Cities of the Red Night

'Yes.'

'And why do you think the body was addressed to South America?'

'I don't know the answer to that.'

'Ecuador is headhunter country, isn't it?'

'Yes.'

'It is logical to assume then that someone planned to reunite the head and the body in South America.'

'I think so.'

'You haven't told us everything.'

'I've told you what I know.'

'This Marty ... Dimitri's men never saw him?'

'No.'

'But you could see him?'

'Yes.'

'We can't arrest a ghost,' said O'Brien.

'Well, if he can make himself solid enough to beat someone's brains out with a pipe wrench, you might be able to.... Question of being there at the right time.'

Even the cockroaches

Una cosa me da risa Something makes me laugh

Pancho Villa sin camisa Pancho Villa takes his shirt off

The Cucaracha, where Kiki worked as a waiter, had 'La Cucaracha' on the jukebox. It's a basement restaurant, with a small bar and a few tables. It was 11:00 P.M. and the place was empty. I hadn't seen Kiki since I interviewed him on the Green case. Looking very handsome in a worn dinner jacket, he was leaning against the bar, talking to a bargirl. She does a strip-tease act uptown on weekends which is a thing to see.

Because old Pancho shakes the dirt out

I shook hands with Kiki, ordered a margarita, and sat down, and right on cue a cockroach crawled across the table. When Kiki brought the margarita I pointed to the cockroach and said, 'He's getting his marijuana and getting it steady.'

'Si,' said Kiki absently, and brushed the cockroach away with his towel.

I looked around and saw there was one other diner by the door. I hadn't noticed him when I came in. He was sitting alone and reading a book called Thin Air about a top-secret navy project to make a battleship and all the sailors on it disappear. It was supposed to confuse the enemy; however, all the test sailors went crazy. But CIA men were made of sterner stuff and found it modern and convenient to 'go zero' as they call it in a tight spot.

Porque no tiene Because he doesn't have

Porque le falta Because he lacks

Marijuana por fumar Marijuana to smoke

On the wall were bullfight posters and The Death of Manolete. The poisonous colors made me thing of arsenic green and the flaking green paint in the WC. It's a big picture and must be worth a lot of money, like a wooden Indian or Custer's Last Stand, which the Anheuser-Busch Company used to give out to their customers. I remember as an adolescent being excited by the green naked bodies sprawled about ass-up, getting scalped by the Indians, and especially a story about one man who played dead while he was being scalped and so escaped.

I drank the margaritas and ordered a combination plate and went to the green room. When I came back, 'Thin Air' was gone. Kiki came and sat with me and had a Carta Blanca. I told him Jerry was dead.

La cucaracha la cucaracha

'Como?' 'How?'

'Ahorcado.' 'Hanged.'

Ya