“But I want you to know,” I continue, “that as long as Iamhere, I will do anything I can to help you, whether it’s with drugs or those girls. And I mean anything.”
He slowly shakes his head now. “Drugs and girls,” he says. “Sounds like we’re discussing Briar Crockett’s business plan. Or at least part of it.”
“I thought the girls working for him were older, or so we’ve always been told,” I say. “And not ones he wanted to get disappeared.”
“And not high school girls,” Burt says. He sighs again. “Aw, Silas, who the hell knows?”
“Here’s what I know,” I tell him now. “I’m not afraid of Briar Crockett. Or his idiot sons.”
“Maybe you ought to be,” he says. “Not just telling you that as a friend. Telling you that as a cop.”
“I can take care of myself.”
“We were joking about Taylor before,” he says, “and getting on her bad side. Well, boy, you’re already there with the Crockett family, and you’ve only been back in Cross Rivers for about ten minutes.”
“I told EJ that I might have poked the bear by going to see Briar,” I say. “But the more I think about it, maybe he and his boys are the ones poking at me now.”
He looks down sadly at a plate that looks as clean as if it had just been set down in front of him.
“Just don’t want you to get run over like your dog.”
I wave at Bess for the check.
“You were as good a teammate as I ever had, even though we didn’t play together all that long,” I tell Burt Webb. “Now I’m asking you to let me be just as good a teammate to you.”
He stares at me, a smile in his eyes, and hesitates just slightly until he puts his hand out for me to shake.
“Deal.”
“Deal,” I say.
“But on one condition,” he says.
“You got it.”
“Didn’t tell you what it is yet.”
“Doesn’t matter what it is if you’re the one doing the asking.”
“I have to be the one who calls the plays,” Burt says.
“Whoa,” I say. “You forget who you’re talking to here?”
“Deal breaker for you?”
“No,” I say. “But here’s one condition back at you: I get to call an audible if I have to.”
Burt says, “Long as you run it by me first.”
“What if there’s no time?”
“Make time,” he says.
“Got it, Coach.”
“In that case, you are officially deputized by absolutely no authority I have from the town of Cross Rivers,” he says. “Especially not on my salary. Or rank.”
“Great,” I say. “Do I get a badge?”
