Road Dogs

  Foley said, You believe it?

  Tico said, I think a guy who robs two hundred banks don't need to work for nobody he don't want to. Can you tell me how many you rob?

  A hundred and twenty-seven, Foley said.

  Some more than once?

  A few. One of them a bank in L. A., I didn't realize I'd been there before till I was at the window and I recognized the teller, this good-looking black girl, her name in a thing on the counter. I could tell she knew who I was. I said, 'Monique, I only want change for a twenty, all right?'

  Tha's what you said?

  In a soft voice. 'Monique ?'

  She say anything?

  No, she starts laying it out, hundreds, fifties, all in bank straps, not looking at me, watching what she's doing. I'm thinking she either didn't understand what I said, or she pressed the alarm and she's showing the money to keep me there.

  You took it?

  I felt I had to. The bank straps made it easy to pick up and slip in my pockets, my shirt. I said, 'Thank you, Monique, for the change.'

  She think that was funny?

  She didn't look up. I patted her hand.

  Give her a thrill.

  I got to the front entrance and looked back. Now she's watching me. She looked calm, didn't scream or go nuts. For a moment there, you know what I thought she might do? Wave. But she didn't. I got out of there with fifty-two-fifty. Thank you, Monique. But did I steal it, or was it a gift? Something I'll never know.

  Man, tha's cool. So is robbing one hundred and twenty-seven banks, Tico said. I bow to you. You know how many banks I rob in my entire life so far? Three, tha's all.

  Do any more, Foley said, it begins to get tiresome.

  Yes, you get tired doing it?

  Bored. But you still keep your eyes open.

  Now he was talking about Costa Rica, saying, You know how many Americans would move there tomorrow if they could? At least a million. What do you do, you leave the promised land and come here.

  San JosT is no L. A., man. You leave when you can.

  You doing all right?

  Now and then. You know how it is.

  I'll trade you, Foley said. I've been reading up on Costa Rica. They don't have revolutions anymore, they don't even have an army. It's the Switzerland of Central America.

  Yes, is nice, Tico said, if you have money. You make enough to live high there, sure, have a big home with servants waiting on you. You going there, uh, soon as you become rich?

  It got the bank robber smiling a little, smoking his Light Menthol Virginia Slim.

  But if you not robbing banks no more, you think is so boring, where you get the money?

  He watched the bank robber shrug, watched him pick up his glass and take a drink.

  You're having a good time poking around, Foley said, trying to find out what I'm up to, aren't you?

  I enjoy to talk to you, Tico said, one bank robber to another, uh? and waited for Jack Foley to see he was being funny.

  He did, but smiled only a moment.

  We're now and then in the same life, Foley said. That's all I can tell you.

  Tha's right, we go to prison, we come out. Okay, now what do we do? Check around to see what looks good, what kind of hustle we can work. Maybe something your friend Cundo Rey has in his mind.

  I just got here, Foley said, and I've known you what, a half hour?

  Tico said, Yes ?

  That's not long enough, Foley said, for me to be telling you my business. All I know about you so far, Tico, you're a bullshitter. You do it pretty well, but you're still a bullshitter. You've never robbed a bank in your life, have you?

  Man, I want to, Tico said, looking earnest, his eyes innocent. Don't that count for something?

  Not to me, Foley said. Talking the talk doesn't inspire any confidence, nothing I hear I can count on. But, Foley said, it sounds like you're a pretty good friend of Dawn Navarro's.

  I can say we very good friends.

  I hear Dawn saying nice things about you, Foley said, that makes you worth talking to.

  Foley nodded toward the canal.

  Tico looked that way and saw her on the other side, Dawn walking past the line of low hedges toward the footbridge, Dawn wearing a shirt and jeans now, the limp coat over her arm. Tico said, Oh, now you gonna check on me, uh? Ask her if we friends, if I was ever intimate with her? No, I wasn't.

  Foley said, Try to stay calm, Tico.

  Chapter TWELVE

  THEY WATCHED DAWN COME THROUGH THE GATE SAYING,

  You're starting early, aren't you? I have to have my coffee first.

  Foley said, Did he call you?

  I've been talking to him all this time, telling him where I've been.

  He was worried about you.

  Now I have to find a straw beach hat, a big one, and stop by Ralphs, pick up whatever I told him I had to get.

  He ask you if you're being a saint?

  Not today. Let me get a cup, Dawn said. I'm regressing Tico, finding out who he was in a much earlier life. My spirit guide put me in touch with a spirit Dawn looking at Tico now who knew you sixteen hundred years ago, if you can imagine that. I'll be right back.

  You hear her? Tico said. Is no bullshit. Dawn is been trying to find out who I was in another life, she say now was sixteen hundred years ago, man.

  How does she know where to look?

  She has her spirit guide help her. Didn't she ever look at your past life for you?

  She couldn't find anything prior to '63, Foley said. At first she thought I might've been Jack Kennedy I've had a bad back off and on but she couldn't tell if I was ever president of the United States.

  Yes, but maybe you were?

  It's possible, Foley said,

  She say I was of the Maya race in Guatemala, Tico said. I tole her I come from Costa Rica. She say is close enough. She didn't know what I was called, so she couldn't find out what I was doing there Tico looking anxious but now I believe she found out.

  They waited, smoking Slims and sipping whiskey. Dawn returned with a cup of coffee and sat down with them at the patio table. She said, Oh, would you like one of my Slims? in her innocent way. Tico said he already had one. If he didn't know she was putting him on, he didn't know her, Foley thought. They still could've got naked together or why bother to deny it? Now she was telling Tico, It seems you appear in the early part of the Maya classic period, about the year 400. You're the son of a god-king, the one and only Fire Is Born. Really, that's his name, Fire Is Born. Your name, Tico, was Spear-thrower Jaguar. You were a famous warrior.

  Tico said, Spear-thrower Jaguar, nodding his head.

  Your girlfriend, Dawn said, is taken up to the top of the temple to be sacrificed as a gift to the gods, who will freak when they see her, she's a beauty. But, Dawn said, you can save her life if you're willing to take her place, have your heart cut out instead of hers.

  Foley said, What's the girl's name?

  The way Dawn hesitated he knew she was taking a few moments to think of one.

  Foley said, How about Spear-chucker's Honey?

  Dawn stared at him with a straight face getting her act back together. She said, You know who the spirit is I was put in touch with? Spear-thrower Jaguar's girlfriend herself. Everyone on the other side calls her Heart, short for Heartless Virgin, because of, you know, what happened to her. She passed over and loves being a spirit guide. Tico, she said you turned chicken, even though the chance you'd be sacrificed was next to zero. You're the son of Fire Is Born, you're popular, brave, you're a good-looking guy, especially in your headdress, with all the feathers and ornaments. Heart said the headdresses were quite heavy and resulted in neck ailments. But you wouldn't risk it, you let Heart be sacrificed. Aren't you sorry, Tico, you didn't step up?

  You telling me, Tico said, she's my girlfriend but she's still a virgin? How long am I going with her, a day or two? I don't see I know her well enough to, you know, offer my life.

  You're saying you wouldn't try to save
her?

  I don't even know her. Maybe if I see her again.

  According to Heart, Dawn said, when you didn't do the right thing, it got our Higher Power pissed enough to make you, in your next several reincarnations, bugs. That's why I had trouble locating you in a previous existence.

  Foley said, Did she say what kind of bug he was?

  No, she didn't, Dawn said, refusing to look at him. She did say Tico, when he passed over, would come back as another insect unless he redeems himself.

  How's he do that?

  The usual way. Dawn said to Tico now, You have to risk your life to save someone from certain death.

  Tico said, I do?

  You'll know it when it happens, Dawn said. It's your only chance to get a better life from now on.

  Tico said, Man, I don't know.

  Go home and think about it, Dawn said. Do you want to be a bug all your lives?

  Getting swatted, Foley said, and stepped on?

  Tico looked confused saying he wasn't sure what to think about. Dawn told him the secret was to empty his mind, keep a channel open by trying not to think, and there was a good chance the spirit guide would contact him.

  Foley said, Maybe your old girlfriend, the Heartless Virgin.

  After Tico had left Foley said, If he wasn't aware of being a bug until you told him, what difference does it make if he was? I got carried away, Dawn said. I thought you were setting him up. For what? I don't know to use him? You knew I was making it up, Dawn said, most of it, turn ing her eyes on him. You want to take a shower?

  Once they were in there soaping each other up, Foley said, Don't forget, you have to put a bathing suit on you in the painting. Dawn said they should get Little Jimmy to do it. He finished and took his paints with him. Foley said or they could buy a tube of paint and dab some on her here, and here and here. What color did she like?

  Dawn said, Mmmmm, black? and slipped her clean shining arms around his neck. She kissed his mouth and said she wasn't sure about the color, he should ask Jimmy. She said, You ready? Then had to ask him, Jack, why're you wearing shoes in the shower?

  They were lying across the bed now on their towels.

  Dawn said, I almost told you about Cundo, what he said on the phone, but decided not to ruin our shower. They're releasing him a week early. He'll be here Friday, the day after tomorrow.

  Foley said, Why didn't he tell me? I spoke to him I did everything I could to get rid of him. I put him on hold to watch you come out of the house in my sixty-nine-dollar drip-dry sport coat. Why didn't he tell me he's getting out early?

  You're a little ripped, aren't you?

  I was.

  Jack, we've only got forty-eight hours to act crazy, maybe try something new, like I'm on top. There's a reason he didn't let me know. He wanted to tell me first, Dawn said. He likes you, Jack, but doesn't go to bed with you. The way to look at it, the sooner he gets here, the sooner we pull the job and leave.

  The job.

  Foley closed his eyes.

  The sooner we pull the job. After we find out what the job is and how we go about pulling it. We're not going in a bank. Not we. You. Keep it simple. Do you know where this is going? What you're getting into? Who's who? If you don't know that you don't know anything. The sooner we pull the job. Why isn't she biting her nails? What does she have going with Tico the spear-chucker? Why didn't Cundo tell you he's getting out early? Why wasn't he excited, wanting you to know about it, his old buddy? Why was it the other day, you and Dawn finding each other, talking about the job, you didn't see a problem? Didn't get down and look at what you'd have to do. It left Foley with the feeling, What you see isn't what you think it is.

  He opened his eyes.

  Dawn was lighting a cigarette.

  Are we picking him up at the airport?

  He said a friend at Glades is arranging for a guy in L. A. to meet the flight and bring him here.

  He doesn't have a friend at Glades.

  Well, someone is saving us the trouble.

  She placed her cigarette between his lips and watched him draw and let the smoke drift out of his mouth.

  She said, You want to rest a little more ?

  Chapter THIRTEEN

  FOLEY CALLED LITTLE JIMMY ABOUT THE PAINTING THAT needed to be fixed before Cundo arrived, walked in the bedroom and saw Dawn on the wall bare naked. It's where I've been sleeping, Foley said, since I got here.

  Little Jimmy said there was time. Didn't they have a week or so?

  He'll be here tomorrow, Foley said. They're letting him out early.

  It caused an alarm to go off in Jimmy, wanting to know, Jesus Christ, why nobody told him.

  What'll it take you, Foley said, three minutes. That gives you a minute a dab. Or, you decide to paint a one-piece suit on her I think you'll have time.

  Little Jimmy told Foley to fuck the bathing suit why didn't somebody tell him Cundo, Christ, was almost here?

  I'd like to come over and see you, Foley said. You can show me your office, what you do.

  Ten years ago Cundo told Jimmy to buy the three-story building on Windward, a block from the beach, and fix it up. Before this the property had been a youth hostel. Jimmy had walls removed and rearranged and now his offices took up the second floor and his apartment was directly above: a big one he did with an art deco look, lots of color and round corners. There were also rooms on the third floor for Zorro, who lived here and was always close if Jimmy needed him. The street floor was occupied by Danny's Venice, a cafT with smart red-and-white-striped awnings in front, where Jimmy had his lunch every day.

  Foley went up the stairs to find Little Jimmy waiting for him, Jimmy in his realm, his life here. He brought Foley into his office done in a pale gray for business, no distracting colors. Even the photographs on two of the walls were black-and-white shots of Venice Beach: tourists crowding the walk, street performers, the drummers' circle, homeboys hanging out, while the wall behind Jimmy's marble desk was bare, with nail holes showing.

  Dawn used to hang there, Foley said, looking over your shoulder?

  Little Jimmy sat in his black velvet throne in shirtsleeves, black stones in the French cuffs. He said, She's gone from my life. I have nothing to do with her now he's coming. You understand? I see she's paid every month, tha's all. Take that painting of her and destroy it.

  He knows about it.

  You tole him?

  I said she's wearing a swimsuit.

  Jesus Christ man, I don't have no paint here. I have to get some, come by the house later.

  She wants to look modest, Foley said, if that's possible.

  Jimmy got up from his chair but didn't seem to know where he wanted to go, got to the end of his marble-slab desk, nothing on it, and stopped. Cundo call me yesterday morning, I'm still in bed sleeping. He say, 'I hear your car was stole.' I ask him what he's talking about. It's in back, where Zorro keeps an eye on it. He say, 'Oh, is that right? Take a look.' I go downstairs, my fucking car is gone. Stole while I'm sleeping, the Bentley, man. Zorro shakes his head no, he don't hear a sound. I talk to Cundo again. He say he can get the car back but it will cost me two hundred thousand. He say, 'From your account, not from Rios and Rey Investment Company or the sports book.' Or the account I pay guys out of for things he wants, like guards at the prison.

  Letting you know, Foley said, your skimming days are over.

  I tole him I don't have no two hundred-k to give him. He say okay, then I don't get no more pay for a year. Giving you a break, Foley said, 'cause he needs you. He say I do it again he has to get another bookkeeper. Jesus

  Christ, like all I do is accounting for the real estate and the investing, the number accounts we keep. He don't know how to do any of that.

  I tried to tell you, Foley said, Cundo isn't dumb. He can't add figures, but always knows what the balance is. How long you been skimming on him?

  Now and then only, not much.

  This time you dipped too deep and somebody told on you. Foley sat down a
nd lighted a cigarette and Jimmy got an ashtray from a drawer in the marble desk.

  Was there a big Z, Foley said, cut in the wall in back?

  What're you talking about?

  I wondered if it might've been Zorro boosted your car.

  You think is a joke man, I could get whacked.

  I see two ways you can look at your situation, Foley said. Cundo's fond of you, Jimmy, he's brought you along through good times and piss-poor ones, hasn't he?

  He would get upset, Jimmy said, and lose his temper this was during the time of the drug business and would let me use my way to soothe him and he would become calm. At Combinado del Este and when we first came to La Yuma, he would let me soothe his nerves.

  Well, now he's got Dawn, Foley said, to do the soothing while you keep working your tail off for him, scared to death of his wrath. He gets the idea you're skimming on him again

  I promise him I won't.

  Or thinks you're fucking him some other way

  He'd have me whacked.

  He's too fond of you, Foley said. He wouldn't kill you, Jimmy, he'd slam a car door on your fingers. The left one, so you can still work the calculator.

  Jesus Christ

  Or break your legs with a JosT Canseco bat. He won't admit it, but he knows he needs you. You can stick around and put up with his arrogance if you don't mind being his slave. Foley said, Jimmy, there's another way to look at it. Make out a check to 'cash' from every account you can, and deposit the checks in a bank in Costa Rica. I'll give you the name of the bank in San JosT, the capital, and show you how to send the money by wire. Or, you could send it in care of my account and I'll hold it for you. I get down there I'm moving to a spot on the Pacific side I've picked out.

  Jimmy said, I know how to wire money.

  What account did you skim the Bentley out of?

  One for guys Cundo tells me to pay. I transfer money to it from other accounts. Jimmy moved to his throne behind the desk but didn't sit down. You said when we drinking, I become tired of how he treats me, I could clean out the accounts and take off. You remember?

  What I meant, Foley said, if you ever felt like taking what you have coming and make a run for it, I wouldn't blame you.