Part 15 (1/2)

”How'd you know?” I didn't answer. I was trying to think this through. Susan went on. ”I heard them over Loutie's equipment. They brought him in to help find Carli. They're talking money now. Sounds like they had some kind of agreement, and now Poultrez is trying to squeeze more money out of Purcell. I've heard the numbers thirty thousand and fifty thousand.”

I felt sick. ”Who would sell his own daughter for thirty thousand dollars?”

Susan said, ”The same guy who would rape and abuse his daughter instead of protecting her or even ignoring her. Someone disgusting and worse. Someone evil.”

I cussed and kicked some sand into the air that blew back in my face. I told her I was returning to the house.

For most of the next hour, Susan, Loutie, and I listened over hidden mikes as Poultrez b.i.t.c.hed about how much money he was losing by sitting around Seaside instead of staying home to work the seas off New England for cod. Every now and then, as Poultrez paused to savor a particularly salient argument, Purcell would say, ”If you don't want the thirty thousand, go back home.”

Purcell didn't get to be king redneck just by being the biggest nut on the tree. As Poultrez tried to work him for more money, Purcell was demonstrating surprising control and even glimmers of limited intelligence. He knew Poultrez had put his fis.h.i.+ng business on hold and flown all the way to Florida based on an offer of thirty thousand. The fisherman would take more if he could get it. But Poultrez had come for thirty, and, in the end, he would happily sell his daughter's life for that amount.

In contrast to his host, Carli's father kept pus.h.i.+ng after all hope and most of Purcell's patience had evaporated. Poultrez proceeded from financial arguments to threatening to get on a plane, and Purcell told him to do what he thought best. Poultrez tried anger, and Purcell gave the same answer. Finally, Poultrez tried threatening Purcell, and the football-hero leader of the Bodines offered to kill Poultrez, chop him into edible chunks, and leave his butchered carca.s.s scattered over a salt.w.a.ter marsh for the crabs and alligators. That was pretty much the end of that.

Poultrez still tried to sound tough, but he mostly just sounded defeated. ”This is bulls.h.i.+t. Over the phone, you said thirty for sure and probably more if I came. That's what you said. 'Probably more.' And now that I hauled my a.s.s down here to the middle of nowhere, you just say take the thirty. s.h.i.+t. I lost my temper threatening you the way I did before, but... s.h.i.+t.”

A feminine voice with a heavy Latin accent announced lunch. Joey's bugs were so good we could hear the springs on the sofa creak as someone stood. A few seconds later, Purcell's voice said, ”Sit over there,” and we could hear even better than before.

I whispered to Loutie, ”This is amazing.”

Loutie said, ”They're not two-way mikes, Tom. You don't have to whisper.”

Of course I knew that. It just seems like you should whisper when you're eavesdropping. But explaining would have been worse than nothing, so I said, ”Oh,” and Susan pretended not to notice.

Chewing, slurping, and swallowing sounds emanated from Purcell's and Poultrez's mouths and buzzed into our rented kitchen through black-screened speakers.

Loutie said, ”There's a bug under the table and one in the light over it.”

More masticating filtered through the speakers, and Purcell said, ”Thirty's all you get for Carli. You wanna make more, you gotta do more. There's a lawyer named McInnes, Tom McInnes, who's mixed up in this. I personally took the time to try and reason with him, but the guy's a p.r.i.c.k. Attacked one of my men by throwing food at him like some dumb-a.s.s kid and then stabbing his tire and running away like a chicken s.h.i.+t.” Purcell paused to gulp something and emit a barely stifled belch. ”Like I said, I gave him a chance to be smart. He screwed it for hisself. So, here's the deal. I want you spending your time looking for the girl. That's first. But, if you come across McInnes while you're doing it, and if you put a bullet in his head, I'll add twenty thousand to the thirty thousand finder's fee I'm offering for Carli.”

Poultrez's greed had new legs. ”Twenty's not much for killing somebody. h.e.l.l, back home, up in Boston...”

Purcell said, ”Do I look like somebody who gives a rat's a.s.s what people in Boston-f.u.c.king-Ma.s.sachusetts do?” Poultrez didn't answer. ”Twenty's the same deal I'm giving my own men. One of 'em nails McInnes, I'll pay the twenty. You nail him, you get the twenty.”

The room swirleda”just a littlea”and I realized I was breathing too fast. Shallow gusts filled the top shelf of my lungs and gushed out again under their own power. I blinked and focused on breathing deeply and slowly. Two strong hands squeezed my shoulders, and I jumpeda”again, just a little. Susan was standing behind me, meaning to comfort me.

I said, ”That's interesting.”

Loutie looked unfazed. She said, ”Yeah. It is.”

chapter twenty.

Susan tried to put the best face on my impending death. ”Tom. In a way, this is good. Isn't it? I mean, we've got Leroy Purcell on tape.” She looked at Loutie. ”It is on tape, isn't it?” Loutie nodded, and Susan turned back to me. ”So, we've got him on tape taking out a contract on your life. We can take that to the police and get them to do something.”

I said, ”Do what?”

”Arrest him or something.”

”We illegally bugged Purcell's house, Susan. Down the road somewhere, the tapes may or may not be admissible in court, if we get that far. But, for now, we've got all kinds of problems with them. Just to start, Joey and Loutie committed breaking and entering, which is a felony, to hide the bugs. Joey would lose his investigator's license, he and Loutie might do some jail time, and I'd expect the State Bar to question my fitness to continue practicing law, since Joey and Loutie planted the bugs at my direction.”

Susan said, ”But if it'll save your life.”

”Susan, if I knew turning over the tapes would save your life, Carli's life, or mine, I'd turn them over to the cops today. But it wouldn't work. It's only our word that that's actually Purcell on the tapes. He'd claim we manufactured them. And he's connected down here and we're not. Who do you think they're going to believe? The guy's sc.u.m, but he's still a hero to a lot of people in Florida because of his football days.”

Susan's eyes scanned the room, lingered on the window, and came to rest on the listening equipment. She was completely focused, trying with everything she had to find the good in what we had heard. I was touched by how hard she was working not to think about what it really meant.

I said, ”We're a long way from dead, Susan. The tapes aren't important. What is importanta”the good parta”is that we know about Purcell's plans ahead of time.”

Susan brightened. ”Yes, that is good. Now you know to stay out of his way and not to go wandering around his house again like you did this morning. Now we can figure out what to do.”

I've always read about people in danger smiling bravely. That's what I tried to do.

While Susan rummaged in the refrigerator and began putting out cold chicken salad and sliced fruit for lunch, I trotted upstairs and packed. Purcell's conversation with Poultrez had let me know one thing. It let me know to get as far as possible from anyone I cared about; it let me know that Susan's dyed hair wouldn't do much good if I was around to be seen and shot at and, more or less, murdered. Purcell had never seen Susana”particularly outfitted with her new brunette persona. My presence in the house would be a neon sign for Purcell and his tattooed toadies.

The phone rang as I was packing my razor and other bathroom stuff. Someone downstairs answered. I tossed the small toilet kit into my duffel and carried my little hobo bundle down the rented teak stairs and put it next to our canary-yellow door. Susan glanced at the duffel and looked confused. Loutie held out the telephone receiver and said, ”It's Joey. I filled him in. He wants to talk to you.”

I put the phone against my ear and said, ”It's been a fun morning.”

Joey said, ”Sounds like it. You get a look at Rus Poultrez?”

”Yeah. He's big. Not as tall as you, but he weighs more. I thought he was some of Purcell's hired muscle when he went in, if that tells you anything.”

The line was quiet for a few beats. Joey said, ”I hear somebody wants you dead.” I didn't say anything. ”I wouldn't worry too much about it, Tom. But I do think you ought to come down here with me. We can watch each other's back.”

”Not to mention that Susan and Loutie will be safer with me gone.”

”Not to mention that.” Joey said, ”Listen, the reason I called is our buddy, Thomas Bobby Hayc.o.c.k, looks like he's getting ready to do a little smuggling. Maybe commit a felony or two.”

”How can you tell?”

”Just been watching him so much I guess. I don't know if there's a list of reasons I think he's going out, but I think he is. You know, he doesn't have any of that swamp trash nookie hanging around. He ga.s.sed up the truck. And h.e.l.l, I don't know, he just has the look about him.”

”I'll call Billy Teeter and see if I can rent his boat.”

”I'm thinking I should come with you on the boat. You could run into some trouble out there.”

”No.” I said, ”I want you to get over to the mainland and be ready to follow Hayc.o.c.k's truck when he goes over tomorrow morning.” Joey started to argue. I said, ”We can tiptoe around protecting each other, or we can figure this mess out and maybe bury Purcell and his people.”

”I don't like it.”

”But I'm right.”

”Yeah,” Joey said. ”I guess.” And he hung up.

I placed the receiver in its cradle, and Susan's voice, unnaturally quiet, came from behind me. ”Where are you going?”