The sheriff had a passenger with him: our parole officer, Wilson Schreiber.
I left Bethinho and walked over to the visitors.
“Gentlemen,” I said, “welcome to our exclusive resort. Romance under the pines, and all the Caboverde stew you can inhale.”
This was Schreiber’s first visit, and he looked around appreciatively at the activity. “McClinton, I might have misjudged you and Hasso. This place actually looks like a serious and well-run enterprise. I guess my faith in you two was not misplaced. Where is your partner, anyhow? I’d like to congratulate him, too.”
“He’s out fishing. Should I send someone for him?”
“No, don’t bother. But I have to remind you that you two are both due for a visit in my office. I can’t be running out here every week—got other bad boys to mentor. I only managed to get here today because Sheriff Broadstairs was coming this way.”
With any luck, Stan and I would be lolling with our women on the tropical beaches of Cape Verde in a week. “I understand,” I said. “You can count on us.” I turned to Broadstairs. “You had an errand here, too, Sheriff?”
“I heard you got your first hunters. I need to check their licenses.”
“They’re out in the woods right now. But we can provide a nice little snack for you if you want to wait. Just tell Angelita at the register that it’s on the house.”
“Well, now,” said Broadstairs, “I wouldn’t mind that at all. Heard tell you turn out a fine meal here. C’mon, Will.”
Bethinho and I were just finishing the door repair when Vee returned in her Volkswagen.
Getting out of the car in her short skirt, she managed to flash her panties at me and anyone else who happened to be watching. She grinned as I came over.
“Mr. McClinton, you look all hot and sweaty.”
“Nothing a little swim won’t cure. Care to join me?”
“Oh, I couldn’t. I expect to be very busy soon.”
She opened a plastic CVS bag, and I looked inside.
The bag held nothing but a box of condoms and some lube.
“Gotta seal the deal,” she said, with a wink and leer that could have been mistaken for a brokenhearted spasm of pain. She had so emptied her heart that all the universe’s cold, aching darkness had flooded in.
35
I was still distressed by the crude implications of what Vee had so blithely shown me (How could she accept her filthy part in this scheme with such unconcern?) when Rushlow and Digweed returned, bearing one scrawny turkey carcass between them. I “happened” to cross their path before they could get to their room. Maybe now they would pump me for info on the lodge. But they must have been too beat to bother.
The two men looked exhausted, with smudged faces and briar scratches on the backs of their hands. It seemed that following their arsonist playboy boss around from restaurant to office to nightclub in a plush urban environment took less effort than bushwhacking all day in thick woods.
Rushlow held out the dead bird. “Hey, man, you think your kitchen grunts could dress this for us and put it on ice?”
I took the turkey by its limp neck. “Of course. I only wish you’d bagged a few more. Maybe better luck tomorrow.”
“Yeah, well, that’s the thing. We weren’t so thrilled with the hunting. Kinda tough terrain. And that interstate running through your land pretty much scares all the critters off. Only way it could be worse is if there was an exit onto your place. Be pretty easy then for just about anyone to come and go. But that don’t matter. I think we’re gonna split tomorrow. We’ve seen enough.”
I tried to convey that I would miss their money more than I would miss them personally. “Oh, that’s really too bad. Well, don’t judge us too harshly. Might just have been your lousy fortune not to run across any game today. I hope you’ll tell your friends how well we treat our guests. Business is really booming. And you might have better luck with the bears in the upcoming season.”
Digweed seemed disgusted. “I don’t need to think about tussling with no motherfuckin’ bears right now. All’s I want’s a hot shower.”
“I hear you,” I said. “But you need to see the sheriff first. He’s over in the dining hall. Came to check your hunting licenses. I told you he was a stickler for regulations and such.”
I was pleased to see Rushlow and Digweed exchange a small look of tense alertness. Let them feel uneasy. Nerves never sharpened anyone’s perceptions or planning ability. If you could get your opponent riled or nervous, in the courtroom or elsewhere, you had an advantage.
I conducted my guests over to the dining hall. Schreiber and Broadstairs were enjoying their draft beers and playing the pinball machine we had installed a few days ago (Adkins Gaming Supplies had been another name on the list Broadstairs gave us). The lodge’s former owners had held a beer-and-wine license, and once we chose the distributor on the sheriff’s list, reactivating the license was a cinch.
Sheriff Broadstairs played until the ball finally sneaked past the flippers, before turning his attention to the two out-of-towners. He scrutinized their hunting licenses with frustrating slowness, then asked for their driver’s licenses for comparison. At last, he pronounced himself satisfied, and Messrs. Digweed and Rushlow hastened off.
Broadstairs regarded me with an inscrutable attitude. “Those boys come an awful long way for just a day or two of turkey shooting. But city folks can be peculiar. Anyhow, they helped you pay your bills, right?”
“I suppose.”
“Will, let’s hit the road. I could enjoy the hospitality a while longer, but I got malefactors to upbraid. You, too, I expect.”
I was happy to watch the sheriff’s car depart.
By now it was late afternoon, and I hadn’t seen Nellie since she kissed me goodbye in bed early this morning. That was too long to be apart.
I found her at her desk with her feet up, having an iced coffee. She had insisted we stock this Caboverde brand, Pico do Fogo, which Gonsalves Provisions carried. More expensive than other brands, but the taste was worth it. I was hooked now myself.
She looked weary. I borrowed her cup and had a sip.
“Christ, how many sugars did you use?”
“I got to keep extra sweet for you, verdade?”
“Seguro times ten.”
She smiled, but without her usual bright enthusiasm. “Oh, minha nossa, am I beat. I been going almost twelve hours now. When I came here as a kid, I never knew all the work that went into running this place. Kids never know nothing adults gotta go through. I think it’s gonna be a quick supper, then early bedtime for me tonight, if you don’t mind.”
She looked so sweet and so vulnerable, gorgeous, and dedicated that I ached for her. I wanted to tell her that her hard work would pay off soon, that all her worries and striving would be over. But I couldn’t bring her into the scheme without the consent of all. And I didn’t even think it would be a wise move. Nellie might be too conflicted about it, given her obvious attachment to the lodge. But once I presented her with the fait accompli of the sale to Nancarrow, she would have no choice but to hop aboard the gravy train. It wasn’t as if I were doing her some disservice by offering to split five million dollars with her in exchange for abandoning this two-bit operation, was it?
“Nélida, I could never mind anything you do. You want me to bring you dinner in our room?”
“No, I like to see how the customers are enjoying themselves. I get feedback on how to improve things.” She drained her coffee, then swung her feet off the desk. “Let’s move it, você preguiçoso!”
Dinner was simple but delicious: fried chicken and sweet potato fries and homemade coleslaw. But Nellie could barely keep her eyes open. I saw her off to bed around seven thirty.
As I was leaving our room to make a last circuit of the property, Sandralene found me.
She put her lips close to my e
ar, bending to do so, and I almost got dizzy at her hot, scented whisper.
“Stan wants to see you.”
“Where is he?”
“In his kayak, in that little cove to the east. Come on, I’ll row you out.”
In the skiff, I considered offering to take the oars, then realized the futility of trying to be more capable than Sandralene.
Stan floated in his kayak like a large cork in a small bottle. Gentle wavelets lapped at the grassy bank as he stirred his paddle just enough to stay in place. The dense canopy over the cove cut down on even the dwindling remnants of daylight from the darkening sky, but I could still see well enough to admire Stan’s thick blond beard. I suddenly realized how much I missed having him around.
“Jesus, how long you been out there in the woods, big guy? You look like you haven’t shaved in six months.”
“Yeah, well, I got nothing better to do with all that testosterone, since Sandy ain’t using it. But we ain’t here to admire my rugged good looks. Get me up to speed.”
When I was done, Stan nodded sagely and said, “Everything’s working out perfect, just like I planned. Send Sandy for me when Digweed and Rushlow leave, and I’ll slip back into the lodge for a few hots and a bath and some mattress time—and I don’t mean sleeping.”
Stan paddled over to our craft and leaned in to kiss Sandralene. She leaned, too, nearly dunking all of us in the process. Then we split up.
Back on land, I continued my patrol of the property. I wasn’t even sure why I bothered, but it was a habit by now and made me feel that I was accomplishing something.
In the room occupied by Nancarrow’s boys, the lights were on and the curtains were drawn. But the unmistakable noises from within painted a clear enough picture of what was going on.
Vee’s laughter held a manic edge that no one but me would notice.
36
Following Rushlow and Digweed’s departure, Stan came back to the lodge for a hedonistic twenty-four hours. He scraped the yellow hedge off his face, tanked up on hot food to dispel the bitter memories of his cold canned meals under the stars, and monopolized Sandralene’s ardent ministrations for a good eight of those hours.
When Nellie eventually got a chance to talk with him, she took one of his big hands in both of hers, gazing at him with those liquid brown eyes. “Stan,” she said, “nobody’s gonna find you or hurt you if I have anything to say about it.”
He seemed genuinely touched. “Well, thanks, kid. But it seems like I should be protecting you. I hear you’re working yourself down to the bone, managing this joint. Ain’t that partner of mine a righteous enough dude to make your life easier? He should be shouldering all the work.”
“Oh, no! Verdade, Glen works as hard as me. It’s just that the lodge takes so much effort and attention. That’s why I’m glad you’re back. We can really use your help.”
Stan looked guilty and a little nervous. “Uh, well, you see, I ain’t rightly returned full-time yet. Those boys, Dickwad and Rashblow—I got a feeling they ain’t gonna give up so easy. They’ll be back, and I can’t let ’em catch me. So you guys are still gonna have to soldier on without me. But just for a little while longer, I promise. Then everything’ll be jake. No more worries.”
“You truly promise?”
“On my sister’s virginity.”
Nellie’s phone rang then, and she left on one of her endless problem-solving missions.
I said to Stan, “You don’t even have a sister.”
“I do, but she’s the champion mattressback of State U. Once, in a generous mood, she took on both teams in the big Thanksgiving Day game, then went home to her boyfriend and complained she wasn’t getting enough!”
I was drinking an iced coffee at the time and snorted a few ounces of it out my nose. “You are such a bullshitter.”
“I totally agree. But hey, I always keep you on your toes and laughing, right? Life’s too short, bro. I’m just glad to see you loosening up a little.”
“That’s only because I have abandoned all hope that we’re going to come out of this with our skins intact, never mind a profit. And also, maybe because I’m getting more sex. So what’s the truth? Do you have a sister or not?”
“Let’s just say that birth control was not a big priority in the Gulch that my folks lived in. Not many families with just one kid. And it’s safe to figure that any sister of mine has probably got to fall somewhere on the spectrum between virgin and slut.”
Hearing about the sex life of Stan’s sister, whether real or imaginary, made the specter of Vee’s interlude with Rushlow and Digweed burst into my mind again. After that dutifully orgiastic night, she had retreated from their quarters to the room she shared with Ray, and had not emerged since. I tried to get some sense of how she was doing from Ray, when he came out to fetch her meals. But he just looked at me without a trace of guile or irony, and said, “Vee is my teacher, Mr. Glen. She has always been good to me. I like to see her happy.”
I couldn’t take that as anything but a reproach, intended or not.
Finally, I came up with a way to learn how she was doing, without looking overly worried. I called for another late-night meeting in Stan’s cabin, before he went back into hiding.
Ahead of the meeting, I told Stan of my concerns: how Vee might be traumatized by what she had felt obliged to put herself through. Stan was worried only about her ability to bring off the seduction of Nancarrow.
“You think she’s losing her taste for what she’s gotta do? Is she gonna crack or maybe pull out?”
“I doubt it. I get the impression that if she ever breaks, it will be a sudden and complete collapse.”
Stan pondered this. “Well, like I told you way back when, she is one tough broad with a giant-size hate for Nancarrow. I think she can drive herself through anything, right through to the end.”
“Okay,” I said, “but at what cost?”
“Everything she’s got to give, probably. But sometimes that’s the price you gotta pay for whatever you gotta have.”
My own lousy sacrifice of a quarter-million dollars and a few weeks of my time began to look meager by comparison.
Dressed demurely again, Vee Aptekar was the last to arrive. Although I had never seen her smoke before, she had a smoldering cigarette pasted between her unpainted lips and otherwise exhibited a wan indifference.
I tried to fill my voice with kindness. “Hi, Vee. Good to see you up and around.”
She exhaled a plume of smoke. “Yeah, thanks. I was just taking a short vacation from all the good times, but I’m okay now.”
Stan shot me a look as if to say, You see? Everything’s cool. I wasn’t so sure, but I had to take Vee at her own self-appraisal.
“Well, just let us know how we can help.”
“You all do your part, and let me do mine. I’m all right.”
Stan took over the discussion. “Now that we got that settled, there’s not really much else to lay out. The plan is working like a dream. Expect Nancarrow any day. He ain’t gonna send no lawyer, no front man. He likes to scope out new properties himself. Always has. Just remember, glory means as much to him as dough. And since he stands to make a whole lot of both, he’s gonna be all over the scene.”
Apparently reassured by Vee’s stoicism, Stan addressed her contribution forthrightly, without any euphemistic crap.
“Vee, you know I didn’t ask you to ball those two slimy shit-for-brains. But that’s only because I didn’t think of it. I figure your instincts were rock solid. You sent them back to the city with their heads spinning. And the way they love to gloat about chicks they’ve banged, Nancarrow is gonna arrive here practically with his dick in his hand. With Glen’s bullshit and your, um, assets, Algy’s gonna get so twisted around, he might offer us more’n twenty million!”
Vee lit a new cigarette off the butt of the old one. “Wo
w, thanks, Stan. A girl likes to be appreciated for her talents.”
“I’ll settle for the original twenty,” I said, trying to divert the discussion back to money.
Ray spoke up. “Now that I have been looking into banks and similar things, I believe I could increase my share by making some smart financial investments. If anyone else cares to trust me with a portion of their share, I will try to do the same for you. I think more money is always better than less money.”
Stan clapped Ray on the back. “You’re too generous, kid. Thanks, but no thanks. I figure straight interest on five million will carry me and Sandy a long way.”
“I’ll consider it,” I said.
Stan said, “Is that FedEx envelope from Vegas all set?”
Ray had arranged, through his dark-web pals, for an empty FedEx envelope bearing the originating address of Prynne Resorts, Inc., to be sent from Las Vegas once Nancarrow was here to see it arrive. When he later saw the letter on Prynne’s stationery, offering to buy our property for twenty million, he would assume it had been delivered that day by FedEx, thus tipping us off to the property’s value.
“Yes, Mr. Stan, all set.”
“Okay, then. High fives all around!”
Vee gave all hands a bored slap. Ray, evidently seeing the opportunity to emulate his baseball heroes, jumped up awkwardly with each salute. Each of Sandralene’s hearty slaps traveled down her arm to give her breast a mesmerizing jiggle.
“I gotta go away again now,” Stan said. “I wish I could be here to see that peerless turd Algy swallow the hook, but it just can’t happen. So I’m counting on all of you to etch in your brains how dumb he looks, and share it with me when I get back. Before we go our separate ways, anyhow.”
The meeting dissolved. Outside the cabin, as Stan was snugging into his pack, he said, “So, you’re still coming with me and Sandy to the islands, right?”
“Sure. Of course.”
The Big Get-Even Page 17