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Cartwright: “Yeah, well, that happens. Better with a gun than a knife, where she takes fifteen minutes to suffer and bleed out while you’re sitting around reading your iPhone. Gun’s quicker.”
“Jesus, Barb, take it easy,” Letty said.
“That’s okay, I’ve heard the talk, in Afghanistan. I just wasn’t the…subject of it,” Hawkins said.
Cartwright asked him where he’d been in Afghanistan, and when he told her, mentioned that she’d passed through the same base a couple of times. “I sorta came, and then I went.”
“Having solved somebody’s problems,” Letty said.
“Sometimes,” Cartwright said. “Not all the time.”
—
Cartwright drove themto the IHOP, which she’d spotted while checking out the territory around the hotel; she’d checked the territory around the hotel because she always did that. At the IHOP, they got menus and Hawkins asked, “Are link sausages the same as bangers?”
“More or less,” Cartwright said. “I’d recommend the blueberry pancakes, but I’d also stay away from the whipped cream. And what’s this about a body out in the weeds?”
They spent an hour in the booth, talking and eating; Letty and Hawkins were famished, and expected the next day to be as rough.
“We have at least four people out there, probably in Taos, but not a clue to exactly where, or what they might be doing,” Letty said. “What scares everyone is the possibility that they’ve already turned the virus loose.”
“If they have, we’ll hunt down every one of them before we die,” Hawkins said.
“If that ain’t a fact, God’s a possum,” Cartwright said, poking a fork at him.
Hawkins frowned, turned to Letty for a translation, who said, “She’s from Texas.”
—
They were gettingready to leave when Greet called: “Rae and Lucas killed another one of them, the Foss guy. He was buying a lot of food at a supermarket, too much for one guy. He was in the store alone but was seen earlier with a young woman with tattoos, so we’re pretty sure they’re all in Taos. We know Foss and the woman walked to the supermarket and we know one place they passed as they were walking, so we’re narrowing down search parameters.”
“Then we all need to get up there,” Letty said. “Our state cop can show the Detrick guys where the body might be in Lamy. That doesn’t seem as time-crucial.”
“I agree. Get some sleep, and get up there early as you can,” Greet said.
When they’d ended the call, Cartwright said, “Sunrise is a little after six. Let’s get up at six, get up there by seven-thirty or eight.” She knew when sunrise was, because she always knew that, and where to sit so the sun wouldn’t be in her eyes, or reflecting off the objective lens of her scope.
“See you at six o’clock,” Letty said. “Maybe we can hit the IHOP again.”
—
Before Letty andHawkins got in bed, Letty called Lucas and when he answered, said, “Just getting ready for bed. Billy says you guys killed Foss.”
“Yeah. We’re still there, at the scene. A supermarket. We’re waiting for Underwood and the Detrick crew to show up and handle the body.”
“We’re coming up early tomorrow,” Letty said. “Should be there by eight. We’ll let the Detrick team figure out if there’s a body buried in Lamy.”
“All right. We’ve got more marshals coming in from Louisiana. Should be here any time.”
“Excellent. We need all the help we can get.”
“Let me talk to the MI5 guy for a minute,” Lucas said.
“Hang on,” Letty said, and she handed the phone to Hawkins.
He said, “I’m here.”
“Yeah, that’s what I was worried about,” Lucas said. “See you tomorrow morning. Sleep tight.”
