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Billy’s fate was to live in a tiave the lesser name horror to every abomination, that redefined every horror as a crime, every crime as an offense, every offense as a mere annoyance Nevertheless, abhorrence rose in hiht Lanny Olsen here
"Billy Dear sweet Jesus, Billy"
"What?"
"I’"
"What--Whatisit?"
"I can’t stop sweating It’s not that hot"
Suddenly Billy felt greasy He wiped one hand across his face and looked at the pal filth To the eye, it appeared to be clean
"I need a beer," Lanny said "Two beers I need to sit down I need to think"
"Look at me"
Lanny wouldn’t meet his eyes His attention was fixed on the note in Billy’s hand
That paper reut, blossomed like a lubricious flower, oily and ht question wasn’t what The right question ho, and Billy asked it
Lanny licked his lips "Giselle Winslow"
"I don’t know her"
"Neither do I"
"Where?"
"She taught English down in Napa"
"Blond?"
"Yeah"
"And lovely," Billy guessed
"She once was Somebody beat her nearly to death She was messed up really bad by someone who kne to draw it out, how to ling her with a pair of her pantyhose"
Billy’s legs felt weak He leaned against the Explorer He could not speak
"Her sister found her just two hours ago"
Lanny’s gaze remained fixed on the folded sheet of paper in Billy’s hand
"The sheriff’s department doesn’t have jurisdiction down there," Lanny continued "So it’s in the lap of the Napa police That’s so space"
Billy found his voice, but it was rough and not as he usually sounded to hio to the police, but I went to you"
"He said he’d kill her if you didn’t go to the police and get them involved"
"But I went to you, I tried I mean, for God’s sake, I tried, didn’t I?"
Lanny met his eyes at last "You cao to the police You went to a friend who happened to be a cop"
"But I went to you" Billy protested, and cringed at the denial in his voice, at the self-justification
Nausea crawled the walls of his stomach, but he clenched his teeth and strove for control
"Nothing smelled real about it," Lanny said
"About what?"
"The first note It was a joke It was a lame joke There isn’t a cop alive with the instinct to s real in it"
"Was she married?" Billy asked
A Toyota drove into the lot and parked seventy or eighty feet froet out of the car and go into the tavern At such a distance, their conversation couldn’t have been overheard Nevertheless, they were circumspect
Country music drifted out of the tavern while the door was open On the jukebox, Alan Jackson was singing about heartbreak
"Was she ain
"Who?"
"The woman The schoolteacher Giselle Winslow"
"I don’t think so, no At least there’s no husband in the picture at thethe folded paper, Billy said, "Did she have any children?"
"What does it matter?"
"It matters," Billy said
He realized that his ehtened into a fist This was a friend standing before him, such as he allowed himself friends Yet he relaxed his fist only with effort
"It matters to me, Lanny"
"Kids? I don’t know Probably not From what I heard, she must have lived alone"
Two bursts of traffic passed on the state highway: paradiddles of engines, the soft percussion of displaced air
In the ensuing quiet, Lanny said plaintively, "Listen, Billy, potentially, I’m in trouble here"
"Potentially?" He found huh
"No one else in the department would have taken that damn note seriously But they’ll say I should have"
"Maybe I should have," Billy said
Agitated, Lanny disagreed: "That’s hindsight Bullshit Don’t talk like that We need a ainst what?"
"Whatever Billy, listen, I don’t have a perfect ten card"
"What’s a ten card?"
"My force record card, ative reports"
"What’d you do?"
Lanny’s eyes squinted when he took offense "Damn it, I’m not a crooked cop"
"I didn’t say you were"
"I’m forty-six, never taken a diht Okay"
"I didn’t do anything"