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“Let’s do. Will you call her this afternoon? I think you should.”
I tried to read what was in her eyes. The mood swings, the distorted and fearful perception, took place sometimes as quickly as a bird flying in and out of a cage.
“I might talk to her,” I said, and put my hand on top of hers, “but I don’t think she’ll be much help in the case. The Sonniers don’t trust other people. But I have to try to do what I can.”
“Of course you do, Dave. Nobody said otherwise.” And she looked off at the periwinkles blowing in the shade next to the coulee. The light in her eyes was as private as a solitary candle burning in a church.
“We’ll take Alafair to Possum’s for étoufée before we go to the track,” I said. “Or maybe we can just come home and rent a movie.”
“That would be wonderful.”
“The sandwiches were really good. It’s sure nice to come home and have lunch with you, Boots. Maybe after I close the drawer on this case, I might take leave of the department. We’re doing pretty well at the dock.”
“Don’t fool yourself. You’ll never stop being a cop, Dave.”
I looked into her eyes again, and they were suddenly clear, as though the breeze had blown a dark object away from her line of vision.
I squeezed her hand, rose from the wood bench, and went around behind her and kissed her hair and hugged her against me. I could feel her heart beating under my arms.
AT THE OFFICE I gave the sheriff the envelope containing the two thousand dollars and the unsigned letter.
“It must be a cheap outfit,” he said. “You’d think they’d pay a little more to get a cop on the pad.”
He had run a dry-cleaning business before he became sheriff. He was also a Boy Scout master and belonged to the Lions Club, not for political reasons but because he thoroughly enjoyed being a Scoutmaster and belonging to the Lions Club. He was a thoughtful and considerate man, and I always hated to correct him or to suggest that his career as an elected police officer would probably always consist of on-the-job training.
“Seduction usually comes a teaspoon at a time,” I said. “Sometimes a cop who won’t take fifty grand will take two. Then one day you find yourself way down the road and you don’t remember where you made a hard left turn.”
He wore large rimless glasses, and his stomach swelled over his gunbelt. Through the window behind his desk I could see two black trusties from the parish jail washing patrol cars in the parking lot. He scratched the blue and red veins in his soft cheek with his fingernail.
“Who do you think it came from?” he asked.
“Somebody with long-range plans, somebody who’s always looking around to buy a cop. Probably the mob or somebody in it.”
“Not from Bobby Earl?”
“His kind only pay out money when you catch them sodomizing sheep. I’m pretty sure we’re dealing with the wiseguys now.”
“What do you think they’ll do next?”
“If I stay out of New Orleans, there will probably be another envelope. Then they’ll offer me a job providing security in one of their nightclubs or in a counting room at the track.”
He put an unlit cigarette in his mouth and rotated it with his fingers.
“I’ve got a bad feeling about all this,” he said. “I surely do.”
“Why?”
“Don’t underestimate Bobby Earl’s potential. I met him a couple of times ten or twelve years ago, when he was still appearing in Klan robes. This guy could make the ovens sing and grin while he was doing it.”
“Maybe. But I never met one of those guys who wasn’t a physical and moral coward.”
“I saw Garrett’s body before the autopsy. It was hard to look at, and I was in Korea. Watch your butt, Dave.”
His eyes were unblinking over his rimless glasses.
BY TWO P.M. it was ninety-five degrees outside; the sunlight off the cement was as bright as a white flame; the palm trees looked dry and desiccated in the hot wind; and my own day was just warming up.
I called Drew again and this time she answered. I was ready to argue with her, to lecture her about her and Weldon’s lack of cooperation in the case, even blame her for my difficulties with Bootsie at lunch. In fact, my opening statement was “Who was this guy in your kitchen, Drew, and why didn’t you report it?”
