“Absolutely,” Leonard said.
“Yeah … well,” Jimson said, and he and his man and No Enterprise’s finest walked out and got in their cars and drove away.
We ordered pie.
59
Couple months later, upstairs in our bedroom, my arm all healed and wrapped around Brett, she said, “You’re not exactly hot with the flesh pistol tonight.”
“No,” I said, “I’m not.”
“A lot on the mind?”
“You know it.”
“You told me everything, didn’t you? Got it off your chest?”
“Yep. But I still feel like I have a hole in me.”
“You’re healed up fine.”
“I don’t mean that, and you know it.”
“It’ll pass, baby.”
“I hope so. I just don’t think I was cut out to do what I do and not feel bad about it.”
“Leonard’s not bothered.”
“No, he’s not. He said, ‘If they deserve it, I got no problem. They don’t deserve it, then I got a problem. They deserved it.’”
“Words to live by.”
“I guess.”
“Vanilla Ride … Leonard said she sort of liked you.”
“He has a big mouth. And I think she said what she said as a kind nod to my courage. Truth was, I was scared to death.”
“But you went out there and did a stupid thing knowing it was stupid.”
“That’s called stupid, not courageous.”
“I have to agree.”
“I guess I was caught up in the moment. Thing I got to think—to consider—is Vanilla Ride. Beautiful young woman like that, what was done to her? Why is she like that? Why did she learn the skills she learned?”
“Some man is at the bottom of it, I can promise you that,” Brett said.
“Most likely. Probably childhood. Bottom line is she killed Tonto. He wasn’t any friend, but he was our partner, so we were supposed to do something. The kids, they didn’t deserve it. They were just stupid. Shit, she tried to kill us. All that, and in the end we let it slide.”
“But she helped you against the others.”
“True.”
“And she cut out the lead in your arm.”
“Also true. It makes the whole thing kind of confusing, at least in the sense of trying to figure where loyalties lie.”
“So, she was beautiful?”
“Not like you.”
“You liar.”
“Really.”
“Keep on.”
“You are the beauty of all beauties.”
“That’s what I want to hear. Bet her real name isn’t Vanilla Ride.”
“Bet you’re right.”
“But you’re thinking about her, aren’t you?”
“She’s got me stumped. She let us go. She could have killed us.”
“You like that she had a sense of honor, don’t you, baby?”
“I guess I do. But I still wonder why she is the way she is. The killing part… I’m not like her, am I?”
“You do what has to be done and for the greater good. She does it for money.”
“That’s what I keep telling myself.”
“You do odd jobs, Hap, and you’re an honorable man, but you don’t do psychology. Quit trying to figure her out, or yourself. There’s no clear answer.”
