“It’s a big town.”
Wilde shook his head.
“It’s not that big,” he said. “The guy’s a player. If he was from here I would have bumped into him by now.”
“What are you saying, that he’s from out of town?”
Wilde nodded.
Exactly.
“Here’s your next assignment,” he said. “Go to every hotel in town and see if he stayed there this past weekend. Get a name and find out where he’s from. I doubt that he’s still in town. It sounds like he came in specifically to do what he did. Just the same, be careful. If he’s still checked in, get a room number but don’t do anything stupid. Repeat-don’t do anything stupid. Come straight back here.”
“Yes master. Do you want me to model the dress you bought for me? It’s in the other room.”
Wilde pulled up an image.
Alabama scrubbed up pretty nice when she had a mind to.
Under different circumstances he might take a run at her.
Right now the circumstances were what they were.
They worked together.
“No.”
She ran a finger down his chest.
“It’s going to happen sooner or later,” she said.
“No it’s not.”
“Yes it is.” She paused and added, “I want to show you something.”
She got a rubber band from the drawer and stretched it out to show it was straight. Then she popped it in her mouth. Ten seconds later she pulled it out.
It was in a knot.
She tossed it to him and left without looking back.
Wilde set a book of matches on fire and watched Alabama through the flames as she swaggered down Larimer. Suddenly she turned to see if he was looking.
He tried to duck back but it was too late.
She saw him.
29
Day One
July 21, 1952
Monday Night
Su-Moon came up with an idea back at the scooter, just as the fog turned to a cold drizzle-“Let’s hang around and see if the woman leaves. We can get her license plate number.” They headed back to the parking lot and took cover in the shadows on the dry side of a van. Waverly couldn’t get the spanking out of her head.
“Have you ever been spanked like that?” she said.
“Once. You?”
“No, never. Did you like it?”
“Someone else has control of you,” she said. “That makes it dangerous. Danger can be an aphrodisiac. It can also be scary and inhibiting. It depends on the people involved. For me, the night I got it, it got me hornier than hell.”
Waverly exhaled.
“I’m not sure if I’d like it or not.”
“I’ll tell you what. When we get home, I’ll give you a few.”
“Spanks?”
“Right.”
“We’ll see.”
Ten minutes passed.
The drizzle turned to rain.
Five minutes passed.
The rain turned to a hard rain.
It crept around the van and into their clothes.
Suddenly the sounds of splashing feet and out-of- breath chatter entered the parking lot from the marina side. Waverly peeked around the edge of the van. It was Bristol and a woman, under an umbrella, walking fast.
“Bingo.”
They made their way to a black Mercury where Bristol got the woman into the passenger seat then ran around to the driver’s side, collapsing the umbrella and darting in.
The engine fired.
The headlights turned on.
The vehicle took off.
The women couldn’t make out the license plate number.
“He’s taking her home,” Su-Moon said. “This is our chance.”
“Our chance for what?”
“What do you think?”
Su-Moon grabbed Waverly’s hand and led her at a trot back to C-Dock and down to Bristol’s slip. The front door was locked.
The bedroom window was shut but not locked.
It lifted up when Su-Moon tried it.
They looked around and saw no one.
“Boost me up,” Su-Moon said.
Waverly shivered.
“This is a bad idea.”
“It will be if you keep wasting time,” Su-Moon said. “Come on, boost me up-hurry.”
Waverly looked around one last time and saw only black rain and lifeless houseboats. Then she cupped her hands for Su-Moon’s foot and tried not to buckle under the woman’s weight.
Inside, Su-Moon said, “Go around to the front and I’ll let you in,” then closed the window.
The front door was open by the time Waverly got there.
She entered and shut it behind her.
“What are we looking for?”
“I don’t know but it will be in the bedroom,” Su-Moon said. “Maybe he keeps a journal.”
“This is crazy.”
“You keep a lookout, I’ll search.”
“I’m dripping water all over the floor.”
“Don’t worry, if it’s still there by the time he gets back he’ll think it’s from him. Just keep a lookout.”
Waverly got the front door ajar and kept an eye on the dock. If someone approached, they wouldn’t be visible until the last second.
The dock was a dead end.
It was a perfect place to be trapped.
Her heart pounded.
Something bad was going to happen.
They’d pressed their luck one step too far.
30
Day One
July 21, 1952
Monday Night
January had been through a lot in her life, but what happened tonight shook her to the core. It took a hundred questions before River got the story out of her as to exactly what happened. Two drunk cowboys in a pickup truck spotted her on the side of the road and stopped.
She told them she had car trouble and her boyfriend had gone for help.
She tried to get rid of them but the one with the big gut-the one the other one called Jackson-ended up popping the hood. He fumbled around for a long time and eventually spotted the problem, one of the battery cables had come off.
He said, “Try it again.”
She turned the key.
The engine started.
She said “thanks” and shifted into first but before she could pull away the other drunk-the stringy muscular one called Condor-grabbed the steering and turned the key off.
“You’re going to give us a reward, right?”
She nodded.
“Sure.”
She reached in her purse.
That’s when Condor grabbed her tit and said, “I’m not talking about money, baby. Why don’t you get your sweet ass out here and show us how grateful you are.”
Her heart raced.
“Sure.” She opened the door as far as it would before Condor’s body blocked it. “Step back baby.”
When he did, January fired the engine, did a one-eighty and took off. They gave chase and ran her off the road.
Then they raped her, both of them.
They didn’t do it nice.
They were mean about it.
Thunder rolled through River’s blood as he listened.
“What’d they do with the keys?”
“They threw them that way,” she said.
River shined the flashlight to where January pointed and said, “Over there?”
She nodded.
“Somewhere in that direction.”
It took five minutes and he almost gave up twice, but then he found them, smack dab in the middle of yucca spines.
Yeah, baby.
The tires weren’t buried and he was able to get the vehicle back to the road.
“Do you know which way they went?”
She did.
She was in the trunk but the assholes were shouting and honking the horn like some kind of sick victory celebration when they headed up the road.
“That way.”
River put it in gear and took off, deeper into the country.
“Tell me about their truck,” he said. “What’d it look like?”