Road Dogs

  She said, I'm serious about his ghost in the house. Or whoever it is. She said, But not serious enough to do anything about it. Aren't you tired of talking about ghosts?

  They came out of the pool and she said, Don't move. I'm going to take off my suit and put on a robe. Are you all right? Help yourself to the bar in the cabana. I'll get some dry undies. New ones, she said, still in the package. I remember buying them for Peter.

  He said, You're kidding, aren't you.

  She paused before saying, If you don't want to wear them, don't.

  Foley sat on the patio smoking a cigarette. Not anxious to show off in her husband's underwear. He realized he should never've told her she had a new life about to begin. She said, Do I? in a coy way, because she knew it was her line. Do I? Playing the part. But that could be all it was, a reaction.

  She could be feeling Peter's presence, not as a ghost but on her mind and she wasn't ready to let go of him, whether she knew it or not.

  Foley believed he could make the premoves and if she softened her eyes it was okay, they'd keep going and in time they'd be acting like they were in love or on their way. Giving it a try because they were comfortable with each other.

  Or, she was already into her new life; she could do what she wants and not hold back. It came down to does she or doesn't she.

  He believed Peter's underwear could be the key, if he put them on and they didn't fit or they looked funny.

  Or, she might not even bring them.

  He was patient. Waiting, wondering if Dawn had fixed the little guy something Cuban, one of his favorites, though he wouldn't bet money on it.

  He looked up to see Danny in her bathrobe coming out of the cabana with a pair of men's white underwear in her hand.

  Chapter TWENTY-THREE

  DAWN WATCHED TICO SETTING THE OVAL TABLE IN THE DINing room, a chair with arms at each end, a chair without arms on each side, white linen covering the table.

  You can seat ten people here, Tico said, even twelve. Four people like this are too far apart from each other.

  It's the way I want it, Dawn said.

  What if Foley comes?

  He does, he's losing his touch.

  He comes he can take my seat. I be in the kitchen but keeping an eye on Cundo, the other end of the table.

  From the kitchen, Dawn said, you'll be looking at his back. Cundo always sits facing the room. You could watch from only a few feet behind him. But remember, after you place the platter on the table and remove the cover, stand to one side. Don't go back to the kitchen, I may need you.

  Yes, I see that he don't like what you tell him. Where did you put my pistol?

  You won't need it, Dawn said. If he goes bananas hit him with something, a frying pan. I'm hoping he behaves himself. She said, The other thing, what about Little Jimmy's driver?

  You want to feed him?

  I want to know where he'll be. Does Zorro stay in the car?

  I don't know, Tico said. Maybe he sleeps, maybe likes to walk around.

  But he has to stay close, Dawn said, in case Little Jimmy wants him.

  Or he's ready to go home, Tico said. What is it worries you?

  Nothing, Dawn said, but I hate surprises.

  Foley's bottle of Old No. 7 was on the kitchen table. If Dawn had a glass or two of bourbon she didn't show it. She was always cool.

  Cundo stepped out of the shower to see Tico waiting for him with a tall drink that looked like a collins, decorated with a cherry on top. Cundo took most of it in three swallows, a collins made of bourbon, and told Tico to get him another one of these, he was dying of thirst. He shaved around the tuft of hair beneath his lower lip he had grown in the past few days. He was thinking of growing a beard but held off because of all the gray bristles he shaved from his jaw. He liked his soul patch, it was dark.

  Cundo went in the bedroom where Dawn had laid out a white shirt for him, on the bed with a pair of black silk pants, part of a suit he hadn't worn in eight years and slipped on a pair of sandals. He sat at the vanity and Dawn appeared behind him to stroke his hair with a brush and refasten the rubber band holding his ponytail. She stepped back saying, There, to his reflection. You're perfect.

  There's no pocket in this fucking shirt.

  You don't need one.

  For my cigarettes.

  It would ruin the look. I paid two hundred dollars for the shirt, out of my allowance. You think for that much they give you a pocket. He lighted a cigarette with his Bic lighter, a black one, stared at himself in the mirror, leaned forward a little and blew a perfect smoke ring at himself.

  We'd go out, Dawn said, you'd wear the black Palm Beach suit, a black shirt, that thin yellow tie and you'd carry a yellow Bic.

  The lighter was yellow, yes, Cundo said, but the tie was a shade of ochre. I never saw an ochre Bic. I wouldn't mind having a few.

  He stared at himself with dreamy eyes. Dawn called them his bedroom eyes. She said, You know how people look at you?

  What people?

  Ones who know about you. You're famous, the last of the Cocaine Cowboys. Now you're back. They see you and wonder what you're up to.

  Nothing, Cundo said.

  They would never believe that. They see how you live, in the same house. They see you buy me a car. You leading up to something I don't want to hear, so don't say it. Tell me what you cooking.

  It s a surprise.

  Let's see, what are you? Dawn Navarro you Spanish by way of Puerto Rico sometime back but don't look it. You gonna fix Cuban rice and beans?

  You'll never guess, Dawn said.

  Why won't I?

  I don't want you to.

  Why don't I smell nothing cooking?

  I haven't put it on yet. I'll start when everyone has a drink. We sit at the table, we'll have wine with dinner, Tico the lavender gangbanger serving. He looks like a male escort this evening, a little rouge on his cheeks. But you're the guest of honor, the main man. I still think we should have the roof party. No hurry, sometime when you're in the mood.

  Since I like so much to go up on roofs.

  What I want to believe more than anything, Dawn said, you really have retired from a life of crime, so to speak. You're not simply resting between rounds.

  So to speak, Cundo said.

  We'll go out once in a while, of course. But this time you won't be competing with all the Tony Montanas in their white suits, their collars spread open. You'd come along vamping in your all-black outfit and ochre tie. I'll never again say it's yellow, and I'll tell anyone who asks you'd like to be left alone, to your own devices.

  Cundo was still seated at the vanity. Dawn leaned close to kiss him as Cundo said, Foley thinks I should go to Costa Rica with him.

  Dawn kissed his cheek, lingering for a moment before she straightened and looked at him in the mirror.

  Really?

  One time he mention it to me.

  They had drinks in the sitting room, vodka martinis because, Cundo said, the ones made with gin caused you to be drunk too soon. Little Jimmy asked Cundo if he was angry with him for something he did. Cundo said, If you tole it in confession I also forgive you, and blessed Jimmy saying, Absolvo te, Cundo making the sign of the cross in the air.

  Tico watched Dawn. She excused herself and was gone for almost half an hour. When she returned and said, Let's go sit at the table, Tico saw she had made up her eyes in the fashion of a royal woman of Egypt.

  He poured wine, though only Cundo and Little Jimmy were seated at the table, took the empty bottle and pushed through the door to the kitchen. Dawn stood at the range, where two saucepans were on simmer. She said, You'd better open another bottle, and put the baguette on the table, if you will, please. Sounding so nice this evening, even with her eyes made up like that. And the butter. It's in the fridge.

  Tico pushed through the door to the dining room and placed the bread and the plate of butter in the middle of the table Cundo and Little Jimmy talking about point spreads and draped a napkin over his
shoulder and unscrewed the cap from the fifteen-dollar bottle of wine Cundo, the cheap fuck, had bought.

  In the kitchen again he saw the lids off the saucepans and the platter standing on its short legs by the pans, its silver cover in place.

  Not a word, Dawn said.

  Tico was anxious now. He picked up the platter by its little silver wings sticking out, reached the door and turned his head to see Dawn coming with another silver platter. Tico knew what he was serving, but had no idea what Dawn was bringing to the table.

  She came behind Tico who used his hip to hold the door for her. Tico placed his dish at Cundo's end of the table and watched Dawn set hers down in front of her place at the other end. Tico thought it could be more of what he was serving. Dawn sat down in her chair with arms. She looked at Tico waiting by the table, gave him the nod and turned her eyes on Cundo as Tico the gangbanger lifted the lid and stepped back with it to watch Cundo:

  Cundo staring at the platter of macaroni and cheese, some of the macaroni sticking out of the creamy melted cheese that had too much color to be something good to eat. It looked more like imitation macaroni and cheese, if there was such a thing.

  Dawn waited for Cundo to look at her.

  He wasn't smiling.

  She said, You don't think it's funny?

  Tico started laughing. Little Jimmy grinned. Cundo stared at Dawn until gradually the table was silent.

  I know I told you, Dawn said to Cundo, the ruling planet for Scorpios happens to be Pluto, the reason your personality is dark and you tend, much of the time, to be so intense. Mine's Jupiter. It's why I'm not only optimistic, I'm lucky and, as you will agree, have quite a cheerful nature. I like doing favors for people. Our colors are sort of close. Yours burgundy and mine purple, dating back to my pharaoh days when I was Hapshepsut and ran both ends of the Nile. Your symbol, the scorpion, is secretive and of course deadly. But the part of the body ruled by Scorpio are the genitals, an area I thought might work just right for us, since I'm a fun lover and you're more like an animal in bed.

  She watched Cundo light a cigarette.

  Tico stepped over to move an ashtray closer to him.

  Let's see, Dawn said, Scorpio rules insects while Sagittarians rule horses. Not much of a link there, but I thought we could work it out. You're strong-willed, I'm easygoing. You like my style but don't care to hear about me enjoying myself if you're not around. So when you come right down to it, Cundo, we're not at all emotionally suited to one another. You want me fawning over you all the time when I'm not cooking. You kept asking if I'm being a saint. Remember? 'Are you being a saint for me?' I'm playful about sex. You're so intense you have to dominate. You'd keep me in a cage if you could. I mean, come on. During the eight years I waited for you I hardly fooled around at all. Eight years, Cundo, is a long time.

  Cundo said, You fucked Jack Foley, didn't you?

  You already hit me for that, hard. What else do you want to do? Foley's a Libra, so his ruling planet is Venus. He can't help it if he likes to be sociable, it's the way he is. I knew if I stepped out on a Scorpion I could get my butt stung. The problem is, you think the only way to handle me is to lock me up, let me out at bedtime. But I won't stand for that.

  You won't, uh? Cundo said.

  He looked at Little Jimmy.

  You believe this?

  Jimmy didn't nod or say a word, struck dumb.

  Cundo said to Tico, Where are you in this? You fucking her too?

  Tico said, Who me? but with a grin, on and off.

  Is Jimmy the only one who knows you I can trust? Jesus Christ, or you get him in bed too? This woman say she loves me so much?

  Cundo drew on his cigarette and stubbed it in the pile of macaroni and cheese and looked up at Dawn:

  Dawn standing at her place now. She set aside the cover of the serving dish in front of her and brought out Tico's pistol, the good-looking Walther PPK with the silencer attached, and pointed it at Cundo.

  Jesus Christ, Cundo said, you want to leave, go, get out of my sight. I won't stop you.

  Dawn said, I'm not leaving, you are, aimed the pistol at Cundo's white shirt without a pocket and shot him three times in the chest, the silenced pistol sounding no louder than a BB gun.

  There, Dawn said, I'll never have to fuck that dwarf again.

  Tico lifted Cundo's head by the hair, holding it at arm's length like a game kill, a trophy, Tico saying, I think he's still alive.

  Not this time, Dawn said, seated again, smoking one of her Slims, using a napkin to wipe her prints from the gun. Close his eyes and you won't think he's watching you. How does the back of the chair look?

  Clean, Tico said. The shots didn't go through, they still inside him. Tha's good, uh? No blood to clean up.

  But there's some on the tablecloth. Take it off and soak it in cold water with a little vinegar.

  Tico grinned. You know the secrets of a good housewife and how to shoot somebody. I could not believe it. You take the gun from the platter pow pow pow, he's gone to the other side. Can you see him over there?

  Not yet. He must be having trouble gaining admission. She said to Little Jimmy standing by the table staring at Cundo, Sweetie, will you start clearing, please? Take the macaroni and cheese to the kitchen and dump it. Cundo ruined it with his cigarette.

  Tico watched Jimmy move through the door to the kitchen. He looks like he's in a trance.

  He's thinking, Dawn said, how did I get into this?

  He's more afraid of you, Tico said, than he ever was of Cundo. Man, you were ready. I could not believe it, you make a speech and shoot him. Pow pow pow.

  With your gun, Dawn said, the one you used on the guy at Saks.

  Oh, now she was threatening him, but in a nice way. You get caught, you say no, it wasn't me, it was that guy owns the gun. Tico grinned at her. I can tell you, you be sorry you ever do that.

  Dawn said, Darling boy, a little surprised, you're my numero uno, I couldn't begin to pull this off without you. Jimmy came into the dining room and she said, Jimmy, I want you and Tico to understand, the three of us are in this together. We rely on one another. We share what comes out of this and not have to worry about Cundo. She said to Little Jimmy, He'll never be mean to you again. But you can't tell Zorro what we did, he's not on our side. All right? You promise? Little Jimmy nodded his head and Dawn said, You promise as God is your witness you'll never tell a soul about this?

  Yes, Jimmy said, I promise.

  Not Zorro or anyone?

  Yes, I promise.

  As God is your witness?

  Yes, as God is my witness. She thought of Cundo, the way he asked if she was being a saint.

  Tico watched Dawn put her hand out to him. Jimmy went to her and bent down so she could kiss him and pat his cheek. Tomorrow, she said, we'll look at the books, okay? One of the first things we'll want to do is put the homes up for sale, then decide where to go from there. Okay?

  Jimmy nodded without saying a word and left, going out the back way.

  Tico said, You don't worry about him?

  I know he's a risk, Dawn said, but we can't keep him locked up. If Zorro finds out he might make Jimmy pay him, you know, to keep quiet.

  I could take care of Zorro.

  You could? Dawn said.

  Like a helpless woman now, after drilling Cundo three times. Tico smiled. It would be easy, he said. Hand me my gun.

  It was on the table where she sat, resting after the execution. She said, Foley's another problem. He'll want to know where Cundo is.

  What if he came for the dinner?

  Well, Dawn said, I'm not sure anyone would miss either of them. Barely out of prison.

  You shoot Foley too?

  I'd have to, wouldn't I?

  You could do that?

  She looked at him with her made-up eyes and said, Or you could.

  He watched her draw on the cigarette and exhale a long slow stream of smoke.

  Did you get the ice?

  Sixteen bags
. The car is in the garage backed up to the freezer, where I put the ice.

  She was shaking her head. Cundo goes in first and we lay the bags on top of him. If they don't fit you can empty enough bags to cover him. The thing is, love, if I sell the houses in the next few days, we'll have to chip him out of the ice and arrange a quick burial at sea.

  Tico, grinning, said, You remind me of my mama.

  I look like her?

  The way you talk. You funny the way she is. My cool mama, Sierra. Mr. FBI say he charge her for drugs I don't help him. Tha's the kind he is even bullshitting. Sure, I help him, I get in here where it's happening.

  Dawn turned her head to stare at Cundo in the chair, his head against the backrest. I thought you closed his eyes.

  I close them. They must have come open.

  Did you feel for a pulse?

  You say he was dead.

  He must be, Dawn said. We have to get him out, but I don't want to touch him.

  I carry him, Tico said, like a baby.

  My lover man, Dawn said. The rouge doesn't go with your body, the muscles under there. She picked up a napkin from the table, touched it to her tongue and gently stroked his cheek with it. She said, Why don't we put the little monkey on ice before we finish up here?

  Tico liked the way she touched his face, looking at him with her Egyptian eyes. Man, but it scared him too.

  Chapter TWENTY-FOUR

  THE WAY FOLEY LOOKED AT HIS CHANCES WITH DANNY Karmanos, sitting on the patio waiting for her, if she wasn't grieving for a whole year and it was clear her time was almost up, he was in.

  If she was still grieving but would go along because she'd given him signs and she wasn't a tease, he could take advantage of the situation.

  Well, he could if he wanted to.