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10

Two minutes and two hundred yards later I found the railroad track First caonal arrees, one marked RAILROAD and the other hts attached to the pole and somewhere beyond it there would be an electric bell in a box Twenty yards farther on the ditches either side of the road ended abruptly, and the track itself was up on a huht, two parallel rails running not very level and not co old and worn and short on ravel bed was lumpy and compacted and matted eeds I stood on a tie between the rails and looked first one way and then the other Twenty yards to the north, on the left, was the shadowy bulk of an old ruined water tower, still with a wide soft hose like an elephant&039;s trunk, which once &039;s freshwater spring, and which once reedy steam locomotives that halted there

I turned a full 360 in the dark There was absolute stillness and silence everywhere I could sht air, maybe from where the blue car had burned the trees to the north I could suessed the rest of the township was, on the wrong side of the tracks But I could see only darkness in that direction Just the suggestion of a hole through the woods, where the road ran, and then nothing more

I turned back the way I had co about pie, and I saw headlights in the distance A large car or a s slow At one point it looked ready to e its htened again and kept on co It was a blunt-nosed pick-up truck It dipped and ed over the huhts rose and fell in the mist I could hear a loet burble fro lane and stopped twenty feet frolare I walked on I wasn&039;t about to step into the weeds, and the shoulder was narroay, because of the ditch onto take , and when I was ten feet out he dropped hisand put his left wrist on the door and his left elbow in ht spill toa T-shirt with the sleeve rolled above a thick ar hair that hadn&039;t been washed for a week or more

Three choices

First, stop and chat

Second, step into the weeds between the pavement and the ditch, and pass him by

Third, break his arm

I chose the first option I stopped But I didn&039;t chat Not immediately I just stood there

There was a second uy Fur, ink, hair, dirt, grease But not identical A cousin, ht at e insolence soht back at theer

The driver said, "Who are you and where are you going?"

I said nothing I&039;o the rest ofanother word, if I had to

The driver said, "I asked you a question"

I thought: two questions, actually But I said nothing I didn&039;t want to have to hit the guy Not with uy like that, I would feel the need to wash up afterward, extensively, with good soap, especially if there was pie inhim instead I saw the moves in my head: he opens his door, he steps out, he co and retching and clutching his groin

No lish?"

I said nothing

The guy in the passenger seat said, "Maybe he&039;s a Mexican"

The driver asked me, "Are you a Mexican?"

I didn&039;t answer

The driver said, "He doesn&039;t look like a Mexican He&039;s too big"

Which was true in a general sense, although I had heard of a guy from Mexico called Jose Calderon Torres, who had stood seven feet six and a quarter inches, which was uy called Jose Garces from the LA Olympics, who had cleaned-and-jerked more than four hundred and twenty pounds, which was probably what the two guys in the truck weighed both together

The driver asked, "Are you co in fro between the town and the base, Garber had said People are always tribal, when it couys had known Janice May Chapman Maybe they couldn&039;t understand why she had dated soldiers, and not them Maybe they had never looked in aBut I didn&039;t walk on I didn&039;t want the truck loose behind me Not in a lonely spot, not on a dark country road I just stood there, looking directly at the two guys, at their faces, first one, then the other, with nothing much in my own face except frankness and skepticism and a little amusement It&039;s a look that usually works It usually provokes so, out of a certain type of person

It provoked the passenger first

He wound his n and reared up through it, al so he could face me directly across the hood of the truck He held on to the pillar with one hand and h a fast violent arc, like he was cracking a whip or throwing so to you, asshole"

I said nothing

He said, "Is there a reason I don&039;t get out of this truck and kick your butt?"

I said, "Two hundred and six reasons"

He said, "What?"

"That&039;s how ot in your body I could break theot his buddy going His instinct was to stick up for his friend and face down a challenge He leaned further out his o and said, "You think?"

I said, "Often all day long It&039;s a good habit to have" Which shut the guy up, while he tried to piece together what I meant He went back over our conversation in his head His lips were itiuys staying?"

Noas asking the questions, and they weren&039;t answering

I said, "It looked to me like you were about to turn into Main Street Is that your way home?"

No answer

I said, "What, you&039;re hoot a place"

"Where?"

"A o there Watch TV, drink beer Don&039;t worry about me"

"Are you from Kelham?"

"No," I said "I&039;uys went quiet and kind of deflated theh their s, back into the cab, back into their seats I heard the truck&039;s transe, and then it took off backward, fast, and then it slewed and lurched through a 180 turn, with dust co up and tire squeal, and then it drove away and braked hard and turned into Main Street Then it was lost to sight behind the dark bulk of the Sheriff&039;s Departe done The best fights are the ones you don&039;t have, a wise man once said to me It was not advice I always followed, but on that occasion I was pleased to walk aith clean hands, both literally and figuratively

Then I saw another car co the truck had done It went to turn, and then it paused and straightened and headed in my direction It was a cop car I could tell by the shape and the size, and I could ht bar on the roof At first I thought it was Pellegrino out on patrol, but when the car got closer it killed its lights and I saoot a lot

11

The car caside me It was an old Chevy Caprice police cruiser painted up in the Carter County Sheriff&039;s Department colors The woman behind the wheel had an unruly mass of dark hair, somewhere betavy and curly, tied back in an approximate ponytail Her face was pale and flawless She was low in the seat, whichyears of use I decided the seatand the set of her shoulders didn&039;t suggest a short person I pegged her at soe, young enough to still find sohtly, and the s and dark and liquid and seeht have been a reflection from the Chevy&039;s instrument panel

She wound down herand looked straight at me, first my face, then a careful up-and-down, side-to-side appraisal all the way froaze I stepped in closer to give her a better look, and to take a better look She was more than flawless She was spectacular She had a revolver in a holster on her right hip, and next to it was a shotgun stuffed muzzle-down in a scabbardunder the dash on the passenger side, and awheel The car was old and worn, alht secondhand from a richer uy Pellegrino brought in"

Her voice was quiet but clear, warm but not soft, and her accent sounded local

I said, "Yes, ma&039;aht?"

I said, "Yes, ma&039;am, I am"

She said, "I&039;m Elizabeth Deveraux I&039;m the sheriff here"

I said, "I&039;m very pleased to meet you"

She paused a beat and said, "Did you eat dinner yet?"

I nodded

"But not dessert," I said "As a ht now"

"Do you usually take a walk between courses?"

"I aiting out the hotel people They didn&039;t seem in much of a hurry"

"Is that where you&039;re staying tonight? The hotel?"

"I&039; with the friend you came to find?"

"I haven&039;t found him yet" She nodded in turn

"I need to talk to you," she said "Find me in the diner Five minutes, OK?"

There was authority but no enda Just the kind of easy cohter and then a sheriff herself

"OK," I said "Five ain and reversed away and turned around, in a slower version of the sauys in the truck had used She switched her headlights back on and drove away I saw her brake lights flare red and she turned into Main Street I followed on foot, in the weeds, between the pavement and the ditch

I got to the diner well inside the five iven and found Elizabeth Deveraux&039;s cruiser parked at the curb outside She herself was at the same table I had used The old couple from the hotel had finally decamped The place was empty apart from Deveraux and the waitress

I went in and Deveraux said nothing specific but used one foot under the table to shove the facing chair out a little An invitation Ale She didn&039;t try to seat me elsewhere Clearly Deveraux had already ordered I asked the waitress for a slice of her best pie and another cup of coffee She went through to the kitchen and silence claimed the room

Up close and personal I was prepared to concede that Elizabeth Deveraux was a seriously good looking woman Truly beautiful Out of the car she was relatively tall, and her hair was a There must have been five pounds of it in her ponytail alone She had all the right parts in all the right proportions She looked great in her uniform But then, I liked women in uniform, possibly because I had known very few of the other kind But best of all was her ether they put a kind of wry, amused animation into her face, as if whatever happened to her she would stay cool and calh it all, and then she would find soht in her eyes Not just a reflection from the Caprice&039;s speedorino told me you&039;ve been in the army"

I paused a beat Undercover work is all about lying, and I hadn&039;t rino But for so to lie to Deveraux So I said, "Six weeks ago I was in the army," which was technically true

"What branch?"

"I ith an outfit called the 110th, mostly," I said Also true

"Infantry?"

"It was a special unit Combined operations, basically" Which was true, technically

"Who&039;s your local friend?"

"A guy called Hayder," I said An outright invention

Deveraux said, "He must have been infantry Kelham is all infantry"

I nodded

"The 75th Ranger Regiment," I said

"Was he an instructor?" she asked

"Yes," I said

She nodded "They&039;re the only ones who are here long enough to want to stick around afterward"

I said nothing