Part 5 (2/2)
”Regular guy,” Moran said.
”No, he's not a regular guy. That's what I mean. He was a soldier in the Dominican army, worked his way up to general, then lost everything. He came to Miami with practically nothing and did it all on his own.”
”I heard he escaped with a fortune.”
”You heard wrong. He put fifteen thousand down on an apartment house in South Miami and that was everything he had.”
”You stick up for him.”
”George, what do you want to believe? That story-he came with millions on a private yacht, that's baloney. He escaped with his life, very little else. But I know one thing, if he ever has to make a quick exit again he's gonna be ready.”
”He keep his money under the mattress now?”
Mary paused. ”It sounds funny, but to Andres it's real life. He thinks there's always somebody out to get him, so we have full-time security guards, armed. They never smile.”
”Well, I guess you were head of secret police for Trujillo,” Moran said, ”and now you're sitting on all that dough...”
”That was political,” Mary said, ”we're talking about the man now.”
Moran could argue the distinction-the man was still responsible for a lot of people dying-but he let it go.
”All right, you're telling me why you married him.”
”I'm trying to think of a good reason,” Mary said. ”I was twenty-eight and all the good guys were taken. And he talked me into it.”
”I hope you can do better than that.”
”I was ready to get married. I didn't like what I was doing. My dream, always, was to get married some day.” She paused, thinking. ”He's not bad-looking really, and he's very romantic.”
”Jesus Christ,” Moran said.
”Well, he thinks he is, but most of it's in Spanish. He's very, you know, serious, a heavy breather.”
”I'm not gonna say anything,” Moran said.
”On the other hand he's extremely cold, aloof,” Mary said. ”Sometimes smirky. If I want to see him I practically have to get an appointment. But he's a rock, George.”
”I won't argue with you there.”
”He's absolutely reliable. If Andres says he's going to do something, believe it. Whatever it is.”
”He wants to buy the Coconuts,” Moran said. He had told Mary about Andres's sister and the piano player, without going into much detail. ”He came-I was gonna say yesterday, but it was three days ago. Anyway he made an offer and I said, 'You trying to get rid of me, Andres? Come on, what's your game?' ”
It brought her upright. ”You didn't. What's your game? game?”
”Listen, the other day I beat a guy playing tennis, a young hotshot, I said to him, 'You're all right, kid.' I'm starting to say things I've always felt like saying. But try to get anything out of your husband-I think you could punch him, he wouldn't make a sound,” Moran said. ”Maybe when you married him you thought you could change him. Turn him into a teddy bear. He's not at all cute, I'll tell you, but you thought you could make him cute.”
”No, you're wrong,” Mary said. She eased back to lie flat on the lounge again. ”I was working in that law office typing one profit-sharing plan after another, pages and pages of figures, pension plans, trust funds, all due at five o'clock, always, and I had to get out. Andres came along-it was his lawyer I worked for. He'd divorced his first two wives. He has four grown children, a girl who's married and lives in California, three sons in Madrid who're in business together-those are the legitimate ones. He let his mistress go ...I think. And I decided he was fascinating. I thought the difference between us might make it all the more interesting, maybe even fun. I thought, well, a.s.suming there's a person under that cold, formal exterior, why don't I try to bring him out?”
”How'd you do?”
”Well, the only thing I can figure out,” Mary said, ”he puts on the front so no one will know what a real a.s.shole he is.”
”So walk away,” Moran said. ”What's the problem?”
”I told you, I want him to understand why I'm leaving. I don't want him to think it's for any other reason than we shouldn't have got married in the first place. We made a mistake and I want him to realize it.”
”What other reason is there? You don't like him, that's all.”
”There's a good one,” Mary said. ”I signed a prenuptial agreement. I didn't want to but Andres insisted. In the agreement it says if the marriage ends in divorce, for any reason, I'm to be given a flat settlement of two million dollars.”
Moran said, ”You didn't want to sign it?”
”I felt like it was an inducement. I didn't want to make a deal deal with him. I wanted to marry him. I might've been dumb, but I was sincere.” with him. I wanted to marry him. I might've been dumb, but I was sincere.”
”Well, it was his idea,” Moran said. ”But if you're worried about what he thinks-I mean you want to prove you're still sincere, then don't take the money.”
”Yeah, except that I like being rich.”
Moran studied her face, the fine bone structure, the delicate line of her nose, knowing the face would change and he would still want to look at it for a long time to come.
”You got a problem,” he said.
They were silent now. His gaze moved past her to the shrubs that bordered the south end of the hotel grounds. After several moments he said, ”My first night here, I slept in a hole. Right over where that hedge is...”
THE AFTERNOON OF the fourth day. The Chevrolet Impala moved in low gear through streets that were like alleys, past stone structures with wooden entranceways, tenements that dated only a hundred years-new housing in a town where the son of Christopher Columbus had lived in style. Mary stared at scarred walls. They could be in San Juan or Caracas. The heat pressed motionless in the narrow streets. She searched for something to hold her interest as Moran spoke to Bienvenido in English and pidgin present-tense Spanish. The oldest buildings of all, she realized, the ones that dated to the early sixteenth century, were the newest in appearance, clean, reconstructed among recent decay, with all the charm of Disney World. the fourth day. The Chevrolet Impala moved in low gear through streets that were like alleys, past stone structures with wooden entranceways, tenements that dated only a hundred years-new housing in a town where the son of Christopher Columbus had lived in style. Mary stared at scarred walls. They could be in San Juan or Caracas. The heat pressed motionless in the narrow streets. She searched for something to hold her interest as Moran spoke to Bienvenido in English and pidgin present-tense Spanish. The oldest buildings of all, she realized, the ones that dated to the early sixteenth century, were the newest in appearance, clean, reconstructed among recent decay, with all the charm of Disney World.
When they left the car to walk, Moran would nod to people along the street and in doorways staring at them, staring longer at the blond-haired woman than at the bearded man.
Mary said, ”You're sure we're all right.”
Moran's gaze came down from the upper floors of a building to the narrow shops on the street level. ”They look at you and it's instant love. Blondes have some kind of magic.” His gaze lifted again. ”Up by that corner window-those are bullet holes. My fire team came along this street... We shouldn't have been anywhere near this area.”
”What's a fire team?” She pictured firemen.
”A third of a squad. Two riflemen, an automatic rifleman and the fire-team leader. Thirteen men in a squad, forty-eight in a platoon. The platoon was Cat Chaser. After we lost our sergeant I was Cat Chaser Four-if anybody wanted to call up and say hi.”
”Mister!”
Moran turned to see the dark face close to him, teeth missing and brown-stained eyes smiling, the man holding up lottery tickets. Moran waved him away, moving past.
”You the Marine, uh?” the man said, stopping Moran again in his tracks. ”I hear it on the radio, the marine looking for his girl. You the Marine, yes?”
”I was a Marine,” Moran said.
They were standing now, people gathering around. Mary saw the eager expression on the man's face as he said, ”This is the Marine!” Excited. ”You looking for the girl Luci Palma. You find her?”
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