Bandits (1987) by Elmore Leonard Read Free Book Online Page A

Nicaragua, Sister Lucy said, back to business, her voice quiet, in control. He ' s in New Orleans.
    Guy ' s fighting a war, he drops everything to come after the girl, what ' d you say, defiled him?
    Jack, he was military attach+! at the Nicaraguan embassy in Washington. He came here in ' 79, to Miami, when Somoza ' s government fell, and we know he was in New Orleans before he went back to Nicaragua. He has friends here. You must know they ' re getting all kinds of support from the U . S . She paused and said, Don ' t you? Frowning a little. She blew out a stream of smoke and said, What we know is that the colonel traced us to Mexico and then here. Now he ' s here and has inquired about Amelita. He hasn ' t sent flowers, Jack, he wants to kill her.
    Listen to the nun. He watched her mash the cigarette in the ashtray and close it.
    There ' s a doctor here, on the staff, who spent years in Nicaragua and was a friend of Rudolfo Meza . . .
    The one the colonel shot.
    Murdered. At the time I arrived with Amelita I told him the whole story. So he knew the situation and got in touch with me as soon as he found out the colonel had called, asking about her. Right after that she had a visitor, not the colonel but a Nicaraguan. Sister Teresa Victor told him Amelita was seriously ill and couldn ' t see anyone.
    The whole hospital ' s in on it? What we ' re doing?
    No, not administration; some of the staff. I think a few of the doctors and of course the sisters. There won ' t be a death certificate. But if anyone inquires the sisters will say they ' re not permitted to give out information about the deceased, well, other than she was taken to a funeral home.
    Wait a minute.
    Then all you have to do is put a notice in the paper that Amelita Sosa was cremated. She doesn ' t know a soul here, so anyone who inquires would have to be the colonel or a friend of his.
    I put a notice in the paper.
    Isn ' t that what you do? I ' ll pay for it.
    What ' re you getting me into?
    She said, I don ' t think there ' s the least chance you ' ll be in any kind of physical danger.
    It ' s not the physical kind I ' m thinking about.
    Sister Teresa Victor spoke to Mr. Mullen . . . But now she didn ' t seem too sure about it. At least she said she did.
    She told Leo the whole story?
    Maybe not all the details.
    Maybe not any of ' em. What you ' re talking about here, don ' t you think is illegal?
    She said, A man has vowed to kill an innocent young girl and you want to argue the legality if I understand you right of placing a death notice in the paper?
    He liked that, the deadpan delivery. Jack said, Well, I guess it ' s not something you could go to jail over.
    Who would know?
    He nodded at that. You ' re right.
    She said, What else can I tell you?
    He thought a moment and said deadpan, giving it back to her, If you saw the colonel right now, would you touch him?
    With just the barest trace of a smile she said, You ' re having a good time, aren ' t you?
    It ' s different, Jack said, with the same hint of a smile. What ' s the guy ' s name, the colonel?
    Dagoberto Godoy.
    Is he kinda fat and has a little thin mustache?
    He has a mustache, but he ' s trim, you might say good-looking.
    Jack said, Oh.
    He brought Amelita Sosa out in a plastic body bag on a wheeled mortuary cot, past empty cars parked along the back of the infirmary building, to the hearse standing in the sun, its rear door open. With the cot touching the step plate he squeezed the handles to collapse the front legs first, then the rear legs as he slipped the cot into the hearse, pushed down the lock button on the door, and closed it firmly.
    Jack glanced over at Sister Lucy in her Calvins and heels talking to the doctor who had been in Nicaragua and two Daughters of Charity, the little bowlegged one Sister Teresa Victor, who had been here about fifty years. Jack stood for several moments looking off, hands clasped behind his dark suit in a patient funeral director ' s pose, thinking that was