Gold Coast

“I got one,” Roland said, “only one. Where’s Vivian?”

“I can’t do it like that, have it on my conscience.”

“How can you do it?”

“I don’t see a way yet.”

“Then die looking, you dumb shit. It’s up to you.”

“You want to go for two counts, is that it?”

“Two?” Roland said. “If I notched my gunbutt you’d get splinters ru

“But it’s money what it’s all about. Right?”

“What do you make, two bucks an hour? Want to give me about a hu

“I don’t have it, no. But I know where I could get some.” Maguire looked up at the photos on the wall.

Roland glanced over and back to Maguire, then turned to look at the display of photos again.

“What’s this all about, you know? Puts up pitchers of herself.” Roland stepped closer. “And somebody else there, huh? I thought they was all her when I first seen ’em.”

“I think she comes up here and plays pretend,” Maguire said. “Get her mind off things.”

“Pretend what?”

“The mystery lady, I think. Like that other one.”

“Who’s she?”

“I forgot her name.” Maguire heard the car then.

Roland heard it, too. He came around with the shotgun. “She bringing Vivian?”

“Or cops. You go

“Stay put,” Roland said. He stepped into the bedroom.

Maguire heard a door, downstairs, open and close. He couldn’t see Roland now. But heard his voice from the upstairs hall. “Come on up, join the party.”

He could go out the window-if it opened and there was no screen to fool with. He didn’t owe Karen anything. It was the other way around, all the time he’d put in. She owed him more than she’d ever know.

But he remained in the swivel chair. Probably wouldn’t make it out the window anyway-Roland moved for a big man. So what could he do? Nothing. The hell with Andre Patterson there watching, shaking his head.

Karen was coming in, seeing him at the desk. Christ, Karen shaking her head, too. Roland came in behind her saying, “I hope we can get this cleared up, what’s going on.”

Karen took a cigarette out of a pack in her straw handbag and laid the bag on the desk.

“You have a light?”

“I used to chew, but I never smoked,” Roland said. “It’s bad for you.”

Karen took a lighter from the bag and snapped it several times. “I went to Miami for di

“You got a match?” Roland said to Maguire.

“I don’t smoke.”

“That’s smart,” Roland said. He looked at Karen. “I believe you. It’s this dink here causing all the commotion. See, he was go

Karen looked up from the handbag on her lap, pausing. “Yes, I know.”

“Then they did talk to you.”

“Not really. I found out on my own”

Maguire kept looking at her as Roland said, “Don’t believe everything you hear, it ain’t required. So he comes to the house wants to talk to you, see if he can bring Vivian, and you’re not home. So what does he do, he busts in.”

“Why?” Karen said.

“To wait for you.”

“Unh-unh, to wait for you,” Karen said. “That was the whole idea.”

“Wait for me? Why would he do that?”

Jesus Christ, Maguire thought.

“To kill you,” Karen said.

“Shit, he don’t even have a gun.”

“I do,” Karen said.

Her hand came out of the straw bag gripping the Beretta and fired it point blank at Roland’s bright-blue suitjacket and fired it again and fired it again and fired it again, until Roland stumbled against the file cabinet and went down on top of his shotgun, tried then as if to do a pushup and fell heavily and didn’t move again.

Karen stood up, watching Roland. After a moment she laid the gun on the desk. She said to Maguire, who was staring at her, “How did you get in?”

“I broke in. The glass door in the sitting room.”

“No, that’s how he broke in,” Karen said. “You weren’t here.”

“Look, I’ll tell what happened, or anything you want. I’m not worried about being involved.”

“You weren’t here,” Karen said again. “So you’d better leave, okay? I have to call the police.”

“Wait a minute,” Maguire said, getting up. “This was my idea, right? The whole thing.”

“It wasn’t a very good one,” Karen said. “What did you expect to get out of it?”

Maguire was confused now, frowning. Was she kidding? She couldn’t be. “What’d we talk about all the time? Getting him off your back, going away, traveling together.”

Karen picked up the lighter, flicked it once, and lit her cigarette. Looking at him she said, “Did I promise you anything?”

“It’s all we talked about.”

“We did?”

“Jesus Christ, I paid Jesus five grand-”

“Of my money. Don’t you think I checked it? With you two in the house.”

“Jesus Christ,” Maguire said. He couldn’t believe it. “Us two-I paid Lionel a grand out of my own money.”

“And I believe I saved your life,” Karen said. “But I’ll pay you whatever you spent out of pocket.” She walked to the file cabinet, stepping over Roland, and opened it.

Maguire watched her. He said, “You didn’t want to get out of this at all, did you? You get some kind of a kick out of it, playing a role. Like the dolphins-they’re putting up with all that shit, you turn ’em loose. What do they do? They come back to the phony world to play games. You’re just like the fucking dolphins, you know it?”

“Here’s your thousand,” Karen said.

“You’ll get your picture in the paper again, act mysterious-you go

“I enjoyed meeting you,” Karen said. “Now beat it. Okay?”