the Hunted (1977) by Elmore Leonard Page B

you t o do is drop something off for me."
    "Where?"
    "That's what we're waiting to find out. How' s your drink?"
    "I'll have another one."
    Mel pushed himself up and went over to the ba r with their glasses.
    "You recall the package, the money. You give i t to Tali, right? She's the one set it up, she delivers it.
    That's the way it's been. This time I want you to deliver it. You saw it yesterday? Two hundred grand?
    That money." Mixing drinks, Mel spoke with hi s back to Davis. "We get a phone call from an individual, a client of mine. He tells us where to make the delivery. You go there and give him the money.
    He calls again, tells me he's got it. That's all yo u have to do."
    Mel opened the desk drawer and took out a packet of bills. He walked over to Davis an d dropped the packet in his lap as he handed him a fresh frosty bourbon.
    "A thousand U . S . bucks. That look about right?"
    Davis picked it up, fingering the packet of cris p hundred-dollar bills. He watched Mel get hi s Scotch and shuffle back to the couch, the big dealer.
    "If it's such a pissy little job, how come a thousand?" Davis said.
    "Looking for the catch, uh?" Mel grinned a t him. "Well, I'm not gonna lie to you. There coul d be--there's a very slight chance of a complication.
    But not if we do it right. Okay, you want the whol e story?"
    "I wouldn't mind knowing a little bit more,"
    Davis said.
    "I'm not gonna give you details, it's a lon g story," Mel said, "but. There's a man by the nam e of Al Rosen living here who used to live in Detroit.
    Three years ago he testified for the Justice Department before a federal grand jury. The Justice Department wanted to indict two individuals for murder and they persuaded my client, Mr. Rosen , against my advisement, to testify as a key witness.
    Okay, the two individuals were never brought t o trial and my client was left standing there in his underwear. You follow me?"
    "You say his name's Al Rosen?" Davis said.
    "Right, Albert Rosen," Mel said. "One of the individuals he testified against had a stroke. He's still alive but he's fucked up, paralyzed on one side , doesn't talk right. The other one served nine month s in Lewisburg on a separate, minor indictment-- c onspiring to defraud. One day my client's ca r blows up, killing a gas station attendant who ha d come on a service call. It was a cold morning, th e car wouldn't start. Otherwise it would've been m y client. You understand? So my client, with th e help--if you want to call it help--of the Justice Department, which got him into this, changed his identity and came here to live."
    "Who sends the money?" Davis said.
    "That's another story. Well, let's just say th e company he used to be with," Mel said. "In th e mortgage loan business. The company's been carrying him the past three years and we're the only ones who know where he is. Everything's fine . . . relatively. So what happens? Rosen gets his picture in the paper."
    "Here?"
    "No, it wasn't even in the papers here. The stor y was about the hotel that burned down last week i n Netanya. No, Rosen shows up in the Detroit papers and some others, picture of him standing out in front of the hotel."
    Davis was nodding.
    "You got it now?" Mel said. "Three days later , not wasting any time, somebody makes an attemp t on his life. Yesterday two guys came to see me.
    They want to know where he is. If I'm here in Te l Aviv then it must be to see Rosen. So they're watching me. They're watching Tali. They're watchin g the kid here, maybe. Rosen wants to get the hell ou t and hide someplace else. Change his identity again.
    But he has to pick up his money first, and we can' t deliver it because these guys are watching. The y know who we are."
    "Okay," Davis said.
    "Just like that?" Mel seemed a little surprised.
    "Great."
    "You haven't told him," Tali said. "They als o know who David is."
    "No, they don't know him," Mel said. "Mayb e they saw him talking to you in the lobby."
    "It's the same thing," Tali