'Shut up, Felice,' Esteva said without looking at him. 'He's kidding you.'
We were all quiet again, looking.
Esteva lit one of his Gilbert Roland cigars. He inhaled, let out a cloud of smoke and gazed at me through it. Dramatic.
'You come to do any business?' Esteva said.
'Maybe,' I said. 'What kind of business you got in mind?'
'I figure you got something you want to sell me.'
Beside me Hawk was as motionless as Cesar. They seemed oblivious to the rest of us, lost in contemplation.
'What do you think that is?' I said.
Esteva puffed on his cigar.
'How I know you don't have a wire?' he said.
'Let Felice pat us down, one at a time,' I said.
Esteva turned his head toward Cesar. 'Not Cesar,' I said. 'Felice.'
'Sure,' Esteva said. He nodded at Felice. Felice patted me down carefully.
'He carrying, Mr. Esteva,' Felice said.
'Un huh,' Esteva said.
Felice moved slowly to Hawk and patted him down. Even during the frisk, Hawk's eyes never left Cesar.
'Tibbs carrying too, Mr. Esteva.'
'Any wire?'
'No.'
'Good,' Esteva said. 'No problem.' Felice stepped back to his place by the wall. Esteva said, 'No need to bullshit anymore. You got two hundred keys of cocaine belongs to me.'
'I had to turn in a hundred to the cops to explain what I was doing with the kid.'
'Sure, and you figure to bust me too. Hundred good as three to bust me,' Esteva said. 'If I go to jail you sell it to somebody else.'
'You understand,' I said.
'I understand business,' Esteva said. 'Two hundred keys, a lot of coke. A lot of money. It's why you still alive.' He pronounced you as if it were spelled with a j.
'Because I know where it is,' I said. Esteva smiled and nodded.
'I thought of that too,' I said. 'And I thought about how once I sell it back to you, there's no reason for me to stay alive.'
'Lotta money in this business,' Esteva said. 'But it's risky'-he inhaled some cigar smoke -'risky business. Why there's so much money.'
'So are you buying?'
Esteva shrugged. I waited. Esteva waited. I waited some more.
'How much you asking?' Esteva said.
'Thirty-two thousand a kilo,' I said.
Esteva shook his head. 'That's list around here,' he said.
'I know,' I said.
'I already paid for the junk once,' Esteva said. 'Can't make a living paying list price twice.'
I said, 'Un huh.'
Esteva didn't say anything. Neither did I. Below and behind us the sounds of produce distribution went on. The clatter of the rollers on the conveyor runs, the thump of crates being tossed around.
'Ten,' Esteva said.
'In Boston I can get over forty,' I said.
'Ten, and you stay alive,' Esteva said.
We were quiet again. Beside me Hawk was whistling to himself. Almost inaudibly. He did it between his teeth, with his lips barely parted. 'Georgia on My Mind.'
'Think about it,' Esteva said. 'No rush, a few days.'
'I'll think about it,' I said, and turned and started out the door. Hawk pointed his forefinger at Cesar with his thumb cocked. He grinned and dropped the thumb. 'Bang,' he said.
Cesar never blinked. Hawk made a little laughing sound to himself that sounded like 'hum.' Then he turned and came after me. At the foot of the stairs were Arthur and three other guys who didn't look like workers. I recognized two of them from the lobby of the Reservoir Court Motel. We walked through them without comment and through the office and out into the yard.
