So when I walked into the Blue Casket after getting Sal’s telegram, Gunnar gave me a friendly nod while Alexi tried to pretend I wasn’t there.
Slisko wasn’t the quiet type. “Hey, look who’s making the scene!” he exclaimed. “It’s Manny Calavera, the up, the down, the backside of the nouveau riche!”
“Hey, trust funder,” I needled him in return, sitting down uninvited (the only way I ever sat at their table in those days). I turned my attention to Gunnar. “So, do you think you’re ready to meet Salvador Limones?” I was speaking for the others’ benefit, mostly, and Gunnar seemed to understand because he kept quiet.
“Salvador Limones?” Slisko asked incredulously, as if on cue. “Salvador Limones is a fairy tale, a spook story the Man tells the masses as he puts them to sleep.”
Alexi couldn’t ignore that. “Idiot!” he bit off. “Salvador Limones is a very real and a very great, great man.” He turned to glare at me. “And it’s a sure thing he’d have nothing whatsoever to do with you.”
“A sure thing?” I said, standing up. “You’re forgetting that the odds are always in the house’s favor.” Alexi glared. “I can have Salvador here within a week.” Slisko laughed and Alexi just looked angry. Gunner appeared hopeful. I turned and walked toward the exit.
Olivia stopped me before I got there. “Who is Salvador Limones?” she asked.
“Olivia!” I chided. “What kind of revolutionary are you?”
“Who said I was a revolutionary?” she asked with what I took to be mock innocence. “Still, maybe I should study up. It could impress the customers.”
I laughed and started for the door again. “I gotta go. Catch you later, hep chick.”
“Keep practicing that lingo, man,” she called out after me, “you’ll get it.”
The truth was, despite the certainty I displayed to Alexi’s gang, I wasn’t sure whether I could get Salvador to Rubacava at all, much less inside a week. If I couldn’t, then the LSA would never get any traction there. I had little credit with Alexi and none at all with Slisko and, while I had practically landed Gunnar, his friends weren’t exactly holding on to his coat tails. There was no one else I knew in Rubacava who would have been as suitable. Maybe Olivia, but her connections with Maximino bothered me a little and I wasn’t sure how to approach her without giving too much away too soon. I contacted Salvador the next morning but I only had to say I needed him to come to Rubacava. He didn’t want me saying anything over the phone. He said he’d come if I sent Glottis for him, so I did.
Garden Party
Glottis had been gone a couple of days when something very disturbing happened. Carla and I were at a quiet little restaurant in an upscale part of town on the largest island. The maître d’ told me I had a phone call. It was Lola and she was very agitated.
“Manny,” she exclaimed when I got on the wire, “you gotta get over here right away!”
“Lola? What’s up?”
“Something terrible has happened! I’ve already called the cops. Please, Manny… hurry!”
“The cops?!” Wild images of theft, vandalism and arson raced through my mind. “What’s going on!?” I demanded in paranoid, unfocused anger and anxiety.
“I don’t know! I don’t know what to call it! Stop asking questions and get over here!” Lola sounded too near hysteria for sensible answers.
“OK, Lola.” I tried to sound reassuring. “I’m on my way.” I hung up and went back to Carla.
“I gotta go,” I said to her. “Something’s up. Waiter! Check!” I took a long drag on my cigarette before stubbing it out
Carla folded her arms. “Is it about that Colomar woman?” she asked coldly.
“No,” I answered. “Lola was too upset to say what it’s about, but it’s serious enough for the cops to be involved. Thanks.” I glanced at the check and peeled off a few bills. “Forget the change.” I headed for the door but glanced back to see Carla following me. “Why don’t you finish your dinner?”
Carla pushed me forward. “You’re killing me.”
We got to the construction site as fast as we could. It was full of flashing lights and cops. Fortunately, being at the top of the cliff, the activity hadn’t yet attracted too big a crowd.
“Manny!” Lola cried out when she saw me.
“What’s all this about?” I demanded when she had rushed up to me.
She pointed over to a pile of supplies beyond the contractor’s hut. “It’s over there.” She shuddered.
“What is?”
“Why don’t you just go and look?” Carla snapped. She took Lola by the shoulders and led her aside. “It’ll be all right,” she soothed, the younger woman taking the role of the elder.
I went over to where Lola had indicated but was stopped by an officious-looking cop in a uniform that was just this side of generalissimo ostentation. “Are you Calavera?” he asked.
“Yes, I am. What’s going on here?”
“That’s what we’re trying to find out. Come and look at this.” He led me around to the far side of the pile and pointed.
“¡Dios mio!” I exclaimed. “Irises!” I felt sick and turned away from the flower-smothered soul sprawled out on the ground. “Any idea who he was?” I asked the cop.
He shook his head and said, “I’m wondering what you might know about this.”
“Me?!” I exclaimed. “I just got here. Didn’t Lola see or hear anything?”
The cop looked hard at me, then shrugged. “Most likely he was sprouted elsewhere and just dumped here. Unfortunately.”
A long car pulled up just then and a slow-moving, tall but stooped-over man got out. The cop waved him over. “Over here, Membrillo,” he called out.
“Bogen,” the man said by way of greeting. He glanced at me and then back at the police chief. “What have you got?” he asked Bogen.
“Another sprouting,” Bogen answered. “Seems like the others.”
Membrillo knelt beside the man-shaped vegetation and started spreading apart leaves and stems. “Hmm,” he said. “No clothes. Anything found around here?”
“No,” Bogen said. “Nothing yet.”
Membrillo turned the sprouted soul partly over and felt around. “There’s a nick at the back of the skull,” he said. He looked up at Bogen. “This was an execution.” I shuddered. “See if you can find the dart, this time. Maybe it can be traced.”
“Tell me something I don’t already know,” Bogen said angrily. He made himself calm down. “OK, let’s get him into the wagon. I want an ID as soon as possible.” Membrillo took a notebook out of a pocket and began writing.
Bogen directed a couple other cops to get a body bag out of Membrillo’s car. They waited until Membrillo stopped writing. He tore off a sheet and handed it to Bogen. Then they put the sprouted soul into the bag and carried it to the car.
“I’ll finish the preliminaries tonight,” Membrillo said to Bogen. “Send me in the morning whoever you think I should see.” With that he went back to his car and drove off.
“OK, Calavera,” Bogen said, “I want you to go down to the morgue tomorrow morning. Maybe you can identify the victim.”
“Lola, too?” I asked.
“Yes,” Bogen said. “And that girl you arrived with. I’m going to leave a man here. You go home. Sergeant! Let’s clear these people off!!” He moved away to direct his men in driving away the small group of spectators.