“Oh shit, of course. Listen, Harry, it makes me feel stupid that all this shit went down and I never saw anything.”
“You saw the bag floating in the gutter. That opened the door. But Crandell thinks you’re messing with his plans. He may want to take you off the board, and he can do it. You’re at home, right?”
“Watching the tube.”
“Get out now. Go somewhere. A motel, Pace. I’ll pay. Go there and hang out until tomorrow.”
“Harry, what can I do to help? I’ll do anything. Tell me how to help you track down this Cran-”
“There’s nothing to do but get out of there, Pace. Now.”
“What are you trying to accomplish, Harry? Clue me in.”
Nautilus sighed, time wasting.
“Someone’s life may depend on me finding Crandell. I figure this Crandell’s got a place away from things. But close enough to town to keep his hand in his action. Pace, get off the phone and git.”
“What are you going to do, Harry?”
“I don’t know, Pace. Listen, I got to hang up.”
“Shuttles is slick, Harry, the little bastard is one-”
“Get out!” Nautilus yelled and slammed down the phone.
CHAPTER 46
Miss Gracie stood by my bedside. Her hand rested on the sheet an inch from mine. I had a feeling she wanted to touch my hand, make contact.
She said, “I been told to take the night off.”
“Who gives you your orders, Miss Gracie?”
“Him. Cran-man. It’s like always when he comes. If it ain’t done his way, he won’t take the job.”
It made sense from what I knew of Crandell. He’d want absolute control to lessen the chance of error. I rattled my wrists in the straps.
“Miss Gracie, can you help here?”
She turned away.
“He’s out there now, a bunch of the security folks, too. They’re sure Lucas is trying to get to Miz Kincannon. They say he wants to kill her. I don’t know what to believe anymore.”
“You’re not sure Lucas is psychotic?”
“I been told that a thousand times since he came here. That he’s sick. Not to trust him, he lies, pretends to be well. I think he was all mixed up as a kid is all.”
“How about Dr. Rudolnick? What did he think?”
Her eyes closed.
“He wrote up papers they gave to Miz Kincannon, saying how Lucas had to be kept here for his own safety, the safety of others. The doctor got told what to say before he even met Lucas. Dr. Rudolnick was a troubled man and they had hold of him in some way, it’s what they do, hold.”
“But Ms. Kincannon…” I let the words hang in the air.
“She wanted the doctor to check on Lucas every few weeks. See if he could get better. The doctor came to see things as they really were. It made him sick at himself, his part in the lie.”
And eventually made him dead, I thought. Had the decompensating Buck grown paranoid over Rudolnick? Or was the doctor simply another loose end?
I looked at my strapped wrists. “You can’t undo my arms, legs, Miss Gracie? Give me a chance?”
“If he found out I did that, if they found out…”
“You’d be gone. And your son, too. Tyler.”
An intake of breath. “You know?”
“Tyler’s too dark-skinned to be one of the Kincannon children. And you would have told me if he was, like you did the others.”
Miss Gracie turned away, pushed a tear from her eye. “Tyler’d have to go to a charity hospital, a ward. He wouldn’t get nothing like he gets here. Tyler don’t know much but love, and I can give it to him here. And I get to be with him all through his life.”
“I understand.”
She reached to the cart, held up two IV bags. She began slipping them into the holder.
“I got told to put these in you. One’s the muscle relaxer. The other’s a tranquilizer. That man wants you to be fuzzy-headed. He says make it drip slow so it lasts ’til midnight.”
“He’s coming for me.”
“I can’t tell the future. But I’ll do the same as I done yesterday. I’m gonna let the tube drip in the waste can.”
Miss Gracie disappeared out the door. Crandell showed up a half hour later, mining his canines with a toothpick.
“You’ll be by yourself for a while, Ryder. I sent Auntie Jemima packing. If you gotta crap, you’ll have to fill the old diaper. Must be nice to roll over and shit when you want, like the old burnout upstairs, like most of the whatevers in this place.”
I turned my head his way, a drowsy smile on my face, a man drifting in a sea of muscle relaxants and tranquilizers.
“Who say what?”
“Must be nice floating around in there, Ryder. Just checking before I go to work. Your former juice hole is heading to Buck’s place around nine, and I expect I’ll have some clean-up chores afterward.”
“Unh-hunh. Sure was.”
“Just for your records, Ryder, wasn’t me killed Holtkamp and Franklin. Buckie volunteered for the job. Ain’t life a bitch, Ryder? Guy looks like Buck Kincannon, and he’s all screwy about women.”
“Screwly wha?”
Crandell grinned and flicked the toothpick at me. It hit my nose and I looked a foot left of his head. He dusted his hands together.
“I’ll be by later. I got to rip up your clothes, splash ’em with your blood, drop them where they’ll roll up on a beach. Probably scare the hell out of some tourists from Wisconsin. There’s a hole in a barn floor about ten miles from here. It’s a lonely hole and needing company.”
I batted my eyes, like I was trying to stay awake.
Crandell said, “Now I got to deal with your old buddy, Shuttles. Remember him? Got a little problem over on that side. Pain in the ass, but I just keep repeating, Rio de Janeiro.”
“Whuff?”
“You’re no fun when you’re like this, Ryder. But we’ll have a few final laughs before you hole up tonight, I gar-on-tee.”
“Incoming,” Nautilus said twenty minutes after he’d sent the message. Claypool ran to Nautilus, leaned over the detective’s shoulder.
Hang tight, help on way. Meet location B 11 pm Tell partner he’ll get his payoff. Cash. Respond when you get a chance, ASAP.
Nautilus said, “He probably thinks Shuttles is with Logan right now.”
“Where’s location B?” Claypool asked.
“That’s my next problem,” Nautilus said, rising from the computer and running out the door.
Hearing the outer door close, I started fighting my restraints. The leather was four inches wide, twice as thick as a belt. It was like fighting cast iron.
Freddy walked by in the hall, talking to himself, his puppet held high.
“ Rowf! Rowf! Shhh, don’t be so loud, Puppy. Carson is sleeping.”
