gene . . . how can I help you?"
"You can quit talking," Valenzuela said.
"Clarence'll tell you what you're gonna do."
There had been a car down by the wadi. Davis wa
s sure he had heard a car, and headlight beams reflected on the rocks. Probably the gray car. One of them had gone to get something, a case of Maccabee and three pizzas to go. One of them could've been sleeping by the wall. Or back somewhere.
One of them had triggered the detonator and tha
t one could have also been by the wall. So he migh t have gotten one, maybe two of them. But h e couldn't count on it. There was no way to find ou t except go down there.
It was eight o'clock, a bright, still morning, th
e sky filled with glare, cloudless.
Tali, sitting by Rosen's body, looked up as th
e Marine rose from the window and walked away.
He came back unfolding a blanket and draped i
t over Rosen's body, beginning at his feet, bringing i t up, then stopping as he reached Rosen's hand s folded on his chest. He knelt down across from her.
She watched him turn Rosen's body, reach beneat
h him, and draw a billfold from the back pocket.
What he was doing gave her a terrible feeling.
She couldn't believe it, the Marine looking in Mr.
Rosen's wallet and bringing out money. When h
e tried to hand her the money she drew back and sai d "No!" surprised at the loudness of her voice.
"Take it. Five thousand dollars and a littl
e more," Davis said. "Here's the key to his bank deposit box."