The Complete Works of Elmore Leonard
WebvampNOVELS
The Bounty Hunters. Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 1953.
The Law at Randado. Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 1954.
Escape from Five Shadows. Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 1956.
Last Stand at Saber River. New York : Dell, 1959.
Hombre. New York : Ballantine Books, 1961.
The Big Bounce. Greenwich, Conn. : Fawcett Publications, 1969.
The Moonshine War. Garden City, N.Y. : Doubleday, 1969.
Valdez is Coming. Greenwich, Conn. : Fawcett Publications, 1970.
Forty Lashes Less One. New York : Bantam Books, 1972.
Mr. Majestyk. New York : Dell, 1974.
Fifty-Two Pickup. New York : Delacorte Press, 1974.
Swag. New York : Delacorte Press, 1976.
Unknown Man No. 89. New York : Delacorte Press, 1977.
The Hunted. New York : Dell, 1977.
The Switch. New York : Bantam Books, 1978.
Gunsights. New York : Bantam Books, 1979.
City Primeval. New York : Arbor House, 1980.
Gold Coast. New York : Bantam Books, 1980.
Split Images. New York : Arbor House, 1981.
Cat Chaser. New York : Arbor House, 1982.
Stick. New York : Arbor House, 1983.
LaBrava. New York : Arbor House, 1983.
Glitz. New York : Arbor House, 1985.
Bandits. New York : Arbor House, 1987.
Touch. New York : Arbor House, 1987.
Freaky Deaky. New York : Arbor House, 1988.
Killshot. New York : Arbor House, 1989.
Get Shorty. New York : Delacorte Press, 1990.
Maximum Bob. New York : Delacorte Press, 1991.
Rum Punch. New York : Delacorte Press, 1992.
Pronto. New York : Delacorte Press, 1993.
Riding the Rap. New York : Delacorte Press, 1995.
Out of Sight. New York : Delacorte Press, 1996.
Cuba Libre. New York : Delacorte Press, 1998.
Be Cool. New York : Delacorte Press, 1999.
Pagan Babies. New York : Delacorte Press, 2000.
Tishomingo Blues. New York : William Morrow, 2002.
Mr. Paradise. New York : William Morrow, 2004.
A Coyote’s In the House. New York : William Morrow, 2004.
The Hot Kid. New York : William Morrow, 2005.
Up in Honey’s Room. New York : William Morrow, 2007.
Comfort to the Enemy. London : Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2009.
Road Dogs. New York : William Morrow, 2009.
Djibouti. New York : William Morrow, 2010. (Work in progress.)
Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules of Writing, illustrations by Joe Ciardiello. New York : William Morrow & Company, 2007.
SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS
The Tonto Woman and Other Western Stories. New York : Delacorte Press, 1998.
When the Women Come Out to Dance. New York : William Morrow; 2002.
The Complete Western Stories of Elmore Leonard. New York : William Morrow, 2004.
SERIAL NOVEL
Comfort to the Enemy (in 14 installments.) New York Times Magazine.
“The Hanging of Willi Martz.” The New York Times Magazine, September 18, 2005.
“Shemane’s Lincoln Zephyr.” The New York Times Magazine, September 25, 2005.
“Is Carl Still the Hot Kid?” The New York Times Magazine, October 2, 2005.
“Jurgen Schrenk, Escape Artist.” The New York Times Magazine, October 9, 2005.
“Carl and Louly in Love.” The New York Times Magazine, October 16, 2005.
“Gary Marion, Ex-Bull Rider.” The New York Times Magazine, October 23, 2005.
“Joe Tanzi, Fugitive.” The New York Times Magazine, October 30, 2005.
“Tutti and Frankie Bones.” The New York Times Magazine, November 6, 2005.
“Teddy Ritz, White Slaver.” The New York Times Magazine, November 13, 2005.
“Gunnery Sgt. Louly Webster.” The New York Times Magazine, November 20, 2005.
“It’s Up to You, Carl.” The New York Times Magazine, November 27, 2005.
“Jurgen and Otto on the Lam.” The New York Times Magazine, December 4, 2005.
“Shootout at Shemane’s.” The New York Times Magazine, December 11, 2005.
“You Going After Jurgen?” The New York Times Magazin, December 18, 2005.
SHORT STORIES
“Trail of the Apache.” Argosy, December, 1951.
“Apache Medicine.” Dime Western Magazine, May, 1952.
“You Never See Apaches….” Dime Western Magazine, September, 1952.
“Red Hell Hits Canyon Diablo.” 10 Story Western Magazine, October 1952.
“The Colonel’s Lady.” Zane Grey’s Western Magazine, November, 1952.
“Law of the Hunted One.” Western Story Magazine, December, 1952.
“Cavalry Boots.” Zane Grey’s Western Magazine, December 1952.
“Under the Friar’s Ledge.” Dime Western Magazine, January, 1953.
“The Rustlers.” Zane Grey’s Western Magazine, February 1953.
“Three-Ten to Yuma.” Dime Western Magazine, March, 1953.
“The Big Hunt.” Western Story Magazine, April 1953.
“Long Night.” Zane Grey’s Western Magazine, May, 1953.
“The Boy Who Smiled.” Gunsmoke, June, 1953.
“The Hard Way.” Zane Grey’s Western Magazine, August, 1953.
“The Last Shot.” Fifteen Western Tales, September, 1953.
“Blood Money.” Western Story Magazine, October 1953.
“Trouble at Rindo’s Station.” Argosy, October 1953.
“Saint with a Six-Gun.” Argosy, October, 1954.
SHORT STORIES (cont.)
“The Captives.” Argosy, February, 1955.
“No Man’s Guns.” Western Story Roundup, August 1955.
“The Rancher’s Lady.” Western Magazine, September 1955.
“Jugged.” Western Magazine, December 1955.
“Moment of Vengeance.” Saturday Evening Post, April 21, 1956.
“Man with the Iron Arm.” Complete Western Book, September, 1956.
“The Longest Day of his Life.” Western Novel and Short Stories, October, 1956.
“The Nagual.” 2-Gun Western, November, 1956.
“The Kid.” Western Short Stories, December 1956.
“The Treasure of Mungo’s Landing.” True Adventures, June, 1958.
“The Bull Ring at Blisston.” Short Stories For Men Magazine, August, 1959.
“Only Good Ones.” Western Roundup, Nye, Nelson, ed. New York : Macmillan, 1961.
“The Tonto Woman.” Roundup, Overholser, Stephen, ed. Garden City, N.Y. : Doubleday, 1982.
“Hurrah for Captain Early.” New Trails, Jakes, John and Greenber, Martin H., ed. New York :
Doubleday, 1994.
“Karen Makes Out.” Murder for Love, Penzler, Otto, ed. New York : Delacorte Press,
“The Odyssey.” Chapter in Naked Came the Manatee, New York : Putnam, 1996.
“Sparks.” Murder and Obsession, Penzler, Otto, ed. New York : Delacorte Press, 1999.
“Hanging Out at the Buena Vista.” USA Weekend, 1999 Summer Fiction Issue, June 13, 1999.
“Fire in the Hole.” Contentville Press, (http://www.contentville.com), 2001.
“Chickasaw Charlie Hoke.” Murderer’s Row, Penzler, Otto ed. Beverly Hills, Calif. :
New Millennium Press, 2001.
“When the Women Come Out to Dance.” In the short story collection,
When the Women Come Out to Dance, New York : William Morrow, 2002.
“Tenkiller.” In the short story collection,When the Women Come Out to Dance,
New York : William Morrow, 2002.
“Showdown at Checotah.” McSweeney’s Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales, New York :
Vintage Press, 2003.
“Louly and Pretty Boy.” Dangerous Women, Penzler, Otto ed. New York :
Mysterious Press, 2005.
SCREENPLAYS
The Moonshine War. Dir. Richard Quine. Screenplay by Elmore Leonard. Perf. Patrick McGoohan. Filmway Pictures / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1970.
Joe Kidd. Dir. John Sturgis. Original screenplay by Elmore Leonard. Perf. Clint Eastwood
The Malpaso Company and Universal Pictures. 1972.
Mr. Majestyk. Dir. Richard Fleischer. Original screenplay by Elmore Leonard. Perf. Charles
Bronson. The Mirisch Company, 1974.
High Noon, Part II. (TV) Dir. Jerry Jameson. Original screenplay by Elmore Leonard.
Charles Fries Productions, 1980.
Stick. Dir. Burt Reynolds. Screenplay by Elmore Leonard. Perf. Burt Reynolds.
Universal Pictures, 1985.
SCREENPLAYS (cont.)
52 Pickup. Dir. John Frankenheimer. Based on the Elmore Leonard novel. Perf. Roy Scheider.
Cannon Group, 1986.
Desperados. (TV) Dir. Virgil W. Vogel. Original screenplay by Elmore Leonard Perf. Alex
MacArthur. Universal TV, 1987.
The Rosary Murders. Dir. Fred Walton. Based on the novel by William X. Keinzle. Screenplay
by Elmore Leonard. Perf. Donald Sutherland. First Take, Rosary Take One, 1987.
Cat Chaser. Dir. Abel Ferrara, Screenplay by Elmore Leonard. Perf. Peter Weller. Vestron
Pictures, 1989.
ARTICLES & ESSAYS
“Impressions of Murder.” The Detroit News Sunday Magazine , 1978.
“Commentary on LaBrava.” The New Black Mask Quarterly, Number 2.
Edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli and Richard Layman. A Harvest/HBJ Book, 1985.
“Quitting.” A chapter in The Courage to Change. edited by Dennis Wholey. New York :
Houghton Mifflin, 1986.
“Cutting Deals.” A Man’s Word.” Esquire, June 1986.
“A Life of Many Hues, Memories of John D. MacDonald.”
St. Petersburg (Florida) Times. Jan 4, 1987.
“A Taste for Life’s Seamy Side.” A conversation with Alvin P. Sanoff.
U.S. News & World Report, March 9, 1987.
“On Richard Bissell.” A chapter in Rediscoveries II. New York : Carroll & Graf, 1988.
“Crime Does Pay.” Life Magazine, November 1990.
“For Swanie, Bless His Heart.” Los Angeles Times, June 16, 1991.
“Elmore Leonard. ” A section in Writers Dreaming by Naomi Epel. New York : Carol
Southern Books, 1993.
“What Elmore Leonard Does.” Chapter in Who’s Writing This? Notations on the Authorial
I With Self Portraits. Dan Halpern, ed. Hopewell, N.J. : Ecco Press, 1995.
“Hollywood and Me.” The Guardian, April 18, 1997.
“My Car Story.” Esquire, Oct. 1998.
“Everyman: Great characters but where’s the love interest?”
The New York Times Magazine, April 18, 1999.
“Richard Bissell.” For the Love of Books, 115 Celebrated Writers on the Books They Love Most.
Ronald B. Shwartz, ed. New York Grosset/Putnam, 1999.
“McHeard Is The Word. The Grey Area: Truth as Entertainment.”
Forbes Magazine, Oct. 2, 2000.
“Hail Mary, Spirituality: With or Without Prayer” The New York Times, May 7, 2000.
“Imagine Pitching this in Hollywood” The New York Times, April 8, 2001.
“How I Write.” Gentlemen’s Quarterly, September 2000.
“Easy on the Adverbs, Exclamation Points and Especially Hooptedoodle.”
The New York Times, 7/16/2001.
“The Lost Art of Writing by Hand.” Esquire, Feb. 2002.
ARTICLES AND ESSAYS (cont.)
“Thank God for Robert Johnson.” Chapter in Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues:
A Musical Journey, ed. by Peter Guralnick. Amistad Press, 2003.
“Reflections on the Topic of Fiction into Film.” BookForum, June, July, August, 2007.
“Making It Up As I Go Along.” AARP Magazine, July/August 2009.
BOOK REVIEWS
“Rent-a-Cop and Robbers.” The Washington Post , April 1983. Review of Dancing Bear by
James Crumley. New York : Random House 1983.
“All the Lonely People.” The Washington Post, January 31, 1993. Review of Fraud by
Anita Brookner. New York : Random House 1983.
“Busting the Tijuana Pirates.” The New York Times Book Review, February 5, 1984. Review of
Lines and Shadows by Joseph Wambuagh. New York : William Morrow & Co, 1984.
“Diamond in the Booth.” The New York Times. April 7, 1991.
Review of Ernie Harwell’s Diamond Gems. Ann Arbor, Mich : Momentum Books, 1991.
INTRODUCTIONS
Irwin Faust, Willy Remembers. New York : Arbor House, 1983.
Elmore Leonard, Touch. New York : Arbor House, 1987.
H. N. Swanson, Sprinkled with Ruby Dust. New York : Warner Books, 1989.
Balthazar Korab. Detroit: The Renaissance City. Charlottesville, Va :
Spradlin & Associates, 1989.
Elmore Leonard. The Big Bounce, (Hardcover reprint.) New York :
The Armchair Detective Library, 1989.
Elmore Leonard. Unknown Man No. 89 . (Hardcover reprint.) New York :
The Armchair Detective Library, 1993.
George V. Higgins . The Friends of Eddie Coyle (Reprint.) New York : Owl Books, 2000.
H. C. Heinz. The Professional. (Reprint.) Da Capo Press, 2001.
Charles Willeford, Miami Blues (Reprint.) New York: Knopf, 2004.
Eli Zaret. ‘84: The Last of the Great Tigers, Untold Stories From an Amazing Season.
Foreword by Elmore Leonard. South Boardman, MI : Crofton Creek Press, 2003.
Walter Mirisch. I Thought We Were Making Movies, Not History. Madison, Wisconsin :
University of Wisconsin Press, 2008.
FEATURE FILMS
3:10 to Yuma. Dir. Delmer Daves. Based on a story by Elmore Leonard. Perf. Glenn Ford.
Columbia Pictures, 1957.
The Tall T. Dir. Budd Boetticher. Based on the story, “The Captives,” by Elmore Leonard.
Perf. Randolph Scott. Columbia Pictures, 1957.
Hombre. Dir. Martin Ritt. Based on the Elmore Leonard novel. Perf. Paul Newman 20th
Century Fox, 1967.
FEATURE FILMS (cont.)
The Big Bounce. Dir. Alex March. Based on the Elmore Leonard novel. Perf. Ryan O’Neal.
Warner Bros., 1969.
The Moonshine War. Dir. Richard Quine. Based on the Elmore Leonard novel. Screenplay by Elmore Leonard. Perf. Patrick McGoohan. Filmway Pictures /
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1970.
Valdez is Coming. Dir. Edwin Sherin. Based on the Elmore Leonard novel. Perf. Burt
Lancaster. United Artists, 1971.
Joe Kidd. Dir. John Sturgis. Original screenplay by Elmore Leonard. Perf. Clint Eastwood.
The Malpaso Company and Universal Pictures. 1972.
Mr. Majestyk. Dir. Richard Fleischer. Original screenplay by Elmore Leonard. Perf. Charles
Bronson. The Mirisch Company, 1974.
Stick. Dir. Burt Reynolds. Based on the Elmore Leonard novel. Screenplay by
Elmore Leonard. Perf. Burt Reynolds. Universal Pictures, 1985.
52 Pickup. Dir. John Frankenheimer Based on the Elmore Leonard novel. Screenplay by
Elmore Leonard. Perf. Roy Scheider. Cannon Group, 1986.
The Rosary Murders. Dir. Fred Walton. Based on the novel by William X. Keinzle. Screenplay
by Elmore Leonard. Perf. Donald Sutherland. First Take, Rosary Take One, 1987.
Cat Chaser. Dir. Abel Ferrara, Based on the Elmore Leonard novel. Perf. Peter Weller. Vestron
Pictures, 1989.
Border Shootout. Dir. Chris McIntyre, Based on the Elmore Leonard novel, The Law at
Randado, Perf. Cody Glenn. Turner Pictures, 1990.
Get Shorty. Dir. Barry Sonnenfeld. Based on the Elmore Leonard novel. Perf. John Travolta.
MGM / Jersey Films, 1995.
Touch. Dir. Paul Schrader. Based on the Elmore Leonard novel. Perf. Skeet Ulrich. Lumiere
International/United Artists, 1997.
Jackie Brown. Dir. Quentin Tarantino. Based on the Elmore Leonard novel, Rum Punch. Perf.
Pam Grier. Miramax Films, 1997.
Out of Sight. Dir. Steven Soderbergh. Based on the Elmore Leonard novel. Perf. George
Clooney. Universal Pictures and Jersey Films, 1998.
The Big Bounce . Dir. George Armitage. Based on the Elmore Leonard novel. Perf. Owen
Wilson. Warner Bros, 2004.
Be Cool, Dir. F. Gary Gray. Based on the Elmore Leonard novel. Perf. John Travolta. MGM,
Jersey Films, Double Feature, 2005.
Killshot. Dir. John Madden. Based on the Elmore Leonard novel. Perf. Mickey Rourke. The
Weinstein Company, 2009.
TELEVISION FILMS
Moment of Vengeance. (TV) Dir. Alvin Ganzer. Based on the short story by Elmore Leonard.
Perf. Ward Bond. Meridian Productions / CBS - Schlitz Playhouse of the Stars, 9/28/1956.
High Noon, Part II. (TV) Dir. Jerry Jameson. Original screenplay by Elmore Leonard.
Charles Fries Productions, 1980.
TELEVISION FILMS (cont.)
Desperados. (TV) Dir. Virgil W. Vogel. Original screenplay by Elmore Leonard Perf. Alex
MacArthur. Universal TV, 1987.
Split Images. Dir. Sheldon Larry. Based on the Elmore Leonard novel. Perf. Gregory Harrison.
Zev Braun, 1992.
Last Stand at Saber River. (TV) Dir. Dick Lowry. Based on the Elmore Leonard novel. Perf.
Tom Selleck. Turner Network Television, 1997.
Pronto. (TV) Dir. Jim McBride. Based on the Elmore Leonard novel. Perf. Peter Falk.
Showtime Pictures, 1997.
Elmore Leonard’s Gold Coast. (TV) Dir. Peter Weller. Based on the Elmore Leonard novel,
Gold Coast. Perf. David Caruso. Studio Showtime Pictures, 1997.
TELEVISION SERIES
Maximum Bob. (TV) Prod. Barry Sonnenfeld. Based on characters from the Elmore Leonard
novel. Perf. Beau Bridges. Warner Bros. Television, 1998.
Karen Sisco. (TV) Prod. Bob Brush. Based on characters from the Elmore Leonard novel, Out
of Sight and the short story, “Karen Makes Out.” Perf. Carla Gugino. ABC Television, Universal Network Television, 2003.
SHORT FILMS
The Tonto Woman. Dir. Daniel Barber, Based on the Elmore Leonard story. Perf. Francesco
Quinn. Knucklehead Productions, 2007.
Sparks. Dir. Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Based on the Elmore Leonard novel. Perf. Carla Gugino.
Produced by Joseph Gordon-Levitt , 2008.
EDUCATIONAL FILMS
The Man Who Has Everything. Franciscan Recruitment Film, Produced by
William F. Deneen, 1961.
The Secret. The Pontifical Institute of Foreign Missions, 1961.
The French and Indian War. Encyclopedia Britannica Films, 1962.
Settlers of the Old Northwest Territory. Encyclopedia Britannica Films, 1962.
Settlement of the Mississippi Valley. Encyclopedia Britannica Films, 1962.
Frontier Boy. Encyclopedia Britannica Films, 1962.
Julius Caesar: The Rise of the Roman Empire. Encyclopedia Britannica Films, 1964.
Life in Ancient Rome. Encyclopedia Britannica Films, 1964.
Claudius - Boy of Ancient Rome. Encyclopedia Britannica Films, 1964.
Puerto Rico: Its Past, Present and Promise. Encyclopedia Britannica Films, 1965.
Spain in the New World. Encyclopedia Britannica Films, No date.
France in the New World. Encyclopedia Britannica Films, No date.
The Danube Valley. Encyclopedia Britannica Films, No date.
Boy of Spain. Encyclopedia Britannica Films, No date.
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The Hot Kid - Chapter One (excerpt)
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The Hot Kid
A Novel
by Elmore Leonard
Chapter One
Carlos Webster was fifteen the day he witnessed the robbery and killing at Deering’s drugstore. This was in the fall of 1921 in Okmulgee, Oklahoma.
He told Bud Maddox, the Okmulgee chief of police, he had driven a load of cows up to the yard at Tulsa and by the time he got back it was dark. He said he left the truck and stock trailer across the street from Deering’s and went inside to get an ice cream cone. When he identified one of the robbers as Emmett Long, Bud Maddox said, “Son, Emmett Long robs banks, he don’t bother with drugstores no more.”
Carlos had been raised on hard work and respect for his elders. He said, “I could be wrong,” knowing he wasn’t.
They brought him over to police headquarters in the courthouse to look at photos. He pointed to Emmett Long staring at him from a $500 wanted bulletin and picked the other one, Jim Ray Monks, from mug shots. Bud Maddox said, “You’re positive, huh?” and asked Carlos which one was it shot the Indian. Meaning Junior Harjo with the tribal police, who’d walked in not knowing the store was being robbed.
“Was Emmett Long shot him,” Carlos said, “with a forty-five Colt.”
“You sure it was a Colt?”
“Navy issue, like my dad’s.”
“I’m teasing,” Bud Maddox said. He and Carlos’ dad, Virgil Webster, were buddies, both having fought in the Spanish-American War and for a number of years were the local heroes. But now doughboys were back from France telling about the Great War over there.
“If you like to know what I think happened,” Carlos said, “Emmett Long only came in for a pack of smokes.”
Bud Maddox stopped him. “Tell it from the time you got there.”
Okay, well, the reason was to get an ice cream cone. “Mr. Deering was in back doing prescriptions—he looked out of that little window and told me to help myself. So I went over to the soda fountain and scooped up a double dip of peach on a sugar cone and went to the cigar counter and left a nickel by the cash register. That’s where I was when I see these two men come in wearing suits and hats I thought at first were salesmen. Mr. Deering calls to me to wait on them as I know the store pretty well. Emmett Long comes up to the counter—”
“You knew right away who he was?”
“Once he was close, yes sir, from pictures of him in the paper. He said to give him a deck of Luckies. I did and he picks up the nickel I’d left by the register. Hands it to me and says, ‘This ought to cover it.’”
“You tell him it was yours?”
“No sir.”
“Or a pack of Luckies cost fifteen cents?”
“I didn’t say a word to him. But see, I think that’s when he got the idea of robbing the store, the cash register sitting there, nobody around but me holding my ice cream cone. Mr. Deering never came out from the back. The other one, Jim Ray Monks, wanted a tube of Unguentine, he said for a heat rash was bothering him, under his arms. I got it for him and he didn’t pay either. Then Emmett Long says, ‘Let’s see what you have in the register.’ I told him I didn’t know how to open it as I didn’t work there. He leans over the counter and points to a key—the man knows his cash registers—and says, ‘That one right there. Hit it and she’ll open for you.’ I press the key—Mr. Deering must’ve heard it ring open, he calls from the back of the store, ‘Carlos, you able to help them out?’ Emmett Long raised his voice saying, ‘Carlos is doing fine,’ using my name. He told me then to take out the scrip but leave the change.”
“How much did he get?”
“No more’n thirty dollars,” Carlos said. He took his time thinking about what happened right after, starting with Emmett Long looking at his ice cream cone. Carlos saw it as personal, something between him and the famous bank robber, so he skipped over it, telling Bud Maddox:
“I put the money on the counter for him, mostly singles. I look up—”
“Junior Harjo walks in,” Bud Maddox said, “a robbery in progress.”
“Yes sir, but Junior doesn’t know it. Emmett Long’s at the counter with his back to him. Jim Ray Monks is over at the soda fountain getting into the ice cream. Neither of them had their guns out, so I doubt Junior saw it as a robbery. But Mr. Deering sees Junior and calls out he’s got his mother’s medicine. Then says for all of us to hear, ‘She tells me they got you raiding Indian stills, looking for moonshine.’ He said something about Junior setting a jar aside for him and that’s all I heard. Now the guns are coming out, Emmett Long’s Colt from inside his suit . . . I guess all he had to see was Junior’s badge and his sidearm, that was enough, Emmett Long shot him. He’d know with that Colt one round would do the job, but he stepped up and shot Junior again, lying on the floor.”
There was a silence.
“I’m trying to recall,” Bud Maddox said, “how many Emmett Long’s killed. I believe six, half of ’em police officers.”
“Seven,” Carlos said, “you count the bank hostage had to stand on his running board. Fell off and broke her neck?”
“I just read the report on that one,” Bud Maddox said. “Was a Dodge Touring, same as Black Jack Pershing’s staff car over in France.”
“They drove away from the drugstore in a Packard,” Carlos said, and gave Bud Maddox the number on the license plate.
Here was the part Carlos saw as personal and had skipped over, beginning with Emmett Long looking at his ice cream cone.
Then asking, “What is that, peach?” Carlos said it was and Emmett Long reached out his hand saying, “Lemme have a bite there,” and took the cone to hold it away from him as it was starting to drip. He bent over to lick it a couple of times before putting his mouth around a big bite he took from the top dip. He said, “Mmmmm, that’s good,” with a trace of peach ice cream along the edge of his mustache. Emmett Long stared at Carlos then like he was studying his features and began licking the cone again. He said, “Carlos, huh?” cocking his head to one side. “You got the dark hair, but you don’t look like any Carlos I ever seen.What’s your other name?”
“Carlos Huntington Webster, that’s all of ’em.”
“It’s a lot of name for a boy,” Emmett Long said.
“So you’re part greaser on your mama’s side, huh? What’s she, Mex?”
Carlos hesitated before saying, “Cuban. I was named for her dad.”
“Cuban’s the same as Mex,” Emmett Long said. “You got greaser blood in you, boy, even if it don’t show much. You come off lucky there.” He licked the cone again, holding it with the tips of his fingers, the little finger sticking out in a dainty kind of way.
Carlos, fifteen years old but as tall as this man with the ice cream on his mustache, wanted to call him a dirty name and hit him in the face as hard as he could, then go over the counter and bulldog him to the floor the way he’d put a bull calf down to brand and cut off its balls. Fifteen years old but he wasn’t stupid. He held on while his heart beat against his chest. He felt the need to stand up to this man, saying finally, “My dad was a marine on the battleship Maine when she was blown up in Havana Harbor, February fifteenth, 1898. He survived, was picked up in the water and thrown in a Spanish prison as a spy. Then when he escaped he fought the dons on the side of the insurrectionists, the rebels. He fought them again and was wounded at Guantánamo, with Huntington’s Marines in that war in Cuba where he met my mother, Graciaplena Santos.”
“Sounds like you daddy was a hero,” Emmett Long said.
“I’m not done,” Carlos said. “After the war my dad came back home and brought my mother with him when Oklahoma was still Indian Territory. She died having me, so I never knew her. I never met my dad’s mother, either. She’s Northern Cheyenne, lives on a reservation out at Lame Deer, Montana,” saying it in a voice that was slow and calm compared to what he felt inside. Saying, “What I want to ask you—if having Indian blood, too, makes me something else besides a greaser.” Saying it in Emmett Long’s face, causing this man with ice cream on his mustache to squint at him.
“For one thing,” Emmett Long said, “the Indin blood makes you and your daddy breeds, him more’n you.” He kept staring at Carlos as he raised the cone, his little finger sticking out, Carlos thinking to lick it again, but what he did was toss the cone over his shoulder, not looking or caring where it would land.
It hit the floor in front of Junior Harjo just then walking in, badge on his tan shirt, revolver on his hip, and Carlos saw the situation turning around. He felt the excitement of these moments but with some relief, too. It picked him up and gave him the nerve to say to Emmett Long, “Now you’re gonna have to clean up your mess.” Except Junior wasn’t pulling his .38, he was looking at the ice cream on the linoleum and Mr. Deering was calling to him about his mother’s medicine and about raiding stills and Emmett Long was turning from the counter with the Colt in his hand, firing, shooting Junior Harjo and stepping closer to shoot him again.
There was no sign of Mr. Deering. Jim Ray Monks came over to have a look at Junior. Emmett Long laid his Colt on the glass counter, picked up the cash in both hands and shoved the bills into his coat pockets before looking at Carlos again.
“You said something to me. Geronimo come in and you said something sounded smart aleck.”
Carlos said, “What’d you kill him for?” still looking at Junior on the floor.
“I want to know what you said to me.”
The outlaw waited.
Carlos looked up rubbing the back of his hand across his mouth. “I said now you’ll have to clean up your mess. The ice cream on the floor.”
“That’s all?”
“It’s what I said.”
Emmett Long kept looking at him. “You had a gun you’d of shot me, huh? Calling you a greaser. Hell, it’s a law of nature, you got any of that blood in you you’re a greaser. I can’t help it, it’s how it is. Being a breed on top of it—I don’t know if that’s called anything or not. But you could pass if you want, you look enough white. Hell, call yourself Carl, I won’t tell on you.”
Carlos and his dad lived in a big new house Virgil said was a California bungalow, off the road and into the pecan trees, a house that was all porch across the front and windows in the steep slant of the roof, a house built a few years before with oil money—those wells pumping away on a half-section of the property. The rest of it was graze and over a thousand acres of pecan trees, Virgil’s pride, land gathered over the years since coming home from Cuba. He could let the trees go and live high off his oil checks, never work again as long as he lived. Nothing doing—harvesttime Virgil was out with his crew gathering pecans, swiping at the branches with cane fishing poles. He had Carlos tending the cows, fifty, sixty head of cross- Brahmas at a time grazing till they filled out good and Carlos would drive a bunch at a time to market in the stock trailer.
He told his dad every time he went to Tulsa some wildcatter would offer to buy his truck and trailer, or want to hire him to haul pipe out to the field. Carlos said, “You know I could make more money in the oil business than feeding cows?”
Virgil said, “Go out to a rig and come back covered in that black muck? That sound good to you? Son, we can’t spend the money we have.”
The foregoing is excerpted from The Hot Kid by Elmore Leonard. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced without written permission from HarperCollins Publishers, 10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022
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The Hot Kid Tour (Complete)
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TULSA
Thursday, May 12
7:00 PM
OKLAHOMA CENTER FOR POETS AND WRITERS AT THE MAYO
READING/TALK/SIGNING
115 West 5th Street
Tulsa, OK
DENVER
Monday, May 16
12:00 PM to 1:30 PM
DENVER PRESS CLUB
TALK/SIGNING
1330 Glenarm Place
Denver, CO 80204
7:30 PM to 9:00 PM
TATTERED COVER/CHERRY CREEK
READING/TALK/SIGNING
1628 16th Street
Denver, CO 80202
NEW YORK
Tuesday, May 17
7:30 PM
BARNES & NOBLE #1979
Upper West Side
2289 Broadway at 82nd Street
New York, NY 10024
Wednesday, May 18
12:30 PM – 1:30 PM
BRYANT PARK READING ROOM
42ND Street (Naer 6th Ave)
New York, NY
ST.LOUIS
Wednesday, May 25
7:00 PM to 8:30 PM
St. Louis Central Library w/ Left Bank Books
TALK/READING/SIGNING
1301 Olive Street
St. Louis, MO 63103
MILWAUKEE
Thursday, May 26
5:00 PM-6:00 PM
MYSTERY ONE
2109 N. Prospect Avenue
Milwaukee, WI
7:00 PM
HARRY W. SCHWARTZ BOOKSHOP
4093 N. Oakland Avenue
Shorewood, WI
BIRMINGHAM
Wednesday, June 15
7:00 PM
BORDERS
34300 Woodward Avenue
Birmingham, MI 48009
ANN ARBOR
Thursday, June 16
7:00 PM
BORDERS
612 E Liberty
Ann Arbor, MI 48104