Maximum Bob

25

She 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.”

Elvin 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.

Ray 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.”

Elvin 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?”

The booger shrugged, like he was waving his shoulders. He said, “It’s okay to go both ways.”

Elvin shoved him, hitting his goddamn shoulder. “Quit talking like that.”

“Owww, you don’t have to hit me.”

“I didn’t hit you.”

“I’m not going to tell anyone.”

“Then shut up.”

The booger shrugged his goddamn shoulders again and said, “Well, if that’s how you feel,” and stuck his big honker of a nose in the air.

Something Elvin hated, a guy acting like he was better than you. Elvin gave him another shove.

The booger said, “Stop it!”

So Elvin shoved him again, harder.

He said, “El-vin!”

In that girlish way he had, like he was going to cry. Elvin hated it worse than the snotty look. He said to him, “Sonny’d whine like that, you know what I’d do? Hold a pillow over his face so he couldn’t breathe. He’d kick and squirm, I’d say to him, ‘You gonna be good now? Are you? Show me.’ He quit squirming I’d let him up.”

“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?