Out of Sight: A Novel by Elmore Leonard

Author:Elmore Leonard [Leonard, Elmore]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General, Fiction, Mystery & Detective, Brigands and Robbers, Crime, Mystery Fiction, Detroit (Mich.), Police Procedural, Escapes, Fugitives From Justice - Florida - Glades County, Government Investigators, Fugitives From Justice, Glades County (Fla.), Escapes - Florida - Glades County
ISBN: 9780061740312
Google: DfS3Vxb789cC
Amazon: 0061740314
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 1996-01-02T05:00:00+00:00

EIGHTEEN

THREE IN THE AFTERNOON, A SNOWSTORM BLOWING OUTSIDE, the restaurant on top the hotel was nearly empty, only one waitress, it looked like, on duty. Karen was ready to bet anything the waitress would seat her at a table near the three men in business suits having lunch, and she did: the young executive-looking guys talking away, laughing at something one of them said until Karen walked past, and then silence. Karen glanced over as she sat down next to the outside window wall of glass; for a moment she thought of asking for another table, not so close. But they were finishing with coffee and cognac, or something like it, and she was only going to have one drink. “Jack Daniel’s, please, water on the side.” She turned to see her reflection in the glass against an overcast sky, snow swirling, blowing in gusts, seven hundred feet above the city, down there somewhere. She heard one of them say, “Why not,” and then to the waitress, “Celeste, do us again, please, and put the young lady’s drink on our bill.”

Karen remembered her dad reading a book, years ago, called Celeste, the Gold Coast Virgin. She turned to see them raising snifter glasses to her, smiling, pleasant-looking guys thirty-five to forty in dark business suits, two white shirts, the third one blue, as deep blue as his suit. She said, “Thanks anyway,” and shook her head.

The waitress drifted back to Karen’s table. “They want to buy you a drink.”

“I got that. Tell them I’d rather pay for my own.”

“They’re okay,” the waitress said, getting girl-to-girl on her, “they’re celebrating a business deal.”

“I’m not,” Karen said. “But listen, make it a double while you’re at it, Celeste. Water on the side.”

She watched the three guys looking up at the waitress delivering the message. Now they were looking this way. Karen gave them a shrug and turned to watch the snow, thinking it was like the snow in a globe you shake and it swirls around, except that here you’re in the globe looking out. Ten minutes passed before her drink arrived. She splashed it with water from a small carafe, took a good sip and the one with the shirt as dark as his suit and a pale, rust-colored tie was standing at her table.

He said, “Excuse me.”

She liked his tie.

“My associates and I made a bet on what you do for a living.” He smiled.

Not his friends or his buddies, his associates.

“And I won. Hi, I’m Philip.”

Not Phil, Philip. Karen said, “If it’s okay with you, Philip, I’d like to just have a quiet drink and leave. Okay?”

“Don’t you want to know what I guessed? How I know what you do for a living?”

“To tell you the truth,” Karen said, “I’m not even mildly curious. Really, I don’t want to be rude, Philip, I’d just like to be left alone.” She turned again to the snowstorm.

“You’re having a bad day, aren’t you? I understand,” Philip said, “and I’m sorry.”

She watched his reflection turn and leave.

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