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She looks like a fat, unmilked cow, Lantz thought. And she’s drunk. ‘Get lost, sister.’
‘Esteban say you are lookin’ for me, no?’
He stared at her. ‘Who?’
‘Esteban. The bartender.’
Harry Lantz still could not accept it. ‘He must have made a mistake. I’m looking for Neusa Muñez.’
‘Si. Yo soy Neusa Muñez.’
But the wrong one, Harry Lantz thought. Shit! ‘Are you Angel’s friend?’
She smiled drunkenly. ‘Si.’
Harry Lantz recovered swiftly. ‘Well, well.’ He forced a smile. ‘Can we go to a corner table and talk?’
She nodded indifferently. ‘Ess okay.’
They fought their way across the smoky bar, and when they were seated, Harry Lantz said, ‘I’d like to talk about –’
‘You buy me a rum, si?’
Lantz nodded. ‘Sure thing.’
A waiter appeared, wearing a filthy apron, and Lantz said, ‘One rum and a Scotch and soda.’
Muñez said, ‘Make mine a double, huh?’
When the waiter left, Lantz turned to the woman seated beside him. ‘I want to meet with Angel.’
She studied him with her dull, watery eyes. ‘Wha’ for?’
Lantz lowered his voice. ‘I have a little present for him.’
‘Si? What kin’ a presen’?’
‘Two million dollars.’ Their drinks arrived. Harry Lantz raised his glass and said, ‘Cheers.’
‘Yeah.’ She downed her drink in one gulp. ‘Wha’ for you wanna give Angel two million dollars?’
‘That’s something I’ll have to discuss with him in person.’
‘Tha’s not possible. Angel, he don’ talk to nobody.’
‘Lady, for two million dollars –’
‘Kin I have ’nother rum? A double, huh?’
My God, she already looks like she’s about to pass out. ‘Sure.’ Lantz summoned the waiter and ordered the drink. ‘Have you known Angel a long time?’ He made his tone casual.
She shrugged. ‘Yeah.’
‘He must be an interesting man.’
Her vacant eyes were fixed on a spot on the table in front of her.
Jesus! Harry Lantz thought. It’s like trying to have a conversation with a fucking wall.
Her drink arrived, and she finished it in one long swallow.
She has the body of a cow and the manners of a pig. ‘How soon can I talk to Angel?’
Neusa Muñez struggled to her feet. ‘I tol’ you, he don’ talk to nobody. Adios.’
Harry Lantz was filled with a sudden panic. ‘Hey! Wait a minute! Don’t go.’
She stopped and looked down at him with bleary eyes. ‘Wha’ you wan’?’
‘Sit down,’ Lantz said slowly, ‘and I’ll tell you what I want.’
She sat down heavily. ‘I need a rum, huh?’
Harry Lantz was baffled. What the fuck kind of man is this Angel? His mistress is not only the ugliest broad in all of South America, but she’s a lush.
Lantz did not like dealing with drunks. They were too unreliable. On the other hand, he hated the thought of losing his $50,000 commission. He watched as Muñez gulped her drink. He wondered how many she had had before coming to meet him.
Lantz smiled and said reasonably, ‘Neusa, if I can’t talk to Angel, how can I do business with him?’
‘Ess simple. You tell me what you wan’. I tell Angel. If he say si, I tell you si. If he say no, I tell you no.’
Harry Lantz distrusted using her as a go-between, but he had no choice. ‘You’ve heard of Marin Groza.’
‘No.’
Of course she hadn’t. Because it wasn’t the name of a rum. This stupid bitch was going to get the message all wrong and screw up the deal for him.
‘I need a drink, huh?’
He patted her fat hand. ‘Certainly.’ He ordered another double rum. ‘Angel will know who Groza is. You just say Marin Groza. He’ll know.’
‘Yeah? Then wha’?’
She was even stupider than she looked. What the fuck did she think Angel was supposed to do for two million dollars? Kiss the guy? Harry Lantz said carefully, ‘The people who sent me want him blown away.’
She blinked. ‘Wha’s “blown away”?’
Christ! ‘Killed.’
‘Oh.’ She nodded indifferently. ‘I’ll ass’ Angel.’ Her voice was beginning to slur even more. ‘Wha’ you say the man’s name is?’
He wanted to shake her. ‘Groza. Marin Groza.’
‘Yeah. My baby’s outta town. I’ll call him tonight ’n meet you here tomorrow. Kin I have ’nother rum?’
Neusa Muñez was turning out to be a nightmare.
The following evening, Harry Lantz sat at the same table in the bar from midnight until four in the morning, when the bar closed. Muñez did not appear.
‘Do you know where she lives?’ Lantz asked the bartender.
The bartender looked at him with innocent eyes. ‘Quien sabe?’
The bitch had fouled everything up. How could a man who was supposed to be as smart as Angel get hooked up with such a rum dummy? Harry Lantz prided himself on being a pro. He was too smart to walk into a deal like this without first checking it out. He had cautiously asked around, and the information that impressed him most was that the Israelis had put a price of a million dollars on Angel’s head. A million bucks would buy a lifetime’s worth of booze and young hookers. Well, he could forget about that and he could forget about his $50,000. His only link to Angel had been broken. He would have to call The Man and tell him he had failed.
I won’t call him yet, Harry Lantz decided. Maybe she’ll come back here. Maybe the otherbars will run out of rum. Maybe I should have had my ass kicked for saying yes to this fucking assignment.
Chapter Six (#ulink_ee695bb2-3e64-5221-9f7d-cc2060c0abed)
The following night at eleven o’clock, Harry Lantz was seated at the same table in the Pilar, intermittently chewing peanuts and his fingernails. At 2 a.m. he saw Neusa Muñez stumble in the door, and Harry’s heart soared. He watched as she made her way over to his table.
‘Hi,’ she mumbled, and slumped into a chair.
‘What happened to you?’ Harry demanded. It was all he could do to control his anger.
She blinked. ‘Huh?’
‘You were supposed to meet me here last night.’
‘Yeah?’
‘We had a date, Neusa.’
‘Oh. I went to a movie with a girl frien’. There’s this new movie, see? Ess ’bout this man who falls in love with this fuckin’ nun an’ –’
Lantz was so frustrated he could have wept. What could Angel possibly see in this dumb, drunken bitch? She must have a golden pussy, Lantz decided. ‘Neusa – did you remember to talk to Angel?’
She looked at him vacantly, trying to understand the question. ‘Angel? Si. Kin I have a drink, huh?’
He ordered a double rum for her and a double Scotch for himself. He needed it desperately. ‘What did Angel say, Ñeusa?’
‘Angel? Oh, he say yeah. Ess okay.’
Harry Lantz felt a surge of relief. ‘That’s wonderful!’ He no longer gave a damn about his messenger boy mission. He had thought of a better idea. This drunken bitch was going to lead him to Angel. One million dollars reward money.
He watched her slop down her drink, spilling some of it down her already soiled blouse. ‘What else did Angel say?’
Her brow knit in concentration. ‘Angel, he say he wanna know who your people are.’
Lantz gave her a winning smile. ‘You tell him that’s confidential, Neusa. I can’t give him that information.’
She nodded, indifferent. ‘Then Angel say to tell you to fuck off. Kin I have a rum ’fore I go?’
Harry Lantz’s mind started working at top speed. If she left, he was sure he would never see her again. ‘I’ll tell you what I’ll do, Neusa. I’ll telephone the people I’m working for, and if they give me permission, I’ll give you a name. Okay?’
She shrugged. ‘I don’ care.’
‘No,’ Lantz explained patiently, ‘but Angel does. So you tell him I’ll have an answer for him by tomorrow. Is there some place I can reach you?’
‘I guess so.’
He was making progress. ‘Where?’
‘Here.’
Her drink arrived, and he watched her gulp it down like an animal.
Lantz wanted to kill her.
Lantz made the telephone call collect, so it could not be traced, from a public telephone booth on Calvo Street. It had taken him one hour to get through.
‘No,’ the Controller said. ‘I told you that no names are to be mentioned.’
‘Yes, sir. But there’s a problem. Neusa Muñez, Angel’s mistress, says he’s willing to make a deal, but he won’t move without knowing who he’s dealing with. Naturally, I told her I had to check it out with you first.’
‘What is this woman like?’
The Controller was not a man to play games with. ‘She’s fat and ugly and stupid, sir.’
‘It’s much too dangerous for my name to be used.’
Harry Lantz could feel the deal slipping away from him. ‘Yes, sir,’ he said earnestly. ‘I understand. The only thing is, sir, Angel’s reputation is based on his being able to keep his mouth shut. If he ever started talking, he wouldn’t last five minutes in his business.’
There was a long silence. ‘You have a point.’ There was another silence, even longer. ‘Very well. You may give Angel my name. But he is never to divulge it, and never to contact me directly. He’ll work only through you.’
Harry Lantz could have danced. ‘Yes, sir. I’ll tell him. Thank you, sir.’ He hung up, a big grin on his face. He was going to collect the $50,000.
And then the million-dollar reward.
When Harry Lantz met Neusa Muñez late that evening, he immediately ordered a double rum for her and said, happily, ‘Everything’s set. I got permission.’
She looked at him indifferently. ‘Yeah?’
He told her the name of his employer. It was a household word, and he expected her to be impressed.
She shrugged. ‘Never heard’a him.’
‘Neusa, the people I work for want this done as quickly as possible. Marin Groza is hiding out in a villa in Neuilly, and –’
