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“That’d be the smartest move.”
“Okay. Do you know the number at the OJ Police Headquarters?”
“No.”
“Wayne will be there, with that Lieutenant friend of his. We call there and we’ll get him quick,” Hunter looked ahead and saw a small gas station beside the road. “Let’s stop up there and call. They’ll have a phone book. We need to hurry, though.”
Raymond pulled in and stopped beside the station. A slender man approached and Raymond got out of the car, telling him they needed to see his phone book. The man motioned for Raymond to follow, but Raymond hesitated a moment. Hunter rolled down the passenger window and said, “Hurry!” Raymond followed the man into the station office.
The instant Raymond was out of sight, Hunter scooted under the steering wheel and started the car. She backed out in a spray of gravel, then jerked the automatic transmission into Drive and rocketed forward, tires squealing and smoking as they clawed onto the pavement. Raymond sprinted out of the station as the car roared away, his hand raised for her to stop. When Hunter disappeared around the curve, Raymond spat in the road and said, “Son-of-a-bitch.” There was real worry in his voice.
CHAPTER 14
When they arrived at Godoy’s house, the Colonel was coming out the front door. Jesse and Johnny stopped him on the walk and Jesse said, “Oh no, this won’t work.”
“Why?” Said Godoy, “What’s wrong with them?” He had on a powder blue pullover cardigan sweater and pleated gabardine slacks. Deck shoes were on his feet.
“You go out there in that outfit, one of those guys is gonna make you his wife.”
“What else you got?” Jesse asked as he and Johnny pushed Godoy inside. They followed him to his walk-in closet and rummaged through the racks, finally settling on a pair of designer jeans and a black tee shirt. Johnny found a pair of highly polished lace-up military boots behind the door and they had Felipe put them on as well. Jesse rummaged further in the closet and pulled out a long, ankle-length black leather coat with high collar. The tag said ARMANI. “Get a load of this,” Jesse said.
Johnny looked at it and asked Felipe, “You musta seen The Matrix, what, thirty, forty times?”
Jesse said, “Put it on, Colonel, see how it looks.”
Godoy put it on, and it worked well with the black military boots and black tee shirt. He looked menacing, rather than prissy.
“There,” Jesse said to Godoy as he adjusted the collar a little higher in the back. “That’ll work, and it’ll help hide your pistol, too.”
Felipe went to the closet and took the handmade holster and belt off the shelf, put it on and slipped the customized .45 semi-automatic and two extra clips in the rig. He looked at himself in the full-length mirror and liked the image. To add an extra touch, Felipe reached into a closet drawer and took out an eyeglass case. He removed the dark-tinted Ray Ban shooter’s glasses, put them on and looked in the mirror. Even better. “We will go now,” he said.
“Sure thing,” Johnny said. “You ride with us. That limo’ll be too tempting to those Outlaw Road boys.”
Jesse drove to let Johnny rest his sore hip, and Felipe was in the back among the knee-deep piles of empty Dairy Queen cups, hamburger wrappers, candy bar wrappers, empty Coke cans, whiskey bottles, a full quart bottle of Miller Lite, half-eaten bags of french fries, and a whole cherry pie that had fallen upside down on the seat. Godoy thought about shooting both of them in the back of the head.
They arrived at Outlaw Road as the sun was setting. Not many people were out, and Godoy wondered what all the fuss was concerning this place. He said as much as Jesse parked the car in front of the first cantina.
Jesse said, “The place doesn’t get busy until about ten or so, then carries on till daybreak.”
Johnny talked as he adjusted the innertube over his ear, “Right now, what we do is get something to eat, then we start makin’ the rounds, see who’s out early.”
“Where are the restaurants?” Godoy asked.
“This one’s as good as any,” Jesse said.
“This is a cantina. A filthy one.”
“You don’t have to eat, but Johnny and I are. Come on in, you can watch.” The three men exited the car and went inside. They sat at a tiny card table and Jesse ordered, telling the twig-thin bartender who was staring at Jesse’s blond wig and Johnny’s inner tube, that he should bring beer and keep it coming until they said to stop.
Darkness came fast after the sun dropped behind the mountains, and the men watched through the open door as people moved about on the streets. Felipe thought of vampires rising at nightfall. They stayed in the first cantina for almost two hours, then Jesse said it was time to take a stroll. People stared at them as they walked down the dusty street. Jesse grinned at his brother and said, “They see us comin’, what do they do?”
Johnny said, “They just step aside.” The brothers high-fived each other and continued walking.
Felipe was half-drunk, having decided to pass on the food, but feeling the beer was safe enough. Johnny said to him as they walked, “This place’s got it all. You can name your poison. Like in this one you got old Mexican music, polkas and stuff, over there you got Tejano, and in that one you got American hip-hop, and rock and roll.” Johnny made a motion with his hand to indicate the rest of the buildings down the street. “Further you go, the more you’ve got. There’s even one down there with an Elvis impersonator, used to work the lounges in Vegas. Jesse and I like him.” Johnny continued, “You got different types of food all along the main street, and about every third building is a whorehouse.” He nudged Felipe in the ribs and said, “Pretty convenient, uh?”
They watched a fight erupt on the street between two men who fell to the dust, hitting and cursing each other. Johnny said to Godoy, “Make sure you don’t start anything here you can’t finish. None of these people take any crap.”
“And the women?”
