37
WE WERE QUIET, listening to the rain fall. The scent of her perfume lingered.
'Good-looking,' Z said.
'Except for the eyes,' I said.
'Eyes looked kind of hard and empty,' Z said.
'They did,' I said.
'Hard to imagine bopping her,' Z said.
'Scary,' I said.
'She look at me with those eyes,' Z said, 'might not be able to get it up, you know?'
'I bet I could do it,' I said.
'Brave man,' Z said.
'Intrepid,' I said. 'You in?'
'In,' he said.
'Hard to plan something like this,' I said. 'Basically we go ahead and do what we do and assume if something comes up we can handle it.'
'I stay by you,' Z said.
'This isn't,' I said, 'something either of us can do drunk.'
Z nodded.
I got up and went to the closet and unlocked it. I took a Colt Python revolver, in its holster, off the top shelf, and a box of .357 shells. I walked back and put the gun and the bullets on my desk.
'Same gun you've fired at the range,' I said. 'Six-inch barrel. Six rounds in the cylinder. As you may recall, it's not brain surgery. Aim for the middle of the mass. Squeeze the trigger.'
Z frowned.
'Could you write that out for me?' he said.
'If I thought you could read,' I said.
Z got up and put the gun on his belt.
'How come I don't get one of those fancy semiautos like they all have in the movies?' he said.
'Revolver's simpler,' I said. 'Fewer moving parts.'
'What you got?' Z said.
'Thirty-eight,' I said. 'Two-inch barrel.'
'How come you don't get something bigger.'
'I got something bigger, but the .38 is lighter to carry, and up close it works fine,' I said. 'Generally I don't need to pick people off as they ride along the ridgeline.'
Z nodded.
'The .357 is kinda heavy,' he said.
'Especially when it's loaded,' I said.
'Wouldn't want to wear it empty,' Z said.
'Good thinking,' I said.
'You think she's serious?' Z said.
'Yes.'
'You think some people gonna try and pound on you?'
'Yes.'
'So there might be some fighting,' Z said.
'Might,' I said.
Z nodded.
'Good,' he said.
38
'WHY DON'T THEYjust shoot you?' Susan said. 'Soon as you became an annoyance?'
She was preparing Pearl's supper, which was mercifully the extent of her cooking, except on rare and vaporish occasions when she decided to make us a meal.
