Raylan_ A Novel - Elmore Leonard [2]
“There wasn’t anything pressing—I told ’em go on back to Harlan.”
“They took the SUV—how’re you gonna get around?”
“We have Angel’s BMW,” Raylan said, “don’t we?”
Angel was lying on his back, his eyes closed. Raylan got down close, brushed Angel’s hair out of his face, caught a whiff of hospital breath and said in a whisper, “Your old court buddy from Miami’s here, Raylan Givens.” Angel’s eyes came open. “Was that time you went down for selling khat.”
Now it looked like Angel was trying to grin.
“Did you know,” Raylan said, “I saved your life this morning? Another five minutes in that ice water you’d of froze to death. Thank the Lord I got there when I did.”
“For what, to arrest me?”
“You’re alive, partner, that’s the main thing. Maybe a little pale’s all.”
Pale—he looked like he was dead.
“They hook my arm to a machine,” Angel said, “takes the impurities from my blood and keeps me alive long as I can wait for a kidney. Or I have a relative like a brother wants to give me one.”
“You have a brother?”
“I have someone better.”
Smiling now. He was, and Raylan said, “You know I won’t tell where you’re getting this kidney, you don’t want me to.”
“Everybody in the hospital knows,” Angel said. “They send me a fax. You believe it? The nurse comes in and reads it to me. Tanya, tha’s her name. She’s very fine, with skin you know will be soft you touch it. Tanya, man. I ask her she like to go to Lexington with me when I’m better. You know, I always like a nurse. You don’t have to bullshit them too much.”
“The fax,” Raylan said. “You get to buy your kidneys back for how much?”
“A hundred grand,” Angel said, “tha’s what they offer. You imagine the balls on these redneck guys? They bring a surgeon last night so they can take my fucking kidneys and rip me off twice, counting what they stole from me. They say if I only want one kidney is still a hundred grand.”
Raylan said, “The hospital knows what’s going on?”
“I tole you, everybody knows, the doctors, the nurses, Tanya. They send the fax, then one of them calls the hospital and makes the arrangement. Nobody saw who deliver them.”
“The hospital knows they’re yours?”
“Why can’t you get that in your head?”
“And they go along with it?”
“Or what, let me die? They not paying for the kidneys.”
“When do you have to come up with the money?”
“They say they give me a break, a week or so.”
“You know these boys—tell me who they are.”
“They kill me. No hurry, get around to it.”
“And take your kidneys back,” Raylan said. “I don’t believe I ever heard of this one. You know the hospital called the police.”
“The police already talk to me. I tole them I don’t know these guys. Never saw them before.”
“Or know who’s telling them what to do?” Raylan said.
Angel stared at Raylan. “I don’t follow you.”
“You think your guys came up with this new way to score? They can take whoever they want off the street,” Raylan said, “while this doctor’s scrubbin up for surgery. Why should they be picky, wait for a drug deal to go down?” Raylan paused. He said, “You want, I’ll help you out.”
“For what? You find product in that motel room? Man, I’m the victim of a crime and you want to fucking put me in jail?”
Finally they reached a point, Angel on a gurney on his way to the operating room, Raylan tagging along next to it saying, “Give me a name. I swear on my star you won’t have to pay for either one.”
He watched Angel shake his head saying, “You don’t know these people.”
“I will, you tell me who they are.”
“You have to go in the woods to find them.”
“Buddy, it’s what I do.” They were coming to double doors swinging open. “I call Lexington with the names and they e-mail me their sheets. I might even know these guys.”
“They grow reefer,” Angel said, “from here to West Virginia.”
Right away Raylan said, “They’re Crowes, aren’t they?”
Chapter Two
South of Barbourville Raylan turned off the four-lane and cut east to follow blacktops and gravel roads without names or numbers through these worn-out