Jackie watched them. Nicolet seemed calm. He said, “Somebody could come in here and rip your tubes out. Have you thought of that? People die in hospitals, man.” He gave Cujo a pat on the head and turned to her with his deadpan cop expression. Time to leave. In the hallway, walking back toward the nurse’s station, he took hold of her arm above the elbow.
“I shot him in the groin area and it messed up his plumbing, but not too bad. He might need more surgery, they don’t know yet, or he could be out in a couple of days. I have mixed feelings about it. I was hoping he’d die.” Jackie glanced at him and he said, “But I want him alive too, so we can use him.”
“He works for Ordell?”
“We’re pretty sure. I know he sells him guns.”
“What if he won’t tell you anything?”
“He will. He’s twenty years old and has been arrested seventeen times. We can do business with a fella like that. His quality of life is based on how much time he can get out of doing.”
“What about Tyler,” Jackie said, “am I going to see him?”
“Right now. His wife’s with him,” Nicolet said. “We’ll take a peek in there, see how he’s doing. . . . Faron was hit twice. One in the thigh fractured the bone, the femur? The other one took a chip out of his ilium.” Nicolet’s hand slid down to touch her hip. “That bone right there. He’s gonna be all right. The slugs went through the door of his car and were slowed down some. One hit his beeper and got deflected.”
“I tried to call him,” Jackie said.
“That’s right, you want to talk to us.”
“I need my job.”
“We all need something,” Nicolet said. “Let’s wait’ll we see Faron.”
He was in a private room. Nicolet approached the bed saying, “Hey, partner, you sleeping?” Jackie watched his eyes open. Head on the pillow, hair mussed, he seemed younger, barely out of his teens.
“Where’s Cheryl?”
“I think she went to get some coffee.”
“They gave you some good dope, huh?”
Tyler closed and opened his eyes, trying to smile.
“Look who I brought to see you.”
Jackie moved closer to the bed. “How’re you doing?”
Now he was looking at her and managed to smile. “I’m okay.”
It gave her a strange feeling, that she was with friends. Nicolet got her seated and brought over another chair, both with plastic cushions and wooden arms. She kept watching Tyler, his face turned to them with a sleepy look, his right leg raised a few inches beneath the sheet, bare toes sticking out at the foot of the bed. An IV tube ran from his arm to a clear plastic bottle hanging from a stand.
Nicolet leaned on the arm of his chair, close to her.
“Where were we?”
“I need my job.”
And a cigarette. She’d love one right now.
“Well, you know what I want.”
“If I can work I can help you.”
“Or you could fly away.”
“It wouldn’t be worth it. What am I looking at, a few months?”
“A lot more’n that if I take you federal, which I can do.”
Maybe it was okay to smoke in a private room.
“How does your working help me?”
“You want Ordell Robbie, don’t you?”
“Oh, now you know him.”
“You never asked if I did or not.”
“We thought you’d want to surprise us.”
“I deliver money for him.”
“No kidding. Where’s he get it?”
“He sells guns.”
“He told you that or you’ve seen him do it?”
“What I have to have,” Jackie said, “if I’m going to help, is permission to leave the country, and immunity.”
“You don’t want much.”
“Yes or no.”
“It’s possible.”
“I show you how to get him and the dope charge is nolle prossed.”
“You’ve been talking to a lawyer.”
She got her cigarettes and lighter out of her bag.
“Yes or no.”
“You haven’t told me what
She lit a cigarette.
“
“You nervous?”
“Of course I am.”
“I get him with guns?”
“With money from the sale of guns.”
She didn’t know what to use for an ashtray.
Nicolet said, “Put it on the floor,” and said, “Where’s my case? I’m not Customs, I don’t give a shit about the money. I need him with guns. In possession of illegal weapons, stolen or unregistered firearms or selling without a license.” He looked over at the bed. “Isn’t that right, partner? We want us a gift-wrapped gun case.”
Tyler said, “Right,” in a voice they could barely hear.
“He’s sailing on the dope they gave him,” Nicolet said, looking at Jackie again. “I don’t give a shit about the forty-two grams either. I can get you nolle prossed on that, but only if you get me Ordell Robbie with guns. You understand?”
“All I can do is tell you what I know,” Jackie said.
“Like what?”
She hesitated and drew on her cigarette.
“He already has more than a half million dollars sitting in Freeport.”
“He does pretty good.”
“And more coming in, as soon as he makes another delivery.”
“He told you that?”
“He trusts me.”
“That’s good. It can keep you from getting shot.”
“He wants me to help him get the money here.”
“Doesn’t he know you can’t leave the country?”
“I told him I could get permission.”
Nicolet said, “Jesus Christ,” with a grin. “So if we let you, we’ll be helping too, won’t we?”
“You follow the money.”
“I understand that. We’d mark it before you ever left the airport. Tag along and watch you hand it to him. But where’s my gun case?”
“If he’s planning a delivery, you know he has guns.”
“Where?”
“Right here.”
“If I let them go—otherwise he doesn’t get paid—we have some more money, but my evidence is gone.”
Jackie said, “Excuse me a minute,” holding up what was left of her cigarette. “I have to get rid of this.” She crossed the room to the lavatory and dropped the cigarette in the toilet. It gave her less than a minute. She was
