When the Women Come Out to Dance

by Elmore Leonard

  He said, "Raylan, the whole world's gonna become mulatta we don't separate the races quick. I believe that much and it's enough."

  Raylan only shrugged. "Then you'll die for it or go to prison."

  Boyd looked at him now like he was trying to decide something in his mind.

  "You'd shoot me, you get the chance?"

  "You make me pull," Raylan said, "I'll put you down."

  Devil had the map spread open on the table again, the one with the circles and arrows. He said to Boy d coming back in the house, "You kiss him goodbye?"

  Boyd said, "You want your jaw broke?"

  "I'm kidding with you," Devil said, waited for Boyd to sit down and hunched over next to him to point out on the map.

  "Here, we take 421 down across the Virginia line. East on 606 a nd we come to Nina, not an hour from here."

  "How many people?"

  "Less'n four hundred. Nearest deputies are at Big Stone Gap. Hit the town, the bank, the stores, bang bang bang, an y place there's a cash register. Run up the flag . . . Which one?"

  "Rebel battle flag."

  "That'd be my choice. We show how a town can be taken over and secured with fifteen militia. How, the time comes, i t can be done all over the Jewnited States."

  Boyd put his finger on a line Devil had drawn. "I don't see a road here."

  "It ain't on the map, Boyd, it's a four-wheeler trail through marijuana country, one of many the growers use. It takes u s up to near 38 and we're back home."

  Now, as Boyd studied the map, Devil said, "Why'd you let him go? I could've put him away, easy."

  Boyd looked up. He said to Devil, "Stick to your recon."

  Looked at the map again and said, "What I do with Raylan's my business."

  Boyd had come outside with him to stand with his hands in his pockets, nodding toward the crest of a slop e that had been strip-mined and stood bare against the nigh t sky. He told Raylan they were cutting the tops off of mountains and letting the slag run down to ruin the creeks.

  Shaking houses to pieces with their blasting. He reminded Raylan how their dads had dug coal ten hours a day for eight y cents. How "me and you" would go into worked-out mine s and chop into the pillars of coal holding up the roof, and ru n like hell if she began to cave. Remember? It was called robbing the mine. And how they stood on the picket line the year they struck Eastover and watched the courts back the company scabs and gun thugs. "Whose side's the govermint always been on, Raylan, us or the people with money? And who controls the money and wants to mongrelize the world?" Tha t was his argument, why he felt he could rob banks and kil l anyone wasn't white. There was no talking to him.

  Raylan said, "You're gonna stand in a lineup tomorrow, Harlan County courthouse, nine o'clock."

  "What'd I do now?"

  "You can show up or we'll come get you."

  He made his way down the mountain and through Evarts past his high school, the Home of the Wildcats, going towar d Harlan till he swung off 38 to follow dirt roads dark as pitch , no sign other than JESUS SAVES, and would have missed th e house if a light wasn't on--Raylan thinking that if he'd stayed he'd be living up a hollow in a house like that, a pickup truck in the yard. . . . But what would he be?

  Ava hugged him and gave him a kiss on the cheek and held on bringing him inside, Ava wearing a loos e sweater now with her shorts, wearing her hair in a soft wav e that came close to one of her brown eyes and a nice scent tha t he liked--Raylan sitting with her on the sofa now, thei r drinks on the coffee table Bowman must've put his steel-toe d workshoes on to get it scarred like it was, Bowman a presence , his wife until a few days ago sitting at the end of the sofa b y the lamp shining on her hair.

  "Did you see Boyd?"

  "I told him he has to come in tomorrow. Boyd blew up a church in Cincinnati and we have a witness who'll take a loo k at him."

  "Well, that was quick. Boy, you work fast," Ava said, raising her eyebrows at him. "And I oughta know."

  Right there, Raylan knew he should tell her wait, he wasn't making a move on her. But what he said was, "Boy d might not show up. Even if he does, I'm pretty sure he won't be made, identified."

  "So you'll be staying around? Cool."

  Ava got up and went to her CD player. She put on Shania Twain and came back singing along, " 'Men's shirts, shor t skirts, oh, oh, oh, really go wild, doin' it in style . . .' ' Th e phone rang. Ava turned down the volume on her way to th e kitchen. Raylan heard her say, "Who? . . . Oh, yeah, I remember. . . . Listen, hon? I can't talk to you right now, I've got company." Now she was laughing as she hung up the phone.

  Ava turned the volume back up and joined Shania again singing, " 'Oh, oh, oh, get in the action, feel the attraction . . .'

  Fella name Russ. Can you believe he's the second one's called me? I kinda knew 'em from a Fourth of July party w e went to. Couple of showoffs. They made a bet, see who coul d throw down a blue blazer the fastest. You know, you light a shot glass of whiskey? That's a blue blazer. They both thre w theirs over their shoulder and banged their shot glasses dow n at the same time, on the picnic table." Ava shook her head, smiling at the memory. "Cute guys, I'd see them watching me. Now I'm single again they're calling me up. You believe it?"

  Ava fell into the sofa to sit low, her head bent against the backrest, her legs apart in the shorts. She turned her hea d against the cushion to look at Raylan. "Jealous?"

  For a moment there, listening to her on the phone, the flirty way she used her voice, he did get a feeling he didn't like. In his head and out again, but it was there.

  She said, "Hey, I'm just teasing you. I know you have a life.

  You must, a cool guy like you? No, I just thought, you're here, why don't we party? I can still do those old Wildca t cheers I know you liked to watch. I still have all the cut e moves. Get your motor turned on. You want, Raylan, you ca n spend the night. How's that sound?"

  VIII.

  Six A. M. they brought Boyd Crowder down to th e courthouse under guard, Art Mullen not trusting the man t o walk in on his own. Raylan believed he would. Last nigh t when he called Art, he said the idea of walking in past a gathering of law enforcement people would appeal to Boyd, the man confident he'd walk out again, after.

  Raylan made the call from Ava's house after telling her he wouldn't be able to stay the night. She said if he had to get u p real early she could set the alarm, it wouldn't bother her none.

  She said she knew he wanted to. He said well sure he did-GCo a nd it was true, he was tempted--but, see, an officer of th e law wasn't supposed to go to bed with the defendant in a murder investigation. Ava said oh, she didn't know that. Sh e said well, couldn't they like just fool around?

  It was hard to get out of there but he did.

  Now he stood in the main corridor of the courthouse. Art Mullen motioned to him and Raylan wen t over to where Art was standing by an office door, the top par t glass. He looked in to see Israel Fandi sitting alone in hi s dashiki, all different shades of brown with some orange.

  "Izzy was telling us," Art said, "how his family from Ethiopia goes back seven hundred years. I said I didn't thin k Mobile, Alabama, was that old. That's where he's from originally. We turn the lights out in there and line up Boyd out here in the hall. We thought at first with some miners. Bu t you know what Boyd looks like?"

  "A cop," Raylan said. "I see his buddy's here, the one they call Devil? And a skinhead from Florida with dyed hair."

  "I saw them."

  "You let 'em hang around?"

  "They raise a ruckus, we can bust 'em."

  It wasn't long after, Devil himself strolled up, Dewey Crowe trailing him. Devil said, "What time's the show?" A s he looked in the office Art stepped in front of Devil an d shoved him aside, Devil saying, "Hey, come on, me and Iz ar e buds." Art told him to keep away from the door and Devi l said, "He never saw Boyd up there in Cincy. Even if he says h e did to please you, you know he didn't. But why would he? Iz's going down anyway for the weed."

  Th
ey brought Boyd along the corridor and stood him in line with three marshals and two ATF agents an d turned out the light in the office. It was off a good ten minutes, the lineup standing in place, before it came on again.

  Raylan noticed Boyd was the only one didn't move or fidget during that time. Now Art came out with the Bureau peopl e who'd been in there with Israel and told Boyd he could go.

  Boyd saw Raylan and came over.

  "I'm gonna sit down with my lawyer when I leave here.

  They went through my house saying they had probable cause to look for guns. They tore up my posters and threw 'em i n the trash barrel with my gook ears, burned up my privat e property."

  "It wasn't yours," Raylan said. "The house belongs to the Marshals Service. You can understand they don't like all tha t Nazi shit hanging on their walls."

  "It's some govermint can take a man's house from him,"

  Boyd said. He looked up the corridor to where Devil and Dewey Crowe were waiting for him, then back to Raylan.

  "Last night this marshal's telling me how one time you gave this fella twenty-four hours to get out of town or you'd shoot him on sight. Is that true?"

  "Was a gangster I saw shoot an unarmed man," Raylan said. "I didn't feel he deserved any special favors. I gave hi m the option and he turned it down."

  "Well, all the trouble you're causing me," Boyd said, "I t hought I'd make you the same offer. Get out of Harla n County by tomorrow noon or I'll come looking for you. Tha t sound fair?"

  Raylan said to him, "Now you're talking."

  When he told Art Mullen Boyd had set this deadline, Art said, "It's become something personal?" frowning, at first not liking the sound of it.

  "That's what it looks like," Raylan said, "since Boyd and I g o back, but it isn't. You're the one gave him the idea whil e you're busting up his house last night."

  "Our house," Art said.

  They were having their noon dinner of steak and eggs at the Western Sizzlin Steak place out on the 421 bypass.

  "I see you and him both cut from the same stock, born a hundred years past your time."

  Art had said it once before and it reminded Raylan of a woman named Joyce saying pretty much the same thing bu t in different words. He was seeing her at the time he shot th e gangster in Miami Beach, and Joyce had trouble accepting th e fact he had deliberately shot and killed a man. She told hi m he had an image of himself as a lawman, meaning an Ol d West lawman but without the big mustache, and he believe d it might be true in some deep part of his mind. Another tim e Joyce said, "The way you put it, you said you called him out.

  What did you think, you were in a movie?" Her saying it caught him by surprise, because at times he did see it tha t way, as something he had borrowed from a western movie. He liked westerns a lot.

  By the time they were into their flame-kist steak and eggs, both dipping toast into the yolks, Art had come to appreciat e Raylan's situation.

  "We're like big-game hunters, you know it? Only you're the bait, like a goat tethered to a post. All we have to do i s keep you in sight." Art took time to chew up a bite of steak.

  "What'd he say exactly, he's coming for you or we're coming?"

  "He said he was."

  "But we don't know if he wants to shoot you or blow you up, do we?"

  Raylan, mopping up his plate, didn't comment, letting Art have his fun.

  "Or, Boyd might jump the gun," Art said, "do it ahead of time, when you aren't looking. I was you I'd check under th e car before you turn the key."

  He said later on when they were having their pie, "I knew bringing you here was a good idea."

  IX.

  Boyd didn't hate Raylan any more'n he'd hated those dead gooks without ears. Taking Raylan out was like a military objective, better to look at with a clear head than ge t emotional about it. Up at Sukey Ridge he told the skinhead s gathered for the raid into Virginia he was putting it on hold , there was a matter he had to settle first. The skins gave hi m their shrugs and popped open beers.

  He had already put the two locals, the Pork brothers, up on that hill that was behind the Mount-Aire Motel, where Raylan and the rest of the feds were staying. The brothers had Russian binoculars, deer rifles, an AK-47 and a cell phone an d were told to stay in the trees and watch for Raylan Givens.

  Call and report whenever his Town Car came or went, a big shiny Lincoln losing its shine. One of the Pork brothers said , "What if we get a clear shot at him?"

  Boyd wasn't sure they could hit the motel from beyond two hundred yards, but it gave him an idea. How to set Raylan up and get him off by himself. He told the Pork brothers to sit tight, he'd let them know.

  He told Devil Ellis and the skin who wore the alligator teeth, Dewey, he was thinking of taking his shot that night. I t was Devil said, "I thought you were giving him twenty-fou r hours."

  Boyd said what that actually meant was the next time you saw the person, not the next day to the hour. Hell, the gu y would be dug in waiting on you. He said, "I know Rayla n ain't leaving, so I may as well hit him when it suits me." He told them he had considered waiting across the road from th e motel with an RPG and when the Town Car pulled in blow i t to hell. "But there's no cover over there to speak of, the mal l close by," Boyd said, "and I'd as soon plug him face-to-fac e anyway."

  Both Devil and Dewey said they wanted to be there when he did, and Boyd surprised them saying they would, as the y were gonna be his backup. They acted tickled to death till h e said, "You know Raylan will have his own people," and coul d tell they hadn't thought of that. But then he said, "How'd w e keep the law busy when we robbed those banks?" It got thei r heads nodding, both of 'em grinning, showing they stil l wanted to be along. "I've thought of a way to keep the fed s out of the picture," Boyd said, "if we can get the timing down. The idea, separate Mr. Givens from his pack of suit s and get him off by hisself."

  Oh boy, they liked the sound of that, asking how they'd do it, blow up a car? Boyd said, "I got another plan. What I wan t you fellas to do is locate Raylan and let me know where he's at, from now on."

  Late afternoon, Raylan came out of Art Mullen's office in the courthouse to see Ava coming along th e corridor in a beige outfit, skirt and sweater, pearls, Ava getting better-looking by the day, her expression becoming a big smile as she came up to him.

  "My lawyer's still talking to the prosecutor, but it's looking good. Come on with me while I have a smoke."

  She took him outside, saw the benches on Central Street occupied--"Geezers're always sitting there," Ava said--an d they went over to the bench in front of the Coal Miner s Memorial: six columns of dead miners close to ten feet high , Raylan's dad's name among them. He found it as Ava, smoking her cigarette, told him she was pretty sure she'd get off with no more'n probation. "I plead to some kind o f manslaughter and I won't have to go to prison. Hey, wh y don't you come by for supper? I'll fix you something nice."

  Raylan said, "Baked possum?"

  "I only cooked that for Bowman. I got mad at him one time and put roach powder in it? He goes, 'Honey, this is th e best possum I ever et.' Didn't even get sick. I'll pick up a cou-W p le of nice fryers and fix you some hot biscuits and gravy." Sh e grinned at him. "Look at you licking your lips."

  Raylan said all his life fried chicken was his favorite, but he had to hang around, didn't know when he'd be off.

  Ava said, "I'm fixing it anyway." She looked him in the eye saying, "You're a big boy, Raylan. You want to come, there's nothing on earth gonna stop you."

  Devil had his hair cut and beard trimmed at the Cumberland Barber Shop, across the side street from th e courthouse. He put on his hat and got in Dewey's junk Cadillac, parked in front of the shop. Dewey said, "You missed it.

  He come out with Ava, they talked and he went back in again. You said you thought that red Dodge over on Centra l was Bowman's? It was. Ava got in it and drove away."

  Devil said, "Wasn't for Boyd I'd have me some of Ava."

  Dewey said, "Wasn't for Boyd me and
you could have us the marshal. Say we took him out, what would Boyd do, kic k and scream? He does that anyways."

  Devil said, "You got the nerve to shoot a marshal?"

  Dewey said, "I got the nerve and a reason to."

  They were silent, thinking about it, till Devil said, "That barber didn't say one goddamn word to me the whole tim e he's cutting my hair."

  Ten of six they watched Raylan come out of the courthouse with four other suits and go to their cars parked on Central.

  Dewey said, "We get out on the highway--you're driving 'cause it's my idea--I reach in back for the twelve-gauge and blow him away. What's wrong with that?"

  Devil said there wasn't nothing wrong with it.

  Except once they got to 421 two other marshal cars were on Raylan's tail all the way to the Mount-Aire Motel. Devi l called Boyd to tell him Raylan was back in his room.

  "Roger that," Boyd said, and told Devil, "Okay, he should be leaving again pretty soon. I got a way t o bring him to me I think'll work. He leaves, you stay on him."

  Devil's voice said, "Where you at?" sounding surprised.

  "Down the road from Ava's. You stay on him, hear?"

  Boyd sat in his Jeep Cherokee by the JESUS SAVES sign, the road here like a tunnel through the trees, dark as night. He called the Pork brothers on the hill behind the motel and tol d them to get ready. "You saw him come back? . . . Okay, yo u see his car pull out again, you let it go. Understand? But the n any other cars pull out to follow him? You open up on 'em.

  Pour it on, as many rounds as you can squeeze off."

  The Pork brother on the phone said it was near dark, how would they see the cars? Boyd said, "Jesus Christ, they pu t their lights on, don't they? Aim back of the headlights."

  Boyd believed the suits would spot 'em and swarm up there with sheriff's deputies and state police and shoot thos e two fat boys down, but didn't see losing them would handicap him any. It was the reason the Pork brothers were up there.

  He drove through the tunnel of trees to a semidry creekbed he turned into and stopped about fifty yards in to leave th e Jeep. It was a place he'd used to slip up on the house, mak e sure Bowman wasn't home. It was close by. Boyd move d through the pines toward a light shining in the front room , meaning she was home. He rapped on the door. It opened, an d he saw right away Ava was expecting company.