Chapter 15 Chapter Fourteen

On a Saturday morning, Melanie was lying in the sun and dreaming in denim shorts with raw cuffs and a narrow bra without straps. She's been laying in the sun almost all the time for the past seventeen or so years, earning her living like a brown-haired, blue-eyed California woman.She was thinking that not many men she had been with spent time lying in the sun.When she met Ordell in the Bahamas almost fourteen years ago, Frank, the Detroit native she relied on, loved to bask in the sun like this.Frank is a fool, but loves the sun.Those who make movies never bask in the sun.Japanese entrepreneurs, or Middle Eastern types in the Greek islands, don't bask in the sun either.She basked in the sun and read books about movie stars and beauties. Of all the young women in the book, she had never heard of any one who would be so hasty with someone.But she never read it: when those girls who make a living out of the sun are unlucky enough to let the sun burn their skins and get reduced to living with a nigger (and he doesn't think it's fun to lie in the sun all the time), their What happened.This is where Melanie lived when she was thirty-four, out on the balcony, on a couch with sunscreen.She did not hear them enter the house.

Little did she know they were in the living room until Ordell said, "Girl, look who's here." She turned her head and saw Ordell and a guy in a light blue sport coat and yellow shirt with a big Bourdin store bag in his hand.He was a gruff-looking guy with a new coat that looked like it had just been pulled off the hanger.She didn't recognize him, and Ordell said later, "It's Louise, baby." At the name, Melanie got up from the couch and went into the living room, holding the hem of her bra between her fingers, so that it does not slide off the nipple.Ordell was saying, "Isn't she still a beautiful fat chick?"

"God, really," Melanie said. "You're really here. Louis, last time I saw you..." "He knew," Ordell said, "that Louis didn't want to talk about that." Melanie said, "I can understand why." She let go of her bra, and if it was going to slip, let it slide, and she went up to kiss Louis on the mouth and didn't move back. "Back then, I thought you two were the biggest idiots I'd ever seen." "I just told you," Ordell said, "that he doesn't want to talk about that." She kept looking at Louis. "But you guys were joking around, weren't you? Wearing boxing masks? If you thought someone would pay my ransom, you would have kidnapped me."

He finally smiled. "Yes, that's the plan." "He told me you're coming, I can't wait, I'm anxious to see you." "Louis is coming to see my gun movie," Ordell said. Melanie made them a vodka and tonic while Ordell showed a videotape he'd bought at a gun show, and she sat and watched Louis, and Ordell spoke in a voice that drowned out the sound from the movie. "He's talking a lot of technical shit to you. Yes, the Baletta pistols—I think he's talking about the PM-12S. That doesn't matter, I haven't seen many of them Shit. But listen carefully. Tap-tap-tap-tap. Huh?"

"Look, this fancy guy is shooting an M-16. You buy these semi-automatic weapons, everybody can buy them. Then I swap them out for full-automatics, so you have a submachine gun. This It's nothing, but one cost me a hundred bucks because the guy was a big ass and he got caught. Can I build me a suppressor out of a guy like that?  …" "Look here, you look at that thing on the MAC-10. Same as the silencer. Pong-pong-pong-pong, shoot the bullets out. They got the man with eight in his van Seventeen suppressors. He got 30 years and no bail. I found another guy in Lantana to build me this thing. Next time I'm going to ship a whole hundred of them for 30,000 Dollars, buddy, three hundred dollars each." He said, "Honey, get me some more ice."

Melanie picked up his glass and went into the kitchen. "The MAC-10 is the one you see in all the movies. Look, it's the famous Uzi, the best weapon. I can get real ones for fifteen hundred dollars each ...the Jews who were martyred as far away as Israel made these guns." "Steyr automatic, the best one. Listen. That's the one that rings, man. It's expensive, and it comes from Austria. My customer doesn't know anything about it, so he didn't order it." When Melanie came back with Ordell's drink, he was making a "dump-dump-dump" sound, followed by a "oo-boom-ba-dah, ba-dah-dah-dah" from the pistol Turned into a Dietz gun.He does this every time a movie is shown, and he becomes calm after going crazy for a while.Louis never said a word from the beginning.She likes him like this, his thick, bony face, his big hands. ...The bigger the hand, the bigger the dick.

"There's the best AK-47. It's made in China. I paid $850, half the money. Comes with a banana magazine, plus a bayonet, hey, go for it. " The phone rang and Ordell said, "Pick it up for me, ok, baby?" "You know it's for you," Melanie said. Ordell glared at her because she always stood up and did what she was told.She may take her time, or act coquettishly in circles, but she will never confront him directly.This is the first time. He said, "Say what? I didn't hear clearly." Louis stared at the TV screen. Melanie stood up, went to the low cabinet that separated the living room from the kitchen, and picked up the phone.She said "Hello", put the phone down, and said, "I'm looking for you." Ordell stared at her for a while before turning off the TV and standing up.Melanie sat on the couch next to Louis.

"It's annoying, isn't it?" "I can see the end from the beginning." "He thought he was clear about what he was talking about." Lewis said, "Where does he keep his guns?" "He has a place..." She stopped. Ordell came back and said, "A guy in New York wants a Bourne Ten. It's kind of junk, but it's the kind Sonny Crockett used, and it's worth twelve hundred and fifty. Big A block of iron, ten millimeters in diameter." Louis said, "Do you have one of those?" "Not yet. I made a phone call and it will be available tomorrow. Give the kid two hundred." Ordell pressed the button on the remote control. "A guy was firing a TE99, a cheap scattergun made south of Miami. It retails for three hundred and eighty. I'll buy it for two hundred and sell it for eight hundred. Luis, can you add that up?" Get up?...this TEC-9 model? They advertise it as 'tough as a tough guy'. Also say it's 'the most versatile gun in American crime.' No kidding, they really do say that of."

The phone rang again. "I know they love it in Medellin." Melanie watched as Ordell turned off the VCR, and they stared at each other for a moment before she got up and walked over to the phone.She said "Hello", put down the phone and said, "I'm looking for you." Ordell was telling Louis how he bought all the Army junk that one guy picked up after the Panama War and he shipped it from abroad to Keith.Ordell said that's where he got the M-60 machine gun he'd told Lewis about.He said it looked like a yard sale on the spot at the seller's house, with grenades, rocket launchers and other junk.

"It's a woman," Melanie said. Only then did Ordell stop talking and walked towards the phone. Melanie said to Louis, "Can I get you something?" He raised his empty glass. She said, "Isn't it a little early?" "I'm not at work anyway," Louis said. "So you go shopping." She ran her fingers through the lapel of his jacket.Identify whether it is chemical fiber or other materials. "Who picked this dress, Ordell?" "We both see it differently," Lewis said. "In clothes." "Yes, in clothing."

She took his broken glass into the kitchen.A few steps away from her, Ordell is talking on the phone: "They may have been watching your house. Let me think about it. ... Yes, go to the public beach. ... Over the Blue Heron Bridge .go up in the direction of the 'Howard Johnson' restaurant, I'll be waiting in the area and I'll see you. . . . If you're going do it now. Get your car." He hung up. , looking at Melanie through the low cabinet. "I have to go out for a while. Can you treat my friend well? Don't you want to rape him? Do you want to strip him of his clothes? That's just bought." "I'm fine with sitting on the balcony," Louis said. "I should get some sun." "You're not kidding me," Melanie said. "Your skin is not only fine, it's brown." "Would you like to see my tan?" she said, sitting upright on the couch, arching her back, picking up the bra with her thumb, and pulling it down over her breasts. "You're brown, that's great," Louis said. "You don't keep showing your breasts in the sun, do you?" "I used to be. But I think breasts look better naturally, don't you?" "Yes, I think you're right." Her breasts were really big.He kept staring at her breasts, the little blue veins that looked like rivers on a map.When he raised his glass to take a sip, there was only ice left. Melanie said, "I'll get you some wine." She kept looking at his face, not the glass.When she took the glass from him to the kitchen, Louis got up and walked out onto the balcony. It's a dilapidated building with faded pale green paint peeling off the concrete, but if you want a view of the Atlantic Ocean, you're right out the back door, with white sandy beaches all the way to jacksonville.There are only a handful of people below.He didn't see too many people until he got to the public beach on the left, and the rows of blue shelters, whatever they were called, more people came out of there than stayed inside.Today's weather is very mild, with a light wind enough to whip up the waves and the occasional cloud that blows over to keep out the heat.Melanie was close to him by the concrete fence and said, "Watch that road. You'll see Ordell go out to the beach and meet people." "Is he going to meet a woman?" "He said it." "Don't you care?" "Are you kidding me?" "I mean if you lived with him." "He doesn't live here, he's just in the house for a while. You know Ordell, he does what he wants." It seemed that Melanie also seemed to be a freewheeling person, and she handed him the freshly poured wine, still exposing her body in the sun. "You don't want to show off those two babies, do you?" "I'm going to have my back facing the sun," Melanie said. "Why don't you stretch out on the couch and stay late with your changing. Take your pants off, too, if you want. " With Melanie holding his drink, he took off his shirt, folded it, placed it on a low metal table, and sat down on the couch again.Melanie said, "You really want to bask in the sun, boy. Where have you been?" "In prison. Two months to four years." Melanie's eyes seemed to light up, and she was talking to a criminal. "Really? He didn't tell me that. What did you do?" "I robbed a bank." This intrigued her, and she tossed her head to one side, brushing the blond hair away from her face.She has very much hair.She said, "I always think of you and wonder what you've been doing.  …" "We met that once. Thirteen years ago?" "Almost fourteen years. I remember you, I couldn't believe it when I saw you come in just now. I recognized you right away." She turned her head and glanced towards the public beach. He said to her, "What are you up to?" At this time, she looked at him again, and the sunlight happened to shine on him through the top of her head.He had to squint to look at her. "I lay in the sun." "Only this?" "I still read." "Are you upset?" "Very annoying. Do you want to have sex?" "Are you still asking?" Louis said, putting his drink on the floor. She's the kind of woman who likes to be on top.She would grunt, throw her head back and call God, and rub her hands through the hair that fell on her chest, rubbing it back and forth like his chest was a washboard, or like she was scrubbing a panel clean .She scratched him with her long red nails and felt very comfortable.He wanted to go up and work hard, but the sun was getting brighter and brighter, making it hard for him to open his eyes. He was hot all over, and before he turned over to the top, it was over.She jumped down and pulled on her pants without any underwear.Louis pulled his pants up and picked up his drink from the floor, and it probably only took five minutes to finish. Melanie said, "Well, I feel better, how about you?" Louis nodded. "Yes, scratching the itch." "It's time for us to relax," she said. "We can do it again." Ordell said to Jackie, "I can't hear you. Come closer and talk to me." She was standing with her back to him, on the wet sand, letting the surf wash over her bare feet, the sea breeze ruffling her hair.Infuriating, this woman could piss him off; but on a morning like this, it was nice to see her in a T-shirt with long brown legs poking out of white shorts. She turned to him and said, "Take off your shoes." "Where do I put my shoes?" They were a pair of low-waisted crimson alligator shoes with tassels worth four hundred dollars. "When I take off my shoes, someone will take them." There was sand in his shoes, and he knew he shouldn't be here to see her.Every time he came for a walk on this beach, sand got in his shoes.But Ordell never wanted to go barefoot like Melanie and Sherronda did.He really has no reason other than his brain telling him to keep his shoes on unless he's sleeping.He doesn't swim and has never been in the water. ... He said: "Girl, do you want someone to pull you over by your hair?" Look at how she looks right now, neither angry nor nervous.Then she came towards him, the wind blowing her hair into her face.Swimmers pass by, staring at the ground for shells. "Do you think someone is following you?" "I don't know," Jackie said. "I don't do that very often." He smelled a scent of incense powder, which was fragrant and refreshing. "You're still acting like it's happening, you're calm." "Whether they're stalking me or not, I don't think that matters. They know what we're doing." "So what?" Ordell said. "I told them we'd meet." "Wait a minute. Did you tell them it was me?" "They already know. They know more about you than I do. That Authority guy always talks about guns. I said I can't help you with that.  …" "But should you understand that you can detect something?" She moved closer to him and said, "The only way I can get permission to fly is if I'm willing to help them. I've got to give them some clues. At least that's what it looks like. But it has to be It's something they can check, otherwise I'd just blow the shit out of it. So the first thing I tell them is what they already know. You know?" "What's the second thing?" "I told them your money was in Freeport and you asked me to bring it here. You put half a million in deposit and there's more coming in." "Did you tell them all this?" "It's all true, isn't it?" "What's the use of saying that?" "Is that true?" "I said it was about that total." "They know I'm bringing you money," Jackie said. "I mentioned the half a million—they're not interested in money, they need to catch you selling guns. I said, well, if you If you want to get evidence of the money he made from selling guns, I have to bring the money in. I will bring the money in two times. The first time I bring 10,000 yuan. It’s like a rehearsal. I said, you watch and see how it works .And then, when I bring in another half a million yuan for the second time, you guys will go out." "How do you do it?" Ordell said, "Should I pick it up at your place and leave?" "I told them you were very cautious. You sent a man to meet me, but I never knew who that man was." Ordell said, "That's a way. What do you think?" "If you'll listen," Jackie said, "you'll see it's a perfect solution. The first time I brought the money, they were lurking around, and they saw me hand over the ten thousand to a guy. " "who is it?" "I don't know, a friend of yours." "A woman?" "if you are willing to." "Yes, I think it's a woman." "The next round trip, when I come back with all the money, it looks like I'm going to hand it over to the same person I gave it to before." "But you didn't." "Yes, I have already given the money to others." "Then they tracked the wrong one," Ordell said, "thinking she was going to give me the money, huh?" "That's what I mean." "So we need two men, two women." Jackie nodded, looking as if she was still thinking about it, or remembering what else she had said to them.What a calm woman. "Where shall we meet?" "I do not know yet." "You have two different air travel bags and swap them." "I guess so." "What do you think?" "I haven't thought about it yet." "They thought the woman took the money, but they didn't, and they were going to chase her for the money." "What's the problem if she doesn't take the money?" "It has to be a woman who doesn't talk." Ordell paused to think about the solution. "They still know the money is going to come to me anyway." "Once you get the money," Jackie said, "that's your problem. You figure it out." "You have to understand that there is something here for you." "Ten percent. In addition, we have already negotiated. If I go to jail, another hundred thousand." "But you helped them. They'll let you out." She turned and faced the sea, and said to him, "Maybe." She closed her eyes, and the breeze was blowing her hair, looking pretty. "If they said let the first money go through, why didn't we bring it all back that time?" Ordell said. Eyes still closed, she said, "I don't trust them that much yet. Let's see how it goes." She took the T-shirt off her head and shook her hair out. Ordell saw what appeared to be a swimsuit bra covering her pair of "fools."She doesn't show much, but she looks beautiful."I'm going to have to think about it," he said. "You should," she said, and walked over to a pile of hard, wet sand.She stood there and looked him up and down. "Do you know a man named Kuch?" What's the matter?Dude, it came out of nowhere. "What is he doing?" "He's in Enshi Hospital." "What are you talking about?" "He got hit last night," she said, and walked toward the sea. "Wait a moment!" Ordell yelled at her, but she kept walking.He ran to the pile of hard sand. "Who told you?" She didn't hear, so he walked towards her and called, "Come back!" The waves rolled over his alligator shoes without him noticing.damn it.He watched her jump into a peak of the waves.He saw her swim up and dive into another wave, her ass in white shorts challenging him. Melanie put the vodka on the coffee table, near a bowl of ice, while Louis smoked a cigar-sized marijuana-infused cigarette, Melanie-rolled Jamaican-style, in a white smoke incessantly.He appreciates anything you do for this guy.So far, five glasses of vodka have been consumed, plus marijuana cigarettes, which he enjoys with gusto.With his head resting on the sofa cushion, he stared at her with his deep, black, dilated pupils the whole time, listening to her talk about their friend Ordell. She told how at one time he had taken a liking to the cocaine business, and then realized that it was so competitive, in all the backwoods, that anyone who tried to get involved in it would get shot.However, as for guns, you don't need a dealership to sell them wherever you want.She talked about how Ordell saw himself as an international arms dealer, no nonsense, he only sold to junkies, Jamaican fanatics, and now the gang from Medellin. "He's making some progress, though. He's doing a good job," Louis said slowly, raising his glass. "Well, so far so good," Melanie said, with a certain skepticism in her tone.She had already finished her bath and put on a shirt, and the romantic affair just now came to an end."You have to admit he's not very bright," she said. Lewis said he wouldn't be stupid enough to say that. Melanie said, "Louis," in a very deliberate serious tone, "he's fingering the words and moving his lips when he's reading. Can't keep him from doing stupid things." "If you're referring to that kidnapping, I was in it, you know that," Lewis said. "You're not in Freeport, are you?" Melanie said. "The guy I was relying on was told to hand over the money or never see his wife, right. And he's filed for divorce, If he doesn't see his wife, he can keep his money, right?" Melanie smiled at Louis. "Yes, you're not there. There's a movie about this. I've forgotten the name. Dana DeVito as the husband and Bette Midler as the kidnapped woman?" Louis seemed to be thinking about that name too, then shook his head. "We saw this on TV by accident, less than a month ago. Ordell looked at the TV and said, 'What the fuck is this? Do you believe it?' I said, 'Hey, even in the movie , it doesn't look right...' Recently he was talking about that—I mean the actual kidnapping. Do you know why? Because he met that Nazi." "Big man," Louis said, "I saw him." "At that 'white power' rally. That's why he took you there," Melanie said. "Go and meet him." Louis nodded. "Because he looks like Richard." She stared at Louis until he said, "What?" "I hear you and Richard don't get along," Melanie said. "You're trying to kill him." She saw Louis shrug, seemingly reluctantly. "Richard raped the woman you kidnapped.  …" "He wants to come." "You like her, don't you?" "She's not bad." "You helped Richard escape before the police got her. Was it taken to your apartment?" She waited, but he neither admitted nor denied. "Ordell thinks you did something there." Louis shook his head. "It would be weird if you did it." Melanie watched Louis take a few sips of wine, and then put the wine on her lap. "Come on, he must have told you what Ordell is going to do." Louis said, "You mean the thing that tied the two of us together?" Melanie leaned over his shoulder against the sofa. "Fate, my fool. He brought you in for one purpose. When he goes after that Nazi and his guns, to find someone to kill him. He wants you to do it." Louis turned his head and leaned against the sofa cushion, so close to her that he almost touched her.He stared at her for a long time before saying, "Why?" "Who does the big guy look like? Like Richard, the guy you tried to kill in the past." "I have no idea." "Ordell thought so, and he told me. He said, 'Louis got to the meeting, saw the big guy, he's going to find Richard, and he's going to slam him, all I have to say is.'" Louis laughed, and she Say, "Did I imitate his accent?" "Yes, very similar." "If you go, don't turn your back on him," Melanie said, moving towards him and staring into his huge pupils, "meaning he wants to leave you there. I mean kill you , Louis, with the gun in your hand, he's unhooked." "Did he tell you?" "That's what he thinks at the moment, he will change. One night a few days ago, he killed a person who worked for him." "why?" "Ask him." "I have to get out of here. Is that what you're talking about?" Melanie grimaced, momentarily in pain.She said, "Oh no... baby, I want you around. Use him before he uses you, get what you want." She said, "I can't imagine a guy who robs a bank is scared This kind of thing." She saw him grin and couldn't tell what it meant until he said, "You're serious." So she grinned at him too, smelling it on his breath because she was so close. The smell of cigar smoke. "You trust me. What has he done for us?" Louis seemed to consider it for a moment. "I don't think anything was done." "Oh man," Melanie said, "do you know how long I've been waiting for this day?"