61.
Esteban was on the vinyl-covered chaise, watching Jerry Springer, when his cell phone rang. He muted the television and answered. Three of the Horn Street Boys were watching with him, passing a bottle of sweet white wine among them. Smoking grass.
“It’s Amber,” a voice said.
“Yeah?” Esteban said. “So what?”
“I’m bored.”
“Yeah?” Esteban said.
He grinned at his friends and made a pumping movement with his free hand.
A skinny Horn Street Boy with tattoos up and down both arms mouthed the word Alice? Esteban nodded and made the pumping gesture again.
“Don’t you want to know where I am?” Amber said.
“I got no interest in you,” Esteban said.
“I miss you,” Amber said.
“Yeah?”
“I could see you if you promise not to send me back.”
“Yeah? Where are you?”
She giggled.
“I’m at the police chief’s house,” she said. “In Paradise.”
“No shit,” Esteban said.
He was still watching the soundless television as he talked to her. The Horn Street Boys who were watching with him didn’t like it when he muted the television. But Esteban was the man, and no one argued with him.
“What are you doing?” she said.
“I’m thinking about how to kill Crow,” Esteban said.
“If I help you, can I come back and you won’t send me to Florida?”
“You walked out on me, bitch. Nobody walks out on me.”
“I got Crow’s cell phone number,” she said. “I could call him, ask him to meet me, tell him I needed help. He’d come.”
“And when he got there…” Esteban said.
“You and the other guys…” Amber said.
“Ka-boom,” Esteban said.
“If I do that, can I come back and not go to my father?”
Esteban paused, watching the soundless Jerry Springer show.
“It’ll go a long way,” Esteban said. “A long way.”
“I miss you,” she said.
“You banging the chief?” Esteban said, and grinned at the other Boys.
“God, no, there’s a couple cops here all day, and the chief and his ex-wife are here at night,” Amber said. “They don’t even let me smoke in the house.”
“Must be pretty horny by now,” Esteban said.
“I’m dying to see you,” Amber said.
“Set that thing up with Crow,” Esteban said. “Let me know.”
“Where should I meet him?” Amber said. “He knows I’m in Paradise.”
“Okay, meet him on that bridge thing, or whatever they call it that leads out to where we dumped your old lady.”
“The causeway,” Amber said.
“Tell him you’ll meet him there,” Esteban said. “He’s got no cover out there, so we can come at him from the other side, drive by, and waste him without even stopping.”
“In the middle?”
“Right in the middle,” Esteban said.
“That’s what I’ll say,” Amber said. “I love you.”
“Sure, baby, love ya, too,” Esteban said. “Call me back.”
He broke the connection and sat back on the chaise for a time with the television still muted. The others in the room watched him but didn’t speak. Then he picked up his cell phone, punched up a number, pressed send, and waited.
“This is Esteban Carty,” he said. “Let me speak to Louis Francisco…. He knows who I am…. Tell him he needs to call me…. That’s right, he needs to…. I can maybe give him Crow and his daughter, at ten each…. Anytime. The sooner he calls, the sooner he knows the deal.”
He shut off the cell phone and looked around the room.
“How does ten thousand each sound?” he said.