Swag by Elmore Leonard

Author:Elmore Leonard
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780062268860
Publisher: HarperCollins

A little before eleven they drove over to Woodward to find a liquor store open. They needed Scotch, vodka, and beer.

“And grapefruit juice,” Stick said. Stick had got to the car first and he was driving. “All the broads I think’re drinking Salty Dogs. You taste one?”

“They’re having a good time,” Frank said. “Everybody is. I think there’s only one turd in the bunch and she left. No, maybe there’s two, I don’t know.”

“Who do you mean?”

“That Irish broad, the nurse.”

“She’s all right. She’s going through her first change.”

“I’ll check it out,” Frank said. “That cute little housewife, I think she’s another sleeper. Her husband’s busy with Jackie, looking down her kitty outfit. Or I could steer him over to Karen. Yeah, I could do that. She’d keep him busy. Christ, her appetite, she’d eat him up.”

Stick glanced over. “You wouldn’t mind that?”

“What do you mean?”

“You wouldn’t care if he got her in the sack?”

“Why should I?”

“I just wondered.”

“Karen’s all right,” Frank said. “You know, nice build and all. Maybe a little bigger than she looks. I’d say she goes about one thirty-five. But she’s kind of bossy. You see her there? Like she’s the hostess, getting Jackie to pass the cheese and crackers. That’s the way she is. In the sack she says, Okay, that’s enough of that, now do this. Yeah, that’s it right there. A little more. No, a little up. That’s it, good. Okay, the other thing again. All right, let’s try this. It’s like doing it by the fucking numbers.” Frank put his head back on the seat cushion, relaxed, comfortably high. “It’s something,” he said. “All that scratch in one place. You believe it?”

“You don’t say that anymore,” Stick said. “Now you say, ‘Well, here we are.’ ”

“That’s right. Well, here we are. And you say, ‘You sure?’ Say it.”

“You sure?”

“You bet your ass I’m sure,” Frank said. “That’s a quiz show on TV. It isn’t really, but those dumb broads, they believe anything you tell them. Hey, am I sure? You better believe it I’m sure, because we got it fucking knocked and it’s going to get even better. I don’t know what happened to Marlys. I saw her this afternoon, I told her stop by, she wasn’t doing anything. What’s tomorrow?”

“Sunday.”

“All right we’ll wait’ll Monday, we’ll go down there, I’ll show you around. It’s not worked out yet, you understand, but I want you, I think you ought to start to get the feel of the place.”

“I’ve been to Hudson’s, Frank. Lots of times.”

“Upstairs, where the offices are?”

“I think so.”

“End of the day,” Frank said, “they leave fifty bucks in the cash registers, everything else goes upstairs.”

Stick was a little high but alert, moving along in the night traffic on North Woodward, watching for a liquor store that was still open. He didn’t want to get in an argument with Frank or even a discussion with him now. It would be pointless. Frank would start yelling and wouldn’t remember anything.

Stick said, “You look on your side.

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