Elmore Leonard_Raylan Givens 01 by Pronto

Author:Pronto
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Fiction, General, Mystery & Detective
ISBN: 9781417800186
Publisher: San Val
Published: 1993-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

FIFTEEN

Raylan noticed the Zip preferred Vesuvio’s as his hangout, there yesterday and again today. A couple of his guys were eating, it looked like, while the Zip had only an espresso cup in front of him. There weren’t as many people here as Sunday, so it was easy to keep an eye on him. Which is what the Zip was doing, facing this way at his table. Tuesday, December 1, some of the tourist places along the Via Veneto, like the ice cream parlor, were now closed for the season. People here loved ice cream, so there were other places to get it. That was something he could mention.

So he did, sitting at the Gran Caffè with coffee and a plate of pasta with meat sauce, writing postcards to his two boys in Brunswick, Ricky and Randy.

That part of South Georgia had about the same weather as here. He’d already mentioned that on a postcard. He’d told them the spaghetti here wasn’t like the spaghetti their mom made with tomato soup, and that they put all kinds of things on top of their spaghetti here. Like octopus, honest. He’d told them people liked to eat outside here even when it was kind of chilly.

What else?

He could tell them he’d rented a car yesterday, a blue Fiat, and was driving around. That maybe today he’d drive up into the mountains that were actually like hills in eastern Tennessee, up in the Smokies, but with different kinds of trees on them, not so piney as back home. The Zip was getting up from his table.

Tell them about the olive trees on hillsides with the nets under them. So you wouldn’t have to chase a mile after the olives that dropped on the ground.

The Zip looked like he was coming this way. Alone.

Tell about the Doris Day movie on TV last night, Doris flying a plane for the first time after the pilot had a heart attack, it looked like, and landed the plane getting instructions from the tower. In Italian. Doris talking Italian back to it.

The Zip was standing by the table now. He said, “I know you haven’t found him. After you go to all the trouble to come here?”

“You either, huh?” Raylan said. He broke off a piece of bread and mopped his plate with it.

The Zip, watching him, swallowed. He brought a wad of currency out of his inside pocket, straightened and smoothed the bills, and dropped them on the table. It made a pile of money.

Raylan looked at it and took a sip of coffee.

“How much is that?”

“Thirty million lire. Pick it up, it’s yours.”

“I mean how much in dollars?”

“Twenty-five thousand.”

“You think that’s my price?”

“This is between you and me,” the Zip said, “nobody else. So why don’t you take it, uh? Go to Rome and get laid, get drunk, have a good time, spend it all and go home. Sound good?”

“Or what?” Raylan said.

“No or what. Take it, go on, and spend it.”

“Only do it,” Raylan said, “someplace else.

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