For Old Times' Sake

by

Gerald So

In some biology class, I'd seen a chart of ape's evolution into man. Enrico Valdez seemed stuck somewhere in between. Thick gray brows propped a white straw hat over wooden eyes. Between sips of lemonade, he talked about baseball and fly-fishing, and no one tried for the satchel by his chair.

He slurped the bottom of his third glass, licked his lips, and said, “I'm going to kill my partner.”

He didn't have to say this. He wanted to. My partner, Johnny San Martin, flinched.

“ No te preocupes ,” Valdez said. “You had nothing to do with it, and you'll have nothing to do with her death.”

He was comforting us, but also warning us not to interfere.

“We will fly to Bimini at seven a.m. From the time we arrive, you will wait exactly twelve hours. If I meet you on time, we fly back here. If I don't meet you, you are free to leave with your payment.”

He lifted the satchel. Ten half-kilo gold bars to fly from Key West to the Bahamas. Less than an hour up and down. The only trouble I could see was for Valdez's partner.

We shook hands on the deal, and the next morning I flew into Jock's Bimini Bar and Filling Station.

Normally, whenever we come within a hundred miles of Jock's, Johnny starts to ask if Kate Holden will be there. With Valdez aboard, he was mum.

***

I watched the second hand on the clock above the bar. One more hour and I could take off with the gold.

I flew charters for a year before the Depression put the business belly-up. When I finally got back in the air, I decided when and where I flew would be my choice. This thing with Valdez went against all that, but you get what you pay for.

Valdez was also paying me to be sober. I signaled Jock for only my second mug of beer in ten hours.

Johnny believes Jock's is magical, that he, Kate, and I were drawn there. We argue this so often I don't need him:

“I saved your ass twelve years ago.”

“I saved yours,” he says.

“We met Kate two years later. No magic in that.”

I couldn't remember when I'd seen her last, and I began to worry. When Jock set a mug in front of me, I asked, “Have you seen Kate lately?”

He shivered and crossed himself at the sound of her name. “ Non, mon am i. My luck is holding, eh?”

Jock had once planned to poison Kate. In fact, he asked me to do it. But that was before we really knew her.

I raised the mug to my lips, about to take a swig.

“ Mon Dieu! What have you done?”

Following Jock's gaze, I spun on the stool. She still tanned well. Maybe a deeper line at her mouth, some lighter strands in her red hair. Before I could think what to say, she pulled my face to hers. I lost track of everything else until she pulled back and slapped me.

My hand went to my cheek, but hers got there first, this time in a caress. She kissed me again and pulled back, and I braced for a slap that didn't come.

“Still flying Mother Goose ?”

“ Miss Liberty .”

“Whatever. How about a ride, for old times' sake?”

That sounded sincere enough. I checked the clock. “Sure.”

“Waiting for someone?” Kate asked before we reached the plane.

“A client.”

“Oh, confidential.”

“That's right.”

“Say no more.”

Johnny beamed when he saw Kate.

“Here we are again, huh?” she said.

“ Si .”

“Don't start. We're going for a hop. That's all.”

Jock's runway is maybe a hundred yards from the bar doors. In the distance, I saw Valdez enter the bar. From his bearing, he wasn't happy.

I hate slow clocks.

“There's my client.” Shifting to unbuckle, I felt a familiar jolt in my shoulder. “Didn't know you could use a gun.”

Kate dug the barrel harder into my arm. “Take off.”

“Yes, ma'am.” I moved Miss Liberty into position and started down the runway.

We leveled off at ten thousand feet, and Johnny asked Kate, “Why you do this?”

“Yeah,” I put in. “He paid ten bars of gold for a milk run.”

“A milk run to kill me.”

She was playing me for a reaction. I turned to Johnny. “You hear that?”

“ Si .”

“Think she ought to explain?”

“ Si ”

The only way to rattle Kate was to ignore her.

Okay,” she said, not letting up on the gun. “Valdez was a captain in the Cuban army. He was exiled when Batista revolted. We met last year working security for Allan Rothschild.”

When I whistled, Kate said, “Good, someone you know. Valdez and I became friendly and realized we had the same plan.”

Recalling the rumor, I started to tell Johnny: “The entire basement of Rothschild's estate— ”

“—is a vault,” Kate finished. “We figured he wouldn't miss a few bars.”

“Since you were on security—”

“—we just walked in and took them.”

“And decided to double-cross each other,” I added.

“Well, yeah.”

Kate was on the run from another man when we met. I hadn't planned a stop at Jock's that night, but I never got where I was going. Kate and I tripped around Mexico for two months looking for buried treasure. For ten years now, she's dropped in and out of my life. It's the longest I've known any woman, yet I don't really know her at all.

“So where are we headed?”

She gave it some thought. “Pedro's.”

I smiled to myself. Johnny's belly shook with silent laughter.

“Tijuana means three fuel stops,” I said.

“I remember.”

***

Johnny took over from Kingston to Cancun, and I continued north.

By our final refuel, six a.m., Johnny was snoring. Kate looked peaceful: her forehead against the window, her mouth open, her gun nowhere in evidence.

What had they talked about while I slept?

Two hours later, I slipped Miss Liberty down through the clouds and made final approach to an unlit airstrip. I landed lightly, without waking Johnny or Kate.

Zephyr “Zath” McGrath wheeled out of the garage as I jumped from my seat. Before the crash that grounded him, Zath conducted my pilot training making rum runs from Bimini to Miami. He also helped rebuild Miss Liberty after my worst crash to date.

Zath bit the cap off a beer in his right hand and held one out to me with the other. I passed.

“So I think my radio's on the blink. No way I heard you right.”

“I skipped out on a client. I need you to watch Miss Liberty . And I need to borrow a jeep.”

“That's what I thought you said. You better have a damn good reason—” Zath's eyes fixed on Kate as she jumped from the hatch.

“Good enough?” I asked.

“Oh, yeah.”

***

I knew memory was embellishing Pedro's. As we came closer, I began to realize how much.

Pedro's is a dump , I thought of saying. How about we—

What? I knew she'd say. It's not about the place. It's about what we do there.

I said nothing and stepped on the gas.

***

As we entered Pedro's lobby, Johnny had yet to meet a woman. I never thought he'd stay here alone.

A man and a woman stood behind the counter. Johnny smiled at the woman, and she jumped into his arms. I swear. They retreated to the inner office.

The remaining man greeted Kate with a yellow grin. His eyes lingered on her as he slid me a key.

Room 13 was still small, the carpet still drab. The floor still creaked no matter where you stepped. I smelled peanut shells, strawberries, and aftershave. I heard our neighbors screw.

“Only the best for you,” I said.

Ignoring me, Kate tested the bed with a knee.

“Still iron?”

She curled both legs under and sat. “Do we have to talk?”

I locked the door. “No.”

I undid the tie in her hair and helped her off with her sweater. We were close enough to kiss when I heard a key in the lock. “Querida, we need to talk.”

Valdez? What the hell—

Kate's eyes were ice cold. In her hand was the gun she'd used on me earlier.

I shuffled to the side.

Valdez saw Kate's gun and backed off. “You shouldn't have left me.”

I wasn't sure who he meant.

“Oh,” Kate said, “as if you wouldn't have left me.”

“What the hell's going on?”

They ignored me.

“You knew I was in Bimini,” Kate said. “Why else use your share of the gold to fly there? You knew you'd be getting more.”

Valdez wanted to tell her about shares, but she didn't give him a word.

“I rushed things, too, when I saw you. Not hard to guess I was going for the prize.”

I hadn't made the guess any harder. How many men had I told about Kate and Pedro's?

“So the gold is still here?”

Kate got off the bed and patted the mattress. “See for yourself.”

Valdez took a step toward Kate and said, “You,” without turning to me.

I looked to Kate. She nodded.

I walked around carefully and lifted the mattress. Pushed to the middle, twenty full-kilo bars ran the length of the bedframe.

Pulling my eyes from the gold to Kate, I could see how she set this up. Only the sheets are changed at Pedro's. Don't need to lift a mattress too high to do that.

I remembered the clerk's smile. He'd been holding the room for Kate.

Until Valdez showed up.

“Good girl,” he said. Then he moved farther and faster than I thought he could. By the time I saw he had Kate's gun, she was facedown on the floor.

I dropped the mattress and moved to shield her. Valdez trained Kate's gun on me and pulled the trigger, but the chamber was empty. I used that second of confusion to rush him. When we reached a wall I pinned Valdez's gun arm with my left, and drove my right into his ribs until his grip loosened. I took the gun as he slumped to the floor.

With a schoolboy smile, I turned to Kate. She was still down. I forced myself to roll her over. Her cheek was swelling from Valdez's punch. I knelt closer and her eyes opened wide. She tried a slap, but I grabbed her wrist. We stayed on the floor in a kiss.

I would have lost track of everything if I hadn't heard, “Stone,” spat like a curse. I opened one eye in time to see Valdez reach for his side.

Gun.

I remembered the one in my hand. Kate palmed it, and I rolled off toward Valdez. Two shots.

Through bluish smoke, Kate smiled at me. Neither of us was hit. I followed her eyes to the sitting figure of Valdez, two holes in his chest, pistol spun away from him.

“The first chamber was empty. That's why you didn't shoot him sooner.”

“I'd seen him grab guns before. He didn't think I could use one, either.”

When we moved the mattress away, the twenty bars I'd seen had matching partners.

***

The sign on the counter still read No Preguntamos Nos Clientes —We Don't Question Our Customers—but to get rid of a body, the clerk would need incentive. Kate gave him one bar, putting a finger to her lips.

Driving back to Zath's, nobody spoke. I checked the side mirror a few times, really checking on Kate, trying to convince myself she wouldn't leave.

***

We tucked the gold into several of Miss Liberty 's less visible places. Kate gave Zath a bar for his trouble.

“Hope we'll see you again,” he said.

Kate smiled but didn't answer.

At five thousand feet, Miss Liberty cruised toward a clear horizon. I didn't like being in the air too long without a destination, drifting. It had to be getting to Kate, too.

"Where to now?" I asked.

“Rothschild's estate.”

“ Qúe? ” Johnny asked.

“When I left Valdez, I tipped Rothschild to the robbery.”

“You told him about Valdez,” I said, “and left yourself out.”

“And offered to track down his gold.”

“Not without expenses.”

“Of course.”

“Now you're the hero, recovering it after more than a year.”

“Most of it,” she said.

END