Rum Punch

by Elmore Leonard

  He watched her stare at the Saks bag another few moments, trying to figure it out for herself, then turned and went into the kitchen. Max closed the door and followed her; he set the shopping bag on the kitchen table. She didn’t ask him one question getting ice from the refrigerator, making drinks, so he started telling her about it: how he got the woman’s name and address and went there, ran into Louis Gara, who had stolen guns from the office. . . . Jackie handed him his drink. She listened, but didn’t look that interested. He took a sip and told her about searching the woman’s house for his guns and finding the Saks bag in the bedroom closet, ten thousand dollars in it. Jackie was watching him now. He reached into the bag, brought out ten one hundred-dollar bills, and spread them on the table saying all of them were marked, right there.

  Now she was interested.

  “You took his money.”

  That was the second thing Jackie said.

  Max said, “He owed it to me,” and explained that part of it, the thousand representing the premium on her bond, as a matter of fact, and how he left the watch and the rest of the money, nine thousand, with the woman.

  “But you took a thousand.”

  “I knew it was his. . . .”

  “Was it easy?”

  “You mean did they give me any trouble?”

  She motioned, tilting her head to the side, and he followed her white T-shirt, her hips moving in the jeans, through the living room in lamplight and out onto the balcony to stand in the dark by the metal rail.

  “I mean, was it easy to pick up his money and walk out with it?”

  “I took what he owed me, that’s all.”

  “You’re sure it’s his money.”

  “I know it’s what you delivered, it’s marked.”

  “So it was okay to take it from the woman’s house.”

  Jackie quietly playing with him three floors above dark shapes down in the yard, trees, shrubs, dots of orange light lining a walk, high enough for Max to feel alone with her in the night. He knew what she was doing.

  “Ordinarily I wouldn’t.”

  “This was different.”

  “Considering the kind of guy he is.”

  “And how he came by the money?”

  “Not so much that.”

  “You know he won’t call the police.”

  “That occurred to me.”

  “It made it easier.”

  “In a way.”

  “So it didn’t bother you, to take it.”

  She was close enough to touch. He said, “There’s a difference.” She waited and he said, “I don’t see what I did anything at all like walking off with a half million.”

  “You could if you tried,” Jackie said. “We know he won’t call the police. . . .”

  “No, he’ll come after you himself.”

  “He’ll be in jail.”

  Max watched her raise her glass and then glance into the living room and saw light reflected in her eyes for a moment. He wanted to touch her face.

  She said, “Think of it as money that shouldn’t even be here, the way it was made. I mean, does anyone have a legal right to it?”

  “The feds,” Max said, “it’s evidence.”

  “It may be evidence if they get their hands on it,” Jackie said, “but right now it’s just money. They want Ordell. They’re not interested in the money, because they don’t need it to convict him. They’ll look for it— it’s gone, misplaced? . . . What is it they say, the whole package never gets to the station?”

  “You’re rationalizing.”

  “It’s what you do, Max, to go through with it once you start. Not have any lingering doubts that might trip you up. You’re looking for work, aren’t you?” In her quiet tone. “I know you’re looking for something you don’t seem to have.”

  He touched her face. Saw her expression, waiting.

  He kissed her, moving his hand over her hair, and had to look at her face again, pale in the dark, her eyes not leaving his as she reached out and dropped her glass over the rail. There was no sound. He felt her hands slip inside his jacket and around him, her fingers on his body. Now Max reached out over the rail and let his glass fall.

  In the moment she looked at him and said, “You took his money,” he knew they would be in this bed before too long and that his life was about to change.

  They made love in the dark, on the sheets with the spread pulled down. Took off their clothes and made love. She left and returned still naked with cigarettes and drinks. There were so many things he wanted to say to her, but she was quiet now, so he was quiet. He would tell her later to give them Louis Gara; it would get her points. She reached over and put her hand on him.

  They made love again with the lamp on and this time he knew his life had already changed.

  She said, “We’re alike. We weren’t before, you were holding back, but now we are. You and I.” She said, “Could you pass out complimentary tropical punch in little plastic cups? That’s my alternative and it’s unacceptable.”

  He looked at her lying naked against the headboard with her drink and a cigarette.

  “So the money’s a way out.”

  She looked at him with that gleam in her eyes.

  “I’m not saying it wouldn’t be fun to have.”

  He thought about it and said, “Or, we’re taking it so the bad guys won’t get it.”

  “If you like that one,” Jackie said, “use it.”

  He nodded, giving it some more thought.

  “Hold on to the money and see what happens. It’s not worth going to prison over. But if the feds, as you say, don’t care about it . . . I mean if it’s not there and they don’t see it as that big a deal . . . Or they don’t have time to count it at the airport, when you come in, and they get some of it . . .”

  “But not the whole package,” Jackie said. Those eyes smiling at him as she drew on her cigarette and he said, “Let me try one of those.”

  20

  Ordell asked Jackie to come to the apartment in Palm Beach Shores Wednesday, after her flight was in, for what he called the Pay Day meeting.

  Tonight, the weapons would be taken down to Islamorada and put on Mr. Walker’s boat. He’d make delivery tomorrow and get paid and the next day, Friday, Jackie would bring all his cash over from Freeport.

  Louis arrived. He said Simone was getting dressed still; told him to say she’d be a little late. Ordell said you can’t enter that woman’s house and not get taken to bed, can you? Louis wasn’t saying. Ordell asked had he moved the TEC-9s to the storage place. Louis said early this morning and gave Ordell the padlock key. Outside of that Louis wasn’t saying much; acting strange.

  Jackie arrived. He introduced her to Louis, his old buddy, said, “This is Melanie,” and was surprised the two women looked about the same age and wore the same kind of blue jeans. The difference in them, Melanie’s were cut off at her butt, she was messier-looking and had those huge titties. Jackie had that fine slim body on her and Melanie, you could tell the way she looked at Jackie, wished she had one like it.

  The first thing Jackie did, she took him out on the balcony and said, “I don’t want any more surprises. We do it the way I lay it out or no Pay Day.”

  Ordell said he didn’t know what she was talking about. What kind of surprises?

  “The woman I gave the money to passing it on to someone else.” Her saying it surprised Ordell.

  “How you know she did that?”

  “I was there, I saw it.”

  “Well, you weren’t suppose to be there.”

  “I hung around,” Jackie said, “thinking you might pull something like that.”

  Ordell told her it was his money, he could do what he wanted with it. And Jackie said not if she was going to stick her neck out; it had to be done her way or not at all. So then Ordell explained how he’d wanted Simone there to see how it worked, account of Simone would be the one receiving the money from her on Pay Day. Simone, he said, ought to be here any minute. Nice wo
man, Jackie would like her.

  They went in the living room and he said for Louis to call Simone, tell her to get her tail over here, they were waiting on her. Louis didn’t know the number, the place he was staying, and it irritated Ordell. He picked up the phone from the counter and called her himself. Let it ring and ring. No answer.

  “She’s on her way,” Ordell said and looked at Melanie, now that she’d served drinks, resting her big butt on the sofa. He said, “Leave us now, would you please?” in a nice tone of voice.

  Melanie hauled herself off the sofa and came past him into the kitchen. Ordell turned at the counter.

  “Girl, I said leave us. Go on outside and play in the sand.” His tone cool now.

  She didn’t say a word, went past everybody into the bedroom. “Now she gonna pout,” Ordell said. “Fix her hair, have to find her sandals, find her bag, her sunglasses . . .” They waited. When she came out Ordell said, “You have a nice time, hear? . . . And don’t slam the door.”

  She did, though, slammed it hard.

  Ordell shook his head. Louis was giving him a look. So was Jackie. Neither of them saying anything till Jackie glanced at her watch and said she had to go in a minute.

  “Where?”

  “I have to meet the ATF guy.”

  “That works on my nerves, you talking to him.”

  “If I didn’t, this wouldn’t work,” Jackie said. “I’ll tell him Friday’s the day. He’ll stop me at the airport, mark the bills . . .”

  Ordell shook his head. “Man, I don’t like that part.”

  “It washes off,” Louis said.

  “I’ll tell him we’re doing it the same way as before,” Jackie said. “They’ll follow Sheronda. . . . I hate to leave her holding the bag, so to speak.”

  “She come home that time and look in the bag?” Ordell said. “Love the underwear Simone gave her. Sheronda don’t know nothing about the money. She thinks it’s some kind of game we rich folks play, exchanging gifts.”

  “I got potholders,” Jackie said.

  “See, that’s how the woman thinks.”

  “Tell her I could use a blouse,” Jackie said, “size six, something simple.”

  Ordell said, “You giving her a Macy bag this time?”

  “The one Simone gives me. Right, we’ll make the switch at Macy’s,” Jackie said. “Simone knows what I look like, doesn’t she?”

  “She saw you with Sheronda.”

  “So if she doesn’t come soon . . .”

  “Lemme be sure of this,” Ordell said. “Simone goes to the dress department with her Macy bag. . . .”

  “Designer clothes.”

  “She waits for you to go in the place where you try things on.”

  “The fitting room. There’s a sign over the door.”

  “Why we doing it in there?”

  “I have a hunch they’ll be watching me. We can’t risk switching bags out in the open, or even in the dining area. You’re sure about Simone? You can trust her?”

  “She like a big sister to me.”

  “It has to be a woman who comes in.”

  “She’ll do fine,” Ordell said. “You come out with her Macy bag and go meet Sheronda. Simone peeks out, waits for Louis to give her the sign nobody’s watching. She leaves the store, gets in her car, and I follow her here. Make sure nothing happens to her.”

  Jackie was anxious now to leave, not wanting the ATF man upset with her. Ordell walked her down the hall to the elevator and pressed the button. She said to him, “Once I deliver, I’ll have to trust you.”

  “Meaning the deal we have,” Ordell said. “I been trusting you all this time, haven’t I? We agreed on ten percent of what you bring in and that’s what you gonna get.”

  “And a hundred thousand if I go to jail.”

  “Yeah, that too. But you haven’t told me where I put it for you.”

  The elevator came and the door slid open. She held it, looking at him. “Give it to the bail bondsman, Max Cherry. He’ll take care of it.”

  Ordell squinted his eyes saying, “Max Cherry?” Surprised and wanting to think about this. “You and him friends now? You told him the deal?”

  She got on the elevator still holding the door and turned to him shaking her head. “He won’t know where it came from, only that it’s my money.”

  Ordell said, “Max Cherry? You know what you doing?” The door slid closed as he was saying, “Don’t you know bail bondsmen are crooks?”

  Ordell stood there a few moments. He knew he wasn’t ever going to pay Jackie her cut or for going to jail. That didn’t bother him. What did was her being tight with Max Cherry. That might be something to think about.

  Back in the apartment, he and Louis alone now, Ordell said, “Tell me what’s bothering you.”

  Louis said, “Max Cherry.”

  And there he was again, springing up. Max Cherry.

  “You ran into him?”

  “He ran into me,” Louis said. “He knew where to find me.”

  Jackie stopped at Ocean Mall to try Ray Nicolet again, to tell him about Louis. Show what a good girl she was, cooperating. Max had said last night not to waste time; he’d already called Nicolet and told him where Louis was staying. This morning she had tried Ray’s beeper number before flying out and again when she got back. She would use the phone in Casey’s, check her messages before trying his beeper again; it was too late to get him at the office. Jackie walked in the entrance off the mall.

  There was a crowd in here already. The phone in use. A fat guy lounged against the wall with the receiver wedged between his shoulder and his chins, nearly hidden. She turned away and saw Melanie sitting near the end of the bar, Melanie swiveled around on her stool watching her, motioning now to come over. She raised her glass.

  “Have a drink.”

  “I’m waiting for the phone.”

  “Good luck, that guy’s been on it a half hour.”

  Jackie said, “I’ll find another one. See you.”

  Turned to leave and Melanie said, “I know what this gig’s about, the whole thing, what you’ve been doing for him. Have one with me, I’ll tell you a secret.”

  Melanie was drinking rum and Coke, she said for the past hour with guys hitting on her, creeps in tourist outfits. Jackie ordered a beer, took a sip, and a guy put his hands on their shoulders. Would they like to come over to the table, “join me and my buddy for a refreshment?” Without looking at him Melanie told him to fuck off, and rolled her eyes at Jackie.

  “That’s what we need, some bright conversation. Where you from? . . . Oh, really? Where are you from? . . . Ohio, huh? No shit.”

  Jackie said, “How long have you been with Ordell?”

  “This time? Almost a year. I’ve known him forever.”

  “Why did he make you leave?”

  “So you wouldn’t be nervous. He wants you to think I’m only there to give him blow jobs, obviously not a security risk.” Melanie laid her arms on the curved edge of the bar and her cheek against her shoulder, looking at Jackie on the stool next to her. “The day before yesterday I saved his fucking life. This Nazi was about to beat him to death and I shot the guy four times, in the heart. Today he tells me to go play in the fucking sand.”

  Jackie sipped her beer. “You shot a Nazi.”

  “One of those white-supremacy geeks. We were out there to rip off all this military stuff he’s got. You know, army weapons? I was supposed to get Gerald naked so Ordell’d be sure the guy wasn’t armed when he shot him. Once in a while Ordell gets into the rough stuff, but usually he plays it safe, has these crazy black kids that work for him do the heavy shit. They killed two other guys that happened to be there.”

  Jackie said, “Where was this?”

  “At Gerald’s. Out by Loxahatchee. You know Mr. Walker?”

  Jackie nodded.

  “Ask him about Ordell, he’ll tell you. Mr. Walker’s my buddy, he sends me good stuff.”

  “That was your coke,” Jackie said.
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br />   Melanie made a face to show pain. “Oh, man, listen, I’m sorry about that. I hope they don’t come down on you, Jesus, on my account. Ordell should’ve told you it was in your bag. You know, or at least asked if you’d mind bringing it. That wasn’t right.”

  “He said he didn’t know about it.”

  “You believe that? Yeah, well, I guess you have to trust him. If you’re in it, well, what’re you gonna do, you’re fucking in it, you just have to hope for the best. I’d have second thoughts, but then I know him. You get busted, they’ll come down on you a lot harder than on the dope thing. I mean, forty-two grams compared to all those fucking machine guns and rockets? Come on . . . And all that cash?” Melanie raised her head enough to sip her drink, then laid her cheek against her shoulder again, her eyes not leaving Jackie’s. “Having that money in your flight bag, even ten thousand, must be tempting. Fifty thousand the time you were busted?”

  Jackie nodded.

  “He fucks up, which he’s been known to do,” Melanie said, “and they get the cash, they get my dope, and they’ve got you hanging. It’s a shame, you know it? Your next trip, you’re gonna have over half a million in your flight bag.” Melanie’s eyes softened and so did her voice. “If you’ve thought of cutting Ordell out of this one, I sure wouldn’t blame you.”

  Jackie smiled.

  “You think I’m kidding,” Melanie said.

  “Dreaming,” Jackie said.

  “You know how easy it would be? Because he trusts you,” Melanie said, “and won’t be anywhere near that mall? Pull one more switch, up front. That’s it. Listen, if you’re interested and you need help . . .”

  “Keep it between us girls?” Jackie said.

  “Why not? What’s that son of a bitch ever done for us?”

  “But he’ll know.”

  “By the time he figures it out, you’re gone, on your way to California, Mexico, shit, anywhere, Alaska, just go. Get someplace and then decide what to do. You don’t want to think too much first and talk yourself out of it. You know, allow it to work on your nerves.”