Pronto Read Online Free PDF

people? You know who the guy was you capped? Earl? Jimmy's fish guide he always used, up on the lake. You gonna call Jimmy, tell him you're sorry?... Harry?"
    He didn't know what to do. He couldn't play along, pretend he didn't know who sent the guy, Christ, Earl Crowe. So he hung up the phone.
    It didn't give him any time at all to think. When the phone rang again Harry answered and the Zip said, "You hang up on me?"
    "We were cut off."
    The line was silent until the Zip said, "You know a reason we shouldn't be talking?"
    Harry said, "You want to know if I'm wired and some people are listening? What do you think?"
    "There's a guy sitting in your lobby," the Zip said. "I wondered was he a friend of yours. Somebody looking out for you."
    "I haven't left the apartment."
    "Haven't talked to people from the government?"
    Harry said, "Not yet," and hung up. Fuck him.
    He knew guys who punched walls in moments of frustration and some of them broke their hands. He could smash something, throw the telephone through the window. Kick in the TV set. What else? Thinking about violent things he might do calmed him down. He was leaving, putting his forty-seven years of planning into effect. So why get excited?
    Later, Joyce came with Chinese. She set the dining table that was at one end of the living room, got the place mats and dishes from the kitchen. They started, Joyce using chopsticks, Harry a fork. He ate a piece of shrimp toast and then fooled with his Szechuan chicken, removing the peppers. He said to Joyce, "When you came in, was there a guy in the lobby? Like a federal agent pretending to be a normal person?"
    Joyce knew how to handle those chopsticks.
    She said, "How about a guy in a cowboy hat? Not the kind country-western stars wear, a small one. Like a businessman's cowboy hat."
    "I know what you mean, the Dallas special," Harry said. "That Stetson, the kind the cops were wearing when Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald."
    Joyce held her chopsticks poised and then nodded, no doubt seeing it. "That's the one. Light tan, or sort of off-white." She took a few moments to poke at her Gung Bo shrimp. "He's wearing a dark suit and tie, has a newspaper on his lap."
    "All by himself?"
    She nodded, but seemed to be thinking of something else. "He's the type, he's dressed up you might say, but looks like a farmer. You know what I mean? That weathered rawboned type. Probably around forty. I almost forgot, he's wearing cowboy boots, tan with sort of ivory wingtips. With a dark-blue suit."
    "No style," Harry said. "I guess you did notice him."
    Joyce looked up from her plate, thinking of something else. "You know what? He was there yesterday when we came in."
    Harry shook his head. "Never saw him."
    "Then last night when I left, there was another guy sitting in the same chair, near the elevator."
    "My protectors," Harry said, "from some government law-enforcement body." He took a bite of chicken and vegetables and worked on his plate for a minute before looking at Joyce again.
    "When you're finished, would you mind going down and ask the guy who he's with? I'm curious."
    Joyce said, "Really?"
    "Or, hey. Ask him if he could come up here for a minute. Tell him I'd like to meet him."
    Joyce seemed to think it over.
    "Why?"
    "This guy could be risking his life for me. I'd like to shake his hand, that's all." He saw the way she was looking at him and said, "What's the matter?" Innocent.
    Joyce said, "What're you up to, Harry?"
    The first thing the man said, once he was in the apartment, was, "You don't remember me, do you?" with a slight grin, his head cocked looking at Harry. "I could tell yesterday when you came in. You walked right past like I wasn't there." Harry tried narrowing his eyes, but it didn't help. Joyce had it right, he looked like a farmer: that stringy type with hollow cheeks, crow's-feet, and had the accent to go with it, not Deep South but from somewhere below Ohio. He touched the funneled brim of his Stetson with two fingers and