A Morning for Flamingos (Dave Robicheaux 4)

"I ordered a drink. I didn't ask to have a dildo sit next to me while I drank it. Tell him to get out."

"Miss, please."

"What does it take to get through to you?" she said.

Other people had stopped eating and drinking and were looking at us.

"Sir, would you mind—," the bartender said.

"No, I don't mind," I said. "Where should I go?"

"Try Bumfuck, Kansas," she said.

"Miss, I'll have to ask you to leave, too."

"Is that right?" she said. "Would you page Mr. Cardo out on the golf course and tell him that? I would appreciate it if you would tell him that."

"You're Mr. Cardo's guest?" the bartender said. His face was bloodless.

"Don't sweat it, partner. We're leaving," I said.

"Is that what we're doing? Is that what you think we're doing? I don't think we're doing that at all," she said, and shattered her highball glass on the liquor bottles behind the bar.

The bar area and dining room were silent. Her gray pillbox hat was askew on top of her forehead, and a lock of her red hair hung down in one eye. The bartender stood on the duckboards and stared wide-eyed at Jess, who had just thrust open the outer glass doors to the bar, the putter still in his hand, his face pushed out of shape like white rubber.

We were driving away from the lakefront, on Orleans Avenue, past City Park. Tony had the window down and was turned in his seat, looking back at me and Kim, and his black and gray hair blew like tiny springs in the wind.

"What were you guys doing?" he said. He tried to hold a grin on his face.

"I was trying to have a drink," Kim said.

"Some fucking way to get the bartender's attention," Jess said.

"I'm sorry about that back there," I said to Tony.

"I can't believe it, eighty-sixed out of my own club," he said. "You know what it took for me to get a membership in that place?"

"You want me to go back and talk with somebody about it later?" Jess said.

"What's the matter with you? It's a country club. You can't come crashing into the bar with a golf club in your hand," Tony said.

"I thought they were in trouble," Jess said.

"So you had to knock a waiter down?"

"I didn't see him. What the fuck, Tony. Why you reaming me? I didn't start that stuff."

"I think you ought to consider who you invite out to lunch," Kim said.

"I think I ought to get a new life. Am I the only person that's sane in this car?" Tony said.

"It's my fault. I'm sorry about it," I said.

"How gallant," Kim said.

"All right, all right. I'll try to square it. It's just a club, anyway, right? Jesus Christ," Tony said, and blew out his breath.

We could see golfers out on the fairways in City Park and children on horseback beyond a grove of oak trees. Jess looked in the rearview mirror and changed lanes. Then he looked in the rearview mirror again, accelerated, and passed two cars. I saw his eyes go back into the mirror.