Road Dogs (2009)( ) by Elmore - Jack Foley 02 Leonard

Levi's, white T-shirts and briefs, tennis shoes, sweat socks, a green cotton sweater, an off-white drip-dry sport coat, limp, no shape to it, for sixty-nine dollars, then had to pick out some dark T-shirts and a couple of silky black sport shirts to wear with the coat. He drove up Lincoln to Ralphs supermarket and bought bathroom supplies, shampoo, a skin cleaner, a pair of flip-flops, in the habit of wearing them in the shower at Glades; he bought four bottles of Jack Daniel's, fifths, a case of Dos Equis he remembered he liked, six bottles of red from Australia, six rib-eye steaks, Wheaties and bananas, a sack of oranges, apples, cheese, popcorn, milk, French bread and real butter. He asked a clerk if there was a sporting goods store around. The clerk said you bet, the Sports Chalet in Marina del Rey, and he stopped there to buy a basketball before going home. There were courts on the beach. He liked feeling a basketball in his hands. He wanted to shoot hoops while the sun was bringing down a red sky to sink off the edge of the ocean.
    Cundo owned a pair of Zeiss field glasses he'd told Foley one time he always had with him he went to Santa'nita for the horses. Or when he went up on the roof, three stories high, man, and looked down into these homes so close together, into people's lives and see what they doing. These glasses, man, you see a guy on his porch looking at a newspaper? These glasses you can read the fucking paper yourself.
    Foley used the glasses to look around, see if anybody was watching him. Like the same guy in the same place three days in a row not doing anything. Who knew he was here? Nobody, but it didn't matter, if that wacko fed wanted to find him, he would.
    What do you do, put up with it? There was no way Lou Adams could get the feds here to put a surveillance on him during banking hours. Or watch to see if he leaves town. They couldn't do it. Could Lou hire his own crew on a government paycheck? Who would he get to work for free? And Foley thought, Jesus Christ, who do you think? Some asshole he'd threaten to put in jail if he didn't.
    That was an idea right there. Get some gangbangers to help him out. He wondered if Lou was already here.
    During the first three days Foley went up on the roof with the Zeiss glasses that put you wherever you were looking. He checked on who was around all three days, in plain sight working construction, little Mexican guys doing yard jobs, hanging out in the alley. He didn't see anything going on that he wondered about.
    Once he swept the places for people who could be watching, he'd swing the glasses over to the pink palace where Dawn had been living the past almost eight years by herself, settle on the roof, adjust the focus and come down to the front yard, the patio, poke around through the shrubbery and try to see in one of the windows. He never saw a soul over there. He was hoping the dark-haired Dawn Navarro liked to lie in the sun.
    Cundo called from Glades the morning of the fourth day, Foley about to go up on the roof.
    How you think about it?
    Foley said it was the home he'd always dreamed of.
    You like it, uh? You see Dawn?
    Not yet. I just finished counting the pictures of her. You know how many you have?
    Man, I took a hundred. I couldn't stop.
    Thirty-seven, not counting the ones you taped to walls as you ran out of time, thinking of her right up to the end. You're a beautiful guy, Cundo. I saw the shots of you and your Hollywood buddies. I even recognized one or two. But all the shots of Dawn she's alone.
    Mood shots, Cundo said. I take them when I see her in different moods.
    I'd look at her, Foley said, and have the feeling she was looking out of the picture at me.
    Cundo's voice on the line said, Yes.
    I mean like she could actually see me.
    Yes, I know what you mean, she can see you looking at her.
    Even though she's looking from seven years ago.
    Almost eight. It's her gift, man, she knows you there. Listen, when I'm taking the pictures I look in