Chapter 18 Chapter Seventeen

On Tuesday afternoon, Jackie didn't see Ray Nicolai until she stepped out of the elevator in the airport parking lot."We can't meet like this again," he said, leaning against the front fender of a Rolls-Royce, his face expressionless. She should smile, so she smiles; because he's young and happy to be a cop, and she should be nice to him.It was really funny to see him, wearing cowboy boots, with a gun stuck in his jeans under a thin coat, staggering over and taking the luggage cart from her. "I thought you were waiting at customs." "We don't need to involve them," said Nicolai. "It's the business of the Authority. How was your flight?"

"Bon Voyage." "I think you must be very happy to be back at work." "You'll never imagine it," Jackie said, walking with him down a row of cars. "Did you bring the money?" "Ten thousand." "Anything else? Cannabis, cocaine?" "No, but I can get you some." "I'd take a sip sometimes if I had one," said Nicolai. "You know, like at a party. But I wouldn't buy it. It's illegal." He put the luggage cart in the trunk of the Honda sedan and carried the flight bag to the front seat beside him.Jackie got in the car and sat behind the steering wheel.He opened the flight bag, said, "Ten past three in the afternoon," and reported their present date and location. "I'm now taking out a Luzon paper envelope from the client's air bag. This letter contains cash...all of the same denomination, one hundred yuan in cash. Now let me count them." Jackie said :"what are you doing?"

He lifted the lapel of his coat to show her the small microphone hooked inside, and put his palm on it. "I'm recording." "You said that you want to let this pass smoothly." "I will, don't worry." "Then why are you still so businesslike?" "I don't want to arouse any suspicion. This time every step is recorded." She watched him count the bills, clicking each one with the green marker, and explained to her where he made the mark, "...on the first zero of this one hundred in the upper left corner." He did. When finished, say, "I will now put the money back in the envelope, ten thousand dollars. The parties will hand over the money and place it in the..."

"In a shopping bag at 'Saks' on Fifth Avenue," said Jackie, smoking a cigarette. "In a shopping bag at 'Saks' clothing store on Fifth Avenue." She pointed to several bags on the back seat. "A big black bag with a handle, with red letters on it," said Nikolai, taking the tape recorder from his coat pocket and switching it off. "Okay, we can go." "You're not coming with me, are you?" "I'll follow," said Nicolai. "When will you be there?" "Four thirty. I have a meeting with a woman."

"what is her name?" "He won't tell me. Will you follow?" "Don't worry. When the woman walks away, someone will watch her." "But don't stop her," Jackie said. Nicolai had already opened the car door and was about to get out of the car. "You won't?" He stuck his head in again. "Why can't I?" Max reached the mall at four o'clock, parked next to the Sears store, and walked through the store.He was going to stop and meet Renee, talk to her, get that over with.If she starts babbling her way, tell her he has to go.At such times he could not think of what to say to her, and she had nothing to say, but she kept talking about herself.

Jackie said four-thirty.It seems to be ok.A woman would come to her table or sit at the table next to her.She said that there was a huge crowd of people, and the coffee shop became busy in the afternoon.If he arrives early, keep an eye on some Saks bags for her. The sign on the window glass of the exhibition room reads David de la Villa in dark green, with the date on it. The tabletop of the library in the center of the exhibition hall was covered with a white cloth, and the walls were covered with green paintings. There was also a sugarcane field painted by the handyman in the restaurant. Leni looked at it naked from a field. ...

Standing at the door and looking in through the glass of the exhibition hall, the painting is too small to see clearly, but she is there - on the right wall, the third oil painting.Max walked in, and the olive-shaped jar was in the same place as the door, and it seemed to contain the same cigarette butts, chewing gum wrappers, and plastic paper cups—no more, no less.He saw Renee. She was coming out of the back room with a plate full of cheese and crackers.She raised her eyes and saw him, and immediately lowered her eyelids again.He said, "Leni?" "Oh, it's you," she said, and put the tray on the table, right in the middle.

He wondered why he was an outsider standing here. "Nice to meet you." She avoided his gaze for the moment. "My show opens at five." She corrected the tray again, only by an inch. "I know," Max said, "but I want to talk to you." "Can't you see I'm busy?" "Busy with all the cheese and biscuits?" Max said. "I know these foods are a big part of your life." "What are you doing?" He hesitated.The restaurant boy came with a silver tray and a coat over one arm.Max waited on the sidelines, watching Reggie waiting as a handyman in the restaurant.Renee wore a sheer purple floor-length dress that reminded him of a love-and-peace hippie's outfit, or the kind worn by a woman dancing around Stonehenge in the moonlight.Renee looks like this to make up for lost years, Max thought, like all of us.Then David de la Villa came up, and on his tray was a wreath of lettuce surrounded by something dipped in butter.He put the tray on the table and put on his coat, an old evening dress with a tank top and jeans frayed at the knees.He said to Renee, "Is he looking for trouble with you?"

Everything here is meaningless.So what if he was making trouble for her?What can this kid do? "We're talking," Max said. Renee shook her head. "No, we're fine." She wore a chic hairstyle like a cap, her black hair was shaking, and there was an emerald twig in it. The gray hair was out of sight and had been dyed.She turned to go, her green earrings dangling. "I told him we were busy." "You heard what she said," said the restaurant handyman. Max stood there in bewilderment, staring back at the decadent in a tuxedo who was staring at him, but he still noticed Renee walking away and said behind her, "It's important."

She paused for a long moment before looking back at him and saying, "My exhibition is also very important." Sound familiar?I'm working.I'm also working.I want to talk to you.I am busy.I'm filling out divorce forms. ...Maybe this will get her attention.He turned to the restaurant handyman, who, as far as he could remember, had never irritated him so much. "Do you know what you look like?" "Why, what is it like?" The kid stood there with his butt out, waiting. Max hesitated.Because the kid said, like what is like what, he is a hodgepodge, he is putting together the stuff of art lovers and hanging on the wall. ...Or, this kid has some talent, he knows how to draw, and Max, in his crepe gingham coat and point collar shirt, doesn't know shit.It may be because of this that Max looks at the painting like a big child, awe-inspiring, even though he has a lot of self-esteem.So he said, "Forget it." He turned and left.

"If I see you in here again, I'm going to call the police," Max nearly froze when he heard the irritating restaurant boy say. "Let them throw you out." But he kept on going.The bond for first-degree murder was fifty thousand dollars, if anyone would pay. At exactly 4:30, Jackie bought two egg rolls and a cup of iced tea in "China Town", and walked past the semi-circular counter of the coffee shop. She was wearing the uniform of "Air Islands Airlines" and carrying a "Saks" shopping bag. Very ostentatious.Then, she walked through the passage around the seating area under the large gazebo in the middle, and finally picked a table, moved it slightly behind the table, and sat down with her back against a flower pot.Here she can see everything around her.She figured Nicolai might be spotted; if Max got here on time, she'd see it; but she didn't expect to see any Authority staff, even if Nicolai came with someone.She didn't quite believe anything he said.He did say that if someone takes the money, someone will follow.But that doesn't have to be another Authority staff member.Jackie had a hunch that Ordell was going to send the woman he lived with, the one who answered the phone that day and hung up on him as soon as he was gone.Fifteen minutes passed.Jackie finished the omelet and lit a Xue. A slender young black woman with a full tray and a Saks bag dangling from her wrist came up and said, "Is this seat taken?" Jackie told her no, and she sat down.Jackie watched as she put the contents of the tray on the table: fried sandwiches, spicy tortillas, double fried green beans, a large glass of Coke, napkins, plastic plates... "You're hungry enough." Jackie Say. The slender young woman, dark and rather pretty, said, "Yes, ma'am." She couldn't have been more than twenty years old that way. Jackie said, "Put your bag on the floor, okay? Just under the table. It's better to see that way." She stared at the young woman, who hadn't looked her in the eye since she sat down. Bending sideways from time to time, he glanced under the table. "Stay next to my bag. And then, after I'm gone," Jackie said, "well, you know. What's your name?" This time she finally raised her head and said, "Sheronda." Then she looked down at the tray again and began to eat. "Eat and go. I think I spoke to you on the phone once," Jackie said. "I was in jail and I called Ordell. Did you answer?" "I guess so," she said. "Did I tell you my name? I'm Jackie." Sheronda said, "Yes, ma'am," and sat there waiting. "Really, eat quickly. I won't bother you anymore." Jackie looked at her, and Sheronda was almost lying on the tray as she began to eat. "I just want to ask you one thing. Are you married to Ordell?" "He says we're as good as married," Sheronda said without looking up. "Did you drive here?" "Yes, ma'am, he bought me a car and let me use it." "You do live together?" Jackie said. Sheronda hesitated, and Jackie thought she wasn't going to answer.But she still replied: "Most of the time." Still didn't look up. Jackie said, "Isn't it every day?" "Sometimes living together every day is a period of time." "Then you won't see him for a few days." "Yes, ma'am." "Do you know what's in the bag you're going to take?" "He said it was surprising stuff." Jackie extinguished the cigarette with a twist.She said, "Well, it was nice talking to you." She picked up Sheronda's bag and left. Max can see them from the cappuccino bar.When he saw Jackie walk away from the table, he told the waitress behind the counter not to take his coffee away, but he would be right back.Jackie didn't see him, and walked out with her original goal in mind.Max wanted to follow her far away, and wait until he was a little farther away from here before catching up with her.He saw the guy coming out of Barney's Coffee and Tea and Jackie stopped and changed his mind.Max saw the young guy in the sports coat, jeans and cowboy boots, and he took the bag from her, and looked at her as he reached into it.Max judged that the guy must be Ray Nicolai, just to prove that she didn't sneak away with the ten thousand yuan.Max is an old cop, and he thinks for Nicolai: You don't trust anyone, do you?Especially for a person who provides secret information.They talked for a while.It doesn't seem like a serious business.Jackie nodded, listened to Nicolai, nodded again, turned and walked away.She took a long step, turned the corner of the street in a few steps, and disappeared.Nikolai looked at the place where Sheronda was eating, and at this moment began to talk to himself, or spoke into the radio microphone on his body.Max went back to the cappuccino bar and finished his coffee. He had long recognized the young black woman sitting with Jackie, the same woman who lived in the house on Thirty-first Street and whom he had spoken to when he went to see Ordell Friday morning.Although it had been five days, he still wanted to find Ordell. The fake Rolex looked pretty good and was accurate, but it wasn't worth a thousand dollars.He had taken the watch to a jeweler's for an estimate, and Winston was right, it only cost two hundred and fifty dollars. The young woman was still eating her big pile of Mexican tea and didn't look up.Then she raised her head and turned to face a woman at the next table.An older black woman. Max stared. The older woman was silent.At this moment, the young woman passed the soot red that Jackie had just used to the older woman.They exchanged a few words.Then nothing was said for a minute or two, and the older woman smoked a cigarette.Jackie talked to the young woman all the time as she sat with her, not at all cunning, but almost frank.There is a cup of coffee in front of the older woman, nothing to eat.Now she spoke to the young woman again, but this time without looking at her.The young woman paused, then hurriedly ate again. Max's coffee is cold. Just as he finished his coffee, the young woman stood up from the table.He watched her stoop to pick up the "Saks" shopping bag, straighten her slender body, look around, and walk out of the seating area.He saw her pass the Café Manet, Barney's Coffee and Tea Company, and round the corner when the man in jeans came out of the office.Max stared at Nicolai to let the young woman go some distance away before speaking into his radio microphone before following her around the corner.Max turned to see the older woman put out her cigarette. She sat there for another two or three minutes, then picked up—what's going on—a shopping bag from Saks on Fifth Avenue, and walked away from the table toward the coffee counter on the other side of the seating area. . There was no such person in the whole scheme that Jackie had described.It doesn't matter.Even if she was carrying a shopping bag from another store, Max would still have her eye on her.She got off the escalator, walked the lower level of the boulevard to Bourdeen's store, walked through the store, out onto the street, and down a passage in the parking lot to a Mercury, a large brown car, an old model. of.He knew who the young woman was and where she lived.But nothing was known about the older woman, who was seen getting into the car with shopping bags and driving away. Max wrote down the license plate number in his notebook, and went back into the building to find a payphone.His old police mate, Harry Bowland, now captain of the Criminal Police Unit, would be at home drinking bourbon.They had to talk—Max wanted him to get someone to call the office back later and give him the owner's name and address. "It's like that man-eating monster in 'Alien,' huh? He's been looking at Sigourney Weaver in his underwear, and that doesn't do him any shit. You want to yell at him," Ordell said. 'That's Sigourney Weaver in underwear, man. What's wrong with you?'" Lewis said, "Gerald reminds you of that?" "He didn't take Melanie out and jumped on her. They went into the kitchen and he poured her a cup of coffee." "It still worked," Lewis said, handing Ordell the car, but not getting out. "Yes, old Melanie." "Are you going to shoot him?" "If you have to." "If you have to—that guy's going to beat the shit out of you.  …You mean, if you're driven crazy?" They were talking again in the way they'd been used to a long time ago. .Ordell grinned at him.It was just after dark on Tuesday and they were driving in the Mercedes to Simone's place.Louis knew now why Ordell wanted him there.Not for fun, but mainly to keep one eye on the money Simone brought home.Ordell got him deeper and deeper into the business. Late Monday night, Ordell took him to a pickup and self-storage warehouse near Australia Boulevard in the Warehouse District, where there were rows of garage doors, one after the other; Ordell made sure no one was following them , and no one around will see them.He takes off the padlock, lifts the door of his rented warehouse, and they enter with flashlights: assorted automatic weapons, boxes of suppressors that remind Louis of parts in factory boxes, M-60 machine guns and the LAW rocket launcher they got back from Gerald's place that day.Ordell said that tomorrow night or the night after, all this cargo was going to be packed and loaded onto a van for shipment to Islamorada, Keith, and from there to Mr. Volka's boat. , to the Bahamas.Mr. Volka will be responsible for handing over to the middleman who bought the weapons for the Colombian drug lords and get back the money.There are weapons worth two hundred thousand dollars here, and the purchase price is cheap enough, which will increase his deposit there to close to one million. He told Louis all these private conversations in the dark. He even handed him the key to the padlock so he could bring the few TEC-9 guns that were still in Simone's place. Louis heard the familiar voice of his old buddy, and he was now convinced that it was Melanie, not Ordell, who was trying to use him. Ordell said, "You appreciate making money like this, Louis. It can make you rich, yes, and you can see interesting things in this kind of business, eh? You'll see interesting things happen, and others can't." Can't see it. You know what I'm talking about? You're the only white guy I've ever met who understands the shit I'm talking about. Melanie doesn't. Melanie can say funny things without knowing it But when she thinks she's funny, she's not. Like when we drove back from Gerald's place, didn't you? Did you hear what she said? She said, 'You guys are just A pair of fuckers.' See, think she's qualified to say that because she shot the guy. Just pretend she's joking and I'm not going to say anything." "You didn't say that," Louis said. "I didn't say it, but I remembered it. See, she's funny when she teases you. I don't like being teased in jest, unless it's someone I respect." Louis said, "Do you trust her?" "I've never trusted her," Ordell said. "I haven't trusted her since the first time I saw her laying there basking in the sun. I kept one eye on her, but she Surprises me from time to time, like the gun she carries. Small Walther . Where else could she get a gun like that for eight hundred dollars? She wouldn't buy it anyway." "I'm going to keep both eyes on her," Louis said. Ordell looked away from Windsor Boulevard and looked at Louis again. "She's trying to turn you against me? . . . You don't have to tell me I know that woman. She's got to look around to see where she's going. She shot the big guy five times, hasn't she?" "Four shots," Lewis said. "Okay, four shots. Seven bullets in that gun. Why did she let me die when she had the chance and didn't shoot? You know why? Because she wasn't sure if you'd let her do it or not She. You could have killed me and the big guy at the same time, but you didn't shoot. Melanie was thinking, hey, idiot, because he didn't have the guts? She's the kind of person trying to figure out who's going to win, Then place your bets." "Then why do you keep her with you?" Ordell smiled at him. "She's my beautiful fat chick, man. Now I have you staring at my back. …" "You're taking too much risk," Louis said. "You're giving away yourself. There are too many people who know what you're doing." "To make a lot of money," Ordell said, "you have to take a big risk. I need these guys before these deals are done. I know who to trust and who not to trust. The only thing that worries me right now is Kuh, I mentioned it to you. They put him in the 'Gun Club' prison. I visited the prison and they haven't announced bail on him. I want to get him out of there and send him on the road, I'm just worried about bail Kim's too high to get him a bond without cash and I don't have any cash. I don't think they'll be able to get him to confess about me right now. He'll be tough for a while and I'll just have to wait In a few days, get my goods out of here." As they drove down Windsor Boulevard and up Thirty Street, stopping in front of Simone's stucco-and-concrete Spanish home, Ordell said, "You take those TEC-9s to the warehouse. ?" "I'll do it tonight." Ordell said, "You never told me, did you fuck that old woman?"