"For a man needs a job done, where do you get all this free time? You want to pack melons, why don"t we start?"
"You mean tonight?"
"Why not?"
"They"d keep working?"
"For money. You make it when you can." She said then, "If you don"t want to ask them, I"ll do it. We"ll eat, then go to the packing shed and work another half shift. All right?"
"Lady," Majestyk said, "you swing that I"ll marry you and give you a home."
She seemed to be considering it, her expression serious, solemn, before saying, "How about if I settle for a cold beer after work?"
"All you want."
"Maybe a couple."
She gave him a nice look and walked away, up the road toward the migrant quarters. Both Majestyk and Mendoza, on the trailer, stood watching her.
Mendoza said, "You like a piece of that, huh?" He looked down at Majestyk"s deadpan expression and added quickly, "Hey, I don"t mean nothing. Take it easy."
Majestyk handed him his sack. "You hear what she said? They"ll start packing tonight."
Mendoza emptied the sack and came down off the trailer while his sons stacked the melons. "You must live right," he said. "Or maybe it"s time you had some good luck for a change." He nodded toward the migrant quarters, fishing a cigarette out of his shirt pocket. "Those people, they"re twice as good as what Julio brings up. They work hard because they like you. They don"t want to see you lose a crop."
"I don"t know," Majestyk said. "Maybe we can do it."
"We"ll do it, Vincent. Don"t get anybody else mad at you, we"ll do it."
"We"re coming to it now," Kopas said, over his shoulder. "On the right there. That"s his packing shed."
Renda and Wiley were in the back seat. Lundy was driving, slowing down now as they approached the yellow building with majestyk brand melons painted on the side.
"See," Kopas said. "Puts his name up as big as he can get it. Down the end of that road we"re coming to the house. Way down, where you see the trees."
Renda was studying the road, then hunching forward to look across the field at the road, at the trailer and the figures in the road and the three old cars parked in front of the migrant living quarters.
He sat back again. "You said n.o.body was working for him."
"No crews," Kopas said. "He picked up a few migrants, that"s all."
"They"re people, aren"t they?"
"Some claim they are. I don"t." Christ, he knew right away he shouldn"t have said it. It slipped out, talking smart again and not answering his question direct. He waited, looking straight ahead, knowing it was coming. But Renda didn"t say anything for a moment, not until they were pa.s.sing the sign that said road construction 500 ft., pa.s.sing the barricades and equipment, the portable toilet and the State Highway Department pickup truck.
He said then, "Go up to the next road and turn around."
Lundy"s eyes raised to the rearview mirror. "You want another look at his layout? That"s all there is, what you saw."
"Gene," Renda said, "turn the f.u.c.king car around."
They had to go up about a mile to do it. Coming back, approaching the road repair site again, Renda said, "How long"s that been there?"
Kopas wasn"t sure what he meant at first and had to twist around to see where he was looking.
"That road stuff? I don"t know, a few days."
"How long!" Renda"s voice drilled into the back of his head and Kopas kept staring at the barricades and equipment as they approached, trying to remember, trying to recall quickly how many days.
"They been there as long as I been watching his place. I"m sure of that."
Now they were even with the site, going past it. Kopas was looking out the side window and saw the guy in khaki work clothes getting into the pickup truck. It was a close look at a face he"d seen somewhere before, but only a quick glimpse, and he was turning to look back when Renda"s voice hit him in the head again.
"It"s cops cops! Jesus, don"t you know a cop when you see one!"
Kopas was turned, trying to see the guy, but it was too late. Looking past Renda, trying not to meet his eyes, he said, "You sure? I thought if there was any cops around I"d recognize them."
And he remembered as he said it and turned back around to stare at the windshield. Christ yes, the guy was a deputy. He"d seen him in Edna, at the station. He"d seen him in the pickup earlier today, across the street, when he was talking to Majestyk.
Kopas gave himself a little time, trying to relax and sound natural, before he said, "Well, I figure after a while they get tired waiting, they"ll pick up and leave."
n.o.body said anything.
"Then we can run off those Mexicans he"s got. No sweat to that."
There was a silence again before Renda said, "Pull over."
Lundy looked up. "What?"
"Pull over, for Christ sake, and stop the car."
Lundy braked, bringing the Olds to a gradual stop on the shoulder of the road. They sat in silence, waiting for Renda.
"Hey, a.s.shole. Get out of the car."
"Me?"
Kopas turned enough to look over his shoulder. Renda was staring the way he had stared before-as if not even seeing him-and he knew the man wasn"t going to say anything.
"What did you want me to do?"
"Get out," Lundy said. "That"s all you have to do."
Kopas grinned. "Is this a joke or something?"
n.o.body was laughing. The girl had a book open and was reading, not even paying any attention.
Kopas said to Lundy, "I mean I left my car in Edna, where you picked me up. That"s a six-mile hike just back to Junction."
Lundy didn"t say anything.
Kopas waited another moment before he got out and turned to the car to close the door. He saw the window next to Renda lower without a sound.
"Come here," Renda said.
Kopas hunched over to look in the window. The girl was still reading the book.
"You hear me all right?"
"Yes, sir, fine."
"The way you come on," Renda said, "I don"t like it. I don"t know you a half hour you start talking s.h.i.t out the side of your mouth. I say I don"t want anybody working for him, he"s got a dozen people living there. The cops set up a f.u.c.king grandstand to watch the show, you don"t know they"re cops. What I"m saying, I don"t see you"re doing me a lot of good."
"Mr. Renda, I been watching, seeing he doesn"t run off."
"I"ll tell you what," Renda said. "You go home, maybe we"ll see you, maybe not. But listen, if it happens don"t ever talk s.h.i.t to me again, okay? Don"t ever tell me what I"m going to do."
"I sure didn"t mean anything like that, Mr. Renda."
But that was the end of it and he knew it. The window went up, the Olds drove off and Bobby Kopas was left standing there, six miles from Edna, feeling like a dumb s.h.i.t who"d blown his chance.
9.
RENDA"S LAWYER was a senior partner in a firm that represented a number of businessmen and business organizations who shared related or complementary interests. Renda"s lawyer looked out for his clients, helping them any way he could, and liked to see them help one another, too. For example, he had a client, a mortgage broker, who was spending twelve months in the Federal Penitentiary at Lewisburg for willfully conspiring to defraud the United States government. All right, the mortgage broker had a hunting lodge-weekend funhouse up in the mountains that he wasn"t using. Frank Renda, he was informed, wanted some solitude, a place to rest where no one would bother him. So Renda"s lawyer arranged for Frank to lease the place from the mortgage broker for only six hundred dollars a week. was a senior partner in a firm that represented a number of businessmen and business organizations who shared related or complementary interests. Renda"s lawyer looked out for his clients, helping them any way he could, and liked to see them help one another, too. For example, he had a client, a mortgage broker, who was spending twelve months in the Federal Penitentiary at Lewisburg for willfully conspiring to defraud the United States government. All right, the mortgage broker had a hunting lodge-weekend funhouse up in the mountains that he wasn"t using. Frank Renda, he was informed, wanted some solitude, a place to rest where no one would bother him. So Renda"s lawyer arranged for Frank to lease the place from the mortgage broker for only six hundred dollars a week.
That was all right with the lawyer, Frank wanting a place in the mountains. But it wasn"t all right if he was going to sit up there on his a.s.s worrying about a 160-acre melon grower when he should be attending to his commercial affairs: his restaurant linen service, his laundry and dry cleaning supply company, his modeling service, and his string of ma.s.sage parlors. That"s where the money was to be made; not in shooting people.
The lawyer knew Frank Renda very well-his moods, his inclinations-so he knew it was sometimes hard to get through to him, once he had made up his mind. He began calling Frank at the mortgage broker"s hunting lodge an hour after the Cessna was scheduled to drop him in the desert. There was no answer at the place until late afternoon, and then he had to wait another ten minutes before Renda came to the phone.
Wiley handed it to him, the phone and a scotch, and went over to a bearskin couch where her reading gla.s.ses and her novel were waiting.
Renda stood looking around the room, at the Navajo blankets and mounted heads of antelope and mule deer, the sh.e.l.lacked beams and big wagon-wheel chandelier, antique guns and branding irons. Christ, western s.h.i.t all over the place. He had never met the mortgage broker friend of his lawyer, but he could picture the guy now: little Jewboy with a cowboy hat, string tie and high-heeled boots, and horn-rimmed gla.s.ses and a big f.u.c.king cigar.
He said into the phone, "Yeah."
His lawyer"s calm, unhurried voice came on. "How are you, Frank? How was the trip?"
"Great, and the weather"s great if it doesn"t rain or snow. Come on, Harry, what do you want?"
"You like the place all right?"
"It looks like a f.u.c.king dude ranch."
"I called a few times this afternoon." The tone was still calm, unhurried. "Where"ve you been?"
"On the can," Renda said. "I come here to get away, I"m in the f.u.c.king place ten minutes and the phone starts ringing."
"I"m not going to bother you," the lawyer said. "I want to let you know how the situation stands."
"I thought I was clear."
"You are at the moment. Technically you"re free on a five-thousand-dollar bond, pending your appearance at an investigation in ten days. It"s a formality, something to inconvenience us. Though there is the possibility they"ll try to dream up a lesser charge."
"No they won"t," Renda said. "They don"t want to touch me unless it"s for the big one."
"I"m glad you understand that," the lawyer said. "So you know this is not the time to do anything"-he paused-"that would bring you under suspicion. Frank, they want you very badly."
"What else is new?"
"You must also have figured out why they released the melon grower."
Renda didn"t say anything.
"All right," the lawyer said, "then let me mention that you have business matters that need your attention."
"Anything I was doing can wait."
"And you have business a.s.sociates," the lawyer went on, "who may not feel like waiting. It"s been my experience that the general reaction is one of impatience with anyone who puts his personal affairs ahead of the ... common good, if you will."
"I"ve got something to do," Renda said. "I think they understand that. If they don"t, tough s.h.i.t."
"All right, you"re saying you"re going to do what you want," the lawyer said. "I want it on record that I"m advising you to wait-"
"You got your machine on?"
"Getting every word. As I was saying, I want it on record that I"m advising you to wait. I"m suggesting that any dealings you might have with the melon grower would be extremely ill-timed."
"Harry," Renda said, "don"t f.u.c.k with me, okay? I need you, I"ll call you."
He hung up.
Wiley rested her book on her lap and looked over the top of her reading gla.s.ses.
"What did he want?"
"The usual s.h.i.t. Lawyers, they talk and talk, they don"t say anything."
"I"ll bet he told you not to do anything hasty," Wiley said. He didn"t answer. She watched him sit down with his scotch and take a drink, sipping it, thinking about something.
She tried again. "After all, you pay him for his advice."