Bandits by Elmore Leonard

Author:Elmore Leonard
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
ISBN: 9780061828188
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2011-03-20T22:39:11+00:00

17

* * *

LITTLE ONE CAME OUT of the hotel kitchen to the back hall where Jack was using the pay phone, Little One saying he had a bone to pick with him, saying his good nature was being taken advantage of. Jack raised the palm of his hand to Little One while he said into the phone, “If you could come right away I’d appreciate it.”

Helene’s voice said, “You’d appreciate it? You’re not talking about just a drink, are you?”

“We can have dinner after, if you haven’t eaten.”

“After what? You call up at—what time is it?—almost eight-thirty, and ask me if I’ve eaten yet.”

“Have you?”

“I’m not hungry. I had a big lunch.”

“I was gonna call you earlier, but I had to go to Gulfport.”

“This guy takes me to Arnaud’s,” Helene’s voice said, “for a job interview. By the time we’re having our coffee he’s telling me how important compatability is and we should stop off at the Royal Sonesta after, continue the interview in a relaxed atmosphere. Which means if I go to bed with the guy I get an office with drapes, carpeting, and a word processor. I said, Gee, what I’ve always wanted, a word processor.”

“You get the job?”

“Listen, I was tempted. I have to be out of my apartment in ten days or else buy it; they’re turning the building into a condo. I’m thirty-two years old and I don’t have a job or a place to live.”

He felt sorry for her feeling sorry for herself, the poor girl. She wasn’t thirty-two, she was thirty-five, at least, married once before he met her, married again for about a year while he was in prison. What had either of them learned?

“I’ll meet you in the bar. And wear a dress, okay? . . . Helene?”

“You sound different. You’re the same, but there’s something, I don’t know what it is, different.”

“It’s been a long time,” Jack said. He told her to hurry and hung up.

Little One, waiting, said, “Now then.”

“I didn’t leave the key because I have to use it again. I told you I might. Remember?”

“And I said to you we was even, I don’t owe Roy nothing and I don’t need no unexpected shit coming down on my life.”

“Nothing’s gonna happen. There’s no way, I promise.”

Little One said, “There’s no way you going in the man’s room, neither, long as he’s in there.”

“I have to work on that. . . . He have his dinner sent up?”

“Bottle cold wine was all, some shrimp. Man love his shrimp. Say he’s waiting on his car.”

“He’s being picked up?”

“No, the man bought a new car, brand new Mercedes. Told me he give ’em cash for it and they had to deliver it to him tonight or no deal. Man likes to talk about himself like that.”

“He say he was leaving?”

“Uh-unh, but it look like it.”

“How about the other two guys?”

“Haven’t seen ’em. They not staying here, they come by’s all.”

“Can you find out if the colonel’s checking out?”

“You don’t think

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.