L IKE I SAID, everyone liked Vic Maitlin. Even if you were envious of his swarthy good looks, his talent, his scholastic aptitude, and his sexual prowess, you still couldn’t help but like him. You could overlook the fact that he hung around with those two hoods, Cramer and Stowe. He was a guy’s guy. He’d hang with the regular guys and make everyone feel his aura. I know it sounds almost supernatural, but he had an aura. You wanted some of it to rub off on you.
“I wanted some of whatever he had. It just seemed that you should be able to bottle him and pour it over yourself whenever you needed a dose of cool.” James sat on the arm of the couch, watching the news babe, the sound a low babble.
“With a missing finger and threats from beefy guys like those two, I don’t think I’d want to be Vic right now.” I pulled a beer from the refrigerator. “Em?”
“No. I’m fine. These two guys actually mentioned what I said about making out?”
“Why would I make that up? Yes. The one guy seemed to know exactly what happened last night.” I twisted the top off and took a deep swallow. I needed something to calm me down.
“The phony cop.”
“That would be my guess.” I drained half the bottle.
“And they said to keep it quiet? Hell, we didn’t see anything.”
“Between the three of us we saw two guys in uniforms. Or maybe we saw the same guy. We saw the windows blow out of the building.”
James kept his eyes on the TV. “You said you saw three vehicles burning. Two in the parking lot, one in the alley after I’d left.”
“So what could we have seen?”
“Either we’re not aware of it or they think we saw something we didn’t.” Em stared at my beer.
“You sure you don’t want one?”
“No. A glass of water? Never mind. I’ve seen the glasses you’ve got in the cupboard. Chipped, stained, and I believe I saw mold growing on a couple of them. Get me another Sprite.”
“Wasn’t mold,” James said. “There was a sale on fuzzy glasses down at Gas and Grocery.”
Em feigned a smile as I handed her the cold green can.
James finally turned his head. “I think we drive back to Bal Harbor and confront Fuentes. He obviously has an idea of what the hell is going on.”
“I get the idea he may be responsible for what’s going on. I agree. Now that you’re a target-”
“I’m a target?” James looked at me questioningly.
“You and Em. They know your names and your vehicles.”
“Yeah. And they know you and Emily lied about making out in the car.”
“I don’t think they know who I am.”
“Nobody ran the plates on your ’96 Prism?” James asked.
“It wasn’t there, James.”
Orange flames licked the television screen and James increased the volume.
“More news on the horrendous fire in Little Havana early this morning. Police and fire investigators say that two bodies have been pulled from the rubble. At this point, Captain Ed Stabil said the remains were too badly burned to be identified.”
“Jesus, I hope one of them wasn’t Vic.” Emily looked up at me and for the second time that morning had tears in her eyes. She usually wasn’t the weepy type. “God, Skip. This just keeps getting worse and worse.”