by Blake Banner
“Hey! New faces. Good to see, man. I’m Saul.” He held out his hand and we shook. He didn’t sound like a cowboy. He was east coast.
I took his hand. “I’m John.”
“Carmen. I love this place!”
He laughed. “Cute, huh? What can I get you?”
“Couple of beers.” He went away to get them from the fridge and I looked at Dehan. “Not what I expected.”
She nodded. “We need to talk to the guys in the corner.”
Saul came back with our drinks. “You need glasses?”
I shook my head and grinned at him. “You’re from back east, right?”
He laughed. “Same as you, pal. New York.” He grabbed a cloth and gave the bar a wipe. He looked ready to chat for a bit.
“How’d you wind up here, if you don’t mind me asking?”
He made a face like acquired wisdom and laughed. “Senior year at NYU, law. And one morning I woke up, literally. You know what I’m saying? And I made a long movie in my head, about where the law was taking me. The firm, the two cars, the mortgage, the wife, the affairs—the whole damned script had been written for me by The System before I was even born.” He shook his head. Then he laughed and shrugged. “Only I didn’t want to be a part of that movie. So I upset my mom and my dad, borrowed some money from the bank against my inheritance and bought this place. And that’s my story.”
Dehan looked at him with wonder in her eyes. For a moment I asked myself if it was an act or genuine. “Wow, that is so cool.”
“Anyone can do it, sister. Happiness is a choice, right? How about you guys, what are you doing up here?”
Before I could answer Dehan grabbed my arm with both of hers and leaned her head on my shoulder. “We are kind of doing something similar, right, honey? We’re making a long movie. We want to get out of the race, and we’re looking at cool places. We don’t want to go totally off grid, but we want to be somewhere where you can see the stars at night, and maybe grow some weed without The Man watching you. Know what I mean?” She managed to say it all and sound authentic. He nodded. “So we were thinking of Arizona. But we met this chick and she said, ‘Go to Colorado.’ And she told us about the Shack.”
His face lit up. “No kidding? What’s her name?”
She rested her chin on my shoulder a couple of inches from my face and gazed adoringly into my eyes. “What was her name, John?”
I sighed, like I was thinking, “Uh, Pat.”
He frowned. “Oh, Irish kid?”
I made a face. “Yeah, she could be Irish.”
He nodded. “I remember her. She used to hang out here with a big cowboy type. Haven’t seen either of them for a while.” He nodded over at Ray Charles. “Sly and Coy knew her. She was part of their crowd.”
Dehan laughed. “Sly and Coy?”
He chuckled. “Sylvester is the blind black guy. Coy says he’s Mexican and back home they called him El Coyote on account of how badass he was. But everybody up here is badass, except the refugees from the city, like me. They called him Coy and it stuck, so now he has to live with it. Personally I call him Coyote, just to be on the safe side, know what I’m saying?”
I made scared eyes and said, “OK.”
He walked away and started serving other customers. Dehan swigged from her bottle. “We need to make a move.”
I nodded and smiled like she’d said something amusing. “I know. But give it a while. If we’re too quick it will look suspicious.”
We talked about nothing much through Tequila Sunrise and Desperado and finished our beers. I called Saul over.
“Let’s have another couple of beers, Saul. Will you have one too?”
“Thank you kindly!”
He went to get them and when he returned, I said, “Listen, you been here long?”
“Coming up for ten years.”
“Maybe you can give us some advice.”
“If I can, I will. Always happy to help. Cheers!”
We knocked bottles and drank. I sighed through my teeth and said, “We’re looking to do a bit of business.”
He raised an eyebrow. He knew what was coming, but he asked anyway. “What kind of business?”
I spread my hands and smiled on the right side of my face, acknowledging it was obvious. “Weed is legal up here but, as I am sure you know, it’s not back in New York. So if I sell it back there I can ask a good price…”
“You want to know if there is a cannabis farmer who is willing to sell you in bulk so you can sell it in the city.”
I shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal. “You know—it’s one of the options we’re looking at.”
He gave me a wink. “Let me have a word with Sly. I don’t get involved in that shit. I keep my nose clean. But I know they have done that in the past. Give me a minute. Just don’t get me involved.”
I thanked him and he went away. Dehan took a pull from her bottle. “So Sly and El Coyote are farmers. But they sure as hell aren’t farming for the pharmaceutical industry. They are supplying the states where dope is still illegal, and they can make top dollar on an ounce.” She looked worried. “You ever smoked dope, Stone?”
I shrugged. “Couple of times at college. I thought it was overrated. Why?” She gave me a look that was hard to interpret. Then it dawned on me. “You never did.” She shook her head. “And you think we’re going to have to tonight.” She nodded.
I looked over at Saul speaking in Sly’s ear. Coy and a couple of the Angels glanced over at us. I was beginning to think this was a bad idea and said so to Dehan. She made a ‘maybe’ face. “It’s too late now, anyway. We’ll have to talk to them.”
“We can’t get stoned. It’s crazy.”
“What’s it like? Is it like getting drunk?”
I closed my eyes. A voice in my head said we should leave. Now. I said, “Not really. I thought it was kind of boring. It hits you suddenly. Everything seems real funny or real deep. Sometimes you lose your inhibitions. It can be an aphrodisiac. This is really a bad idea, Dehan, we should go.”
She gave me a weird kind of blank grin that was impossible to interpret and Saul approached us behind the bar.
“You’re in luck. He wants you to join him for a drink. He seems to be interested. If he offers you a smoke, accept. It’s damn good weed, and he’s easily offended.”
I grinned at him. “Don’t worry. We’ll accept! Say, bring us over a bottle of good tequila, will you? As a goodwill gesture.”
He winked. “That’s nice. He’ll like that.”
As we made to move to Sly’s table I put my hand on Dehan’s shoulder and reached for my phone. I made like I was answering a call. She watched me. As I hung up I set the alarm for twenty minutes and put it back in my pocket.
“OK, Carmen. Into the jaws of the coyote. Let’s go.”
TWELVE
There were six of them around the table: Sly in the corner with Coy on his right, and a chorus of four Angels around him. I put a smile of invincible middle-class naivety on my face and we walked over at the same time as Saul arrived with a tray of tequila and eight glasses. We’d reached Hotel California on the Eagles’ Greatest Hits.
“Good evening,”
I smiled around the table as Saul set down the bottle and the glasses with a saucer of lemon slices and a salt cellar. They all looked at me without expression, and then at Dehan with more approval. Saul said to Sly, “Bottle of tequila, compliments of John here, Sly.”
Sly cocked his head and smiled. “That is a nice gesture you had there, John. But before I invite you to sit at my table and join me and my family here,” he made a broad, elegant gesture around the table, “let me tell you something that I have learned in life. I have learned that no man ever gives anything to another man unless he wants something in return. Would you say that is true, John?”
I allowed my smile to turn from naïve to rueful. “Well, it is certainly true in my case, Sly.”
He gave a high-pitched, wheezing laugh that was chock-full
of the pleasure of being right. “Well, at least you is honest, my man. As you might perceive, I am blind, but that don’t mean I don’t see, does it now?”
“Clearly not.”
“Sit down, you and your friend, who I am told is hot, and tell me what it is you want from me. And I shall tell you whether I shall grant it to you, or send you on your way. Move over boys, and make room for our guests.”
There was some shifting and scraping of chairs and we sat on Sly’s left. Every seeing eye in the company was fixed on Dehan. Their expressions were appreciative, but not exactly complimentary. I felt edgy but tried to hide it.
“Well,” I said, “Aside from the pleasure of your hospitality, we are looking to do some business in Colorado, and we were thinking you might be the man to do business with, or you might know somebody.”
There was something serpentine about his smile and his voice. “What kind of business, John?”
“We are looking to buy good quality weed in fair quantities and sell it back in New York. It could be profitable to all, while only we would shoulder any risk.”
His face became serious. “What you are proposing is illegal.”
I allowed the smile to show in my voice. “Only half of what I am proposing is illegal. And that half doesn’t concern you, except in that you would receive a higher price than if it were entirely legal.”
He raised an eyebrow and I could visualize his sightless eyes behind the black lenses of his shades. “Do I look like a criminal to you?”
He was trying to intimidate me and I am not good at being intimidated. My answer probably wasn’t wise, but my edginess was turning to anger and I was finding it increasingly hard to hide it. I looked him over, and then around at the company. I shrugged and said, “Yeah, you do.”
There was a moment of tension and I was half hoping they’d get mad. Instead, Sly started laughing. “You might be a dumb motherfucker, John, but you sure as hell got balls. I’ll give you that.”
“Impressions can be deceiving, Sly. I’m not as dumb as I look. How about we operate on a footing of mutual respect and see if we can do business? Straight off, I can distribute throughout the Bronx. I have friends in the Sureños whom I can work with and who will safeguard the territory.”
“Oh man, that is big talk. You telling me the Sureños ain’t got a supplier already?”
“No. I am not telling you that. I am telling you that they can use another supplier and that their current supplier hasn’t got the quality or the quantity I figure I can get from you.”
“Is that so…?” It didn’t seem worth answering, so I waited. Finally, he asked, “How much?”
“How about we start with ten kilos. Can you supply that much?”
He wheezed his high-pitched laugh and everybody joined in. “Oh, I can supply that much, and much more. The question is, can you provide the money for that much dope?”
“That depends on what price you’re looking for.”
“How much you willing to pay?”
Dehan spoke suddenly, and there was an edge to her voice. “How much was Pat paying? We’ll pay the same.”
Everybody went very still. Sly tilted his head to one side. Coy stared at her with his nasty, pale blue eyes. Sly said, “Excuse me?”
“Let’s cut the crap, Sly. We’re here because of Pat. She said you could supply us. We’ll deal on the same terms you had with her.”
He turned to Coy, leaned close to his ear and muttered something. Coy didn’t remove his eyes from Dehan. He muttered something back and Sly nodded.
“We haven’t seen Pat for… oh, five or six years. What makes you think I had any kind of deal with her?”
Dehan snapped, “She does. She didn’t mention you by name, but she said she had a supplier in the Shack. So we came here. I figure she was talking about you. Unless there’s somebody else we should be talking to. You got a problem with Pat?”
“Is that any of your business?”
I was about to intercede when Dehan said, “Yeah. It’s my business. She recommended you and you seem to have a problem with that. I want to buy weed from you. So yeah, if you have a problem with her, that’s my business, because I don’t want to have the same problem as her. That make sense to you, Sly? Coz it makes sense to me.”
There was absolute stillness at the table. In my mind I was already reaching for my piece. Dehan was completely unfazed. She looked around the table and gestured at the bottle of tequila. “Are we going to just sit here and look at this mother or are we going to drink it?”
Sly threw back his head and let out a loud whoop. “Man! I do like a strong woman. You like black meat, baby? Coz I sure as hell am into you.”
I spoke without thinking and the aggression in my voice surprised even me. “She’s my wife. Back off.”
He raised both hands and laughed. Dehan’s eyes went wide. Sly said, “OK, my man, take it easy. No offense. You don’t know ’less you ask, am I right? Open up the bottle, Coyote. Let’s drink.”
Dehan glanced at me and smiled. We had a round of shots and I broached the subject again. “Carmen’s right, Sly. If you have a problem with Pat, we need to know. We don’t want to tread on your toes or cause any offense. She told us about the Shack, but she didn’t mention any names.”
He let out a long sigh and reached in a woven bag he had hung around his neck. He pulled out a tin of buds, some papers, and a grinder, and started preparing a long joint.
“Pat…” he said. “Pat, Pat, Pat… She used to hang out with that cowboy dude. She had a pretty sister. Am I right?”
I shrugged. “I have no idea.”
“All the guys liked her sister. She never came here, you understand. Her sister was a nice Catholic girl.” He made an obscene noise in his throat that turned into a laugh. “Catholic girls. My favorite!”
He rolled the joint with long, skillful fingers and sealed it with a long tongue. He poked it in his mouth and lit it with a match, then inhaled deeply and held it down for five long seconds before exhaling. He spoke as he exhaled.
“I have no problem with Pat. She was nothing to me. I sold her dope, you understand, and she did not always pay on time. But we sorted it out amicably.” He leered at me. “Like I say, I love Catholic girls.”
He threw his head back and laughed out loud. When the laugh had subsided, he handed me the joint. I took a drag, pretended to inhale and hold it down, counted to four and exhaled slowly through my nose. Then I passed it to Dehan. She took a drag and I turned to Sly.
“I’ll give you two and a half grand a kilo. That’s thirty grand for the first lot of ten K.”
He giggled. “I know how much you’re going to sell it for, man…”
Dehan erupted into a fit of coughing and everybody at the table started laughing. I turned to her and her eyes were streaming. “Oh, man…” She took another drag and passed it to the biker next to her, a giant with a forked beard who was watching her with hungry eyes.
I turned back to Sly. “I sell it to my contact in the Sureños. They get the market price. Two and half K is my offer.”
The joint made another round. I looked at Dehan. Her pupils were dilated but she said, “I’m OK.”
Sly’s voice rose above the music and the noise of talk and laughter. “Agreed, John. We can do business. I can have it for you in… a couple of days, Coyote?”
“Two days.”
“Two days. So, let’s celebrate.”
Coy refilled the glasses and Sly started rolling another joint. Dehan was smiling at me. I was wondering if my damned alarm was ever going to go off. Sly took a long drag on his joint, lay back in his chair and let out the smoke real slow. While he did it, he handed me the cigarette. I took a drag, held it in my mouth for a count of three, and let it out again. I handed it to Dehan, willing her to do the same. She looked slightly worried.
She took a drag, inhaled and held it down, suppressing a coughing fit, then let it out and passed the butt to the big Angel.
My phone rang
. I took it out of my pocket and looked at the screen. I turned to Sly, “Excuse me. I have to take this.”
I stood and moved away a couple of steps, saying, “Yuh…uh-huh…OK…”
The big Angel was leaning over close to Dehan, with his arm across the back of her chair. I felt a hot pellet in my belly. I wasn’t sure if it was anger, fear, or a volatile mixture of the two. I put my phone away and returned to the table.
“Sorry to break up the party, folks. We have to go.”
Dehan looked up at me. Her expression was grateful. The Angel’s, not so much. He looked resentful. He said, “The lady don’t need to go. You can go, she can stay.”
I smiled amiably. “The lady needs to go, too.”
I reached out to her and she took my hand. She made to get to her feet but he put his hand on her shoulder and forced her down. Any other time that would have cost him a broken arm. But the dope was kicking in and mixing with the tequila and the beer, plus the wine we’d had with dinner. She dropped back into the chair and looked at me in alarm.
I said, “Take your hand off my wife.”
“How’s about you make me, boy?”
I turned to Sly and Coy. “This how you do business?”
Coy looked at the Angel and shook his head. “Leave it, Scott.”
I pulled Dehan to her feet and looked back at Coy. His pale eyes were real cold. “Nice doing business with you.”
I put my arm around Dehan and guided her to the door, then out into the icy night air. She shuddered. Our steps were loud on the dirt as we crossed to the car. I unlocked the passenger door and opened it. It had to happen and it did. His voice stopped us and echoed across the lot.
“Hey, boy, don’t run away. Let’s talk.”
I said to Dehan, “Get in. Can you drive?”
She shook her head and leaned against the car. “I need a minute.”
But I could see from her eyes it was going to take a lot more than a minute. I turned. It was Scott and two of his pals.
“What do you want?”
“You know what I want, boy. And I want it right here and now, so you can watch.” He laughed. “Don’t worry. I won’t hurt her. She’s gonna love it. Can’t speak for my boys here, though. They might hurt her, a bit.”