DeJuan said, “Can’t miss it. Biggest one near the house on the east side.” He strapped on the spurs and T-pads, climbed the tree and set up the stand. He was drinking coffee, relaxing as the sun came up over the water.
He saw Jack’s rich lady sleeping and saw her get out of bed, watched her through the binoculars-filling up the tub and then taking her clothes off and getting in, making faces as she got used to the water. Teddy zooming in and holding on different parts of her-looked like she was close enough to reach out and touch. She soaked for a time and then stood up and got out and dried off. Seeing her naked body warmed him up against the chill of morning. She was a looker. He’d drink that bathwater she was setting in.
SIXTEEN
The bar was packed shoulder-to-shoulder with men in work shirts and fertilizer caps, drinking beer and shots and smoking cigarettes. Kate and Jack sat at a table and ordered bottles of Bass Ale. They had their backs to the door and could feel the draft move across the floor when somebody came in. The band, four long-haired Indians, kicked it out from a stage at the far end of the room.
Luke was out for the evening, on patrol with Bill Wink-“seeing a real cop in action” was how Bill put it. Kate grinning, thinking about it. She took Jack to the Happy Hour Tavern for sauteed perch and now they were at Boone’s Prime Time in Suttons Bay.
“I forgot why we came here,” Jack said.
Kate said, “How many chances you get to see Crazy Horse live?” She tapped a cigarette out of her pack and lit it. “They take requests, I understand. What’s your favorite speed-metal song?”
“I’m going to have to think about that,” Jack said, “there are so many.”
The band finished their set and said they were going to take a break. Jack got up, said he was going to the men’s.
Kate was thinking about Jack’s reaction when she gave him the fifty thousand. She’d agonized over it. She didn’t trust him and figured that was a way to find out if he was still working a con. He could’ve taken the check, cashed it and disappeared, if money was what he was after. He shocked her by giving it back, and now felt bad she doubted him. It looked like he’d changed; he was a different person after all.
Kate felt someone staring at her, looked over and met the gaze of a rugged-looking guy standing at the bar. He winked at her and she looked away. Now he came over to the table and sat in Jack’s seat. He had a longneck Rolling Rock in his hand.
“When they start letting injuns play instruments?” He drank his beer and said, “How you doing?”
Kate said, “I’m with someone.”
“Yeah, I know and you could do a lot better if you ask me.”
“I didn’t,” Kate said.
He had a square jaw and looked strong under the dark T-shirt and nylon jacket, like someone who worked construction his whole life. He had a mullet too.
He said, “How we going to get to know each other with that attitude?”
He was leering at her and it made her uncomfortable.
“What do you do,” Kate said, “that makes you so confident?”
“I’m good.”
“Yeah? What’re you good at?”
“Anything I set my mind to.”
He grinned, showing tobacco-stained teeth, and drained his beer bottle.
“Why don’t you set your mind to going back where you came from, try that,” Kate said.
He stood up but continued to stare at her.
“I’ve got a feeling we’ll be seeing each other again.”
“I wouldn’t count on it,” Kate said.
He moved to the bar, looking back at her, grinning and put his empty on the bartop. He was sleazy, scary-looking. He creeped her out-made her nervous.
She saw Jack appear now, coming back into the room and she was relieved. The guy with the mullet stepped in front of Jack as he walked by the bar. She could see them exchanging words. Mullet pushed Jack and Jack pushed him back. Then a young good-looking girl walked in and separated them. The girl put her arm around Mullet’s waist and the three of them talked for a few minutes and Jack came back to the table.
Kate said, “What was that all about?”
“Some clown had too much to drink, was looking for trouble,” Jack said, sitting down.
It didn’t look that way to her, studying their body language, but Kate had no other explanation.
“Never seen him before in my life,” Jack said, looking her in the eye. “You okay?”
“He sat down where you are now,” Kate said, “tried to pick me up. Thinks highly of himself, very confident for a guy with a mullet.”
“That’s what shots and beers will do for a guy, give him a false sense of himself.”
He sounded like an expert on the subject.
The car ahead of them was having trouble staying in a straight line, kind of swerving in the lane.
Bill Wink said, “Looks like we’ve got somebody’s been over-served.”
They were cruising on a two-lane county road, flat, fallow fields on both sides. Luke was thinking about his dad when Bill flipped a switch on the dash and the light bar came on. Luke could see the multicolored reflection of the lights flashing through the windshield and off the white hood of the police car. More lights reflecting off the back of the car that was slowing down, pulling over, Luke listening to the dispatcher’s steady, measured voice, broken up by static from the police radio.
Bill said, “First thing we do is run the plate, see if there are any outstanding warrants.”
He punched the license number into the computer.
He said, “Know what kind of car that is?”
Luke said, “Z28 Camaro, ’69 or ’70.” It was green with a white racing stripe that went over the hood and trunk lid. He knew cars. He’d grown up at the racetrack and could probably name every American car from 1960 on.
Bill had picked him up earlier and brought a Point Blank Pro Plus vest for Luke to wear, Bill saying it belonged to a lady deputy-the men’s vests were too big-but that Luke had to wear one, departmental regulations. Luke wore it under his sweatshirt and was surprised how heavy and uncomfortable it was. Bill wore one too under his brown short-sleeve uniform shirt, showing off his arms.
“Ever been shot at?” Luke said.
“I was a rookie in Garden City. There’d been a shooting in the neighborhood. My job was to keep people out of the crime scene, make sure evidence wasn’t contaminated. I was talking to this woman who walked down the street and I’d swear I saw these two dudes come out of nowhere, pick her up and put her in the back of an Escalade-kidnapped her. I’m going, what in hell’s name is happening here?”
“What’d you do?”
“Followed them. They pulled into a shopping center; I pulled in behind them. I was doing a plate check just like this, see who I was dealing with. That’s when the shooting started. One of ’em had a machine gun, opened fire on my patrol car. I called for backup but I was pretty much on my own. Found out later, they were former Iraqi soldiers, Republican Guards worked for Saddam Hussein, hired by a local A-rab.”
“They hit you?”
“It’s a miracle I’m sitting here,” Bill Wink said.
“Did the vest save your life?”
“My patrol car looked like Swiss cheese,” Bill said. “Guess how many rounds they fired.”
Luke said, “Twenty.”
“Twenty? Try a hundred and eleven. I was hit six times. Each round stopped by Point Blank Pro Plus body armor just like you’re wearing.”
Luke said, “Think somebody’s going to shoot at us tonight?”
“No, I do not, but you never know. It’s like wearing a seat belt, okay? It’s better to be safe than sorry.”
Bill glanced at the computer.
“Car’s registered to Theodore Monroe Hicks, address in Clawson, downstate, and yes, it’s a 197 °Chevrolet Camaro Z28. You know your stuff.”
Bill picked up his hat, grabbed his flashlight off the console and opened the door. He looked back at Luke and said, “They give me any trouble, pick up that radio and call for backup. We’re on County Road number 20, four miles from Empire. Can I count on you, partner?”