Free When the Women Come out to Dance (2002) by Elmore Leonard Page B

shot and killed her husband an d wanted to be held. He could tell, he could feel her hand s holding on to him. She raised her face to say, "I can't believ e you're here." He kissed her on the cheek. She kept staring a t him with those eyes and he kissed her on the mouth. No w they kept looking at each other until Raylan took off his ha t and sailed it over to the sofa. He saw her eyes close, her hand s slipping around his neck, and this time it became a seriou s kiss, their mouths finding the right fit and holding till finall y they had to breathe. Now he didn't know what to say. H e didn't know why he kissed her other than he wanted to. H e could remember wanting to even when she was a teen.
    "I had a crush on you," Ava said, "from the time I wa s twelve years old. I knew you liked me, but you didn't want t o show it."
    "You were too young." "I was sixteen when you left. I heard you got married. Ar e you still?"
    Raylan shook his head. "Turned out to be a mistake."
    "You want to talk about mistakes . . . I told Bowman I w anted a divorce? He goes, 'You file, you'll never be see n again.' Said I'd disappear from the face of the earth."
    "I hear he used to beat you up."
    "That last time--I've still got a knot where I fell and hi t my head on the stove. You want to feel it?" She was touchin g her scalp, fingers probing into her wild-looking hair, and he r expression changed. She said, "Oh my God, don't look at me," p ulling the T-shirt over her head, the hem of the housedres s rising to show her legs hurrying away from him. "Close you r eyes, I don't want you to see me like this." But then sh e stopped before going in the bedroom and looked back at him.
    "Raylan, the minute you walked in I knew everythin g would be all right."
    The bedroom door closed and he wanted to go knock on i t before she started assuming too much. Show her he was a federal marshal and tell her why he was here. But then had to ask himself, Why are you? Art had said she didn't want protection. He'd offer it anyway. No, he was here to get a lead on Boyd. Kissing her had confused his purpose there for a minute.
    Raylan walked over to the table where they said Bowma n was sitting. He looked in the kitchen at a pile of dishes in th e sink--Ava letting her housework go, letting herself go, no t knowing what was to become of her. But she had all of a sudden pulled herself together, ashamed of the way she looked, W a nd it sounded like she was expecting him to see her throug h this. And if she was, what was he supposed to do? For on e thing they'd better quit kissing.
    It wasn't a minute later the front door banged open and a guy wearing alligator teeth walked in the house.
    Gator teeth, spiked hair dyed blond and a tattoo on his chest, part of it showing the way his shirt hun g open. He stood there looking Raylan over before saying , "Who in the hell are you, the undertaker?"
    Raylan got his hat from the sofa and set it on his head th e way he wore it. He said, "I might be undertaking a situatio n here. Lemme see what you have on your chest," wanting thi s skinhead with hair to open his shirt.
    He did, held it apart to show Raylan his HEIL HITLER tattoo, no weapon stuck in his belt. Raylan decided not to mess with Adolf Hitler, saying now, "You buy that necklace o r poach the gator and yank her teeth out?"
    It got the skin to squint at him but still wanting to tell , because he said, "I shot her and ate her tail."
    Now Raylan squinted to show he was thinking. "Tha t would put you in Florida, around Lake Okeechobee."
    It got the skin to tell him, "Belle Glade."
    "Is that right?" Raylan reached into his inside pocket fo r his ID case. "I sent a boy to Starke was from Belle Glade, fell a name Dale Crowe Junior." He flipped open the case to sho w his star. "I'm Raylan Givens, deputy United States marshal."
    He flipped the case closed. "You mind telling me wh o you are?"
    The skin was staring now like he did mind and had to decide whether or not to tell. Raylan said,