“They obviously didn’t know me and Hap had our picture taken with a bear,” Leonard said. “They ain’t so tough. You see me give that bear a bad look, Hap?”
“No.”
“I haven’t been followed like that in a long time,” Tonto said. “Thought I was being careful, and I’m pretty damn careful, and still, they were following. That takes some chops. I mean, I haven’t never been followed before where I didn’t know.”
“You said it couldn’t happen,” I said.
“I was wrong,” Tonto said. “Those guys are good.”
“The big guy,” Jim Bob said, “he knows what he’s doing, all right.”
“You think they’ll take a run at us?” I said.
“I think they still hope we’ll lead them to something,” Jim Bob said.
“How did they get onto us so quick?” Leonard said.
“Someone somewhere told them something,” Tonto said. “You got to wonder who and when, but the thing that matters is, time comes they’ll stop fucking around and come for us. They’ll maybe think they can make us talk by pulling out fingernails or cutting off eyelids or some such thing, sticking a stick up our dicks.”
“That eyelid part,” I said. “I want to be up front and go on record right now. I’ll talk like you haven’t never heard anyone talk before if that’s done to me. I’ll be like a whole flock of canaries. They won’t have enough paper to write down what I got to say. And they start threatening my dick, I’ll start making stuff up to go along with it.”
We had tried to do it the easy way, which was drive over to the side of the lake where Hirem said the cabins were, but the easy way turned out hard, so we were going to cut to the chase and ask directions. We waited until the traffic at the store played out, then I went inside and found the owner behind a counter that contained whoopee cushions, fake dog shit, and all manner of redneck yuks. An older woman with gray hair and a face only a blind, prideless mother could love was behind the counter arranging a stack of little Texas flags on sticks in a large decorative coffee cup.
She said, “What can I do you for, honey?”
I gave her my winning smile, though I couldn’t remember the last time it had won me anything. “Me and some buddies, we were supposed to meet a friend here on the lake, but we’re kind of confused.”
“Lake’s out back of here. How confusing is that?”
I grinned like that was the best I had heard since my joke about the dog with the shot-up paw. Come to think of it, Leonard was right. That joke sucked.
“This buddy of ours said he was gonna meet us at a cabin on the east side of the lake—”
She pointed. “That’s east.”
“Yes, ma’am, we been over there. But the problem is, we can’t find where we’re supposed to meet him. He said a fellow named Bill Jordan had some cabins—”
“Bill Jordan. That old fart is in the ground, some three years now. He don’t own them anymore.”
“Oh, well, that puts a damper on things.”
“A crippled fella with a funny haircut owns them now, but he don’t rent out much. Got a pension.”
“I see. Well, I’m pretty sure my friend is meeting us there. That’s what he said anyway. He hasn’t been here in a while, so he probably rented from the other fella.”
“It’s kind of hard to get to actually,” she said. “Road is near washed out and it winds up in the pines. Good hunting up there, though. I know a fellow killed a wild hog there big enough to tussle with an elephant.”
“That a fact?”
“Of course not. Ain’t no hogs big as elephants. But it was big.”
“I see. So, you go around on the east side, but where do you turn? We were all over that place, and we couldn’t find what we were looking for.”
She got a piece of paper and a pencil and drew me a map, explaining as she did. Pushing it across the counter, she said, “Now, you got to watch all the ruts and potholes, and it’s narrow and there’s limbs all grown up around it. I was up there last year taking the crippled fella with a funny haircut some supplies. He calls up and I deliver. For a little extra fee, of course.”
“Of course.”
“Anyway, it’s like the goddamn Amazon up there.”
“Well, thanks.”
I started to go out. She said, “You know, you wanted to, there’s an easier way. It’ll take a little longer, but it’s still easier, and you’d have to get going before the storm comes up, ’cause one is coming.”
“So we were told.”
“You could rent one of my boats, take it straight across the lake, and you could just dock at the place.”
“How long would that take?”
“About an hour, maybe two if you get some tough wind and you ain’t no hand with a boat. You go now, you got to rent the boat for overnight. Or you can rent if for a few days if you’d rather be over there awhile.”
“How much is the boat?” I asked.
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