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Fiction

Belle

By Rubem Fonseca
Translated from Portuguese by Clifford E. Landers
A contract killer works both sides in this story by Rubem Fonseca.

“The Walther’s hot, if they catch you with it, we’ll get dragged into it. After you do the job, throw it away, in the ocean or the lake.”

“Leave it to me,” I said.

The Dispatcher went on. “Remember the Glock and the shit storm it caused?” As if I could forget the black guy who pretended he was living in the rocks with the cockroaches but wasn’t one of us, and smelled of scented soap and wore a fancy watch and when he stuck his hand in his waistband to pull out the piece I shot him in the head and took his weapon, a Glock 18, automatic, a beauty, the best thing to ever come out of Austria. But it was hot and when they caught me with it they worked me over and broke two teeth here in front, maimed my right hand. They wanted me to confess to killing the black guy and said they’d go easy on me if I told them who’d hired me, but I didn’t open my trap and didn’t confess to a goddamn thing.

“You didn’t know who ordered it.”

“By the victim you suspect who’s behind it. It’s simple. Want me to say his name? Don’t fuck with me, old pal, look at my false teeth, my gimpy hand. I knew, I was tortured, and I didn’t rat anyone out.”

“They broke the wrong hand,” said the Dispatcher. “If they knew you were a lefty . . .”

I walked away with the fool still talking to himself. I went to the hotel where the customer was staying. That was the name, customer, we used for the guy who was going to be hit, and I called my girlfriend to be beside me at the doorbell.

I don’t enjoy popping anybody, but it’s my job. The Dispatcher told me one day he read in a book that a man just needs two things, fucking and working, but all I needed was fucking; work is for shit. But I use a disguise; to everyone I’m a vendor of computer products, and I always carry around a small leather briefcase full of brochures.

Before we went to the hotel, my girlfriend arrived at my apartment and took off her clothes and her white body filled the darkened room with light and I looked at her ass to see if it had any marks from her bikini or the sun. She knew if she showed the least hint of a tan I’d beat the hell out of her, but her ass was whiter than an ambulance.

Her name was Belinha, she was eighteen, she liked me because I was an outlaw, and because she knew my hard-on was for real. She despised those guys who take pills to get it up, said she couldn’t love a man who faked it like that. And she sucked my cock and I made her get on her knees on the bed and I sucked her pussy, she got off on being sucked like that. I would stick my tongue in there and sometimes she’d ask me to put my nose in. Her pussy was fragrant and I would stick my nose in. I forgot to say that besides a large cock I also have a large nose. Then I’d ram my cock in and she would come, that was the beginning.

She didn’t know the kind of work I did, she thought it was something to do with smuggling or drugs and asked to see my tools and said she liked being an outlaw’s girl, but I couldn’t explain my job to her, I myself didn’t really know what was behind it all. The Dispatcher would call me and say he had a job and give me the file on the customer. Sometimes it was some important guy whose name was in the newspapers, I’ve even done foreigners. I was well-paid, trustworthy, proof of which were the false teeth in my mouth, the scar on my face, and my busted right hand with fingers bent like thick pieces of wire.

My girlfriend came from an important family rolling in dough, was educated in the finest schools, and spoke French. She called herself Belinha or Isabel or Isabella or Belle. I preferred Belle because she was the most beautiful girl in the world. We were in my apartment waiting to go to the hotel where I was going to meet the customer. Lying in bed after fucking, she said, “Explain that stuff about pistols and revolvers, the difference.” I said that in a revolver the bullets are in a cylinder we call a drum, each cartridge has its own ignition chamber, and after each shot the cylinder rotates, bringing a new cartridge into alignment with the barrel. There are six-cartridge drums, the most common, and nine-cartridge, depending on the size of the revolver. A pistol, like the Walther semi-automatic P99, has a clip with cartridges that slides into the handle, and after each shot the empty cartridge is ejected automatically and a new bullet from the clip is placed in position for firing.

She also wanted to know why I used a pistol and not a revolver, so I explained, while she held the Walther as if it were a dead rat, that pistols were smaller, lighter, and more reliable, and besides, a pistol allowed the use of a silencer. “This fucker screwed into the barrel of the pistol is the silencer. There’s no such thing as silencers for revolvers—I mean, there is, but they’re bulky mothers that enclose the drum and make the weapon too heavy. Nobody uses them, they’re a museum piece.”

She also asked what I felt when I snuffed a guy and I answered I didn’t think about anything, just like a soldier in war. The difference is that I didn’t win a medal when I killed the enemy.

I put on a coat and she dressed in some high-class women’s clothes and we went to the customer’s hotel and waited in the lobby for the guy to arrive. Belle was an elegant girl when it came to dressing, sitting, speaking. Anyone who looked at her would say, This is a well-born girl from a good family. That’s why I told her I’d beat the hell out of her if she got a tattoo like she’d been talking about doing.

My appearance is nondescript, I’m a thin guy with a big nose, an inoffensive look, hair starting to go gray. Wearing that dark suit I looked like an insurance salesman. The Dispatcher had told me the customer was going to a meeting away from the hotel and should be back around nine that night. I had two pictures of his face in my pocket.

Then the customer showed up. I was a bit surprised to see him, not much, I’m an old whore and don’t really get surprised. But the guy was in a wheelchair, being pushed by a young woman who looked like a nurse. That fucker the Dispatcher hadn’t told me the customer was a cripple.

“Wait here for me,” I told Belle, and got into the elevator with the nurse and the crippled guy.

I got out on the same floor. The corridor was empty, I could snuff the two of them right there, but my jobs are always done intelligently. I took a paper from my pocket and pretended I was trying to read something on it, while looking nearsightedly at the numbers on the doors and following the wheelchair. I waited for the nurse to open the door of the apartment and when she went in, pushing the wheelchair, I went in too. Her eyes widened, but before she could make a peep I shot her in the head. I always go for the head.

“Take it easy,” said the customer, facing me with both hands palms outward. He was in the business, he looked me in the eye. “We can make a deal, I’ll pay you more,” he said.

I fired two shots into his head. Then I unscrewed the silencer, stuck the Walther in my belt, the silencer in my pocket and left, shutting the door. I got in the elevator and went downstairs. If I was lucky, it’d be some time before they found the pair of stiffs.

When I got to the lobby, I took Belle by the arm and we left. No one looked at me, anyone looking in our direction would see only Belle.

I got in the car and said, “Let’s go to the lake.” But when we arrived at the lake I didn’t have the heart to toss the pistol in the water. Shit, a Walther P99, the best thing to ever come out of Germany.

“Let’s go to the movies,” Belle said. We went to see a detective film, she was crazy about detective films. If she ever cuckolded me, it’d be with a cop.

We got out of the theater at midnight and Belle said she wanted to go dancing at the discotheque. But first we stopped at my place and I put away the Walther, after patting it like it was a puppy.

At the discotheque Belle led me to the floor right away to dance. Watching her dance was mind-blowing, but I danced shaking like a dead tree branch in a high wind. Then we had a drink and she asked what I thought when I saw I was about to kill a cripple. “Nothing,” I answered, “and you, what did you think?” She said she thought it better to kill a cripple than a healthy guy who could dance and work out on a treadmill.

When we got back to the apartment, Belle, in bed, said she wanted to talk to me about something serious. Her father was threatening to cut off her allowance.

“Fuck your father’s allowance, I’ll give you the money,” I said.

“But that’s not all, he’s so pissed at me that he says he’s going to leave everything to charity, so that when he dies I won’t inherit a penny.”

“Fuck your father’s money, I’ll support you.”

“Man, it’s a lot of money,” she said. “I think it’s very cruel, I’m only eighteen, I’m going to last at least another sixty. Can you imagine sixty years in poverty?”

“I’ve already said I’ll take care of you,” I insisted.

She looked at me pensively and said, “Sweetheart, I love you, but who can guarantee that you—in the business you’re in, that you’re, you’re . . .”

She stopped, and I finished the thought for her: “Who can say if I’m going to be around for long, isn’t that it?”

She answered, “That’s it, I’m very sorry, but that is it.” Then she gave me lots of little kisses and told me she loved me, and added that she had a proposition for me.

“Leave it till tomorrow,” I said. “Let’s go to sleep, it’s almost dawn, and if day breaks I can’t sleep once the sun comes up.” I took off my clothes, stripping down to my undershorts, and got into bed. She remained seated in the armchair.

When I woke up, Belle was still sitting in the chair.

“I couldn’t sleep,” she said, “can we talk now?”

“Talk about what?”

“My proposition,” she replied.

“Talk,” I said.

She got up from the chair and sat down beside me on the bed. “I want you to kill my father.”

I remained silent. Shit, I thought, you can kill everybody, except your own father and mother.

“Give it some thought,” I said.

And she answered, “I spent all night thinking about it, and all week. There’s nothing left to think about. What’s the problem? Since I’ve known you you’ve killed five people. Yesterday you killed a cripple, and now you’ve got scruples about killing my son-of-a-bitch father who wants to leave me without a penny? If you tell me to jump off a bridge I’ll do it, and I ask you for one little thing and you hesitate, is that how much you love me?”

She bent over me, took off my shorts and started sucking my cock. “Is that good?”

Some five hundred women have sucked my cock, but none of them had a mouth as magical as hers. “Is that good?” After repeating that, she stopped, sat down on the bed, and said, “If you don’t kill my father I’m leaving you. You’ll have to find some other girl to fuck.”

There wasn’t another girl like her in the whole world. But Belle wanting to kill her father made her ugly, and my cock wilted.

“I’ll think about it,” I said.

“I’ll give you a week,” she said.

I shadowed her father during that week. He was a tall man with white hair, nice- looking, who left the house every day and got into the chauffeured car waiting in front. One day, before he got into the car, I went up to him and said, “Excuse me, I’m not from here. How do I get downtown?”

He answered, “I’m heading there, I’ll give you a lift. Please, get in.”

We talked in the car. I told him I was from Minas Gerais and was looking for work. It could be as a servant, anything, I just needed work, and he handed me a card and wrote a name on the back.

“This is Dona Estela, my secretary. I’m going to tell her to look for a position for you. Come to this address tomorrow morning and speak to her.”

I thought it was time to leave and said, “I’ll get out here. Thank you very much, I’ll be there tomorrow.”

I got out of the car and walked down the street, thinking. When I got to my apartment there was a message from Belle on the answering machine asking me to call her.

“How’s it coming?” she asked.

“I’m setting things up,” I said, “it won’t be long. I’ll do the job in a few days.”

“I’ll come by there later,” Belle said, “and I’m giving you my sweet little ass.”

Normally that would have aroused me, but that day, I don’t know why, it was disagreeable. “I can’t today, I’ve got a meeting with the Dispatcher.”

The next day I went to look for Dona Estela. She was very pleasant and said she’d found me a position as a driver and that I should bring my documents to her as soon as possible.

At that moment Belle’s father came into the waiting room and clapped me on the back, saying, “Everything all right? Is there anything you need, an advance?”

“No, Sir. Thank you very much.”

When I got to the apartment I called Belle and said that doing her father at the office would be hard; it had to be on the street or at his home.

“I’ll arrange a key for you,” Belle said. “I’m coming over there so we can fool around a bit, I want to suck you off..”

“It’s not possible today either,” I said.

“Hey,” said Belle, “I miss that big dick.”

“There’s been a screw-up,” I said. “I’ve got another meeting with the Dispatcher to straighten it out.”

She gave me a key.

“What about the servants?” I asked.

“Not to worry, they stay in an apartment over the garage.”

I called Belle and asked, “Is tonight OK?”

“Yes,” she replied, “he always takes a sleeping pill around eleven. Get here at midnight, but when you arrive, first let’s go to my room to fool around a little.”

I got there at exactly midnight, the Walther with its silencer in my pocket. When I entered, Belle was standing in the living room waiting for me. We went upstairs. “His room is that one over there, and mine is here. Come on.” We went into her room and Belle immediately got naked and asked, “What do you want, my ass? Want me to suck you off? Want to suck me? Whatever you want, that’s what I want.”

That talk didn’t appeal to me anymore. It used to get me excited, now it kind of disgusted me. She lay down on her stomach, arching her ass. In the world, the entire world, there wasn’t a prettier ass than hers, and she knew it. I approached Belle, took the Walther out of my pocket and shot her in the head, right in the back of the neck, for her to die instantaneously and painlessly. Then I covered her body with a sheet and left, closing the door to the street. How could anyone want to kill their father or mother?

Now the Walther was really hot. I drove to the lake and sat down, thinking, without the heart to throw that jewel in the water. Day was starting to break, and I could feel something happening to me, I felt like crying, but crying is for fags, and I didn’t cry. I took the Walther and threw it as far as I could. It hit the water without making much noise. The sun was so white it hurt my eyes.


© Rubem Fonseca. By arrangement with the author. Translation © 2012 by Clifford E. Landers. All rights reserved.

English Portuguese (Original)

“The Walther’s hot, if they catch you with it, we’ll get dragged into it. After you do the job, throw it away, in the ocean or the lake.”

“Leave it to me,” I said.

The Dispatcher went on. “Remember the Glock and the shit storm it caused?” As if I could forget the black guy who pretended he was living in the rocks with the cockroaches but wasn’t one of us, and smelled of scented soap and wore a fancy watch and when he stuck his hand in his waistband to pull out the piece I shot him in the head and took his weapon, a Glock 18, automatic, a beauty, the best thing to ever come out of Austria. But it was hot and when they caught me with it they worked me over and broke two teeth here in front, maimed my right hand. They wanted me to confess to killing the black guy and said they’d go easy on me if I told them who’d hired me, but I didn’t open my trap and didn’t confess to a goddamn thing.

“You didn’t know who ordered it.”

“By the victim you suspect who’s behind it. It’s simple. Want me to say his name? Don’t fuck with me, old pal, look at my false teeth, my gimpy hand. I knew, I was tortured, and I didn’t rat anyone out.”

“They broke the wrong hand,” said the Dispatcher. “If they knew you were a lefty . . .”

I walked away with the fool still talking to himself. I went to the hotel where the customer was staying. That was the name, customer, we used for the guy who was going to be hit, and I called my girlfriend to be beside me at the doorbell.

I don’t enjoy popping anybody, but it’s my job. The Dispatcher told me one day he read in a book that a man just needs two things, fucking and working, but all I needed was fucking; work is for shit. But I use a disguise; to everyone I’m a vendor of computer products, and I always carry around a small leather briefcase full of brochures.

Before we went to the hotel, my girlfriend arrived at my apartment and took off her clothes and her white body filled the darkened room with light and I looked at her ass to see if it had any marks from her bikini or the sun. She knew if she showed the least hint of a tan I’d beat the hell out of her, but her ass was whiter than an ambulance.

Her name was Belinha, she was eighteen, she liked me because I was an outlaw, and because she knew my hard-on was for real. She despised those guys who take pills to get it up, said she couldn’t love a man who faked it like that. And she sucked my cock and I made her get on her knees on the bed and I sucked her pussy, she got off on being sucked like that. I would stick my tongue in there and sometimes she’d ask me to put my nose in. Her pussy was fragrant and I would stick my nose in. I forgot to say that besides a large cock I also have a large nose. Then I’d ram my cock in and she would come, that was the beginning.

She didn’t know the kind of work I did, she thought it was something to do with smuggling or drugs and asked to see my tools and said she liked being an outlaw’s girl, but I couldn’t explain my job to her, I myself didn’t really know what was behind it all. The Dispatcher would call me and say he had a job and give me the file on the customer. Sometimes it was some important guy whose name was in the newspapers, I’ve even done foreigners. I was well-paid, trustworthy, proof of which were the false teeth in my mouth, the scar on my face, and my busted right hand with fingers bent like thick pieces of wire.

My girlfriend came from an important family rolling in dough, was educated in the finest schools, and spoke French. She called herself Belinha or Isabel or Isabella or Belle. I preferred Belle because she was the most beautiful girl in the world. We were in my apartment waiting to go to the hotel where I was going to meet the customer. Lying in bed after fucking, she said, “Explain that stuff about pistols and revolvers, the difference.” I said that in a revolver the bullets are in a cylinder we call a drum, each cartridge has its own ignition chamber, and after each shot the cylinder rotates, bringing a new cartridge into alignment with the barrel. There are six-cartridge drums, the most common, and nine-cartridge, depending on the size of the revolver. A pistol, like the Walther semi-automatic P99, has a clip with cartridges that slides into the handle, and after each shot the empty cartridge is ejected automatically and a new bullet from the clip is placed in position for firing.

She also wanted to know why I used a pistol and not a revolver, so I explained, while she held the Walther as if it were a dead rat, that pistols were smaller, lighter, and more reliable, and besides, a pistol allowed the use of a silencer. “This fucker screwed into the barrel of the pistol is the silencer. There’s no such thing as silencers for revolvers—I mean, there is, but they’re bulky mothers that enclose the drum and make the weapon too heavy. Nobody uses them, they’re a museum piece.”

She also asked what I felt when I snuffed a guy and I answered I didn’t think about anything, just like a soldier in war. The difference is that I didn’t win a medal when I killed the enemy.

I put on a coat and she dressed in some high-class women’s clothes and we went to the customer’s hotel and waited in the lobby for the guy to arrive. Belle was an elegant girl when it came to dressing, sitting, speaking. Anyone who looked at her would say, This is a well-born girl from a good family. That’s why I told her I’d beat the hell out of her if she got a tattoo like she’d been talking about doing.

My appearance is nondescript, I’m a thin guy with a big nose, an inoffensive look, hair starting to go gray. Wearing that dark suit I looked like an insurance salesman. The Dispatcher had told me the customer was going to a meeting away from the hotel and should be back around nine that night. I had two pictures of his face in my pocket.

Then the customer showed up. I was a bit surprised to see him, not much, I’m an old whore and don’t really get surprised. But the guy was in a wheelchair, being pushed by a young woman who looked like a nurse. That fucker the Dispatcher hadn’t told me the customer was a cripple.

“Wait here for me,” I told Belle, and got into the elevator with the nurse and the crippled guy.

I got out on the same floor. The corridor was empty, I could snuff the two of them right there, but my jobs are always done intelligently. I took a paper from my pocket and pretended I was trying to read something on it, while looking nearsightedly at the numbers on the doors and following the wheelchair. I waited for the nurse to open the door of the apartment and when she went in, pushing the wheelchair, I went in too. Her eyes widened, but before she could make a peep I shot her in the head. I always go for the head.

“Take it easy,” said the customer, facing me with both hands palms outward. He was in the business, he looked me in the eye. “We can make a deal, I’ll pay you more,” he said.

I fired two shots into his head. Then I unscrewed the silencer, stuck the Walther in my belt, the silencer in my pocket and left, shutting the door. I got in the elevator and went downstairs. If I was lucky, it’d be some time before they found the pair of stiffs.

When I got to the lobby, I took Belle by the arm and we left. No one looked at me, anyone looking in our direction would see only Belle.

I got in the car and said, “Let’s go to the lake.” But when we arrived at the lake I didn’t have the heart to toss the pistol in the water. Shit, a Walther P99, the best thing to ever come out of Germany.

“Let’s go to the movies,” Belle said. We went to see a detective film, she was crazy about detective films. If she ever cuckolded me, it’d be with a cop.

We got out of the theater at midnight and Belle said she wanted to go dancing at the discotheque. But first we stopped at my place and I put away the Walther, after patting it like it was a puppy.

At the discotheque Belle led me to the floor right away to dance. Watching her dance was mind-blowing, but I danced shaking like a dead tree branch in a high wind. Then we had a drink and she asked what I thought when I saw I was about to kill a cripple. “Nothing,” I answered, “and you, what did you think?” She said she thought it better to kill a cripple than a healthy guy who could dance and work out on a treadmill.

When we got back to the apartment, Belle, in bed, said she wanted to talk to me about something serious. Her father was threatening to cut off her allowance.

“Fuck your father’s allowance, I’ll give you the money,” I said.

“But that’s not all, he’s so pissed at me that he says he’s going to leave everything to charity, so that when he dies I won’t inherit a penny.”

“Fuck your father’s money, I’ll support you.”

“Man, it’s a lot of money,” she said. “I think it’s very cruel, I’m only eighteen, I’m going to last at least another sixty. Can you imagine sixty years in poverty?”

“I’ve already said I’ll take care of you,” I insisted.

She looked at me pensively and said, “Sweetheart, I love you, but who can guarantee that you—in the business you’re in, that you’re, you’re . . .”

She stopped, and I finished the thought for her: “Who can say if I’m going to be around for long, isn’t that it?”

She answered, “That’s it, I’m very sorry, but that is it.” Then she gave me lots of little kisses and told me she loved me, and added that she had a proposition for me.

“Leave it till tomorrow,” I said. “Let’s go to sleep, it’s almost dawn, and if day breaks I can’t sleep once the sun comes up.” I took off my clothes, stripping down to my undershorts, and got into bed. She remained seated in the armchair.

When I woke up, Belle was still sitting in the chair.

“I couldn’t sleep,” she said, “can we talk now?”

“Talk about what?”

“My proposition,” she replied.

“Talk,” I said.

She got up from the chair and sat down beside me on the bed. “I want you to kill my father.”

I remained silent. Shit, I thought, you can kill everybody, except your own father and mother.

“Give it some thought,” I said.

And she answered, “I spent all night thinking about it, and all week. There’s nothing left to think about. What’s the problem? Since I’ve known you you’ve killed five people. Yesterday you killed a cripple, and now you’ve got scruples about killing my son-of-a-bitch father who wants to leave me without a penny? If you tell me to jump off a bridge I’ll do it, and I ask you for one little thing and you hesitate, is that how much you love me?”

She bent over me, took off my shorts and started sucking my cock. “Is that good?”

Some five hundred women have sucked my cock, but none of them had a mouth as magical as hers. “Is that good?” After repeating that, she stopped, sat down on the bed, and said, “If you don’t kill my father I’m leaving you. You’ll have to find some other girl to fuck.”

There wasn’t another girl like her in the whole world. But Belle wanting to kill her father made her ugly, and my cock wilted.

“I’ll think about it,” I said.

“I’ll give you a week,” she said.

I shadowed her father during that week. He was a tall man with white hair, nice- looking, who left the house every day and got into the chauffeured car waiting in front. One day, before he got into the car, I went up to him and said, “Excuse me, I’m not from here. How do I get downtown?”

He answered, “I’m heading there, I’ll give you a lift. Please, get in.”

We talked in the car. I told him I was from Minas Gerais and was looking for work. It could be as a servant, anything, I just needed work, and he handed me a card and wrote a name on the back.

“This is Dona Estela, my secretary. I’m going to tell her to look for a position for you. Come to this address tomorrow morning and speak to her.”

I thought it was time to leave and said, “I’ll get out here. Thank you very much, I’ll be there tomorrow.”

I got out of the car and walked down the street, thinking. When I got to my apartment there was a message from Belle on the answering machine asking me to call her.

“How’s it coming?” she asked.

“I’m setting things up,” I said, “it won’t be long. I’ll do the job in a few days.”

“I’ll come by there later,” Belle said, “and I’m giving you my sweet little ass.”

Normally that would have aroused me, but that day, I don’t know why, it was disagreeable. “I can’t today, I’ve got a meeting with the Dispatcher.”

The next day I went to look for Dona Estela. She was very pleasant and said she’d found me a position as a driver and that I should bring my documents to her as soon as possible.

At that moment Belle’s father came into the waiting room and clapped me on the back, saying, “Everything all right? Is there anything you need, an advance?”

“No, Sir. Thank you very much.”

When I got to the apartment I called Belle and said that doing her father at the office would be hard; it had to be on the street or at his home.

“I’ll arrange a key for you,” Belle said. “I’m coming over there so we can fool around a bit, I want to suck you off..”

“It’s not possible today either,” I said.

“Hey,” said Belle, “I miss that big dick.”

“There’s been a screw-up,” I said. “I’ve got another meeting with the Dispatcher to straighten it out.”

She gave me a key.

“What about the servants?” I asked.

“Not to worry, they stay in an apartment over the garage.”

I called Belle and asked, “Is tonight OK?”

“Yes,” she replied, “he always takes a sleeping pill around eleven. Get here at midnight, but when you arrive, first let’s go to my room to fool around a little.”

I got there at exactly midnight, the Walther with its silencer in my pocket. When I entered, Belle was standing in the living room waiting for me. We went upstairs. “His room is that one over there, and mine is here. Come on.” We went into her room and Belle immediately got naked and asked, “What do you want, my ass? Want me to suck you off? Want to suck me? Whatever you want, that’s what I want.”

That talk didn’t appeal to me anymore. It used to get me excited, now it kind of disgusted me. She lay down on her stomach, arching her ass. In the world, the entire world, there wasn’t a prettier ass than hers, and she knew it. I approached Belle, took the Walther out of my pocket and shot her in the head, right in the back of the neck, for her to die instantaneously and painlessly. Then I covered her body with a sheet and left, closing the door to the street. How could anyone want to kill their father or mother?

Now the Walther was really hot. I drove to the lake and sat down, thinking, without the heart to throw that jewel in the water. Day was starting to break, and I could feel something happening to me, I felt like crying, but crying is for fags, and I didn’t cry. I took the Walther and threw it as far as I could. It hit the water without making much noise. The sun was so white it hurt my eyes.


© Rubem Fonseca. By arrangement with the author. Translation © 2012 by Clifford E. Landers. All rights reserved.

Belinha

 A Walther é quente, se pegarem você com ela vai respingar na gente, depois de fazer o serviço joga fora, na lagoa, ou no mar.

Pode deixar, eu disse, e o Despachante continuou, lembra da Glock e da merda que deu?, como se eu fosse esquecer o crioulo que fingia que morava nas pedras com as baratas mas não era do ramo e cheirava a sabonete perfumado e tinha um relógiogranfa no pulso e quando meteu a mão na cintura para tirar a ferramenta dei-lhe um tiro na cabeça e fiquei com a arma dele, uma Glock 18, automática, uma beleza, a melhor coisa que a Áustria deu ao mundo.  Mas era quente e quando me pegaram com ela me encheram de porrada, quebraram dois dentes aqui da frente e um dedo da mão, pois queriam que eu confessasse que tinha matado o crioulo e que se eu dissesse quem tinha me contratado eles aliviavam a minha barra, mas não abri o bico não confessei porra nenhuma.

Você não sabia quem era o mandante.

Pela vítima você desconfia quem é o mandante. É mole. Quer que eu diga o nome? Não fode, ô camaradinha, olha aqui os dentes postiços, a mão torta. Eu sabia, fui torturado e não delatei ninguém.

Eles quebraram a mão errada, disse o Despachante, se soubessem que você era canhoto.

Deixei o bestalhão falando sozinho. Fui ao hotel onde o freguês estava hospedado, esse era o nome, freguês, que a gente dava para o cara que ia ser apagado, e chamei a minha namorada para ficar comigo na campana.

Não gosto de chumbar ninguém, mas é o meu trabalho, o Despachante um dia me disse que leu num livro que o homem só precisa de duas coisas, de foder e de trabalhar, mas eu só precisava era de foder, trabalhar é uma merda. Mas eu uso um disfarce, para todo mundo eu sou vendedor de produtos de informática, e carrego sempre uma maleta de couro cheia de panfletos.

Antes de irmos para o hotel a minha namorada chegou no meu apartamento e tirou a roupa e o corpo branco dela encheu de luz o quarto escuro e eu olhei a bunda dela para ver se tinha marca de biquíni e de sol, ela sabia que se pegasse uma gota de sol eu ia encher ela de porrada, mas a bunda dela estava mais branca que o carro da ambulância.

O nome dela era Belinha, tinha dezoito anos, gostava de mim porque eu era bandido e sabia que o meu tesão era verdadeiro, ela desprezava esses caras que tomavam pílulas pro pau ficar duro, dizia que não podia amar homens desse tipo fingidor. E ela chupou o meu pau e eu fiz ela ficar ajoelhada na cama e chupei a boceta dela, ela gostava de ser chupada assim, eu enfiava a língua lá dentro e às vezes ela pedia para eu enfiar o nariz e a boceta dela era cheirosa e eu enfiava o nariz. Esqueci de dizer que além de pau grande eu tenho nariz grande. Depois que eu enfiava o pau e ela gozava, era assim o começo.

Ela não sabia o tipo de trabalho que eu fazia, achava que tinha contrabando no meio ou droga e pedia para ver minhas ferramentas e dizia que gostava de namorar bandido, mas eu não podia explicar  o meu serviço pra ela, eu mesmo não sabia bem o que estava por trás de tudo, o Despachante me chamava e dizia que tinha um serviço e me dava a ficha do freguês, às vezes era um cara importante que tinha nome no jornal, já teve até gringo. Eu era bem pago, de confiança, estavam ali como prova os dentes postiços na minha boca, a cicatriz nos cornos e o dedo quebrado curvo como um pedaço de arame grosso.

Minha namorada era moça de família importante cheia da grana, educada nos melhores colégios, falava francês, chamava-se Belinha ou Isabel ou Isabelinha ou Bel, eu preferia Belinha porque ela era a mulher mais linda do mundo. Estávamos no meu apartamento, esperando a hora de irmos para o hotel onde eu ia encontrar o freguês. Deitados na cama, depois de foder, ela disse me explica essa coisa de pistola e revólver, a diferença. Falei que no revolver as balas ficavam num cilindro que chamávamos de tambor, cada cartucho tendo a sua câmara de ignição e a cada disparo o cilindro girava colocando um novo cartucho alinhado com o cano. Tem tambores de seis cartuchos, o mais comuns, e de nove, dependendo do tamanho do revólver. A pistola, como esta Walther P99, semiautomática, tem um pente ou carregador com cartuchos  que se enfia no cabo, depois  de cada disparo o cartucho vazio é ejetado para fora e um novo cartucho é extraído automaticamente do carregador e colocado em posição para ser disparado. 

Ela também queria saber por que eu usava pistola e não revólver e eu expliquei, enquanto ela segurava a Walther como se fosse um rato morto, que as pistolas eram menores, mais leves, e mais seguras e além disso a pistola permite o uso do silenciador, esta porra aqui atarraxada no cano, silenciador de revólver não existe, quer dizer existe, uma merda grossa que envolve o tambor e faz a arma ficar um trambolho, ninguém usa, é coisa de museu.

Ela também perguntava o que eu sentia quando apagava um cara e eu respondia que não pensava em nada, igual um soldado na guerra, a  diferença é que eu não ganhava uma medalha quando matava o adversário.

Depois vesti um terno e ela uma roupa de moça fina e fomos para o hotel do freguês e ficamos no saguão esperando o cara chegar. A Belinha era uma garota elegante, na maneira de se vestir, de se sentar, de falar, quem olhasse para ela diria, esta é uma menina bem nascida, de boa família. Foi por isso que eu lhe disse que  a encheria de porrada se ela fizesse uma tatuagem, como andou falando.

O meu aspecto não fede nem cheira, sou um sujeito magro de nariz grande, aspecto inofensivo, usando aquele terno preto eu parecia um vendedor de seguros. O Despachante tinha informado que o freguês ia a uma reunião fora do hotel e devia chegar por volta de nove da noite. Eu tinha no bolso duas fotos do rosto dele.

Então o freguês apareceu. Senti certa surpresa ao vê-lo, não muita, sou puta velha e não levo susto. Mas o cara estava numa de cadeira de rodas, sendo empurrado por uma moça que parecia uma enfermeira. O puto do Despachante não me tinha dito que o freguês era aleijado. Eu disse para a Belinha, me espera aqui e entrei no elevador com a enfermeira e o aleijado.

Saltei no mesmo andar. O corredor estava vazio eu podia apagar os dois ali mesmo, mas o meu serviço é sempre feito com inteligência. Apanhei um papel do bolso e fingi que procurava ler alguma coisa nele, enquanto olhava como um míope os números das portas e seguia a cadeira de rodas. Esperei a enfermeira abrir a porta do apartamento e quando ela entrou empurrando a cadeira de rodas eu entrei junto. Ela arregalou o olho, mas antes que desse um pio eu dei um tiro na cabeça dela. Atiro sempre na cabeça.

Calma, disse o freguês, com as duas mãos espalmadas para mim, tranquilo, olhando nos meus olhos, vamos fazer negócio, eu pago mais, ele disse.

Dei dois tiros na cabeça dele. Depois desatarraxei o silenciador, coloquei a Walther na cintura, o silenciador no bolso, fechei o paletó, sai, fechei a porta, peguei o elevador e desci. Se eu tivesse sorte ia demorar muito até acharem os presuntos.

Chegando ao saguão peguei Belinha pelo braço e fomos embora, ninguém olhou para mim, se alguém olhasse na nossa direção só via a Belinha.

Entrei no carro e disse, vamos até a lagoa. Mas quando cheguei na lagoa não tive coragem de jogar a pistola na água, uma Walther P99, porra, a melhor coisa que a Alemanha deu ao mundo.

Vamos ao cinema, disse Belinha. Fomos ver um filme policial, ela era louca por filme policial, se um dia fosse mecornear ia ser com um tira.

Saímos do cinema à meia noite e Belinha disse que queria ir dançar na discoteca. Mas antes passamos no meu apartamento e eu guardei a Walther, depois de acariciá-la como se fosse um cachorrinho.

Na discoteca Belinha me chamou logo para dançar, ela dançando era uma coisa alucinante, mas eu dançava balançando como um galho seco de árvore numa ventania. Depois fomos tomar um drinque e ela perguntou o que eu pensei quando vi que ia matar um aleijado.  Nada, respondi, e você, o que pensou? Ela disse que achava mais justo matar um aleijado do que um cara inteiro que podia dançar e fazer aeróbica na esteira.

Quando voltamos para o apartamento, Belinha, na cama, disse que queria falar uma coisa séria comigo. O pai dela ameaçava suspender a mesada que lhe dava.

Foda-se a mesada do seu pai, eu lhe dou o dinheiro, eu disse.

Mas não é só isso, ele anda tão aborrecido comigo que disse que vai doar para associações de caridade todo o dinheiro que tem nos bancos, que quando morrer não vou herdar um tostão.

Foda-se o dinheiro do seu pai, eu sustento você.

Cara, é muito dinheiro, ela disse, acho uma crueldade isso, eu tenho só dezessete anos, vou durar no mínimo mais uns sessenta anos, já imaginou, sessenta anos na miséria?

Já disse que sustento você, insisti.

Ela me olhou pensativa e disse benzinho, eu te amo, mas quem garante que você, nesse seu trabalho vai, vai…  Ela ficou calada e eu terminei o pensamento dela: quem diz que eu vou ficar vivo muito tempo, não é isso? Ela respondeu, é isso, sinto muito, mas é isso. Em seguida me deu uma porção de beijinhos e disse que me amava, e disse ainda que tinha uma proposta para me fazer.

Deixa para amanhã, eu disse, vamos dormir, o dia já vai raiar, se o dia começar a raiar eu não consigo dormir. Tirei a roupa, fiquei de cueca, deitei na cama, ela ficou sentada na poltrona. 

Quando acordei Belinha continuava sentada na poltrona. Não consegui dormir, disse, posso falar agora? 

Falar o quê? Na proposta, ela respondeu.

Fala, eu disse.

Ela levantou-se da poltrona e sentou-se ao meu lado, na cama. Quero que você mate o meu pai.

Fiquei calado. Matar o pai, pensei, porra, a gente pode matar todo mundo, menos o pai e a mãe da gente.

Pensa bem, eu disse, e ela respondeu passei a noite pensando nisso, e a semana toda, não tem mais nada que pensar, qual é o problema?, desde que te conheço você já matou  umas cinco pessoas, ontem matou um aleijado, e está com escrúpulos de matar o filho da puta do meu pai que quer me deixar na miséria? Se você mandar eu pular da ponte eu pulo e eu te peço uma coisinha à toa e você reluta em me atender, é assim que você me ama?

Ela curvou-se sobre mim, tirou a minha cueca e começou a chupar o meu pau. Está bom?

Umas quinhentas mulheres já chuparam o meu pau, mas nenhuma tinha a boca tão enfeitiçada  quanto ela. Está bom? Depois de repetir isso, ela parou, sentou-se na cama e disse, se você não matar o meu pai eu vou deixar você, vai ter que arranja outra garotinha pra foder.

Outra garotinha igual a ela não existia no mundo inteiro. Mas Belinha querer matar o pai fazia ela ficar feia e fez o meu pau murchar.

Vou pensar, eu disse.

Te dou uma semana, ela disse.

Acampanei o pai dela durante essa semana. Era um homem alto de cabelos brancos, bonito, todo dia saía de casa e pegava o carro com motorista que ficavam em frente à casa dele. Um dia, antes dele pegar o carro, eu me aproximei dele e disse, desculpe, eu não sou daqui, como é que vou para o centro da cidade? Ele respondeu, estou indo para lá, lhe dou uma carona, entre no carro, por favor.

Ficamos conversando dentro do carro, eu disse que era de Minas e estava procurando emprego, podia ser de servente, qualquer coisa, eu precisava trabalhar e ele me deu um cartão e escreveu na costas um nome. É a dona Estela, a minha secretária, vou dar instruções a ela para procurar uma colocação para o senhor, passe nesse endereço amanha pela manhã e fale com ela. Achei que era hora de saltar e disse vou ficar por aqui, muito obrigado amanhã passo lá.

Saltei do carro e fui andando pela rua, pensando. Quando cheguei ao meu apartamento tinha um recado de Belinha na secretária eletrônica, pedindo para eu ligar para ela.

Como é?, ela perguntou.

Estou armando a coisa, eu disse, não vai demorar, faço o serviço por estes dias.

Vou passar aí mais tarde, disse Belinha, vou aí te dar o meu cuzinho.

Normalmente aquilo me excitava, mas nesse dia, não sei por que, foi desagradável. Hoje eu não posso, tenho um encontro com o Despachante.

No dia seguinte fui procurar a dona Estela. Ela foi muito amável e disse que tinha arranjado uma colocação para mim, de motorista, para eu levar os documentos para ela o mais rápido possível e neste momento o pai de Belinha entrou na sala de espera e bateu nas minhas costas perguntando tudo bem, está precisando de alguma coisa, algum dinheiro adiantado? Não doutor, muito obrigado.

Quando cheguei ao meu apartamento eu contei para Belinha essa história toda e disse que apagar o pai no escritório ia ser difícil, tinha que ser na rua ou na casa dele.

Eu arranjo uma chave da casa para você, disse Belinha, vou aí pra gente brincar um pouco, quero te chupar todo.

Hoje também não é possível, eu disse.

Caramba, disse Belinha, estou com saudade desse pau grande.

Aconteceu uma encrenca, eu disse, tenho outro encontro com o Despachante para descascar o abacaxi.

Ela me deu uma chave.

E os empregados? perguntei. 

Não se preocupe, eles ficam num apartamento sobre a garagem.

Liguei para Belinha e perguntei, hoje à noite está bom?

Está, ela respondeu, ele sempre toma uma pílula para dormir, por volta das onze. Chega à meia-noite, mas quando você chegar nós antes vamos para o meu quarto, brincar um pouco.

Cheguei precisamente à meia noite, a Walther com o silenciador no meu bolso. Quando entrei Belinha estava em pé na sala, me esperando. Subimos as escadas. O quarto dele é aquele lá, o meu é aqui, vem. Entramos no quarto dela e logo Belinha se desnudou e perguntou o que você quer, minha bundinha?, quer que eu chupe? quer me chupar?, o que você quiser eu quero.

Aquela conversa não tinha mais graça para mim, antes me excitava, agora me dava um certo nojo. Ela deitou-se de barriga para baixo, mostrando a bunda, não havia no mundo, no mundo inteiro, bunda mais bonita que aquela e ela sabia disso. Me aproximei de Belinha, tirei a Walther do bolso e disparei na cabeça dela, bem na nuca, para ela morrer de maneira instantânea e sem dor. Depois cobri o corpo dela com um lençol e sai, fechando a porta da casa.  Como é que alguém pode querer matar o pai ou a mãe?

A Walther agora estava quente mesmo. Fui até a lagoa e fiquei ali sentado, sem coragem de jogar aquela joia na água, pensando. O dia começou a raiar e eu senti que alguma coisa estava acontecendo comigo, estava com vontade de chorar, mas chorar era coisa de viado e eu não chorei. Peguei a Walther e joguei ela o mais longe que podia. A pistola entrou na água sem fazer muito barulho. O sol estava tão branco que doía nos meus olhos.

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