'If I'm here, where's your goddamned boss? You think I got time to waste?'
Even as he said it more lights swept the open door and you could hear the crunch, even over the jukebox and the rain. LeRoy stood away from the thumb, saying, 'That's gotta be Milt right now,' just as Milt Rossier walked in.
The woman behind the bar said, 'Hey, Milt,' but Milt didn't acknowledge her. He saw us at the little table and came over, offering his hand to Frank Escobar. 'Frank, I'm Milt Rossier. Lemme apologize if I've kept you, but this rain is a bitch.'
Escobar said, 'Hey, forget about it. You shoulda seen the drive up from Metairie.' He held Milt Rossier's hand longer than he needed to hold it. 'I'm looking forward to a fruitful partnership, Milt, but let's get first things first. Where's Prima?'
'Oh, he'll be at the pumping station. You bet.' Escobar glanced at me, then put it back on Milt Rossier. He still had the old man's hand. 'I wanna make money with you, Milt, but you have to understand it's personal here, me and Prima. We ain't goin' forward with this until I get this bastard.'
Milt was nodding and trying to get his hand away. Escobar's eyes were dark splinters and Milt Rossier seemed afraid of him. 'Frank,' he said, 'I'm gonna bring you right to him.' He finally got the hand away. 'You ready to do some business or you wanna little snoot before we go? This is my place. It's on the house.' Like a guy worth millions wouldn't pass up the chance at a free belt.
Escobar shook his head and stood. He snapped his fingers, and the pocked guy stood with him. 'Prima.' Talk about one track. You could see his hands flexing, already pulling the trigger. His coat flared when he stood, and you could see a glint in the darkness. Milt smiled. 'Well, hell, let's go do it.' We stepped out into the rain. Milt wanted everybody to go together in LeRoy's Polara, but there were five of us and it would be crowded, so Milt asked if Escobar would mind following us in his own car. Escobar said that that would be fine, and he and his goon hurried to their BMW, anxious to get out of the rain. Lightning crackled again, filling the parking lot with light. Escobar and his thug opened the Beamer's doors, the BMWs interior lights came on, and then two men stepped out from behind the Bayou Lounge. Balls of lightning flashed from their hands, and there was the sharp snapping of autoloading pistols muffled by the rain, and Escobar and his goon fell against their car. The pistols were still snapping when LeRoy Bennett slammed the side of my head with something hard and cold. I went down into the mud and Bennett was over me, hitting me twice more and saying, 'Who's a stooge now? Who's a fuckin' stooge?' and then Rossier pushed him away, saying, 'Stop that, goddammit, we ain't got time for that! Get'm up.'
Rene LaBorde stepped out of nowhere and pulled me to my feet. Bennett, grinning like his face was split, took my gun and hit me again.
The rain fell harder and no one stirred from the Bayou Lounge.
The two men finished their killing and came to us. One of the men was Donaldo Prima. The other was Evangeline Parish Deputy Sheriff Tommy Willets. Willets looked scared. Donaldo Prima said, 'We got that fawkuh good!' I knew then that the good guys were alone at the pumping station. All of the bad guys were here.
I said, 'Jesus Christ, Willets.'
Willets hit me on the forehead with the butt of his pistol and knocked me into the side of Bennett's Polara. Then Milt said, 'Hurry up, goddammit, and get'm in the car. We got a lot of people to kill.'
CHAPTER 37
W illets put his cuffs on me, then got Rene to help put me in the backseat of Bennett's Polara. Willets breathed hard as he did it, a torrent of rain running off the brim of his campaign hat, his Evangeline Parish sheriffs poncho molten in the lightning flashes. The lounge's wooden front door was closed, and I thought maybe Bennett had closed it as we'd left. Maybe.
Across the lot, Bennett and a short guy with a heavy moustache loaded the bodies into Escobar's trunk, the short guy Donaldo Prima's thug. Donaldo Prima came over to the Polara and waved his gun at me. 'This fawkuh set me up?' His eyes were blood simple from the kill.
Rossier said, 'We might need the sonofabitch!
Prima pushed past Milt, screaming, 'I gonna kill his ass!' When Prima touched Milt, Rent's snake-fast hands shot out, grabbing and lifting and twisting the gun away. Prima hissed something in Spanish, then said, 'Make him let go!'
Rossier made Rene' put him down, and then Prima and Rossier went to Escobar's car with Bennett and the moustache. Willets got into the backseat of the Polara with me, and Rene stood in the rain. Rene was wearing a raincoat, but it was unbuttoned and looked as if someone had put it on for him. There was no hood, and the rain beat at his head and plastered his hair. Willets sat with his service revolver in his hand, still with the breathing, staring wide-eyed through the rear window at the group of men in the rain as if I weren't there. The glass around us began to fog. I said, 'How much does it cost for a guy like you to sell out, Willets?'
'Shut up.'
'I know he paid you enough to keep tabs on the sheriff, but is it enough to buy a night's sleep?'
'Shut up.'
'Willets, if you sold your balk by the pound, you didn't get enough to feed a parking meter.'
Willets looked over at me, blinked twice, then backhanded me with his revolver. The barrel and the cylinder caught me above the left eye, snapping my head back and opening the skin. There was an instant of blackness, then a field of gold sparkles, and then only sharp pain above the eye. I could feel blood run down across the outside corner of my eye. I grinned. 'You didn't think it'd come to this when you sold them, did you? Guys like you never think that far ahead. Only now it's here and happening fast and you're scared shitless. You're in the deep water, Willets, and you oughta be scared.'
He wet his lips and looked again at the men in the rain. Scared, all right. 'I'm not the guy who has to worry about it.'
'Were you in on Rebenack?'
He still didn't look at me.
'That's perfect, Willets. Perfect.'
LeRoy and Milt came back to the Polara. Prima went behind the lounge, alone, and LaBorde and the mustache climbed into Escobar's Beamer. The Beamer pulled away, and Willets's highway car came from behind the lounge. We pulled out, and the highway car fell in behind us. No one had stirred in the Bayou Lounge, and no one had come out to look. All of it had been covered by the rain and the thunder.
I said, 'I can't believe you didn't go for it, Milt. Two thousand a head is a lot of money.'
Rossier turned in the front passenger seat and grinned at me. His old man's face looked cracked and splintered, and he was holding Bennett's government.45. He said, 'Goddamned right it is. You almost had me, you sonofabitch. I woulda swallowed the whole damn hook if Willets here hadn't tipped me.'
'Willets isn't the only cop who knows. A lot of people are in it, and Jo-el Boudreaux is going to take you down. The blackmail won't work anymore.'
Willets licked his lips. 'He's right, Milt. We oughta not play it this way.'
Milt said, 'Who else knows?'
Willets was licking his lips again. 'The guys out at the station, Jo-el's wife and that lawyer from Baton Rouge, and Merhlie Comeaux. Comeaux went home, and the two women are at the Boudreauxs'.'
Milt Rossier nodded and grinned still wider. 'We'll just round'm up and kill'm and that's that.' He said it the way you'd tell someone you wanted pickles on your potted meat sandwich.
I said, 'You're out of your mind.'
Willets said, 'Jesus Christ, that's crazy.'
Milt nodded. 'We'll see.'
Willets said, 'You can't just kill all these people.'
Milt nodded and asked Bennett if he knew how to get there, and Bennett said yes. Willets was licking his lips every few seconds, now. He said, 'Hey, Milt, you don't mean that, do you? You can't just murder these people?'
Milt cocked his head and looked at Willets as you might a slow child. 'Son, simple plans are best. What else
