by Greg Iles
The crowd parts as though for a prophet, and Walt leads his hooker across the casino floor like a king escorting a royal consort. He hasn't felt this good about a job in a long time. Hed never gamble with his own money, but he does believe in luck. Any man whos been in combat has seen luck in all its infinite variations, and Walt has been putting his life on the line for fifty years since he got back from Korea. Hes the last of the Rangers from his old company still doing law enforcement work, and while he knows that judgment and experience have helped get him this far, without luck he would have died long ago. Driving out from the ranch, hed wondered if he might be pushing a little too hard this time, tempting the lady to turn against him. But tonight he feels the fullness of his abilities in all their old potency. Hes got his mojo working, as an old Houston cop used to tell him.
I'm waiting for you, he says softly, thinking of the man who threatened Tom Cages granddaughter. Come on and take a nibble, sonny. I'll set the hook so hard itll break your goddamn jaw.
In the parking lot on the bluff, Walt tips the driver of the shuttle bus, then steps off and joins Nancy on the pavement of the parking lot.
Wheres your car? the hooker asks, looking up the line of modest cars in the lot. I'll bet you drive a big old Cadillac or something, don't you? Old school, right?
Hell no, says Walt, pointing to the big Roadtrek van. That's me right there.
The girls mouth falls open. Where? That?
That's me. Walt clicks open the locks from his key ring. Wait till you see her.
The girl looks wary, but she follows him into the van, which is finished as finely as a boat cabin. Aint no regular RV, is it? she marvels, turning in the small space. You got a stove and a microwave and a flat panel and a refrigerator and a
Shower, he finishes.
Man! What did this thing set you back?
Bout a hundred, Walt says.
Nancy shakes her head and eyes the sofa in back doubtfully. Youre not sleeping in this thing, are you? I mean, you got a hotel room, right?
Sure. I'm at the Eola.
She smiles and nods knowingly. Well, hell. Lets get this thing going and get up there. Well open up the minibar and have us a party, Daddy.
Walt opens a cabinet over the sink and pours himself a shot of Makers Mark. Then he sits at the table in back and drinks it, feeling the burn in his gullet.
Nancy looks puzzled. You got any rum, by any chance?
Rum is for pirates and high school girls. Youre out of high school, aren't you?
She giggles. Maybe I am and maybe I aint. Do you want me to be?
What I want is for you to pour yourself a little whiskey and sit here by me.
Nancy pours a glass of whiskey and sets it on the table, then sits beside Walt and nuzzles her face into his neck. For an instant he feels a shiver of desire, but then her hand creeps across his thigh and down between his legs, rubbing insistently.
Dont you want to get on over to that hotel? she coos. We wanna be where we can spread out. Dont we?
Walt doesn't want to take the girl back to the hotel. He wants to go back to his room alone and call Carmelita. He cant do that, of course, not without breaking cover. He never had any intention of screwing Nancy. He figured hed get her to do a little striptease, overtip her, then pretend to pass out and hope she didn't try to rob him. If she did, hed wake up and ease her out gently. But now that they're alone, he knows he doesn't have the stomach for even that. Seeing those little tits drop out of that dress wouldn't do anything but make him think about the kids she has waiting at home, and the idea of her working with mechanical urgency to make him climax nauseates him.
What he really feels like doing is talking to her. Asking the same stupid question he asked the whores back in KoreaHow did you wind up doing this?which was all the more pointless back then because almost no one could answer even the simplest queries in English. Only in Japan had he received a real answer, on his extended R&R, and that had almost changed the course of his life.
Dont you want it, Daddy? Nancy murmurs, rubbing clumsily at his trousers. Huh?
He drinks off her shot, then says, Listen, Nancy, and gently moves her hand out of his crotch. You brought me some good luck in there, and I sure appreciate it. But I think I'm gonna call it a night.
The girls face falls. Whats the matter, J.B.? You don't like me?
Oh, I like you. A lot. But I'm gettin on up there in age, in case you haven't noticed.
Nancy gives him a conspiratorial laugh.
Hell, I got kids older than you. I like having a girl on my arm, putting on the dog a little. But the truth is, honey, old J.B. cant really get it up no more.
Her brow furrows as though shes trying to understand an algebra problem. What about Viagra?
Walt chuckles as though with embarrassment. I've got a bad ticker, hon. Cant take that stuff.
Nancy looks almost frantic. Well, theres other things I can do. I mean, you got me out here and all. And I got to make a living, you know?
Oh, I know that, sweetheart. Dont you worry bout that. He digs out his roll and peels off five $100 bills. Nancy almost licks her lips at the sight of them, but she waits until he passes them to her. Does that cover your time?
The glow in her eyes tells him she hasn't seen that kind of money in a long time, if ever. What about my tip?
Walt hesitates, then winks like a man who knows hes being taken advantage of and peels off another hundred, which he folds into the damp little palm.
How long you gonna be in town, J.B.? Nancy asks, obviously thinking about her future prospects. I can put on the dog all you want, darling.
I'll be around all week. Got a piece of some Wilcox wells down here. Youll see me around the boats. If I'm with somebody else, you just give me the high sign, and I'll come get you if I can. If not, I'll catch you the next night. Okay?
She nods soberly. I got you.
Walt smiles with genuine gratitude. Can you get home all right?
Yeah, my cars in the lot here.
Where?
Other side.
Walt gets up and cranks the Roadtrek, then follows Nancys pointing finger to the other side of the vast lot, where he stops beside her wreck of a car.
Its a junker, she admits, but it runs good. My ex is a mechanic.
Walt feels like giving her the rest of the roll, but that would be pushing it.
Nancy raises her slim frame from the seat, leans down, and kisses him on the top of the head, then walks to the door in the side of the Roadtrek. As he looks back to watch her go, she pauses and lifts her tight skirt over her hips. A thin band of black elastic encircles her surprisingly feminine hips, and the thong disappears between the firm cheeks of her rump. She bends and touches her toes without effort, then stands and turns to face him, drawing the thong away from her pubis. The hair there is trimmed flat, a dark shadow over taut skin and protuberant lips. This time something stirs in him, something beyond thought or reason, the old Adam in him coming back to life.
Do you miss it, J.B.? she asks softly. Dont you just want to put your finger in it sometimes?
Walt tries to laugh this off, but something sticks in his throat.
Everybody wants to, she says. You don't never get too old for that.
Walt looks into her eyes, then back at the triangular shadow.
I'll be around, she says, letting the thong pop back into place. You let me know.
She pulls down the clingy skirt, opens the door, and steps out of the van.
Walt drives away without looking back. Her groping touch had repelled him, but that last, unexpected display, her frank lack of embarrassment, arced across the space between them and struck something vital. Its en
ough to make him want to stop the van and pour another drink. A girl he wouldn't have looked at twice ten years ago has pierced his armor with a simple tease. The confidence he felt on the boat has been shaken. As he climbs the long road that leads up the bluff, he wonders,
Am I getting too old for this game?
CHAPTER
27
After two nights without sleep, seven hours rest is not enough, but ten minutes in a steaming shower at least make me feel human again. Caitlin woke me from a dead sleep at 3:45 a.m. and led me to her bathroom. Now, as I'm toweling off, she comes in and sets a cup of coffee beside the lavatory. I wrap the towel around my waist, and she perches on the edge of the commode. Shes still wearing the clothes she had on at the police station.
Have you slept? I ask her, taking a hand towel off the rack to dry my hair.
I've been reading about dogfighting.
And?
My mind is blown. I'm serious. This is a worldwide sportif you can call it thatand it goes back centuries. Its been outlawed almost everywhere except Japan, but its still thriving all over the world. Did you even Google this?
I haven't had time.
Caitlin shakes her head as though I'm hopeless. I pictured, you know, a mob of hicks with twenty-dollar bills in their hands gathered around a couple of bulldogs. But this is a big-money business. Theres a whole American subculture out there. Two subcultures really: the old-timer redneckswho specialize in breeding game dogs and pass down all the knowledge about fighting bloodlines
from the 1800s; then theres the urban culturethe street fighters, they call them. Hip-hop generation and all that. Its a macho thing. They fight their dogs in open streets, basements, fenced yards. But as different as the two subcultures are, they have a lot in common. Theyre highly organized, they train the dogs the same way, and they expose their kids to it very young to desensitize them Its
sick.
Game dogs, you said. Is that what they call fighting dogs?
No, no. Gameness is a quality that a dog has or doesn't have. If a dog is game, that means hes willing to fight to the point of death, no matter how badly injured he is. Truly game dogs will keep fighting with two broken forelegs.
Jesus.
Caitlin stands, outrage animating her. Apparently pit bull terriers are among the most loyal dogs in the world, and its that loyalty that these assholes twist to create animals that will sacrifice their lives to please their masters. You should see some pictures. When they're not fighting, these dogs live on heavy three-foot chains or on the breeding stand. That's it. And they don't live long. You know what happens to dogs that aren't considered game?
I can guess.
She nods. They kill them. Kill them or use them for practice. Practice means letting other dogs tear them to pieces, to give them a taste for blood. If its the first option, they shoot them, hang them, bash in their skulls with bats, electrocute them, run them over with trucks. Sometimes they just let them starve.
Its hard to grasp, I say, knowing this is hardly adequate. I need my clothes.
Theyre in the dryer. I'll get them. Though I kind of like seeing you this way. Its been a while.
This is what you get with a journalist like Caitlin. She can talk about horrific details in the same sentence with her desire for food or sex. I guess its like doctors talking about suppurating infections while they eat. After a while, they just don't think about it.
Yes, it has, I agree.
She looks at me for a few moments more, then leaves the bathroom.
The hook has been set. She will not let go of this story until she finds everything there is to know. This probably puts her in more
danger than she was in before, but at least now she knows what shes dealing with, and I will be close enough to protect her.
After I dress, we take my backpack and slip out a side window, then through a neighbors yard to a street two blocks away. There a female reporter named Kara picks us up in her Volkswagen. She drives us to her apartment on Orleans Street, tells Caitlin to be careful, and disappears. Then Caitlin takes the wheel and follows the directions I've given her.
Our destination is a hundred acres of gated land called Hedges Plantation. Just off Highway 61 South, its owned by Drew Elliott, my fathers first junior partner, and a friend of mine since grade school. Dad is supposed to have got the key so that he can let us onto the property at 4:30 a.m. Danny McDavitt and Kelly are flying in from Baton Rouge, and McDavitt can probably set the chopper down there without anyone being the wiser. Though Hedges is surrounded by the newest residential developments on the south side of town, its mostly wooded, and protected from casual observation on every side. Drew originally planned to build a home here, but now I hear he plans to build a high-end subdivision. Modern medicine in a nutshell. There are a couple of aluminum buildings on the property, and its one of these that I've chosen for our rendezvous.
Is that the one? Caitlin asks, pointing to a narrow gravel road just past the entrance to an antebellum home on the right.
No, the next one.
I see it. Okay. She slows the car, and the wheels crunch on gravel. The thing about dogfighting, she saysits standard procedure for Caitlin to return without warning to a previous discussionis that when the police do bust fights, which is rarely, they always turn up evidence of other crimes. Drugs, weapons, prostitution. The gambling goes without saying.
Kill your lights.
What?
Theres enough moonlight to get us down this road.
She switches off the lights but keeps talking. I don't mean random stuff either. The same criminals who run drugs and guns and girls love fighting dogs. Its like the ultimate expression of the male lust for power and violence.
Your Radcliffe education is showing.
Well, its true.
I know. That's why I called Kelly.
She gives me a tight smile. Yeah, I get it now.
As we roll up to a metal gate, a tall, white-haired man steps from behind some cedar trees to our right. My father. Caitlin smiles and starts to roll down her window, but Dad pulls open the gate and motions for us to drive quickly through. After we do, he locks the gate behind us and comes to the passenger door of the Volkswagen. I get out and squeeze into the back, leaving the front seat for him.
Well, Kate, he says, his eyes glinting as he looks at Caitlin. Its sure been dull without you around.
No more boredom, she says with a smile. I guarantee that, at the very least. Have you heard from Peggy and Annie?
Dad shakes his head. Were talking as little as possible. And only on the satellite phone.
I have it with me, I say. We can get an update after this meeting.
Good. I have a surprise for you, Son.
Whats that?
Walts here.
Garrity?
Right.
What do you mean here? In Natchez? Or
here
here?
Hes in the shed now, talking to Kelly.
For the first time, I feel a rush of real optimism.
The sly son of a bitch just appeared in my house, Dad says. Almost gave me a coronary. I have James Ervin watching me, and he had no idea Walt was even there.
James Ervin is a black cop my dad used to treat. That's not encouraging.
Walts pretty slick, Dad says.
Whos Walt Garrity? Caitlin asks.
A Texas Ranger, Dad explains. Met him in Korea, when we were still boys. Hes semiretired, but I guess once you learn to sneak past Indians and Mexicans, retired city cops aren't much of a challenge. This will be the only night we see him. He wants to work totally apart from everyone else.
As well as I got to kno
w Walt in Houston, there are many things
I don't know about him. For example, I know that my father saved Walts life during the Korean War, and that Walt later returned the favor, but I don't know the circumstances of either episode. Both men belong to a generation that doesn't talk about certain things without a compelling reason.
I'm sure Walt knows best, I say. Well talk about your security later.
Dad ignores this and motions for Caitlin to continue up the road. She gives his hand a squeeze, then begins driving us deeper into the forest.
Were meeting in a sixty-by-forty-foot shed of galvanized aluminum, the kind you see along highways all over the South. My father leads Caitlin and me past a ski boat on a trailer, a 1970s-vintage Corvette with a hole in its fiberglass, an orange Kubota tractor, a zero-turn lawn mower, and various other power machinery used for grounds maintenance. Near the far end of the building, sitting in folding lawn chairs beneath two camouflage-painted deer stands, are Danny McDavitt, Carl Sims, Walt Garrity, and Daniel Kelly. At first glance, they look incongruous, like an illustration of different American types: an astronaut, an NFL cornerback, a cowboy, and a surfer with a blond ponytail. I'm surprised to see Carl Sims here, but before I can ask about his descent into the Devils Punchbowl, Walt Garrity drawls, Look what the cat drug in.
Rising from his lawn chair, Walt catches sight of Caitlin and quickly doffs his Stetson. Maam. I didn't realize wed be having female company.
Kelly rises to give Caitlin a hug. They met seven years ago, when we were drawn together by the Delano Payton case. What do we have here, Penn? Kelly asks. The Seven Samurai?
Carl Sims smiles from his chair. Kind of looks like it, if you count the lady.
Oh, she pulls her weight, Kelly says.