“He stepped out for the evening.”
“Can I ask where he went?”
“You can,” Roy said, “but you might not think it’s nice, what he’s doing, and I wouldn’t want to tell on him. I hate snitches, even though they have their place.”
“You fixed him up?”
“Hey, you don’t miss much.” Roy looked out from the bathroom. “Wasn’t Jack coming with you?”
“He’ll be here. He went home to change.”
“Everybody getting ready for action,” Roy said, rubbing talcum over his body, beneath his arms, as he came out of the bathroom. “Didn’t forget your gun, did you?”
Lucy watched him, his chest gray with powder coming toward her. “It’s in my bag.”
“Lemme have a look at what you got.”
She brought out the .38 encased in a tan leather holster, straps wrapped around it and tied. “Be careful, it’s loaded.”
“You mean,” Roy said, “it isn’t just for show?” Taking the holster from her, hefting it, he said, “Oh, my Lord, it’s a shoulder rig. Just like the TV cops. Where’n the world’d you get this?”
“It’s my dad’s,” Lucy said. “I have to carry the gun on me, don’t I?” She felt awkward, again self-conscious, with Roy grinning, unwinding the straps.
“Yeah, this’s what all the TV cops use, so you know they’re cops and not insurance salesmen. Did you try it on? It’s about the most uncomfortable thing you can wear, ‘specially when it’s hot out.” Roy pulled the nickel-plated Smith & Wesson from the holster, released the cylinder, and snapped it back in place. “You ever fire it?”
“I know how it works.”
“That’s not what I asked you.”
“My dad taught me how to shoot.”
“When was this? It must’ve been before you went in the nuns.”
“I was in high school.”
Roy said, “When you were a little girl and not since, huh? Oh, man, this is some deal, I’m telling you. I’m anxious to see what Jack’s gonna wear. You come in your new spring outfit and your shoulder holster, Jack, he’s liable to show up in no telling what. Combat boots and bulletproof underwear, his face painted black. You all been watching TV? Meantime Cully’s off getting his ashes hauled and doesn’t care one way or the other we score or not.” Roy dropped the gun and holster on the bed, picked up the black knit shirt, and pulled it over his head and down to his waist, tight, pushing his chest out, unbuttoning and unzipping his pants then as Lucy watched. He said, “Excuse me, but don’t look and I won’t show you nothing.”
She said, “Roy, sometimes you overdo being yourself.”
Roy said, “Two days, I can see you’ve enjoyed about all of me you can stand. Only I’m all you got, if you take a minute and look at it. How I ever got talked into this- I must’ve been in a weakened condition. Jack comes up to me, he goes, ‘You never saw one like this before in your life,’ and I’ll give him that; nobody has. But you know in your heart you wouldn’t stand to cop a dime off those guys if I was to drop out. Like you know you aren’t gonna fire that gun in anger or to kill, ’cause aiming at a bull’s-eye and a human being are two entirely different things. That’s something else you’re gonna have to leave to my judgment. I can’t see Jack doing it, or Cullen. I doubt either one of them has the stomach. Jack’s quick with his hands; oh, he’ll pop you before you know it, but he’s never used a gun, I’m sure, on another person.”
“Have you?”
“Have I ever shot anybody? Twice I had to and they’re both dead. But have you any idea what’s gonna happen tomorrow?”
“No more than you,” Lucy said. “All I know is we’re going to do it.”
“If you have to throw yourself in front of their car,” Roy said. “All right, draw me a picture. They come out of their room tomorrow, go over to the garage, and get in the car, we assume, huh, and drive off. Then what?”
“They have two cars,” Lucy said. “I think they’ll just leave the Chrysler.”
“Let’s say they do.”
“They get in the car and drive off and we follow.”
“What about the cash-if it isn’t in the room?”
“You said they went to five banks yesterday and came right back to the hotel. If they withdrew the money it’s either in their room or still in the car.”
Roy said, “If they withdrew it. You been thinking, haven’t you? But I watched them. They came out of each bank with a full sack. You could tell.”
“Or they came out with something in the sacks,” Lucy said, “but not necessarily money. What if it was like a dry run today, to see if it’s safe? Nothing happens, they withdraw the money tomorrow and they’re on their way.”
“That sounds pretty good. You haven’t been just saying your beads, have you? All right, then what? Now we’re coming to the good part. We follow them…”
“And wait for our chance.”
“How do we know it when we see it?”
“They’ll have to stop sometime.”
“Okay, they pull into a rest area to go toy-toy. Or a filling station. We pull up alongside ’em. They see us. The next thing you know that nigger Indin’s coming out of the car with his gun. We know he’s their shooter, don’t we? It’s what he does. Now, are you gonna let the nigger Indin shoot you, or you gonna pop him first, or would you wait for me to do it, knowing if you wait too long you’re dead? Or, you’re in your typical shoot-don’t-shoot situation requiring split-second judgment. Is that a gun in his hand? Bam! No, it was a flashlight, but a man is dead. These are some of the questions you have to ask yourself.” Roy walked over to the dresser, scooped loose change into his hand and picked up his wallet. “Are we gonna drive all the way to Miami in pursuit of our dream? We are, then I have to get a bathing suit and some resort wear. How ’bout you?”
“You do like the idea,” Lucy said.
Roy took a poplin jacket from the back of the desk chair. “What idea? That’s the only thing keeps me in this deal-we don’t have enough of a plan to know if it won’t work or even to figure the odds. We’re feeling our way along, is all. We’re still playing-oh, man, isn’t this exciting? This is serious stuff. We even got real guns, with real bullets in ’em.” Roy slipped his jacket on. “I’m going around the corner and have a drink, pick up a few items we might need, check on Cullen… Oh, and lemme have your car keys. I’ll sit in it and watch theirs, just in case-since I’m doing everything anyway. Meantime you and Delaney decide if you can look right at a man and shoot him.”
“I’ve already thought about it,” Lucy said.
“Well, then think about him shooting you. If this deal’s worth it. It isn’t to me,” Roy said. “I’ll tell you right now, the time comes I see it’s a no-win deal, I’m out. I am sure not gonna die for a bunch of lepers I don’t even know.”
They were in Darla’s studio apartment over an antique shop on Conti. She said, “You know how much that’d cost you? All night and all day? I never had an all day.”
Cullen said, “I don’t care, you name it. You’re the cutest thing I ever saw.”
“Well, thank you. Usually during the day I relax. Do my hair and my nails…”
“You’re a little lady of leisure.”
“You kidding? I work my ass off in that place. I have to be there tomorrow at six.”
“I’ll stay till then. We can send out for Chinese, anything you want.”
“Roy said-didn’t he mention you just got out of prison or someplace?”
“Yeah, but I’d as soon not talk about it, ruin this beautiful evening.”
“I meant, but how could you have any money?”
“I worked. I worked in the fields for a nickel an hour. I worked in the auto repair shop, got a raise to seven cents. I worked in the print shop for the same wage. I bought a few necessities, I bought home brew now and again and saved what I could. Twenty-seven years, you little honey, it can add up.”
Darla said, “Well, you did pretty good, didn’t you?”
“Put on the black stockings again.”
“I thought you liked me nekked.”