Road Dogs (2009)( ) (21 page)

Chapter
TWENTY-SEVEN

FOLEY PUT THE VW IN THE GARAGE, PULLED IT UP TO THE freezer; it was on, making a humming sound. He crossed the back patio to the kitchen and thought about going in. He would have if Cundo was alone. Or Dawn, if she was by herself. It was different now. He walked along the side of the house to the front and looked in through the open door. They left doors open out here and there were never any bugs or flies in the houses. Something Foley couldn't understand. There were no sounds from inside this afternoon. No Buena Vista riffs. Cundo liked the Social Club when he could listen to the music and wasn't having a conversation. Foley called Cundo's name through the open door.

Tico appeared on the second-floor balcony.

The man is not doing so good, still throwing up. Dawn took him to UCLA Medical.

When'd they leave?

Wasn't too long ago. Tico said, Listen, if you not doing nothing, you want to help me measure the roof? Dawn don't know how many balloons and lights we need.

Foley, looking up at Tico. You have a tape?

I do, but I need someone to hold the end. I bet you good at holding a tape measure. I'll find you a beer when we through.

Foley asked himself if he wanted to go up on the roof with Tico.

Yes, he believed he did.

Foley followed Tico upstairs to the third floor and then to the metal stairs on the side of the house, like a fire escape to the roof, Tico bringing along a volleyball.

The one I have being a Mikasa Competition ball, forty-nine ninety-nine. I had a chick walk out of the store with it under her top looking eight and a half months gone. I play the game on the beach, get anybody wants to try me.

They were on the tar-and-gravel roof now. Nothing in the way of the gray sky hanging over them.

I say to Dawn, 'How 'bout we put up the net for the party? Choose up teams among the neighbors and play us some volleyball.' She don't think much of the idea. But I bet when the party gets going I bring out the net? They people gonna want to play. He lobbed the ball to Foley and backed up a few feet. You think?

Foley bounced the ball, said, Maybe, and caught it on his sneaker, standing on one foot with it till he put the ball in the air and caught it on his other sneaker, put it in the air again and this time kicked it to Tico.

Tha's pretty good you can do that. He held the ball straight out to the side in one hand, flipped it to his shoulders and let the ball roll along his other arm to his hand. You like that? He backed up again, getting closer to the edge of the roof.

Foley said, Dawn told me about the macaroni and cheese.

Tico grinned. The old man didn't think it was funny. What he did, lit a cigarette and stuck it in the cheese food.

He was pretty mad?

She was just messing with him.

Foley watched him start to grin.

And you went out after?

Foley waited.

We did, we went to a Cuban place.

What'd he eat made him sick?

I believe camar=n, shrimp.

You brought him home?

Yes, I put him to bed. Laid him out Tico serious now. He said, Hey, want to play a game? Roof ball. From Costa Rica. He turned around, stepped to the edge that looked down on the brick patio in back, and turned again to face Foley. You suppose to be drunk when you play it. One man stands here, his back to the edge of the roof. So you can feel they's nothing behind you. I'm already here, I can be the first one. What you do is throw or kick the ball at me. You do it three times, the first one from five paces, say fifteen feet. The next one from ten feet, and the last throw you closer still, from five feet. You want to play?

How do you win?

The other man can't handle the ball.

Anybody ever fall off the roof?

Tha's the one loses. Man, this is a serious game. You playing or not?

Let's loosen up first, play catch.

Tico said okay and they threw it back and forth, Tico left-handed. After a minute Foley said, I'm ready.

You're good where you are, Tico said, and threw the ball to him.

Foley tossed the ball underhand in a high arc, letting it roll off his fingers. He said, You drove Cundo home? to Tico looking straight up before moving in a step to catch the ball.

Man, I never saw that kind of throw before, looking at the sky. What you do in roof ball I'll tell you this one secret you throw the ball high and hard, wing it right above the man's head. He throws up his hands and can lose his balance.

Did Dawn take care of him?

What?

When you got home.

Yeah, she gave him something, put him to bed.

I thought you did.

Yes, both of us. Move in and throw another. He said, Yes, nodding, about there is good. Foley threw the next one hard at Tico's feet. Tico did a dance step and kicked it back to him. You didn't catch it. No, you have to handle it is all. Five feet in front of him Foley threw the ball straight up with both hands, as high as he could and stood looking at Tico's head bent back, his feet moving, then planted and bent back to catch the ball above his head.

He said, All right, I took your best shot. Now is my turn. Come here and stand on the edge.

Foley took a minute to stretch and twist his body one way and then the other, Tico patient, the ball under his arm as he watched.

Listo? You ready? I guess so.

You on the edge? Your heels have to touch.

I'm on the edge.

And Tico drop-kicked the ball at him, hard, and Foley caught it with his forearms at his midsection doubled over. He brought the ball up with one hand gripping it and tossed it back to Tico.

Tico said, Man, you quick for an old dog.

This time Tico bounced the ball twice and used his foot to press the white ball against the black tar-and-gravel roof. Now as he stepped to kick Foley said, You check on Cundo today? Tico tried to hold back but his foot topped the ball and it rolled to Foley.

That's two, Foley said.

You kidding me? That wasn't my shot?

You kicked the ball, didn't you? But you didn't answer my question. You check on Cundo today?

I was busy.

He was annoyed too.

When Dawn asked you to get me up here help you measure, weren't you at the house?

When she told me? Yeah.

You see Cundo?

He was getting in her car.

How'd he look?

Tico said, You want to cheat me, okay, I take my third shot.

I asked you how he looked.

Sick, man, how you think?

He rolled the ball with his foot, playing with it, rolled it toward himself and scooped it up with the toe of his slender brown shoe, caught it and shoved a pass at Foley. This time he got his hands up to stop the ball and it bounced back to Tico.

You didn't handle it that time, I get to do it again. Huh, where you think I'm gonna shoot it at you? Tico faked a shot and grinned. Not that one. He faked another and shoved a two-handed bullet at Foley, high. Foley turned his head and the ball sailed past him and they heard it bounce in the patio below.

Man, you still don't catch the ball. Now you have to go get it, Tico said, stepping closer to Foley, an arm's length, moved in another half step and put his hand on Foley's chest. You want to go down the stairs, Tico said, or you want me to help you? He gave Foley a gentle poke with his finger. Tell me how you think about it right now, how you find yourself.

Foley said, I think you're giving me a bunch of shit, Dawn taking Cundo to the hospital.

Tico said, Oh, is that right?

I think he's dead, Foley said. I can't see Dawn shooting him or clubbing him over the head at the table come up behind him from the kitchen but I can see you sneaking up. She make you do it? Foley said, and felt the fingers move on his chest, saw Tico begin to turn to get his shoulder into the shove, and Foley took a finger from his chest, twisted it and saw Tico's mouth come open and saw him rise straight with the pain, and Foley went down, rolled into Tico's legs and pulled him by the finger in his grip to sail into space this gray afternoon, Tico's scream cut off as he hit the patio.

Foley crawled around to wrap his fingers on the edge of the roof now, still scared, more scared looking down at Tico lying on his back looking up. Foley could tell he was dead.

He knelt down next to Tico looking at his bloody eyes, felt his throat for a pulse; he didn't find one. The young man from Costa Rica, former Mayan spear-chucker in another life, had left for the other side, his lavender scarf still cinched to his head. Foley thought of pressing his eyelids down, but thought about it a few moments and left him staring at nothing.

He phoned Jimmy's office from the house across the canal. Zorro answered and said, She stop by just now.

Foley said, Alone? Wanting to be sure.

All by herself. I tole her Jimmy was out, don't know where he went. Maybe to have his lunch.

Good, she'll look for him.

He told Zorro about playing roof ball with Tico.

Zorro said, Man, tha's some game. I'm glad I never play it. Listen, you want me to move the body away from there, I will.

He isn't our problem, Foley said. We'll let Dawn figure out what to do with him.

Chapter
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 entrTe, 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.