LaBrava

was to get his keys--telling it to Nobles in this Cuban nigger accent like Nobles was a fool. Nobles had slapped his cowhide sap against the palm of his hand a few times, but then had to grin. Which must have given the dinge confidence, for then he goes, 'And if you don't believe that, sir, how you like to put five hundred dollars in your pocket and drive yourself the fuck out of here?'

Nobles admired all kinds of nerve and this Cuban was polite and had fun in his eyes.

What Cundo Rey would do usually he'd wire a brand new car out on the lot and put on stolen plates, then drive it down to South Miami or Homestead, nighttime garages he knew, and sell the car for parts. Once or twice a month make a minimum twenty-five hundred a car. Also, couple nights a week dance go-go. Get sweaty, man, lose yourself, have some fun and make a few hundred bucks.

This had confused Nobles at first. Wait a minute. Dance go-go?

Yeah, Cundo Rey danced go-go as a pro in a little leopard jockstrap, let the ladies reach up on their bar stools and stuff money in there, let them have a feel, spin around and shake a finger, naughty-naughty, if they tried to grab his business. Sure, dance go-go, bump and grind to salsa riffs, sometimes steel drum, have a time, work clubs Ladies' Night from West Palm down to South Beach where he appeared at a gay bar once in a while, Cheeky's; though he would have to work up his nerve for that scene, stuff his nose good with coke, because it was the freak show at the end of the world, that place.

Was he a queer? At first, usually when they were sitting in the Plymouth looking over a car dealership, Nobles had half-expected Cundo to reach over and try to cop his joint; but he had not tried it yet and he did talk about ass like he got his share of it; so Nobles decided Cundo was straight. Just weird.

But why would a man, even a Cuban, act like a queer if he wasn't one? 'What do you do it for?' he asked Cundo Rey, and Cundo Rey said, 'I steal cars in darkness, I dance in lights.' Nobles had seen him dance only one time. It was a place out by Miami International and Nobles had felt his own body moving as the ladies reached for Cundo Rey's crotch and Cundo Rey squirmed and writhed above them to that booger music, mouth full of white teeth sucking and smacking. Jesus. That one time was enough. Nobles believed it would take more nerve to get up there and act crazy than it would to break and enter.

They had a deal going now. Nobles would go in a dealership and get a key, Cundo Rey would start a car with it and Nobles would hang the key back up on the board--later scratch his head with everybody else, squint and kick gravel at how new cars were disappearing off the lots. He was making an extra grand a month for a few minutes' work on dark nights.

'The snake I saw, is only this long,' Cundo Rey said, moving his hands apart in the air and looking from one to the other. 'What is that? Less than two meters. The snake lay in the sand and swallowed for three hour, still you see the tip of the bat's wing sticking out of is mouth. Taking his time... the snake isn't going nowhere.'

Nobles said, 'Yeah?'

'What does the snake have? Patience. What's the hurry? Now with the lady, you know you going to score good there, uh? Sure, so be cool, let it happen.'

Nobles said, 'I'm gonna get a present, like on my birthday? I want to know what it is. I pick the box up and shake it. I was a little kid I used to do that. You give me a hard time, partner, I'll pick you up and shake you.'

Cundo Rey sipped his coffee--very poor coffee, like water--watching Nobles wiping his big thick hands on a golden arch napkin, sucking at his teeth. The Monster from the Big Scrub, with a neck so red it could stop traffic. Cundo Rey had come ashore in Dade County only a few years ago, boat-lifted out of Cambinado del Este prison and had worked hard to learn English--asking the girls why they didn't correct him and the girls saying, because he talked cute. Richard Nobles had come down out of some deep woods only a few hours by car to the north. And yet there was no doubt in Cundo Rey's mind that he was the American, a man of the city, and Nobles the alien, with mud between his toes. Nobles, with his size, his golden hair, his desire to break and injure, his air of muscular confidence, was fascinating to watch. A swamp creature on the loose.

Cundo Rey said, 'You threaten me?' Yes, he liked to watch Nobles and he liked to annoy him, too, sometimes. Without getting too close. 'I don't have to do this thing with you.'

'I'm kidding,' Nobles said. 'You're my little helper, aren't you?'

Let him believe it. 'If this is a good idea,' Cundo Rey said, 'I don't see why you can't wait for her to come home.'

'Man, I got to get going now, take off this goddamn uniform and get into something sporty. I mean all the time, not just off-duty. That drunk asshole I work for, he's gonna go broke any minute the shape he keeps things. Hires a bunch of scudders barely out of high school, they got as much brains as a box of rocks, I'm out there humping like a four-horse weed chopper, keeping the son of a bitch in booze.'

Cundo Rey was staring at him, squinting, fooling with his gold earring. 'I don't know what you talking about.'

'I'm saying I want to get out of there, now, is what I'm saying. Clean out your ears. Take that girlish goddamn thing off while you're doing it. I'm embarrassed to be seen with you.'

'Yes, but you don't have the plan yet,' Cundo Rey said, not the least self-conscious, fishing now, pulling the line in slowly. 'You got this woman has a big place, very expensive, you been with her, what, a few times...'

'I was with her last night.'

'Okay, she's got a big place, a car...'

'Cadillac Eldorado.'

'Some jewelry maybe...'

'You spook, we ain't gonna rob her.'

'No? What we going to do?'

'We gonna hang her up and flat skin her.'

Cundo Rey began fooling with his earring again. 'Hang her up and skin her. Flat?'

'Only first, right now, we got to find out where she went.'

'You don't want to wait for her to come home.'

'When's that? She in a hospital, a rest home or what?'

Nobles paused, squeezed his eyes to slits and grinned, show the Cuban he had his number along with great admiration. 'Be easy to find out. Man as nervy as you are. Be fun, too. What else you got to do?'

Three young girls with trays came by. Cundo Rey, fooling with curly ends of his raven hair now, working in his mind but always aware, looked up idly as they passed the booth. Nobles didn't say a word to them, didn't reach out or make a grab. He was serious today, all business.

He had started out, with his first hamburger, talking about a guy he wanted to stomp, a guy he didn't know but wore a shirt with bananas and different fruit on it. Some guy who had... 'sandbagged' him? He wanted to know where the guy lived. But first he wanted to find the woman who had been a film actress.

'You don't have a feeling for this woman?' the Cuban asked.

Nobles said, 'I want a feel I pick one about twenty years younger. This here is old meat. Good looking, you understand, but aged.' Nobles hunched over the table. 'Come on. Ain't any of us getting any younger.'

'I'll tell you what it is,' the Cuban said, 'why I hesitate. I don't like to get drunk.'

'You have about five rum and Cokes, get you a little glassy-eyed's all. So it looks real. I Meyers-Act you in there and you find the record book first chance, see where they took her. Glenn says it's like a blue notebook. Be on one of the desks but not in that back office, the office to the west side of the building, in there. Bear right as you go in the front door. Blue notebook, it's got the record of where everybody's sent, whether they went to detox or the shelter or if they left with somebody, the name and address of the party.'

Cundo Rey said, 'Glenn knows where the book is, why don't he do it? Go in and ask where she went.'

'No, Glenn ain't the person I thought he was. See, they was to ask him why he wants to know, Glenn, he'd start to sweat like he's got little bugs up his ass, become twitchy, afraid they'd call Boca Police and check him out. No, Glenn ain't casual enough for this type of deal.'

'Yes, but you bring him into this...'

'No. No, I haven't. I come out of the bar last night looking around--was Glenn told me where they took her, that's all. See, Glenn's from Umatilla originally, me and him go way back. But this here's not any kind of deal for old Glenn.' Nobles winked and grinned. 'I got you, partner, what do I need anybody else for?'

'I still don't like to get drunk,' Cundo Rey said.

'Hey, no, just get feeling good's all.'

'I got another idea,' Cundo Rey said. 'You finished?'