'All right, you . . . What's your name?'
'Howard.'
'Right. Howard. About this money you didn't bring with you.'
'We ... me and Trudy thought we ought not to bring it. We thought things might not work out. . . that we'd have to bargain. The guns might not be right, and if we didn't have the money with us, we ... well, we . . .'
Soldier pointed a finger at Howard. 'You'd have a lever. Am I right on that? Talk to me.'
'That's right,' Howard said.
'Then,' Soldier said, picking up the automatic, 'you could jack with old Soldier, and he'd say, oh gee, you don't like this deal. Well, we'll set it up again. Fix it to your satisfaction. Man, you must have fallen off the ... What kind of hay truck am I going for here, Angel?'
'The proverbial,' Angel said.
'There you are. You must have fallen off the proverbial hay truck, Howard, my friend. You see, I don't have to deal.'
'I brought five thousand of it,' Howard said. 'We thought that could be a down payment if things weren't just right. We were trying to be cautious. We thought of it last night.'
Soldier turned to Paco. 'They thought of this last night. They didn't tell you? I mean, you're supposed to be one of them and they didn't tell you?'
Paco shook his head.
'It was a precaution is all,' Howard said. 'In case of... in case of a double cross.'
'A double cross. Hey, I don't like not being trusted, see. It's disrespectful.'
'We thought there'd be guns,' Howard said. 'Just thought that we might get skimped on the number and the quality. We'd read about that kind of thing.'
Soldier nodded his head. 'Read about it, uh-huh. Well, how much you say you brought?'
'Five thousand.'
'That's not piss in a bucket, Howard. Tell him, Angel.'
'That's not piss in a bucket,' Angel said.
'You'd have to pay me more than that to fuck your sister if she had six feet of legs and a pussy like a velvet clam. That's nothing. I make that in a day, Mr. Howard. You're wasting my time. Give me the five thousand.'
Howard dug in his jacket, came forward and gave Soldier the five thousand, went back to stand by Trudy. Soldier put the automatic on the table and thumbed through the money. 'Five thousand, all right. This'll be part of my share. That okay with you, Paco? Angel?'
Neither answered. It wasn't meant as a real question.
'Now, here's what we're going to do,' Soldier said. 'You're going to tell me where the money is, Mr. Howard.'
'Leonard's place,' Howard said. 'We buried it.'
'I see, buried it,' Soldier said. 'What I ought to do here is shoot the lot of you, 'cept Howard. Then you and me, Howard, we can go dig up this money.'
'Be less messy to take everyone and go get it,' Paco said.
'You say something, man?'
'I don't want to kill anybody 'less I have to,' Paco said. 'I've done it, but just when I have to.'
'I say you have to, Paco, you have to. You think I didn't have to kill that asshole a while ago? That what you're thinking? A little bloodshed could have been avoided here?
I'll tell you, that asshole had no respect. That's the difference between you and me, Paco. I demand respect.'
Soldier sat down on the soft drink crate and looked at us. 'What about you, girlie?' he said to Trudy. 'What you think about all this?'
'I'm not giving you the money,' Trudy said.
'I see,' Soldier said. 'Spunk. Not much respect, but spunk. Just the same, I'm feeling generous as Jesus, so we'll do this Paco's way. We'll go to Leonard's . . . Leonard, that's the nigger, right?'
'Right,' Paco said.
'We'll go to the nigger's place, dig up the money, take it and go our merry way, leave you holding your asses. How's that sound? You up for that, Howard? A little digging?'
There were tears on Howard's cheeks. 'Yes,' he said.
'Good,' Soldier said. 'Knowing you're happy makes me happy.'
Chapter 23
Soldier went through Chub's pockets, took his money and the mini-van keys. He put on the porkpie and got his umbrella. We left Chub where he lay and went out into the rain.
Soldier and Angel had a worn white Lincoln parked on the other side of the concession, and we went there first,
