Rum Punch

by Elmore Leonard

  Jackie kept quiet.

  “Ordell left his apartment at five twenty,” Nicolet said. “He drove a few blocks up to the beach mall there, parked in back, and went in the bar. He never came out.”

  “You mean you lost him,” Jackie said.

  Nicolet’s set expression didn’t change. “Louis could’ve picked him up, he had time. They drive up to Northlake Boulevard together, where Louis was found. . . .”

  Jackie waited.

  “What would Louis be doing around there?”

  “I have no idea,” Jackie said.

  “A bar, some joint Ordell liked to frequent?”

  “I never met him in a bar.”

  “If he calls, you’ll let me know?”

  “Yeah, but I don’t know why he would.”

  Nicolet said, “He still has money in Freeport, doesn’t he? Or is it all here now? Maybe not half a million, but more than fifty grand?”

  Jackie said, “Ray, you saw what I had.”

  “What you showed me.”

  “You think I took some of it?”

  “I have no evidence of your taking anything. You didn’t pay for your new duds with marked bills; I was glad to see that. You’ve been helping us out, you gave us Melanie, Louis, so I have to believe your story. That is, as much as what you told me.”

  Jackie waited.

  “I’ll settle for Ordell with the marked bills. If you have something else going you haven’t told me about, it’s between you and him. All I’m gonna say is, I hope we find him before he finds you.”

  25

  “You won’t believe this,” Ordell said to Mr. Walker on the phone.

  “I just seen a palmetta bug walk up Raynelle’s leg. She kind of lying on the sofa. The palmetta bug went up her leg, went under her dress, and she never moved. In her nod, today and all day yesterday. I got her a package of needles and enough shit for a week. Now she moved her knee, touched herself . . . Wait now. I hear the palmetta bug saying something. Yeah, saying, ‘Ouuu, it’s nice here. I don’t believe this woman washes herself, yeah.’ You see palmetta bugs on the stove. They climb up there, break their teeth, man, on the grease been there for years. Mr. Walker? You have to get me out of here, man. When you come get your boat, drive up to the Lake Worth Inlet.”

  Ordell waited, listening.

  “No, not today. I won’t be ready. I told you, I have to see Jackie. Night before last I went in her apartment, she never came home. Watched her place all day yesterday—I’m gonna have to call this Max Cherry, I think that’s where she’s at, or in a motel someplace. See, I don’t think she’d run this soon, get the feds suspicious of her.”

  Ordell listened again and said, “Maybe tomorrow, or Monday . . . I can’t do it today. I ain’t leaving here without my money. . . . Man, you hear yourself? Think about it. You wouldn’t have the fucking boat it wasn’t for me. Man, I am finding out real fast who my friends are. . . . Wait a minute now. I already told you, I didn’t shoot her, Louis did and I done Louis, didn’t I? What can I tell you? . . . Mr. Walker? . . .”

  Ordell looked at the glassy-eyed woman on the sofa.

  “You believe it? Hung up on me. Do things for people and that’s how they treat you. Man has a boat thirty-six feet long and I’m stuck in this privy.” He said, “Girl, how can you live like this?”

  Raynelle said, “Like what?”

  Ordell had Max Cherry’s business card, GENTLEMEN PREFER BONDS written on it. He dialed the number. The voice that answered sounded like Winston’s, telling him Max wasn’t there.

  “He leave town?”

  “He’s around.”

  “Give me his home number.”

  “I’ll give you his beeper.”

  Ordell left the little stucco house that looked like it was rusting out, the screens broken, walked two blocks east and around the corner to the bar on Broadway where he dialed Max Cherry’s beeper number and left the number in the phone booth for him to call. Ordell had a rum collins while he waited. The bartender was the one he’d asked Thursday night what was the name of the woman came in here did heroin and tricks on the side. Was it Danielle? The bartender said heroin was the dope of choice again with many. This one, Ordell said, was kind of redheaded, tall, had real skinny legs. The bartender said, Raynelle? That was it, Raynelle. Ordell found her that same night, bought her rum collinses till 1:00 A.M.—the woman a disappointment, losing it fast, had that same rusted-out look as her house.

  The phone rang in the booth.

  Ordell went in and closed the door.

  Max Cherry’s voice said, “I’ve been looking for you.”

  The first thing Max did, after he looked at the number on his beeper, he called the Sheriff’s office and spoke to a buddy of his named Wendy, who ran the Communications Section. Wendy put him on hold and was back in less than a minute. She told him the number belonged to Cecil’s Bar, on Broadway in Riviera Beach.

  The next thing Max did, at his desk in the office now, was ask Winston if he’d ever been to Cecil’s. Winston said he’d picked up FTAs there; it was lowlife but sociable, they knew him. Why? Max asked him to wait.

  He dialed the number, fairly sure it was Ordell who’d called. So when his voice came on the line Max said, “I’ve been looking for you.”

  “You know who this is?”

  “Mr. Robbie, isn’t it? I have that ten thousand you put up. Isn’t that why you called?”

  There was a silence on the line.

  “The bond collateral on Beaumont Livingston you moved over to cover Ms. Burke. Remember?”

  “She got off, huh?”

  “They decided not to file. Tell me where you are and I’ll bring you your money.”

  Silence again.

  Max waited.

  “You still there?”

  “Let’s cut to it,” Ordell said. “I know you helped her and you know what I want. Jackie can tell me a story, why she had to hang on to the money. Understand? I’ll listen. I’ll tell her yeah, that’s cool, now please hand it over while we still friends. That’s all has to happen. Understand? She don’t want to be friends—tell her to think of Louis, where he’s at right now. Tell her, she turns me in, I’ll put it on her she’s my accessory and we’ll go upstate, man, hand in hand cuffed together. Understand? That’s how it is. Tell her that and I’ll call you after a while.”

  Max sat back in his chair, Winston, hunched over his desk, watching him. “That was Ordell,” Max said, “calling from Cecil’s. You have time, you think you could find out for me where he’s staying?”

  “Cops can’t locate him, huh?”

  “They don’t have your personality.”

  “If it’s what you want,” Winston said. “I don’t have to know what you’re doing, long as you know.”

  “I think I do,” Max said. “Is that good enough?”

  “You quit the business or not?”

  “I’m giving that second thoughts.”

  Winston pushed up from his desk. Walking out he said, “You make up your mind, let me know.”

  Jackie said, “You know how to make a girl happy, don’t you, Max?” slipping her arms around him and kissing him. He handed her the bottle of Scotch he’d brought and watched her walk over to the low dresser, where there were opened cans of Diet Coke and a plastic ice bucket, to make their drinks. He had felt her body in the T-shirt that hung loose covering her hips and a pair of white panties: nearly forty-eight hours in this room in a Holiday Inn, clothes and a towel on the double bed closer to the bathroom. On the phone a little while ago she’d said, “I’m going nuts,” sounding tired, bored, until he told her Ordell had called and he’d be over.

  Taking the chair by the window Max said, “I know where he is.” She turned to look at him and he said, “All Winston had to do was ask around. Ordell’s living in Riviera Beach with a woman, a junkie. He has a maroon Volkswagen parked in front of the house. It’s his disguise.” Max was seated in late afternoon light, the draperies open enough to show the room. Jacki
e came over with their drinks to sit on the edge of the bed next to his chair, her bare legs in light. She reached over to put her drink on the table and took a cigarette from the pack lying there.

  “How does Winston find him if ATF and all the local police around here aren’t able to?”

  “People talk to Winston,” Max said. “He’s street, the same as they are and they trust him. They get busted, they know a guy who can bond them out.”

  “You haven’t told anyone, have you, where he is?”

  “The police? Not yet. I thought we should talk about it first. What I might do is drop in on him,” Max said. “He’ll no doubt be surprised to see me. . . .”

  “He’s liable to shoot you.”

  “On the phone I told him I owe him the ten he put up for your bond. He’d forgotten about it, or had something else on his mind. I could bring the money and the papers for him to sign. . . .”

  “Why do that?”

  “I doubt if he’d come to the office.”

  “He might,” Jackie said, and seemed to like the idea.

  Max wasn’t sure why. He said, “The simplest way to work it, I go see him with the bond refund. To make sure he’s there, that’s the main reason. Come out and call the Sheriff’s Office. Or the TAC unit’s already standing by and they go in.”

  Jackie was shaking her head. “Ray wants him.”

  “Everybody wants him, he’s a homicide suspect. What you have to think about,” Max said, “it doesn’t matter who takes him, you could have a problem. As soon as he’s brought up he’s liable to name you as an accessory.”

  “I know that,” Jackie said, “that’s why I want ATF to make the case. I’m their witness, I’ve been helping them. They wouldn’t have a case without me. If it’s his word against mine, who’re they going to believe?”

  “It’s not that simple.”

  “It never was, so I’m not going to start worrying about it now. Look, Ray’s dying to be a hero. He’ll do anything.”

  Max took one of her cigarettes and lit it, Jackie watching him, waiting.

  “Okay, you want Nicolet to make the collar. How?”

  “Get Ordell to come to your office.”

  “Set him up,” Max said. “I tell him you want to see him?”

  He saw that gleam in her eyes.

  “I want to give him his money.”

  “Why?”

  “I’ve chickened out. I’m afraid of him. He’ll like that.”

  Max thought about it, smoking his cigarette.

  “What do you tell Nicolet, why you’re meeting Ordell?”

  “I don’t know—something to do with the bond refund.” Jackie was quiet for several moments. She picked up her drink and took a sip. “That’s why Ordell’s there, for the refund. I’ll say he called me and said I have to sign something.”

  “You don’t.”

  “But I don’t know that. It’s why I call an ATF agent. I’m suspicious—what does he want? And I’m scared.”

  “You think Ordell’s gonna come out of hiding? Every cop in South Florida looking for him?”

  “Max, he has to if he wants his money. If he didn’t, he’d be gone by now.”

  “If he wants it that bad he’s desperate.”

  “Of course he is.”

  “What if he wants to meet someplace else?”

  “The money’s in your office, in the safe. It’s the only place I’ll see him.”

  “What if you can’t get hold of Nicolet?”

  “I’ll get him.”

  “What if he’s out of town?”

  “If you don’t want to do it, Max, just tell me.”

  He let that go, looking at her without saying anything, thinking he could make sure Winston was there. “Let’s say Ordell goes for it,” Max said. “He’ll decide when you meet, you know that.”

  “It’ll be tonight,” Jackie said, “he’s not going to sit around wasting time. He’ll have to let you call me. He’ll probably want to talk. I can handle that. I’ll tell him I wasn’t holding out on him, I didn’t trust Melanie. So I gave her towels. We have to have our stories straight if he asks me. And I didn’t know how to get in touch with him till you helped me out.”

  “Why weren’t you home, where he could find you?”

  “I was afraid. I wasn’t sure he’d give me a chance to explain.”

  Max watched her thinking about it, her face moving into the light as she reached over to roll the tip of her cigarette in the ashtray, staring at it, saying, “I should be there before he arrives.”

  Max said, “Why?”

  She didn’t look up. “That’s where I’ve been hiding, in your office.”

  “Nicolet—is he already there, or does he come busting in while we’re chatting?”

  “He’s already there.”

  “What if he hears something he’s not supposed to?”

  “We won’t let that happen.”

  “You still have a gun?”

  Jackie looked up now. “Yeah, why?”

  “Don’t bring it.”

  26

  Ordell believed looking out the window would be a waste of time. If they knew he was here they’d come busting in with their sledgehammer, or that big crowbar from hell he’d seen SWAT teams use on TV, pry a door right off its hinges. They come in yelling down, down, down, screaming it at you, and the next thing you had was a shotgun against your head as you’re saying what is this, man, what’s going on here. Wasting your breath.

  It was because he was pacing the room, Raynelle nodding on the sofa for what company she was, and happened to look outside as he came to the window, he saw Max Cherry on the sidewalk. Ordell looked out that front window good then, both ways up and down the street expecting to see one of those big vans with FDLE on the side, or some other initials. There was nothing suspicious going on out there, almost dark, some people down the street, but just people. Ordell quick went to the sofa and had to move Raynelle’s skinny ass to get his pistol from under the cushion. Max Cherry knocking on the door now. Ordell stuck the Beretta in his waist, under his shirt hanging out, pulled the woman up by her arms, walked her into the bedroom, and dumped her on the bed. He had another pistol there under the pillow and one in the kitchen. Max Cherry knocking some more as Ordell tried to think how Max could’ve found him, Ordell telling himself it was okay, the man was a bail bondsman, so be cool, you hear? Be cool. You want to know, ask him.

  Ordell let him in and closed the door.

  He watched Max Cherry turn, his hand going inside his seersucker jacket as he glanced around the room, and Ordell pulled his Beretta and put it on him. Like that. Max said to him, “You want your money? Your bond refund?” His hand came out of the jacket holding a wad of bills in a rubber band, tossed it up, and Ordell swiped it out of the air with his free hand.

  “This’s all?”

  “I have a receipt for you to sign.”

  “I said, ‘This’s all?’ You know what I want. Did you speak to her?” Ordell moved to a front window saying it and looked out again.

  “I didn’t bring anybody,” Max said. “She wants to give you the money. If she didn’t, there’d be cops coming through the fucking door while you’re asking me questions.”

  “Where’s it at, in your car?”

  “She wants to give it to you herself and collect her cut, her ten percent. She wants to explain why she held on to it.”

  “I like to hear that too.”

  “Why she didn’t give it to Melanie.”

  “Turn around,” Ordell said. He started patting Max down. “You tell me why.”

  “Jackie didn’t trust her. Melanie’d already tried to get Jackie to go in with her, the two of them work it and split the half million. What she did was take quite a risk to see you get your money.”

  “Lift up your pant legs,” Ordell said. “You helped her?”

  “All I did was walk out with it.”

  “Put the bail-bondsman twist on it, huh? Smelling all that cash? And you tellin
g me you want me to have it?”

  “The only reason I’m here, I don’t want to see Jackie get shot or busted.”

  “Protecting her,” Ordell said. “I think you’re pimping me is what you’re doing.”

  “Then let’s forget the whole thing,” Max said. “Stay here with your junkie friend and your VW.” He started for the door.

  “Hey, man.” Ordell waved the pistol at him and Max stopped. “Go on sit over there on the couch.” He watched Max looking at the stained cushions. “Do like I say, man, sit down. It’s dry, my friend hasn’t thrown up on herself in two days. That’s it. Now tell me where my money’s at.”

  “My office,” Max said.

  “And where’s Jackie?”

  “She’s been there since Thursday night.”

  “She wanted to see me, why wasn’t she home?”

  “She was afraid.”

  “I have to see that.”

  “She still is. She doesn’t want to get shot before she can tell you what happened.”

  “Have her bring me the money here.”

  “It’s in the safe. She can’t get at it.”

  “Call her, tell her the combination.”

  “She won’t leave there till you have the money and you’re gone. I’ll tell you that right now.”

  “But you expect me to walk in there.”

  “If I wanted to set you up,” Max said, “I already told you, they’d have busted in by now. She knows if you get picked up you’ll name her as an accessory. That scares her more than anything.”

  “It’s why she’s giving up my money, huh? Not that bullshit about Melanie. I didn’t trust her either, but I knew how to handle her.” Ordell moved to the window again. “She was my fine big girl.” The street was quiet, dark out now. “I said to Louis, ‘Man, you could’ve hit her.’ Give her a punch in the mouth.” He turned to Max. “Jackie wants her cut, huh?”

  “Fifty grand.”

  “How ’bout the money she wants if she does time?”