My life was over anyway.
So when little… Sami, I guess his name was, herded Nathan and Hope out of what was left of the shack and sat us down in the sun to bake until Heinz-57 came to shoot us, I didn’t much care.
That’s the downside to loving someone. When they go they take so much of your life with them.
Anyway, old Heinz-57 came striding back a while later like he was King Shit, you know.
“What did you do to Neal?” I asked.
“Disposed of him,” he said.
Then I really started crying. I didn’t care that the son of a bitch was enjoying it. My damn heart was broken.
Heinz kept moving, fiddled with the Land Rover, and managed to back it out of the shack. Then he said to Sami, “You carry the old man’s body, I carry this bitch. Then we come back. It will take both of us to carry the old lady.”
“I beg your pardon!” Hope said.
“Okay,” said Sami. “I-”
He stopped in his tracks. His mouth gaped as he looked over Heinz’s shoulder. I looked too.
A Jeep was barreling in on us. The driver braked, the Jeep fishtailed and threw up a cloud of dust. When it cleared I saw an older, silver-haired man in an immaculate gray pinstripe suit climb easily out of the passenger side. The driver, a barrel-chested man in his early thirties, got out his own side.
Sami dropped his gun in the dirt. I could see Heinz holding his behind his back.
The silver-haired man said, “Hello, Mr. Silver.”
Nathan said, “Good morning, Mr. C.”
Mr. C turned to Heinz and said, “It’s not polite to keep people sitting out in the sun like this. Particularly older people.”
“What business is this of yours?” Heinz asked.
“Where’s Neal Carey?”
I couldn’t see Heinz-57’s face, but I knew it had that arrogant smirk on it as he said, “The same place you’ll-”
He swung out the gun and went into a macho-man combat crouch.
I swear that Mr. C didn’t move, flinch, or even blink as his driver pulled his own gun and shot Heinz-57 four times in the chest before Heinz could even raise his pistol. Mr. C just turned his gaze to Sami and asked, “Where’s Neal Carey?”
Sami’s hand shook as he pointed toward the opposite hill.
I got up and ran.
Chapter 27
I don’t know how long it was before I heard the footsteps.
At first they seemed far off and muffled and I didn’t yell because it didn’t matter anymore. I figured that it was Heinz and Sami and that they were about to drop the bodies down the shaft. I didn’t want to see that anyway so I closed my eyes and tried to drown.
Then I heard someone say, “I don’t know, ma’am. I’m afraid he’s dead.”
And Karen say, “Then I want to find his body!”
Karen? “His body”?
“Down here!” I yelled. “I’m down here!”
I could hear the footsteps shuffling around.
“Down here! I’m down here!”
“Neal?!”
“Down here! Down here!”
I saw Karen’s face peek out from the circle of blue sky.
“Hold on, babe!” she shouted. “They’re bringing a rope!”
“Are you okay?!”
“I think I have a cracked rib! Are you okay!?”
“Well, I’m alive!”
“Well I guess that beats the alternative!” she hollered. “I love you!”
“I love you, too!”
“Nathan?!” I asked.
“He’s okay!”
“Hope?!”
“Fine!” she yelled. “Everyone’s fine except for Heinz-57! I don’t think he’s going to make it!”
Actually, I didn’t care if Heinz made it or not.
“You hang in there, babe!” Karen yelled. “They’re coming!”
They came a few minutes later. I saw the rope come down and managed to grab the end with my right hand. Then I saw the barrel-chested guy from the Sands peer over the edge.
“Can you loop that around yourself and tie it off?” he asked.
I didn’t want to say that I probably couldn’t do that standing on dry ground with two good arms, so I yelled, “I can try!”
“Trying won’t cut it!” he yelled. He pulled the rope back up. “Hold on.”
A few minutes later he was in the water with me. He looped the rope around both of us and yelled, “Take her up!”
I could hear the Jeep moaning in the sand. A minute later we were in daylight.
At first the sun blinded me so I couldn’t see Karen. I could feel her, though, as she put her arms around me. When I was able to see her face, there were tears on her cheeks.
I wanted to cry too, to be honest. But Mickey the C was standing there in a three-piece suit, in the desert sun, not even sweating. Not a bead of perspiration on his smooth face.
“Thank you,” I said.
“No problem,” he answered. “Anything for Natty Silver, the laughs he’s given me. And Joe Graham reached out for you. Said you’re like a son to him.”
Okay, maybe then my eyes might have moistened a little bit.
Don’t ever tell Graham, though, okay?
In the distance I heard the basslike beating of helicopter rotors.
“The cops?” I asked.
Mickey the C snorted. “The cops? They take forever to get here.”
A few minutes later I was on a stretcher beside Nathan Silver on a mob helicopter zooming us back to Las Vegas.
We’d been in the air about ten seconds when he mumbled, “So Arthur Minsky says to the Irish kid, ‘Son, you’re never going to be a good errand boy. Can you do anything else?’ And the kid, Costello, says, ‘I want to be a comic.’ Arthur laughs, I laugh, Eileen the Irish Dream laughs, Benny the Blade laughs. Then Arthur turns to me and says, ‘There you go, Natty. Here’s your replacement for Phil Gold. Teach him “Who’s on First.”’ And I say, ‘This kid? He can’t learn it. He’s the dumbest Mick I ever seen! Dumber maybe than you, even.’ I said to Arthur Minsky…”
“Nathan?”
“Yeeees?”
“Didn’t I meet you in Cleveland once?”
“I’ve never been to Cleveland.”
“Neither have I,” I said. “Must have been two other guys.”
And I actually got a laugh out of Natty Silver.
Chapter 28
Ms. Pamela A. HolmstrumClaims SuperintendentWestern States Insurance Co. 801 Flower StreetLos Angeles, CA
Craig D. Schaeffer
Attorney-at-Law
3615 Monterey
Palm Desert, CA
14 August 1983
Dear Mr. Schaeffer,
Congratulations on your fine work on the Muller-Abdullah files. I was gratified to receive your communication that Attorney Eugene Petkovitch has dropped both bad-faith suits. Of course, I imagine that Mr. Muller’s demise and Mr. Abdullah’s incarceration rendered that litigation moot.
Western States Insurance Company is very pleased with your fine work on this file, and please allow me to add my personal congratulations. It has been a pleasure to work with you and I look forward to future collaborations.
Yours truly, Pamela A. Holmstrum
P.S.: See, I told you things would work out.
Craig D. SchaefferAttorney-at-Law3615 MontereyPalm Desert, CA
Ms. Pamela A. Holmstrum
Claims Superintendent
Western States Insurance Co.
801 Flower Street
Los Angeles, CA
17 August 1983
Dear Ms. Holmstrum,
Thank you for your letter expressing your, and your company’s, appreciation for my modest efforts on the Muller-Abdullah file. I am indeed gratified that everything worked out. Let me also express my appreciation for your work on the matter and say how much I have enjoyed our association. I hope it will continue.
Sincerely, Craig Schaeffer, Esquire
P.S.: Dinner Saturday?
Ms. Pamela A. HolmstrumClaims SuperintendentWestern States Insurance Co. 801 Flower StreetLos Angeles, CA
Craig D. Schaeffer
Attorney-at-Law
3615 Monterey
Palm Desert, CA
19 August 1983
Dear Craig,
Please find enclosed a correspondence from Eugene Petkovitch. I am referring this to you for your handling.