Road Dogs

TWENTY-EIGHT

DAWN DROVE HOME AND EASED HER SAAB INTO THE GARAGE next to the VW. Foley was back and Tico, with his cheerful innocence, had lured him up to the roof. She hoped Tico was still here, inside having a drink, Dawn dying to know how he worked it. One push and a huge problem would be solved. Foley would be in the freezer now with Cundo, his buddy. She didn't look forward to seeing Dr. Jack stretched out cold, but not frozen, not quite yet. The freezer was padlocked, the key should be in the kitchen. But she had to pee, bad. If she did look at Foley one last time-her dream partner no more-she'd do it later. First have a drink and put k.d. lang on, loving her natural, barefoot style. Fall into a deep chair and light a Slim. It was a shame Foley hadn't worked out. Foley too close to his convict buddy to see the score.

Little Jimmy was the only possibility of a problem now. She should have kept him around. Now the sweet little son of a bitch was hiding, his bodyguard lying for him.

Zorro could be her other mistake, not warming up to him along the way, a stand-up guy with kind of a long nose but dreamy eyes she should've looked into to see who he was and what he liked. He wasn't getting it on with Jimmy; she made that up. Was he married? She didn't know but it wouldn't matter. He'd called her a witch. If he believed it, good. She could do something with it, tell his fortune and watch his eyes glow. She might want to keep him around.

Little Jimmy took an oath before God he would not tell what happened, and in Jimmy's case it sounded like it would be enough; though she couldn't count on his promise keeping him quiet forever. As soon as she got to talk to him and the properties were signed over, Little Jimmy might have to go.

Leaving Tico.

The Costa Rican seemed to like the way this was working out. But if Tico didn't accept whatever she'd offer, if he insisted on at least half the score, she'd be facing another problem.

After eight years of planning how to snare the little guy's fortune, after all the waiting, rejecting Foley as a partner and taking on Tico, she jumped at the idea of shooting Cundo, always a possibility in the back of her mind. With Tico's gun-don't forget that. It was so simple and she was so fucking anxious to get it over with, she didn't look at the odds and ends that would have to be cleaned up. Well, she did, but maybe not closely enough. Foley, she knew for some time would have to go. The others she felt she could deal with in time. If she wasn't confident she wouldn't have come this far.

The brick patio looked wet in places. Still drying.

Falling from way up there-Dawn looking up-could leave a mess, a lot of blood, depending on how he hit the bricks. Tico must've hosed down the patio, cleaned up after himself like a good boy.

Dawn opened the screen door to the kitchen. Then why was he asleep on the table?

In a chair but slumped, sprawled over the bare surface, arms stretched out in front of him, Dawn looking at the top of his head from the doorway.

She said, "Tico? You're drunk. You look like a bum." He didn't move. She said, "Please tell me you've passed out, okay?" She said, "Jesus Christ," in a solemn voice and walked to the table where she could look past his arm to see his face, his bloody eye staring at her.

The phone rang, the one on the kitchen counter. The timing-he couldn't be watching her, and yet she knew it was Foley.

The question was, how much did he know? One thing she was sure of, he was an experienced convict, he'd know enough not to call the police.

She let it ring and ring before she picked up.

What Foley did, he got Tiny Banger to go over to the big house with the phone number written on a fifty-dollar bill and told the kid to call him the moment the Saab pulled into the garage. He gave Dawn time to come in and find Tico.

It rang nine times before she picked up and said, "Dr. Jack, how can I help you?"

"Your friend fell off the roof."

"I see that. He lost his balance?"

"Lost a game of roof ball. He's your problem, so I left him for you."

"It must've been an accident," Dawn said. "You'll testify to that, won't you? Talk to the police?" "Dawn…where's Cundo?"

After a few moments Dawn's voice said, "All right, last night at dinner"-sounding resigned-"I hoped I could keep you out of it. I did tell you what I served and Cundo didn't think it was funny. When he's drunk he tends to get mean. I was laughing, I couldn't help it, so were Tico and Little Jimmy. Of all the things we could serve…Cundo put his cigarette out in my lovely entree, got up and started slapping me, really out of control. He would not stop until Tico came to my rescue. He shot him."

There was a silence.

"Three times, in the chest."

"Like that. At the table?"

Foley sounding as though he wasn't sure. "Cundo's dead, Jack. He was beating me up. Tico said it was the only way to stop him." "Shot him three times?"

"He's a kid, he started shooting… I don't know, maybe he got a kick out of it."

Foley didn't say anything.

"It's the same gun Tico used once before. On a case they can open again in five minutes." "Where's Cundo?" There was a pause.

"In the freezer, the one in the garage. Jack, I was afraid Tico would make a deal with the police and implicate me somehow, the victim. Jack, Cundo lost it completely. I'm thinking, Tico's been up enough times he knows how to work the system. But I can produce Cundo's body, the bullets still in him fired from Tico's gun."

"Where is it?"

"Jack, you don't need to know all this."

"Where's the gun?" "I have it hidden away." "How did you get it?"

"I told Tico I'd hide it for him. I'm sure some detective will ask why I didn't produce it right away. Why? Because as long as Tico was alive I was scared out of my wits." Dawn's voice said, "Jack, I can't imagine you'll have a problem. I don't know anything about roof ball, but all you'll have to say is Tico tripped, or he was showing off, walking along the edge, and fell. You can say you tried to grab him if you want. But I wouldn't overdo it. He fell." Her voice said, "Aside from all that, what would be wrong with us getting together again?"

"I don't know," Foley said. "Maybe."

"The payoff is still the same. We get Jimmy to assign the properties to me, or to you if you want, I don't care. I trust you, Jack." "You make it sound easy."

"We sell the houses and disappear. Leave the building with all the business in it to Jimmy. What do you say we get back together?" Dawn's voice said, "Jack, the whole time I was with Cundo I was scared to death. But if I told you, I knew you'd have a talk with him and that's all it would take. He'd imagine we were cheating on him again. I was so afraid this time he'd have you killed. One phone call, that's all it would take. And if we did keep seeing each other, I know he'd find out sooner or later. We were too intense, Jack. Remember?"

There was a silence.

"I have to think about it," Foley said. "Two guys I know are dead and I just got out of the can. I want to see if any surprises could jump out at me."

"Come on over," Dawn said, "we'll look at it together."

"Let me see where I am in this, okay? I'll give you a call."

Foley hung up the phone.

He stood at the counter remembering Cundo at different times. He saw him every day for three years. He could say to Jimmy it sounds like Cundo's dead. But he wasn't thinking of him being dead.

What he had to think about now was Dawn with a gun.

Lou Adams came up to Tiny Banger in the alley behind the house Foley was in. He said, "You still working for me, or you working for him now?"

"I do a favor for him and he pays me, the only difference."

"What'd I tell you? When we're through here, or I don't have to fire your ass and send you home, it's payoff time. But now I catch you fuckin' off on the job. You work for me or him?"

"I work for you," T.B. said.

"Then what're you doing for the guy you're suppose to be watching?"

"He axe me to tell him when the lady come home's all I done. And he paid me."

"You're in deep shit," Lou said.

He walked along the side to the front of the house and went in. A lamp was on in the sitting room though it wasn't dark yet. He called out "Foley!" as loud as he could, and called a few more times before Foley came down the outside stairs in his T-shirt and Levi's, stood in the doorway and said, "What?"

Lou came around.

"You paid one of my guys fifty bucks to tell you when Dawn Navarro gets home?" "Yeah…?"

"He don't run errands for you when he's working for me. You understand?"

"But I'm the one he's watching. Where's he out of line? He knows where I am, I talked to him on the phone. How'd you find

out?"

"I hadn't heard from him. They don't call I look into it."

"Lou, you've been running a surveillance on me since I got out, and I'm standing here talking to you. Does that make sense? Maybe when you started out it looked like a good idea. You'd made up your mind sooner or later I'd rob a bank. You still think I will?"

"It's all you know," Lou said.

"I've got some money now, I don't need to steal any. You saw me, I was in a bank the other day, setting up an account and making a withdrawal. The young lady and I came out, there you are on the job. I'll tell you something, you didn't look yourself, Lou, you looked tired. I would think you'd be bored out of your fucking mind. At one time, if you felt any excitement about your plan-"

"You're trying to throw me off what you're doing," Lou said, "and then start up again."

"I've learned banks," Foley said, "aren't the way to do it. I think it's time for you to get back to being an active special agent, and I'll find something in my retirement to keep me busy. Doesn't that make sense? Quit the Mickey-Mousing around with the home-boys, call 'em off and get back to going after real bad guys."

Lou Adams stared. He looked worn out.

"Let's go out to the kitchen," Foley said, "and have a beer. You can tell me about your book."

"You go straight," Lou said, "I won't have the finish I want."

"Be patient," Foley said, "I'll see if I can get you an ending."