Raylan_ A Novel - Elmore Leonard [68]
“I doubt he’ll be there,” Nichols said.
“I know,” Raylan said, “but we might find out a few things. He’s a show-off. Maybe things he’d like us to know.”
“We got him for a double homicide. What else you want?”
“I won’t know till we look around.”
The manager of the club, Kenneth, middle-aged in a blond hairpiece, heard car doors slam and said to Bobby, the kid at the bar sipping a glass of white wine, “Well, finally.”
Bobby went to the store window that wore coats of pink paint on the outside, spelled out in blue neon was COOZ CLUB. Under it, smaller in red neon, it said, THIS IS THE PLACE! The kid looked through scratches in the paint and said:
“A Crown Vic and a Chevy. Guys are coming out of the cop car and the two guys from the Chevy are holding them up talking to the guys—they have U.S. MARSHALS on their jackets— Hey, you were right. It looks like just the two guys, the suits, are gonna come in.”
“Finish your wine, Bobby,” Kenneth said, “and get out of here the moment they ask for Delroy.”
Raylan came in, Nichols behind him, saw the manager standing by the bar, a teenage boy finishing his drink . . . Raylan said, “Kenny?” The guy bowed his blond hairpiece saying he was, and Raylan said, “How long you been a Kenny?”
“Well, since it’s sort of my name, all my life. Have friends who’ll only call me Kenneth. Oh, and Delroy, do you know what he calls me? Kennet, without the diphthong. You want to know if he’s here? He isn’t. I haven’t seen him since, anyways, yesterday. You don’t believe me, call the boys in and search the joint.”
The kid got up from the bar saying, “This doesn’t sound like any of my business.”
They let him walk out.
Raylan looked at this pink strip club going to seed, the bar with the pole up behind it. Raylan saw bare-naked girls using the pole to aim their assholes at the assholes lining the bar. Sit down at one of those tables over there and get a lap dance with moans.
Kenneth said, “Oh,” as if he’d just remembered something.
“Delroy left you a movie he’s starring in. Actually, he’s the only one in it.”
Raylan said, “He wants me to see it?”
“If you’re Raylan.”
“It’s all Delroy?”
“Don’t worry, it isn’t too long. He manages to get to the point after, well, sort of an introduction.”
Raylan said, “Who shot it?”
“I did. I shoot all his flicks. Most of the ones where he’s by himself are rather boring. His X-rated stuff I think is better than most.”
Raylan said, “Delroy does porn?”
“Some. This one he did, you have to look at while you’re here. Cross your heart and promise you won’t take it with you. Promise?”
Raylan and Nichols both crossed their hearts without looking at each other.
“It’ll be on that flat screen,” Kenneth said, nodding to it above the bar, “for your viewing pleasure. Delroy said offer you whatever you want to drink, on the house.”
Raylan and Nichols still didn’t look at each other.
“You want, I can make popcorn,” Kenneth said, “in a jiffy.”
Raylan said, “Well, Ken, I could use a beer,” and Nichols said he’d have one too.
The man on the screen was in sweats, a skinny six-six handling the ball with nice moves, going to the basket he stops and pops a jumper, brings the ball out and goes in and stuffs it. Now he was coming back to the camera, the ball under his arm. He raises the ball in front of him and spins it on the tip of his finger. He’s looking at the camera and says, “That’s how I see the world going around, like this basketball.”
Kenneth used his remote to pause on Delroy.
“He told me he wanted to sound ‘not mysterious, but like it.’ I said, ‘Profound but obscure?’ He said, ‘Yeah like that.’ He said we playin a game bein here. Playin it all the way to the edge and see how it comes out.”
“What he did,” Raylan said, “was shoot two girls while they’re taking a whiz.”
Kenneth clicked the remote to see Delroy on the screen spinning the ball. He lets it drop. Now he was saying, “I can’t be there right now. I happen to see outside a bank a girl I use to know mighta been Jane something? Had red dye all over her