At the Jolly Jackal, Leo was sweeping up the shattered remains of the TV picture tube, while John was thinking about whether he should call his contact at Penultimate to report what had happened to Arthur Herk. He had just decided the hell with it — why go looking for trouble? — when the door opened and two men came in, one tall and one short, both wearing suits. The tall one held out a wallet, flipped open to show a badge.
"FBI," he said. "I'm agent Pat Greer, and this is Agent Alan Seitz."
John shot a quick glance at Leo. They were both thinking the same thing, which was that, the way this evening was turning out, maybe they'd been better off back in Grzkjistan, drinking solvents from barrels.
To Agent Greer, John said, "How I can help FBI?"
"You can tell FBI where the suitcase is," said Greer. He paused a beat, then added, "Ivan."
John stared at him. "My name is John," he said.
"Sure it is," said Greer. "Your name is John, and you're just a hardworking, law-abiding, immigrant small-business man, running this little shithole bar where you got no customers."
"Yes," said John.
"Yes indeed," said Greer. "Then you surely will not mind if we take a look in the back room. The one with all the locks."
"You have warrant?" said John.
Greer looked at Seitz and shook his head. "Isn't it heartwarming," he said, "the way a person can come here from another country, with nothing but the shirt on his back and maybe a couple hundred grand he got from selling military weapons he doesn't own, and in just a short time in America, he has embraced our way of life to the point where he wants to know if we got a warrant? Doesn't that just warm the cockles of your heart, Agent Seitz?"
"It warms the shit out of my cockles," said Agent Seitz. "My cockles are burnin' up."
Ivan frowned and looked at Leo, who shrugged to indicate that he didn't know what cockles were, either.
Greer turned back to John. "Listen, Ivan," he said. "Number one, we already got you. You have not been careful about who you do business with. We got you so good that, if we want, by the time you get out of federal prison, there will be glaciers in Key West, OK? That's number one. Number two is, we don't need a warrant. We're operating under… what's that thing that we're operating under called again, Agent Seitz?"
"Special Executive Order 768 dash 4," said Seitz.
"That's right," said Greer, "Special Executive Order 768 dash 4, which basically means that, if it's a matter of national security, which this is, we can search wherever we want, and we don't need a warrant. We can send a search party and a Doberman pinscher up your ass if we want, Ivan."
John glanced at Leo, then turned back to Greer. He said, "I want lawyer."
"Did you hear that, Agent Seitz?" said Greer. "He wants a lawyer! As is his right, under our constitution! Which we hold sacred!"
"You want me to shoot him in the forehead?" asked Agent Seitz, producing a pistol from his shoulder holster.
"Not right now," replied Greer. To John, he said, "My partner would like to shoot you in the forehead, which I have absolutely no doubt he could legally do, under Special Executive Order 768 dash 4. Me, I'm thinking it would be better, for all concerned, if you just got out your keys and showed me around that back room, OK?"
John stood still for a moment, then reached for his pocket.
"Easy," said Seitz, not aiming the gun directly at John, but raising it a little.
Slowly, John pulled out a ring of keys.
"Excellent!" said Greer. "That's the spirit of Special Executive Order 768 dash 4! Now let's you and I go see what you got back there. Agent Seitz will stay out here and be ready to render assistance to Leonid, in case the customer load gets to be too much for him to handle."
Greer and John went down the hallway to the back room. Seitz walked over to the bar, slung one leg over a stool, and pointed his chin in the direction of the shattered TV.
"What happened?" he asked Leo.
"Jerry Springer," said Leo.
"About time," said Seitz.
"What do you think?" said Leonard. "We go in the front?"
He and Henry had followed Arthur Herk's Lexus to 238 Garbanzo. They had watched it go in through the gate; they had pulled over to the curb just past the driveway.
"No," said Henry. "I think we wanna go around the back again."
"With the fuckin' mosquitoes?" said Leonard. "Chrissakes, why? I mean, we could just go in there, pop our boy, bingbing, we're onna plane to Newark. We ain't gonna have a problem with the guys wearin' panty hose, for chrissakes."
"I wanna see what they're doin'," said Henry. "I wanna know what's in that suitcase. And I wanna make sure we don't have any surprises. Like somebody up a tree." He put the car in gear and started driving around to the side of the property.
Leonard sighed. "We don't shoot somebody soon," he said, "I'm gonna forget how."
The first person Matt saw, when he reached the foyer, was Arthur Herk, standing in the doorway. Matt was going to say hello, but the look on Arthur's face — a very unpleasant look, even for Arthur — stopped him.
"Who is it, Matt?" It was Anna's voice, from the living room.
Matt started to answer, but stopped, because he had just noticed, behind Arthur, a short, wide, bearded man lugging a suitcase. Behind him was… ohmigod…
"Who is it?" came Anna's voice again, now rising.
Matt backed around the corner, followed by Arthur and Puggy. Anna, seeing them, said, "Arthur! Who's… " She caught her breath, and Jenny screamed, as the panty hose-distorted face of Snake came into view.
"SHUDDUP, 'less you wanna get shot," said Snake, brandishing the gun at Anna and Jenny. They quieted, both staring, horrified, at the hole in the end of the gun. Snake liked that. He liked holding a gun, having this magical thing in his hand that he could just point at people, like a wand, and they did whatever he said.
He studied the two women on the sofa, the kingpin's women. He was pretty sure he'd seen the older one somewhere around the Grove… Yeah, that was her; she'd walked past him like he was a piece of shit. Tonight would be different.
Snake moved closer to Anna and Jenny; they shrank back on the sofa.
"Lessee what we got here," said Snake. "Mmm-mmm. These are some fine-lookin' women, here. Fme-lookin'." He glanced back at Arthur. "Just like you promised."
Anna looked at Arthur. He would not meet her eyes.
Snake said to Anna, "We gonna have some fun tonight." With his non-gun hand, he reached down and slowly, deliberately, stroked his crotch.
"If you touch my daughter," said Anna, "I swear to God I'll cut your balls off."
"Your daughter, huh?" said Snake, looking at Jenny, his hand still rubbing between his legs. "That right? She's a young thing? Can't leave her momma?" He raised the gun and aimed it right at Anna's face, and he could see in the way she looked at it that, despite her tough talk, he owned her. As long as he had the magic wand, he owned everything.
"I touch what I wanna touch," he said. He took his hand from his crotch and reached it toward Jenny, who whimpered and shrank back.
Matt said, "Drop the gun right now or I'll shoot you."
Snake, still aiming at Anna, turned his head and saw the boy aiming a gun at him. It was the JetBlast Junior squirt gun, but it looked real to Snake.
"Don't fuck with me, kid," he said.
"I swear I'll shoot you, mister," said Matt.
"You shoot me," said Snake, "I shoot your girlfriend." He moved his gun slightly, so it was pointing at Jenny. He was not letting go of his wand.
They stood that way for five seconds, Matt aiming at Snake, Snake aiming at Jenny, nobody with a clue what to do next. The silence ended with a crash from the foyer, which was the sound of Eddie, blinded by his panty hose, falling over an umbrella stand. The sound startled everybody, especially Matt, who squeezed the trigger of his JetBlast Junior, squirting a stream of water onto Snake.
"Whoops," said Matt.
Snake, in two steps, was next to Matt, slashing sideways with his gun barrel.
"Unnnh," said Matt, going down, his hands grabbing his face. Snake knelt and pressed the gun barrel against Mart's ear.
"You fuckin' punk" he said. "Before I kill you, I'm gonna let you watch what I do to your girlfriend, you hear me? You hear me?" He forced the gun barrel hard into Mart's ear.
"Yes!" said Matt. "OW YES!"
"You better hear me, punk," said Snake. "Eddie! Get in here!"
"Dammit, Snake," said Eddie, from the foyer, "you keep sayin' my name!"
"Never mind that," said Snake. "Get in here and take that thing off your head."
"They'll see us," said Eddie, feeling his way into the living room.
"Don't matter anymore," said Snake, ripping the panty hose off his head. He was thinking like a kingpin now; he had a plan.
Eddie took off his panty hose, brushed some greasy strands of hair out of his eyes, and blinked at the scene in the living room. On the sofa were two women, one he'd hassled for money earlier that day in the Grove, the other very young, both way out of
Eddie's league. In the corner were the two guys they had brought from the bar, the kingpin and the little strong guy that Snake had kicked. On the floor was some kid, holding his face.
Eddie went over to Snake and whispered, "Snake, what the fuck're you doin'?"
"What we're doin'," Snake whispered back, "is we're gonna tie up these assholes" — he nodded toward Arthur, Puggy, and Matt — "and then we're gonna have us some pussy" — he nodded toward Anna and Jenny — "and then we're gonna find out what's inna suitcase, and where this guy keeps his real money, and then we're gonna tidy up in here, and then we're gonna go to the Bahamas and we ain't never gonna have to work again."
"The Bahamas?" said Eddie. "Snake, we don't know nothing about no Bahamas."
"We're gonna find out," said Snake. He'd heard they went pretty easy on kingpins in the Bahamas.
"What do you mean, tidy up in here?" said Eddie.
"I mean get rid of the loose ends," said Snake. "Now go find us some rope."
Agent Greer, with John preceding him, came out of the back room of the Jolly Jackal, shaking his head.
"It's not there," he said to Agent Seitz. "They got enough stuff back there to fight a war with North Korea, but no suitcase. Ivan here says he doesn't know what suitcase I'm talking about."
"Is that right, Ivan?" asked Seitz.
John nodded.
"Are you maybe thinking that you could use the suitcase as, like, a bargaining chip?" said Seitz. "Like, we want it so bad that we work out some kind of deal with you, like you tell us where it is, and we go easy on you? Maybe even just deport you back to Russia? Is that what you're maybe thinking?"
John said nothing. But that was, in fact, exactly what he had been thinking.
"Hmmm," said Seitz, frowning. "What do you think, Agent Greer?"
"Hmmm," said Greer, also frowning. "What do you think, Agent Seitz?"
"I think," said Seitz, pausing a moment, "nah." Without moving from the bar stool, he shot John in the foot. He was an excellent shot.
John fell to the floor screaming. He grabbed his shoe, which was oozing blood from holes on both the top and the bottom.
"Don't be a baby, Ivan," said Greer, looking down. "It's just your foot."
"It's what we at the Bureau call an 'extremity shot, " explained Seitz. "Generally, the victim survives. They don't do so good with what we call a 'torso shot. »
Greer, bending down to the writhing figure on the floor, said, "What do you think, Ivan? You want to experience a torso shot?"
John, through gritted teeth, said, "I tell you who has suitcase."
Greer looked at Seitz and said, "I love Special Executive Order 768 dash 4."
Roger the dog crouched on the patio, his nose thirty inches from the Enemy Toad. The toad was sitting in Roger's dish, munching on Roger's kibble, and Roger was growling at it. This had been going on for more than two hours, but Roger was not bored. Growling at the toad was a big part of his day.
Roger's head snapped up when he heard the sound of something scraping against the fence at the far end of the yard. The sound meant that there was an intruder, and to Roger, that meant only one thing: There might be food. In an instant he had left the toad and was hurtling through the underbrush, a hungry, hairy bullet.
Eddie couldn't find any rope, so, at Snake's instruction, he went around the living room, dining room, family room, and kitchen and ripped out the cords to the telephones, which Snake didn't want working anyway. He brought the cords into the living room, where Snake had Anna and Jenny still on the couch, and Puggy and Arthur sitting on the floor next to Matt, whose face was red and whose nose was bleeding about as much as the last time he'd been over to the Herk household, when Anna had punched him out.
"OK," said Snake, gesturing at the three men on the floor. 'Tie 'em up."
Eddie, looking uncertain, went over and stood behind Matt.
"What kinda knot?" he asked Snake.
"Whaddya mean, what kinda knot?" said Snake. "Just tie 'em the fuck up."
"OK," said Eddie, "but I ain't no damn Boy Scout. All's I know is the square knot and the whaddyacallit, the bowman. Which one you want?"
"JUST TIE 'EM UP," said Snake. He had decided that, once he got established as a kingpin in the Bahamas, he was definitely going to get a better class of henchman.
Leonard, definitely feeling the second order of spaghetti and sausage he'd had for dinner, grunted as he heaved his body over the wall at the back of the Herk property. He dropped to the ground next to Henry, who was peering up into the big tree.
"You lookin' for Tarzan?" asked Leonard. "He's inna house, right?"
"I'm thinking maybe my rifle is up there," said Henry. "Looks like there's some kind of platform up there, where he jumped from."
Leonard looked up into the tree and said, "Why the fuck would he — OOOM!"
Roger had just given Leonard a traditional hearty dog welcome, which consisted of rocketing headfirst into Leonard's groin, knocking him backward and down.
"Get away from me, dammit!" said Leonard, unsuccessfully trying to fend off Roger, who had detected several residual atoms of marinara sauce on Leonard's chin and was frantically trying to lick them off before some rival dog found them. "Henry, get him offme!"
Henry grabbed Roger by the collar and lifted him off Leonard. This did not cause Roger any physical discomfort, as Roger was basically a large fur-covered muscle controlled by a brain the size of a Raisinet. In fact, Roger was delighted: Another person was here! Maybe this one had food!
"Get down, dammit," said Henry, trying to push the dog away, wondering if maybe he would have to shoot it. Suddenly, Roger's head snapped up. He had detected something that Henry and Leonard could not hear at this distance: the intercom buzzer! Roger knew that sound; it meant somebody was here. And whoever it was might have food. As suddenly as he had appeared, Roger went rocketing back toward the house.
Henry said, "I'm gonna take a look up in the tree." From the ground, Leonard said, "I'm never gonna leave New Jersey again."
Eddie, wrapping the phone cord around Matt's wrists, had tied one knot — he thought it was a square, but it was actually a granny — when the intercom unit in the foyer buzzed.
Everybody looked at Snake. The intercom buzzed again, longer this time.
"OK," said Snake, grabbing Anna by the arm and yanking her roughly to her feet. "You go tell whoever that is to go away. You don't say nothin' stupid or you get shot." He followed Anna partway into the foyer, standing where he could see her and the living room. The intercom buzzed again. Anna pushed the talk button.
"Who is it?" she asked.
"Miami Police," said a male voice.
"Shit," whispered Snake.
The intercom voice said, "This is Officer Kramitz and Officer Ramirez. Can we come in, please?"
Anna looked at Snake, who was pointing the gun at her. "Ask 'em what they want," he whispered.
"What do you want?" Anna said.
"We need to talk to Jenny Herk," said the voice.
Snake whispered, "Tell 'em she ain't here."
"She's not here," said Anna.
There was a pause, then the voice said, "Well, can we come in and speak to you for a moment, ma'am?"
Anna looked at Snake, who again whispered, "Shit," and then, "OK, open the gate and let 'em come to the front door."
"I'm opening the gate," said Anna, punching in the code.
"Sounded to me like somebody was telling her what to say," said Walter, as the gate slid open.
"Yeah, I heard that, too," said Monica. "I'm wondering if it was the husband."
"He's the asshole, right?" said Walter.
"That's him," said Monica. "I'm wondering if Jenny told them what happened at the five-and-dime, and they're just telling us she's not here to keep her out of it."
"They don't wanna get involved," said Walter.
"Right," said Monica.
"Well," said Walter, stopping the cruiser in the Herk driveway, "they're gonna get involved."
He and Monica got out of the car and went to the front door. Walter knocked and said, "It's the police."
The door opened just wide enough for Anna to show her face.
"Yes, officers?" she said. "Can I help you?"
Her jaw was clenched; her eyes were too wide. Even Walter could tell there was something wrong.
Both he and Monica assumed that the asshole husband had told her what to say, and was listening to her.
"Mrs. Herk," said Monica, "we want to talk to Jenny about a… about something that happened in the Grove. We think she and her friend Matt were witnesses. Your daughter's not in trouble, but it's important that we talk to her."
"I told you Jenny's not here," Anna said.
"Mrs. Herk," said Monica, "Do you mind if we come in for a minute?"
"I… I… No," Anna said. "I mean yes, I mind. Please don't come in."
"Mrs. Herk, is something wrong?" asked Monica.
"No," said Anna, her voice tight. "No."
Monica and Walter looked at each other. They both knew that, without a warrant, they could not legally enter this house by force.
"OK, then, Mrs. Herk," said Monica. "I'm gonna give you a card, and when Jenny gets here, I'd appreciate it if you'd give us a call, OK?"
"Yes," said Anna, taking the card, her hand shaking, and Monica saw something in her eyes, and before she could talk herself out of it, she put her shoulder to the door, pushed it open, and stepped inside.
"Do you think you could go a little faster?" Eliot asked the cab driver. The driver looked up into the rearview and studied Eliot for a few seconds, which was not really a dangerous maneuver, because he was going only about eight miles per hour. Over the years, Eliot had noticed that in Miami, in contrast to other cities, where cab drivers tended to go faster than everybody else, they generally traveled at the speed of diseased livestock. Eliot suspected that this driver was stoned on something.
"What's the big hurry?" the driver asked, still looking at Eliot, as opposed to the road.
"This is an emergency," said Eliot.
"Huh," said the driver, not going any faster. In fact, he appeared to actually slow down, while he thought about it.
After a few seconds, he said, "Which one is Caramba Street?"
"It's not Caramba Street," said Eliot. "It's Garbanzo Street. Garbanzo."
This new information caused the cab driver to slow still more.
"I thought you tole me Caramba Street," he said.
"No," said Eliot, starting to lose it, "Garbanzo."
The cab driver thought about that. They were now going slower than Eliot normally walked.
'Tell you the truth," said the cab driver, "I never even heard of no Caramba Street."
"Look," said Eliot, "could you just…»
"I ain't sayin' there ain't no Caramba Street," said the driver. "I'm just sayin' I never heard of it."
"Could you please go to Garbanzo as fast as possible?" said Eliot.
"What's the big hurry?" asked the driver.
"THIS IS A FUCKING EMERGENCY," said Eliot.
"OK, OK, OK," said the driver, taking both hands off the wheel and holding them in front of him, palms out, to indicate that, sheesh, enough already. "You don't gotta yell."
When Monica shoved her way through the front door of the Herk home, Anna staggered back a step. Monica quickly brushed past her, not sure what she was looking for. Suddenly, she stopped.
Two steps behind, Walter, surprised by Monica's decision to force her way in, was saying, "Jesus, Monica, what're you… " Then he stopped, too, because he saw what Monica was seeing: Snake, standing just beyond Anna, at the entrance to the living room, aiming a gun at them. It looked to Walter like a.45.
"I'll kill you both," Snake said. "Swear to God, you gimme one excuse, I'll fuckin' kill you both right now."
Monica said, "We're not gonna…»
"Shut up!" said Snake. "Just shut up an' put up them hands. Eddie! Get in here."
Eddie came around the corner and saw the two police officers, with their hands up.
"Oh Jesus, Snake," he said.
"Shut up, goddammit," said Snake. "Just do like I say. Close the door and get their guns and bring 'em here."
Eddie closed the door, then went to Monica, unsnapped her belt holster, and took the Clock 40. It felt heavy in his hand. Next he got Walter's gun. Walter, his arms in the air, tensed his biceps and gave Eddie a hard-ass stare, but Eddie didn't meet his eyes.
Eddie, carrying the cops' Clocks as though they were rabid weasels, brought them over to Snake, who stuck one in each of his pockets. He was feeling very confident now; he had three magic wands. The cops had been a surprise, but he'd handled it, hadn't he? He had a new plan now, and he was feeling good about it, seeing in his mind the moves he would make.
Snake waved Anna and the two police officers toward the living room. "Everybody in here," he said.
"You're making a mistake," said Monica.
"Only mistake will be if you open your fuckin' mouth again, lady cop," said Snake. "Lady cops bleed just as good as man cops." He liked the way that came out. It sounded like something a kingpin would say.
When everybody was in the living room, Snake said, "Lady cop, I want you to take muscle boy's handcuffs and cuff him to… to that thing there."
He gestured toward a massive entertainment unit, eight feet high and eight feet wide, made of steel
tubes. Its shelves held a stereo system, some decorative vases, and a framed picture of Anna and Jenny.
Monica took Walter's handcuffs from the case on his belt. She snapped one end around Walter's left wrist and the other to one of the vertical steel tubes on the entertainment unit.
"Make it tighter on his wrist," said Snake.
Monica, giving Walter a look that said sorry, made it tighter.
"Now toss me the keys," said Snake.
Monica got Walter's keys and tossed them to Snake.
"Now, lady cop," said Snake, "I want you take your cuffs and cuff this asshole here" — he gestured at Arthur — "to the other end of that thing, nice and tight." Snake had decided that the kingpin and the muscle cop were the biggest threats in the room; the rest were just punks and women.
Monica handcuffed Arthur to the other end of the entertainment unit.
"Now gimme the keys," said Snake. He liked telling the lady cop what to do.
Monica tossed the keys.
"Now," said Snake, pointing the gun straight at Monica's face, "take off your cop shirt and show me your titties."
Monica looked at the gun.
"C'mon, lady cop," Snake said. "Looks like you got a nice pair under there."
Monica forced her eyes to leave the gun and look at Snake.
"Fuck you," she said.
Snake stared at her down the gun barrel for a long moment. Finally, he said, "Maybe later." Then, to Eddie, he said, "Finish tyin' up the punk" — he pointed at Matt — "and then tie up the lady cop and this lady." He pointed at Anna.
"What about them two?" asked Eddie, pointing to Puggy and Jenny.
"I got plans for them two," said Snake, looking at Jenny.
Eddie got the telephone cords and went to work. He really wanted some guidance on the knots, but he decided this was not the time to ask, seeing as how Snake now had three guns and had gone, as far as Eddie could tell, completely batshit. So he did the best he could, wrapping the prisoners' wrists in tangled, semi-random snarls.
When Eddie was done, Snake checked the wrists one at a time. The knots were ugly, but the cords were tight. Satisfied, he went over to Arthur and said, "Where's the money?"
"What money?" said Arthur.
With his good leg, Snake kneed Arthur hard in the balls. Arthur howled and bent over, his cuffed arm yanking the heavy entertainment unit, which would have toppled over, had not Walter, at the other end, managed to get it back upright.
"Where's the fuckin' money?" said Snake, cocking his leg again.
"In my pocket," gasped Arthur, weeping from the pain in his groin. "It's in my pocket! Don't kick me again!"
"Take it outta your pocket," said Snake.
Sniffling, Arthur reached his non-handcuffed hand awkwardly across his body and into his right pants pocket. He pulled out a fat wad consisting of $4,500 in $20 bills, the rest of the $5,000 Arthur had stolen from the Penultimate bribe money. He handed the wad to Snake, who had never seen, let alone held, this much money in his entire life. Snake was more convinced than ever that drug kingpin was the ultimate profession, a line of work where a man would be walking around with this kind of cash in his damn pocket.
"You got any more?" Snake asked, cocking his leg again. He didn't think there was, but he liked making the kingpin cringe. These kingpins, you kicked them in the balls, they weren't so tough.
"NO!" said Arthur, sobbing now. "Please, just take the money, take the suitcase, take the girl, just leave me alone."
At the words take the girl, Anna lunged forward, struggling, despite her bound hands, to get to her feet, to get at Arthur.
"You bastard!" she screamed, "How could you?"
Snake stepped over and, with elaborate casualness, shoved Anna with his foot, forcing her down on her back. Matt struggled forward, as if to protect her; Snake kicked the boy in his already-bloody face and he fell back, groaning. Monica started up also, but Snake stopped her with a look, then pointed the gun at Walter, who was tensing as if to lunge with the entertainment unit.
"Go ahead, muscle boy," Snake said. "Try it."
Jenny crawled over and knelt by her mother. Turning away from Walter, Snake grabbed the girl by her hair, and she screamed as he yanked her back.
Holding the sobbing girl by the hair, he said to Anna, "Don't worry, momma. I'll take good care a her."
"Please," said Anna. "Please leave her. You can take me. I'll do whatever you want. Please."
Snake thought about that for a moment.
"Will you let me see your titties?" he asked.
"Oh God," said Jenny, shuddering.
Anna looked Snake in the eyes. "Yes," she said.
"Eddie," said Snake. "Open up this lady's shirt."
"Jesus, Snake," said Eddie, "I don't…»
"Do it" said Snake.
Eddie bent over Anna and fumbled with the buttons on her blouse. He tried to tell her, with his eyes, that he was sorry, but she didn't look at him; she was staring straight at Snake. Eddie got the buttons undone and opened the blouse, revealing a lacy white bra.
"Push it up," said Snake, licking his lips.
Gingerly, Eddie pushed up the bra, revealing Anna's full, smooth breasts.
"Oh God," whispered Jenny, at Snake's feet. She shut her eyes, wishing this moment away. "Oh God."
"Shut up," said Snake, yanking her hair, but not taking his eyes off Anna's breasts. He was getting a hard-on. To Anna, he said, "You let me suck 'em?"
"Oh Jesus," said Monica. "You sick creep, you…»
"Yes," interrupted Anna, still looking Snake right in the eyes. "Yes. Let her go, and you can suck them."
Snake pretended to think about it, this offer from this desperate, bare-breasted woman in front of him. This was as good as it got.
"Nah," he said, giving Jenny's hair another tug, pulling her sobbing face toward his crotch. "I think this girlie's titties might be even nicer."
"NO!" screamed Anna, her eyes burning into Snake's now. She fought for calm. "If you hurt her," she said, "I swear to God I'll kill you."
"Sure you will," said Snake. "You can kill me with those big titties a yours." He licked the air with his tongue. Then he pulled the sobbing Jenny to her feet and turned to Walter.
"Muscle boy," he said, "who got the keys to the police car?"
Walter, insane with the frustration of being unable to strangle this scumbag, clenched his jaw and glared at Snake, trying to kill him with rage.
Snake pointed the gun right at Walter's face and said, slowly, 'Tell me right now who got the keys."
Walter breathed in and out twice through his nose. Finally, through his teeth, spacing the words out, he said, "They're in the car, scumbag."
On hearing "scumbag," Snake pulled the trigger. He intended to shoot Walter — he'd been aiming right at him — but when he pulled the trigger, he jerked the gun, and the bullet went through the wall several inches from Walter's head. Snake was surprised: He had figured himself for a natural marksman, after the effortless way he'd taken out Jerry Springer. But he felt better when he saw the big man cringing, obviously terrified. Snake decided to act as though it had been a warning shot.
"Next one's in your ugly face, scumbag," he said. He pointed the gun at Puggy, who had been squatting on the floor, totally still, hoping to be forgotten.
"Pick up the suitcase," he said.
Sighing, Puggy stood and picked up the suitcase.
Snake grabbed Jenny by the arm, and said to Eddie, "L^t's go. We gotta plane to catch."
Eddie thought, what plane? But he didn't dare ask. He really didn't want to go with the new, batshit Snake. On the other hand, he figured he couldn't stay there with the cops, either. So he reluctantly followed Snake, who was pulling Jenny, and herding Puggy, toward the foyer.
Snake had considered simply shooting everybody in the living room, but he was concerned — you had to plan ahead, in this line of work — about using up bullets he might need in the Bahamas to establish kingpinship. Also he had heard somewhere that you could get in extra trouble if you killed a cop. The way he figured it, the prisoners were no threat: The men were handcuffed, and the women and kid were tied up. Snake had a big wad of cash money and a suitcase that — he was absolutely sure, now — contained a large amount of valuable drugs. He had three guns. He had a scared, fine-looking young thing to enjoy later on, when he had some tune. He was on top of the world, is what he was. And to think: Just that morning, he'd basically been a lowlife.
As Snake opened the front door, Anna called after him, her voice now raw and desperate. "Please," she said. "Oh God, please don't take her."
"Hey, don't worry, momma," Snake called back. "I'll show her a good time."
He closed the door, and for a second or two, the only sound in the house was Anna's anguished wail.
"Did you hear a shot?" asked Leonard.
"Sounded like a pistol," said Henry. "In the house."
They were standing under Puggy's tree. Henry was catching his breath; he had spent the last ten minutes struggling his way up to Puggy's platform — where he found his rifle, still loaded, wrapped in a sheet of plastic — and then painstakingly climbing back down.
"You think our boy got whacked?" said Leonard. "The Panty Hose Gang beat us to the punch?"
"Could be," said Henry, moving toward the house. "Or, could be somebody whacked them."
"Or," said Leonard, following, "maybe somebody finally shot the dog."
Snake told Puggy to put the suitcase in the trunk of the police cruiser. He made Puggy climb in with it, then he slammed the lid. He put Jenny in the backseat and got in with her.
"You drive," he told Eddie.
"I ain't never drove no police car," said Eddie. In fact, it had been fifteen years since he had driven any car, and that one had been stolen, and he ended up driving it into a canal.
"It's just a fuckin' car," said Snake, who was also very rusty in the automotive department, which was why he had made Eddie the driver. "Drive it."
"Where to?" said Eddie.
"Airport," said Snake.
"Which way is that?" said Eddie.
"I bet this little girlie knows," said Snake, putting his hand on the back of Jenny's neck and squeezing hard. "Don'tcha, little girlie?"
Jenny, whimpering from the pain, nodded.
Snake gave her neck another hard squeeze.
"She's a good little girlie," he said.
"You said Garbanzo, right?" said the taxi driver.
"Yes," said Eliot. "Garbanzo. It's the next right."
The driver slowed down to process that information.
"This next right here?" he asked.
"Yes, turn right here," said Eliot, gripping the seat to keep from screaming.
The driver came to a complete stop at the intersection and peered up at the street sign, studying it as though it were a new constellation in the night sky. Finally, he said: "Garbanzo."
"Jesus Christ," said Eliot. Yanking open the cab door, he tossed a twenty-dollar bill, which was the smallest he had, onto the front seat and got out. He slammed the door and set off running toward the Herk house.
The taxi driver looked down at the twenty, then at Eliot's receding figure.
"What's the big hurry?" he said.
Eddie turned the ignition key, and the big police-cruiser V-8 rumbled to life. On the radio, staticky voices were talking in numbers, which made Eddie nervous. He turned around and looked through the back window.
"There's a gate," he said to Snake.
"I know there's a gate," said Snake. "Back up to it, and it'll open."
Gingerly, Eddie put the cruiser in reverse and pressed the gas pedal. The engine revved. The cruiser shuddered, but did not move.
"It ain't movin'," said Eddie.
Snake looked over the front seat. "You got the fuckin' brake on, asshole," he said, pointing to a lever labeled BRAKE by Eddie's left knee.
Eddie, still revving the engine, pulled the lever. The tires squealed and the cruiser rocketed backward, smashing through the gate. As it roared into Garbanzo Street, Eddie frantically smashed his right foot onto the brake and turned the wheel; the cruiser spun in a tight, tire-smoking circle and then stopped, rocking twice on its shock absorbers.
"Jesus," said Eddie.
Suddenly he was aware of a figure on the sidewalk next to the destroyed driveway gate. It was a guy in shorts, yelling at him.
"Get the fuck outta here," said Snake. "Now."
Eddie jammed the cruiser into drive and stomped the gas pedal. The cruiser fishtailed forward, just missing a taxi, then straightened out and shot away into the night.