by Tom Rich
Jeffery Paxton was wanted for questioning in the murder of Alvaro Xaman. He was thought to be somewhere in Central America.
Stanley Linz, a.k.a. Pig, survived the stab wound he’d suffered in Clove’s End of the World Café. But he lost so much vitality that he put his Harley up for sale and considered his days as a womanizer over. The only thing keeping him from sinking into total despondence was Eliot Russell’s daily visits to interview Pig for a book about his life and loves as a Hell’s Angel. Eliot had put aside his Divine Tragedia for the time being.
Dooley Bishop died of a single gunshot wound to the head received just outside of Clove’s.
Paul von Kappelhoff, a.k.a. Clove, died of a massive coronary caused by his effort to subdue the Gomez brothers. Von Kappelhoff left everything he owned to Trish. His entire life savings had gone into the building, the bar and an extensive wardrobe. At the time of his death, one of the four apartments in the building was empty, Trish occupied one, one was occupied by Clove, and one was filled with Clove’s extensive wardrobe, all of it designed by Halston.
Trish, who had legally changed her name to just, Trish, suffered a broken jaw, a concussion, a bruised kidney and two damaged vertebrae. She was expected to recover fully, but was confined to a lengthy hospital stay. She had no insurance, and planned on selling Clove’s fashions with the intention of paying her medical bills and keeping the bar.
Soren Kane, a.k.a. Jones Pelfry, was given a medical leave from the Indianapolis Police Department. The continuing blurred vision from his head injury made it difficult for him to read and impossible to drive. For the time being, he moved into Trish’s apartment where immersed himself in the culture of the People of the Maize by having Aly Roarke read to him. No one suspected his double identity.
Alyssa Roarke, a.k.a. Allison, talked at great length with the FBI about the People of the Maize in the effort to sort out the events in Cincinnati and Indianapolis on the night of the assault on Clove’s End of the World Café and Franz World Headquarters. But she was not completely truthful with the government agency. She never mentioned that she’d been to the temple of Ukit Took, and stated that Phillip Arbanian had bought the two important artifacts for almost nothing from a Guatemalan looter. The remains of Phillip Arbanian had yet to be found. Aly hoped someone had given him a decent burial.
The FBI agent who worked the closest with Aly surmised that the Gomez Brothers were gathering together everyone who knew about the existence of the artifacts with the intent of killing them. He speculated that they spared Aly and the other three because of Aly’s knowledge of Mayan mythology. In a manifestation of the Stockholm Syndrome, the agent theorized, the terrorists expected Aly to become a spokesperson sympathetic to their cause. Aly never believed this. But she did begin to wonder, once she discovered in her readings to Jones Pelfry, the meaning of sac chic: Fishhook, just like the old storyteller on the mountain in Guatemala, had called her White Bird.
~ ~ ~
One week before Christmas, Aly and Jones brought poinsettias to Trish in Cincinnati’s Good Samaritan hospital. They arrived on a gray, sleety afternoon, just as the city poised itself to cut loose with the madness of afternoon rush hour.
“Doing a little light reading?” said Aly as they entered the room.
Trish turned down her radio. “Clove’s diary,” she said. Jones and Aly both kissed Trish on the cheek. “It was specifically itemized in the will. I took that as a sign she wanted me to read it.”
Jones placed the flowers on the bedside table. He was very deliberate in his movements, having found that absorbing himself in the role of head injury patient made up for the focus he was losing as his role as a homicide detective slipped further and further away.
“Does it deal with pre-Clove Clove?” asked Aly.
“I jumped ahead to around the time I met her. Right before she opened the bar. But, yes, that does seem to be when she finally and completely became herself.”
“There’s the real tragedy,” said Aly. “Her best days lasted what, two, three months?”
“At least she had that,” said Jones. And deliberate in his speech, enunciating each word carefully, not as if having gotten meanings jumbled like a stoke victim might, but demonstrating that each word spoken was a painful production.
“When to make her appearance as Diamond Lil seemed to be her only real concern at the time,” said Trish.
“If that was her biggest worry,” said Jones, “I’d say her life was pretty good.” And doing it all with lowered eyes, knowing that keeping them focused on the floor, so as not to topple over in dizzyness, was an accepted reason for not meeting other eyes.
“Once she found out about December 21, 2012, Clove thought that would be Lil’s time,” said Trish. “But she didn’t think she’d live that long.”
“Turns out she lived just long enough for Lil,” said Aly.
The three were quiet for a minute. Muffled sounds of the hospital ward outside the door and the quiet music on Trish’s radio filled the room.
Finally, “You planning any changes for the bar?” asked Aly.
“You mean if I get to keep it, right? I’ve had a lot of forty-dollar aspirins in this place. No, everything stays the same. I figure that’s the best way to honor Clove. I don’t know, I guess there should be something in there to honor the others who died. What do you think? Plaques? Personal items?”
Aly cringed. “Look, I don’t mean to disrespect anybody, but I’ve had just about enough of temples filled with artifacts to the dead.”
“Yeah, right. Maybe just a memorial service one night. But who do we include? A lot of people were tied up in this thing. Jones, how much of it has been sorted out so far?”
“Uhh…” Focus. Focus. Don’t let the paranoia through. “I think Indy has something planned for their people. I heard ‘A. M. in the Apolis’ is all over it.”
Trish’s eyelids fluttered. “Who what in the No Place?” she said.
“‘A. M. in the Apolis,’” said Aly. “A morning TV show.”
“How cheesy. Anyway, maybe we should limit it to people who had ties to Clove’s.”
“Uhh, meaning, not all the people who had ties to the end of the world?” Aly said. She could not help thinking that Ukit Took’s bones never being found meant the drama wasn’t over yet.
“I’m glad to see you came through this thing unscathed,” said Trish.
“Sorry,” Aly said. “I…sorry.”
Trish said, “Hey, your being a smart-ass is why we love you.”
There was another moment of quiet. “Closing in on the Fire” came on the radio. The image of Sylvie dancing on Clove’s bar filled Aly’s mind. She doubted that room would ever see a better night. Hopefully, it would never see a worse night. “Wonder if I’ll ever see Sylvie again,” she said.
Trish pointed at the television hanging above her bed. “They said on ‘Bludgeon You with Stars’ that only the FBI knows where she is.”
“‘Bludgeon You with Stars?’” said Jones. “You’ve got to be kidding.” That’s it, keep up with the small talk. Aly hasn’t figured it out. She hasn’t read between the lines, like not being able to see the forest for the trees. I hear it when she reads. But there’s no reason to let on. No reason to let on that she and I are at the center of it all. Not yet.
“Duh, Jones,” said Aly. Then to Trish, “I’m really surprised you’re watching those type shows.”
“Yeah, well, I guess you could say I’m the perfect captive audience.”
“You know, it’s not like I’m being a star fucker with Sylvie,” said Aly. “You know that, don’t you?”
“Goll, girl. After what you two went through together? You guys are sisters for eternity. I really hope you do get to see her again.”
“Yeah. I guess.”
More silence.
Aly felt rude. She was here to cheer up Trish, but she couldn’t get her mind off the People of the Maize and those missing bones. She needed something to refocus, to swing her
attention back to Trish. Anything. Finally, “Something I’ve always wanted to ask. How’d you come up with the name Tailgater?”
Trish closed Clove’s diary. A power surge turned up the radio just as Lucinda and Tony Joe went into their refrain. Trish reached over and turned it down. “Because…well, because you have a couple, and you start to loosen up, loosen up, and pretty soon the world starts looking better to you than it did before. And all you want is for it to keep looking better. So you have another, then another. But the whole time you know there’s something lurking behind it all, something waiting to get you. And just when you’ve convinced yourself you don’t care…bam! Disaster.”
Table of Contents
Copyright
Epigraph
Prologue: Cult of the Quetzal Serpent
1: Ludlow Viaduct
2: MNF
3: Ch’ak
4: Cenote
5: Omega Moon
6: Executive Committee
7: “It’s a bird…no…”
8: Tree Hugged
9: Smith and Jones
10: Machete
11: Waterworks
12: Sylvie
13: Sad Chick
14: Ukit Took
15: Ol
16: Delucia
17: Penance
18: Balamq’e / Tranquilino
19: Pale Rider
20: Ciriaca
21: “Sense of place.”
22: “A. M. in the Apolis”
23: Vertigo
24: Mr. Literal
25: Soren Kane
26: Clove
27: “L’il and brown.”
28: Cenote Explained
29: Buzzer Beater
30: Message
31: Avendano
32: Beers of the Bible
33: “Let’s ride.”
34: HQ
35: That Night
36: Next Day
37: Ulysses
38: Sweet Daddy Sol
39: Witness
40: Girl Talk
41: The Party at the End of the World
42: “Ain’t Comin’ Back This Time”
43: Convoy
44: Sac chic
45: “Haven’t we met?”
Epilogue: Now the Sun is Bitten