He liked skirts. He liked the idea of lifting up a skirt, something from his boyhood, something you did with girls. She moved against him when he began to kiss her. She let herself be lowered to the grass where he began to bring her skirt up to her hips and put his hand under it.
Gretchen came out and hopped around them, sniffing their legs. Maguire told the dog to get the hell out of there.
Sitting on the patio, another drink; were they going to go out to eat or not? It was strange the way she brought up the question of the dog, surprising him, asking him why he wasn’t nice to Gretchen.
He said, “What do you mean I’m not nice to her? What do you say to a dog that’s not nice?”
She said, “You ignore her. Until tonight you only said one word to her, the first time you came here, you told her to relax.”
“Well, that was nice,” Maguire said. “What do I want to talk to a dog for? I talk to dolphins all day, and I don’t ordinarily, you’re right, talk to animals at all. I don’t have that much to say to them.”
She said, “You know who’s nice to Gretchen?”
He said, “I’ll talk to the dog when I have time. I’ll be very happy to.”
“Roland,” Karen said. “He can’t keep his hands off her.”
Maguire said, “Well, I’d keep an eye on him if I were you.”
He said that, and they were friends again. The strange part was feeling a little tension between them over the dog. Or else he imagined it.
No, the dog wasn’t a problem. What mattered was, they always got back to Roland.
He said to her, “I guess I’m gonna have to meet him, aren’t I?” A few moments later he said, “I don’t see you having conversations with the dog.”
THE REASON ROLAND SERVED the six months at Lake Butler:
Dade County Criminal Division had charged Jimmy Capotorto with three counts second degree and one count first degree murder: the victims being the three employees who died in the Coral Gables Discount Mart fire and the star witness who died of gunshot wounds in the parking lot of the VA Hospital. Dade County knew, circumstantially, Coral Gables Discount had borrowed shylock money from Jimmy Cap. They had the written testimony of the star witness, the former Coral Gables Discount owner, that described how Jimmy Cap had taken over management of the company and had decided to liquidate. They lost their star witness in the VA Hospital parking lot, on Eighteenth Street Road. But they now had a second star witness who described Jimmy Cap and revealed the license number of his two-tone red and white Sedan d’Ville pulling out of the lot moments following the sound of several gunshots; this within two blocks of the Dade County Public Safety Department offices. Jimmy Cap’s lawyer pointed out that the first star witness was a drug addict and had gone to the VA Hospital parking lot to purchase stolen morphine to relieve his tensions. The second star witness, however, was a one-legged ex-Marine who had come out of the hospital after visiting one of his buddies. He said on the witness stand, pointing to Jimmy Capotorto, “Yes sir, that’s him.”
Jimmy Cap’s lawyer put Roland Crowe on the stand, and Roland said Jimmy Cap had spent the evening with him visiting a Cuban lady out on Beaver Road off the Tamiami Trail. The Cuban lady was waiting to go on next if they needed her.
The state’s prosecutor hammered away at Roland’s credibility, bringing out the fact Roland himself had served eight years in Raiford for second degree murder-objected to and sustained, but there it was-then asked Roland if he had spoken to their witness, the ex-Marine, out in the hall. Roland said, “No sir.” The prosecutor said hadn’t he, Roland, said to the ex-Marine, “You only got one leg now. How’d you like to keep talking and go for none?” Roland said if the Marine had said that, then the Marine was a fucking liar. The judge warned Roland his language would not be tolerated. The prosecutor kept at Roland, trying to hook him. But Roland remained cool. He said to the state’s prosecutor, “What you say, sir, is your opinion. The only thing is, opinions’re like assholes, everybody’s got one.”
Roland was sentenced to a year and a day for contempt, reduced to six months following an appeal. But he had stared long enough at that one-legged Marine, who finally said maybe he’d been mistaken about his testimony.
Jimmy Cap talked about it all the time, describing Roland on the witness stand, even describing Roland to Roland himself, the way the gator had fucked their minds around with his you-all bullshit and had actually distracted them from the reason they were in court. Jimmy Cap, at one point, had said to Roland, “Hey, I owe you six months.”
When Roland came to see Jimmy Cap, at his office in the Dorado Management suite, Jimmy Cap said, “Buddy”-meaning it-“what can I do for you?”
“I was supposed to see Ed,” Roland said, “but I guess he’s out of town.”
“So talk to Vivian.”
“Vivian’s out too.”
“Is it important?”
“He’ll chew my ass cuz I can’t find him.”
“When they’re both away,” Jimmy Cap said, “they’re shacked up at Vivian’s for a couple of days. Ed tells Clara he’s gone to Pittsburgh or some fucking place, they’re up in Keystone.”
“Yeah?” Roland grinned, tilted up his Ox Bow and sat down. “That reminds me. The company manages a condo up in Boca, don’t it?”
“Oceana,” Jimmy Cap said.
“And Frank DiCilia had a place there he used, if I ain’t mistaken?”
“That’s right.”
“But I don’t imagine anybody’s using it much no more. I know the lady ain’t cuz I’m the one watching her. You know about that?”
“Jesus,” Jimmy Cap said, “that’s a weird setup. Ed told me something about it, I said, Jesus Christ, we back in the fucking Sicilian Mountains or Miami, Florida? We got better things to do. She’s not a bad-looking broad either, you know it?”
“Look but don’t touch,” Roland said. “I got one firmer and younger up in Boca just dying for it. But this problem, see, she’s a waitress at a place up there? And she’s married. She can get out of the house only maybe a couple hours in the evening; but I don’t have no place to take her up there. You follow me? I mean a nice place, to impress her a little bit.”
Jimmy Cap said, “So you’re thinking of Frank’s apartment.”
“If it’s sitting there going to waste,” Roland said. “I remember I took a piss in there once, it had this great big bathtub you walked up some steps to get in.”
“Clean the little waitress up first,” Jimmy Cap said. “Sure, I’ll get you a key anytime you want.”
“Now’d be fine,” Roland said. He waited a moment. “Oh, hey, you got Vivian’s private number up there in Keystone?”
“Is it important?”
“Life or death situation,” Roland said. He grinned, but he meant it.
Maguire said, “I’m gonna make a phone call, that’s all. I’ll be right there.”
Brad Allen said, “You come to my office right now or you’re out of a job.”
The camp director. The school principal. Tell him what to do with the job.
Maguire watched him walking away. Pretty soon, he thought. He followed Brad to the office beneath the grandstand, ten by twelve, with a wooden desk, one chair, four cement walls covered with photos of Brad Allen and dolphins-Brad & Pepper, Brad & Dixie, Brad & Bonnie-Brad feeding, patting, kissing, presenting, admonishing, cajoling dozens of different one-name dolphins that, to Maguire, all looked like the same one.
Brad, seated, looking up at Maguire standing at parade rest, said, “All right, here’s the new routine. You ready?”
“I’m ready,” Maguire said.
“Beginning of the Flying Dolphin Show, most of the people’ve just come in. Right?”
“Right.”
“You say, ‘Anybody notice that lion out there by the main entrance?’ ” Brad’s tone becoming an effortless drawl.