Road Dogs

ELEVEN

FOLEY CAME DOWN FROM THE ROOF, THE GLASSES HANGING from his neck, saw Dawn still in bed as the phone rang and saw her eyes open. Foley picked up the phone from the nightstand looking down at her eyes watching him now. He said hello and said yes, he'd accept the charge, waited and said, "Cundo, how you doing? You all right?" He listened and said, "Today? No, I haven't seen her…No, not since she came over and introduced herself," Foley staring at Dawn, telling Cundo, "No, we haven't switched yet, she wasn't ready to move, still getting her stuff together. I called her yesterday, see how she's doing. She said fine, she was painting." Foley listened and said, "How do I know, I'm telling you what she told me. She did the painting in the room here," Foley watching Dawn making a face now, Me? "Yeah, I guess. I didn't ask her." He listened and said, "You mean in the painting? She has on a bathing suit, a two-piece." Listening now he looked away from her as he said, "I imagine she went to the store, maybe she needs eggs, I don't know." Foley listened and said, "How would I know? I said maybe…What I should've said…Cundo, listen to me. What I meant to say, if she isn't home, she probably went to the store. Isn't that what you'd think? Wait and try her again." He looked down at Dawn giving him a soft look, touching her lips with the tip of her tongue. "No, I only saw her the one time… yeah, right, and spoke to her on the phone." He listened and said, "I'm makin' it. I take walks, I eat out mostly." He watched Dawn slip the sheet down to uncover her left breast and mouth the words Who am I? Foley saying to Cundo, "I knew you were gonna ask me that. I can't think of the name of the place…No, but it's on Abbot Kin-ney. Listen, Cundo, why don't you call her in a while, give her time to do her shopping." Foley listened and said, "Just a second," and pressed the phone against his side so he could tell Dawn, "Go home, quick. He's gonna call you when he hangs up." "You told him to wait, didn't you?"

"He called here first, didn't get an answer and tried you at the other house, almost an hour ago," Foley watching her throw off the sheet and run naked out of the bedroom. He walked to the front casement windows and waited to see how she would come out. He raised the phone, said, "Cundo? Gimme a minute, my man," and pressed the phone to his side.

She wasn't naked but close to it, Dawn streaking out of the house in his sixty-nine-dollar drip-dry sport coat hanging limp on her but looking good the way her bare legs moved in the sunlight, Dawn running down the walk lined with shrubs and plants, palm trees, all the way to the footbridge that humped over the canal. She stopped and was talking to somebody Foley couldn't make out, plants and trees hiding him, a guy. Foley raised the glasses hanging against his chest, and saw Dawn step up on the bridge and glance back as she started across. Now the guy stepped up on the bridge and stood watching her.

Tico, wearing his lavender do-rag.

Foley let the field glasses hang and raised the phone.

"Cundo, there's somebody out by the gate. I can see him but don't know who it is, he rang the bell… I don't know. That's what I want to find out." He saw Dawn on the other side of the canal now, coming back in this direction, and he raised the glasses to see her running toward Cundo's pink home, Dawn letting the front of his sixty-nine-dollar drip-dry sport coat flap open, barefoot, Foley thinking, She runs tike a girt. He said to Cundo, "Give the hack ten and call me afterwhile, you still want to talk. I'll be here…I know, it can add up. You lucky you're rich. Listen, Cundo? I'm gonna hang up. I got to take a leak right now, okay? I'll see you when you get here. We'll have a homecoming party for you, I'll get Dawn to make a cake…Cundo, I'm kidding, we'll have margaritas in your honor, okay? I'll talk to you later," Foley said, Jesus, and pressed the phone off.

He saw Tico coming off the bridge to the walk, coming this way.

It was weird, seeing Dawn in his mind running like a girl:

While he flew down the outside stairs to the patio and through the gate to the walk:

And saw Karen Sisco now, in the bar on top the hotel in Detroit. Saw her alone at the table. Saw her in the elevator looking up at the descending numbers flashing on, Karen saying, "Hurry up, will you? I'm about to wet my pants." And saw her run down the hall to the room, Foley saying as he reached her, "You run like a guy," and watched her pull the card from the slot in the door and turn her head to him saying, "Wait till you see what I do as a

girl."

It was the first time he'd thought of Karen since Dawn walked in the house.

Foley had maybe ten seconds before Tico would reach him. He turned to the gate, his back to the canal, timed it and came around as Tico started past him, gave the homey in the lavender headdress a shoulder that sent him through the hedge and down the bank, arms reaching out for Foley, to land in the canal on his back, thrashed around getting his feet under him and rose to stand in water that barely came to his waist.

Foley stepped through the low hedge to watch Tico pull off his do-rag, wring it out and wipe his face with it, looking up at Foley.

"I'd like to ask you about Costa Rica," Foley said, "all right? I'm interested in the job market-I should say I'm more curious than interested. Who wants to work if you don't have to. I want to find out how much property costs if you want to build, and I've got some geography questions. Do you worry about volcanoes erupting? I understand you have an active volcano that attracts tourists? I'd also like to know, hear it from a native, which beaches are the most popular. I'd guess the Pacific side. It looks like there's more activity along there."

Tico, standing in the water, said, "You think I come from there?"

Foley said, "You're a Tico, aren't you? I understand there can be a problem you buy land, go to build a house on it, a squatter's living there with his family, growing corn."

"A precaista," Tico said, "what they call them. You find one on your land you get a lawyer. But tha's in the country, the one squatting is always a farmer." He said, "There lot of gringos living in

Costa Rica, man. Live on a beach, live up in the mountains if you want. You like to go there?"

"I'm thinking about it. Move there when I retire."

"When you stop robbing banks?"

This kid letting Foley know he was cool.

Foley said, "How much time have you done?"

"Three years, all of it."

"Got busted for being a tough kid?"

"For a homicide they didn't care about reduced to manslaughter. I didn't care for it either, the 'slaughter' part. I didn't cut the man up, I shot him in the head."

"After you robbed him?"

"The man dissed me."

"Listen," Foley said, "now that we know each other, why don't you come up? We'll have a drink and talk about Lou Adams."

Tico looked at the growth covering the bank to see where he would step. He raised his hand for Foley to help him. Foley told him he could make it on his own.

"Tell me why you push me in?"

"I knew you'd ask me that," Foley said. "I don't have a good reason, but felt I should, you working for that tin horn. I'm talking about Lou Adams."

"Is all right," Tico said, "I see what you mean."

Foley told himself, You guessed right, but you know you can't trust this dude, no matter how he comes off. He's a bullshitter. Sit him down in his wet shirt stuck to him-maybe get him a towel. No, you don't get him anything. Foley did step to the edge and stick his hand out for the guy to take, asking what he wanted to drink.

Tico said he didn't care.

He wanted to see what the bank robber would offer him, certain it would be American beer. No, he put a square bottle of whiskey on the patio table, Jack Daniel's and a dish of ice cubes, the bank robber saying they'd have some Old Number Seven if Tico didn't think it was too early in the day. Tico didn't know what he was talking about, then he saw old no. 7 on the label. He watched the bank robber pour drinks in low glasses saying, "Tell me about Lou Adams. Is he crazy?"

Tico said, "A little, yes." He took a drink of the sour mash and then another one and watched the bank robber reach over with the bottle to refill the glass.

"He's betting I rob a bank in thirty days of getting out. My ex-wife told me. I asked her if she bet him. You know what she said, 'I couldn't.' I said, 'I thought you loved me.' You know Cundo Rey, the guy owns this house?"

"I hear of him. He still inside, uh?"

"Till next week. He says I'm gonna rob another bank since it's the only thing I know how to do."

Tico believed he could talk to this bank robber. "Lou Adams said he catches you in the next thirty days he retires."

"You see him, tell him I'll take the bet. Thirty days from right now, a hundred bucks. He wants to talk about it he can come see me."

Foley took a drink and lighted a cigarette. Tico's pack, wet through, was on the table. Foley pushed his pack toward him. Tico picked it up. Now he was reading the label to Foley. "Virginia Slims, Light, Menthol? This what you smoke?"

"What's wrong with Slims?" Foley said.

"I think is funny is all."

"They're Dawn's. I noticed you talking to her on the bridge. You know where she was going?"

"To her house, wearing some guy's coat was too big for her," Tico said, watching Foley to see what he'd say.

"You know her before Lou Adams got hold of you?" "I know her maybe a month. I heard of her and we met one time she's walking by the Venice Pier. Yes, I see her, we talk." "She tell your fortune?"

"She hold my hand and tell me things about myself, what I like to do. Who I use to be…»

Foley said, "What if I get in the car, I don't go to that bank over on the circle, I drive off."

Tico said, "Yes…?" surprised the bank robber didn't want to know more about Dawn Navarro. "I see you get in the car-you must mean the VW-I call Lou Adams."

"What if nobody sees me?"

"We all over the place, my Young Boys United, like Venice Boulevard and Dell Avenue, where you come out from the canals if you driving. What I like to know," Tico said, "why is he want you so bad?"

"He'll tell you," Foley said, "it's his job to bring me in. But this has to cost him, you and your little helpers? He can't be paying you on what he makes."

"I don't help him, I get deported."

"That's it?"

"You don't believe me?"

"He's giving you something besides free time," Foley said, "or you'd walk away. If Lou can't pay he's leaving a door open someplace. Maybe this house. But you can't bust in till he puts me away. It's some kind of deal like that? He wants me, he doesn't give a shit what you want."

"You think you know me," Tico said, "what I'm willing to do?"

"For money?" Foley said. "I've only met a thousand guys like you in stir. All you want to know is where's the hustle and what's the take."

"You saying Lou Adams can't pay me," Tico said, "so he lets

me, what, come in here and loot this place when he's done with you?" Tico took a drink, having a good time with the bank robber, no problem. He said, "What about your boss, Cundo Rey, you mention. What kind of deal you have with him?" "You think I work for him?"

"Lou Adams say Cundo pays your way, pays for everything, even your lawyer a lot of money. So he say you in Cundo Rey's debt, you have to do what he tells you."

Foley said, "You believe it?"

Tico said, "I think a guy who robs two hundred banks don't need to work for nobody he don't want to. Can you tell me how many you rob?"

"A hundred and twenty-seven," Foley said.

"Some more than once?"

"A few. One of them a bank in L.A., I didn't realize I'd been there before till I was at the window and I recognized the teller, this good-looking black girl, her name in a thing on the counter. I could tell she knew who I was. I said, 'Monique, I only want change for a twenty, all right?'»

"Tha's what you said?"

"In a soft voice. 'Monique…?'"

"She say anything?"

"No, she starts laying it out, hundreds, fifties, all in bank straps, not looking at me, watching what she's doing. I'm thinking she either didn't understand what I said, or she pressed the alarm and she's showing the money to keep me there."

"You took it?"

"I felt I had to. The bank straps made it easy to pick up and slip in my pockets, my shirt. I said, 'Thank you, Monique, for the change.'»

"She think that was funny?"

"She didn't look up. I patted her hand." "Give her a thrill."

"I got to the front entrance and looked back. Now she's watching me. She looked calm, didn't scream or go nuts. For a moment there, you know what I thought she might do? Wave. But she didn't. I got out of there with fifty-two-fifty. Thank you, Monique. But did I steal it, or was it a gift? Something I'll never know."

"Man, tha's cool. So is robbing one hundred and twenty-seven banks," Tico said. "I bow to you. You know how many banks I rob in my entire life so far? Three, tha's all."

"Do any more," Foley said, "it begins to get tiresome."

"Yes, you get tired doing it?"

"Bored. But you still keep your eyes open."

Now he was talking about Costa Rica, saying, "You know how many Americans would move there tomorrow if they could? At least a million. What do you do, you leave the promised land and come here."

"San Jose is no L.A., man. You leave when you can."

"You doing all right?"

"Now and then. You know how it is."

"I'll trade you," Foley said. "I've been reading up on Costa Rica. They don't have revolutions anymore, they don't even have an army. It's the Switzerland of Central America."

"Yes, is nice," Tico said, "if you have money. You make enough to live high there, sure, have a big home with servants waiting on you. You going there, uh, soon as you become rich?"

It got the bank robber smiling a little, smoking his Light Menthol Virginia Slim.

"But if you not robbing banks no more, you think is so boring, where you get the money?"

He watched the bank robber shrug, watched him pick up his glass and take a drink.

"You're having a good time poking around," Foley said, "trying to find out what I'm up to, aren't you?"

"I enjoy to talk to you," Tico said, "one bank robber to another, uh?" and waited for Jack Foley to see he was being funny.

He did, but smiled only a moment.

"We're now and then in the same life," Foley said. "That's all I can tell you."

"Tha's right, we go to prison, we come out. Okay, now what do we do? Check around to see what looks good, what kind of hustle we can work. Maybe something your friend Cundo Rey has in his mind."

"I just got here," Foley said, "and I've known you what, a half hour?"

Tico said, "Yes…?"

"That's not long enough," Foley said, "for me to be telling you my business. All I know about you so far, Tico, you're a bullshitter. You do it pretty well, but you're still a bullshitter. You've never robbed a bank in your life, have you?"

"Man, I want to," Tico said, looking earnest, his eyes innocent. "Don't that count for something?"

"Not to me," Foley said. "Talking the talk doesn't inspire any confidence, nothing I hear I can count on. But," Foley said, "it sounds like you're a pretty good friend of Dawn Navarro's."

"I can say we very good friends."

"I hear Dawn saying nice things about you," Foley said, "that makes you worth talking to."

Foley nodded toward the canal.

Tico looked that way and saw her on the other side, Dawn walking past the line of low hedges toward the footbridge, Dawn wearing a shirt and jeans now, the limp coat over her arm. Tico said, "Oh, now you gonna check on me, uh? Ask her if we friends, if I was ever intimate with her? No, I wasn't." Foley said, "Try to stay calm, Tico."