of the bar, Melanie swiveled around on her stool watching her, motioning now to come over. She raised her glass.
“Have a drink.”
“I’m waiting for the phone.”
“Good luck, that guy’s been on it a half hour.”
Jackie said, “I’ll find another one. See you.”
Turned to leave and Melanie said, “I know what this gig’s about, the whole thing, what you’ve been doing for him. Have one with me, I’ll tell you a secret.”
Melanie was drinking rum and Coke, she said for the past hour with guys hitting on her, creeps in tourist outfits. Jackie ordered a beer, took a sip, and a guy put his hands on their shoulders. Would they like to come over to the table, “join me and my buddy for a refreshment?” Without looking at him Melanie told him to fuck off, and rolled her eyes at Jackie.
“That’s what we need, some bright conversation. Where you from? . . . Oh, really? Where are you from? . . . Ohio, huh? No shit.”
Jackie said, “How long have you been with Ordell?”
“This time? Almost a year. I’ve known him forever.”
“Why did he make you leave?”
“So you wouldn’t be nervous. He wants you to think I’m only there to give him blow jobs, obviously not a security risk.” Melanie laid her arms on the curved edge of the bar and her cheek against her shoulder, looking at Jackie on the stool next to her. “The day before yesterday I saved his fucking life. This Nazi was about to beat him to death and I shot the guy four times, in the heart. Today he tells me to go play in the fucking sand.”
Jackie sipped her beer. “You shot a Nazi.”
“One of those white-supremacy geeks. We were out there to rip off all this military stuff he’s got. You know, army weapons? I was supposed to get Gerald naked so Ordell’d be sure the guy wasn’t armed when he shot him. Once in a while Ordell gets into the rough stuff, but usually he plays it safe, has these crazy black kids that work for him do the heavy shit. They killed two other guys that happened to be there.”
Jackie said, “Where was this?”
“At Gerald’s. Out by Loxahatchee. You know Mr. Walker?”
Jackie nodded.
“Ask him about Ordell, he’ll tell you. Mr. Walker’s my buddy, he sends me good stuff.”
“That was your coke,” Jackie said.
Melanie made a face to show pain. “Oh, man, listen, I’m sorry about that. I hope they don’t come down on you, Jesus, on my account. Ordell should’ve told you it was in your bag. You know, or at least asked if you’d mind bringing it. That wasn’t right.”
“He said he didn’t know about it.”
“You believe that? Yeah, well, I guess you have to trust him. If you’re in it, well, what’re you gonna do, you’re fucking in it, you just have to hope for the best. I’d have second thoughts, but then I know him. You get busted, they’ll come down on you a lot harder than on the dope thing. I mean, forty-two grams compared to all those fucking machine guns and rockets? Come on . . . And all that cash?” Melanie raised her head enough to sip her drink, then laid her cheek against her shoulder again, her eyes not leaving Jackie’s. “Having that money in your flight bag, even ten thousand, must be tempting. Fifty thousand the time you were busted?”
Jackie nodded.
“He fucks up, which he’s been known to do,” Melanie said, “and they get the cash, they get my dope, and they’ve got you hanging. It’s a shame, you know it? Your next trip, you’re gonna have over half a million in your flight bag.” Melanie’s eyes softened and so did her voice. “If you’ve thought of cutting Ordell out of this one, I sure wouldn’t blame you.”
Jackie smiled.
“You think I’m kidding,” Melanie said.
“Dreaming,” Jackie said.
“You know how easy it would be? Because he trusts you,” Melanie said, “and won’t be anywhere near that mall? Pull one more switch, up front. That’s it. Listen, if you’re interested and you need help . . .”
“Keep it between us girls?” Jackie said.
“Why not? What’s that son of a bitch ever done for us?”
“But he’ll know.”
“By the time he figures it out, you’re gone, on your way to California, Mexico, shit, anywhere, Alaska, just go. Get someplace and then decide what to do. You don’t want to think too much first and talk yourself out of it. You know, allow it to work on your nerves.”
“You’ve done this before,” Jackie said.
Melanie turned her head, as if to check if anyone was listening, and looked at Jackie again. “I’ve scored cash, dope, jewelry, a painting once that was supposed to be priceless and turned out to be a fake. Cars now and then— ninety miles an hour out of there one time in this asshole’s Mercedes I dropped at the airport in Key West. Get clear and then take off, like to Spain. No backpacks, they’ll check you for drugs. You’re too old for a backpack anyway. Wear a dress, good shoes, you’ll walk through Customs in almost any civilized country except here and Israel. You don’t want to go to Israel anyway, it isn’t safe.”
Jackie said, “That’s it?”
“How it’s done,” Melanie said.
Jackie said, “Thanks,” and slid off the stool.
Melanie’s head came up in a hurry. “Where you going?”
“Find a telephone,” Jackie said.
It was close to seven by the time she got the message Nicolet had left on her machine, ran home to change, and arrived at Good Samaritan in a print dress and earrings. Nicolet brought a chair over as she spoke to Tyler, smiling, working up to touching his hair and giving him a pat on the head. Not exactly in a motherly way, though he looked about seventeen sitting up in bed with a can of beer. There were flowers on every surface that would hold them and getwell cards upright on the windowsill. Nicolet got her seated. She brought out a cigarette and lit it.
“I have something to report,” Jackie said. “Two things. I deliver the money the day after tomorrow. Same arrangement, four thirty at The Gardens Mall. I’ll be meeting Sheronda.”
“The one lives on Thirty-first Street,” Nicolet said to Tyler.
Tyler nodded. “She married to Ordell?”
“They live together,” Jackie said, “but he’s not there all the time. Sheronda has no idea what’s going on. She’s nice, I hope you don’t have to arrest her.”
Nicolet said, “What kind of deal can she offer?”
“She was too scared to open the door,” Tyler said. “She gives you Ordell as the man the money’s for, that ought to get her off.” He said to Jackie, “What’s the other thing you have for us?”
“Ordell has a guy working for him named Louis Gara.”
She saw Tyler look at Nicolet and she turned to him, next to her, as he said, “Have you met him?”
“This afternoon, at an apartment in Palm Beach Shores. I don’t think Gara lives there, but I can probably find out.”
Nicolet reached down to lift a grocery sack from the floor to his lap. “You talk to him?”
“Not really.”
“What’s he do for Ordell?”
“I don’t know yet. I suppose I could ask.”
“You want a beer?”
“I’d love one.”
Nicolet reached in the sack, twisted a can from a six-pack, popped it open, and handed Jackie the can, wet, ice-cold. She took a sip.
“I know he just got out of prison. They seem to be pretty close for a white guy and a black guy.”
Tyler was grinning at her. “You’re doing all right.”
“Enough to get me off?”
