can I do?'
Willets squirmed in his seat, holding the service revolver limply in his lap. I wondered if I could move fast enough to snake it from him before Milt shot me. Willets said, 'But that's three officers. That's Jo-el's wife. How we gonna explain all that? Jesus Christ.'
I said, 'Hey, Willets, how do you think he's going to explain you being the only one left alive?'
Milt Rossier said, 'Oh, that one's easy.' Then he pointed LeRoy Bennett's.45 at Deputy Sheriff Thomas Willets and pulled the trigger. The sound was enormous, and the heat and muzzle blast flashed across my face, and Tommy Willets's head snapped back into the seat and then jerked forward, and a spray of red splattered on the vinyl and the door and the windows and me. When Willets's head came forward he slumped to the side and was still.
LeRoy said, 'Man, dat was loud as a pork fart, yeah.'
Milt reached back and took Willets's revolver and had Bennett pull over. Bennett put the body in the trunk and we went on. I said, 'You really mean it. You're going to kill everybody, aren't you?'
Milt said, 'Uh-hunh.'
We drove to Jo-el Boudreaux's house and turned into the drive, Prima pulling the highway car in behind us. I said, 'If you hurt them, Rossier, I swear to God I'll kill you.'
LeRoy said, 'Save the big talk, asshole. You gonna need it later.'
Milt got out of the car and met Prima and the mustache, and together they went to the front door. Around us, the street was quiet and well lit and masked by the rain. Just another dreary southern evening in paradise.
Milt rang the bell, and Edith Boudreaux answered. The mustache pushed past her into the house, and as quickly as that they were bringing Lucy and Edith across the lawn to the highway car. Lucy was struggling, and the mustache had to keep a hand over her mouth. You never expect the bad guys will come to the door. You never expect that they'll ring the bell. When Rossier climbed back into the car, he was smiling. 'We'll see what ol' Jo-el does, now. Yes, I guess we will, won't we?' I'm not sure he was saying it to me or to Bennett. Maybe just to himself.
They brought us to the crawfish farm, driving through sequined curtains of rain, and put us in the processing shed. Escobar's BMW was already there, Rene standing in the rain and mud like some great oblivious golem. When Milt Rossier saw him, he shook his head and made a
Lucy didn't smile. The beautiful tanned skin was mottled, and her nostrils were white. Her eyes moved from Rossier to the mustache to LaBorde to Prima, like something might happen at any moment and in that instant she must be ready or it would be forever lost.
I said, 'It's not over. There's Pike, and there's me. I'll get you out of this.'
She nodded without looking at me.
'Did I tell you that I'm an irresistible force?'
A smile flickered at the edges of her mouth, and her eyes came to me. She said, 'You really know how to show a girl a good time, don't you?'
'Irresistible,' I said. 'Unstoppable. Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.'
She relaxed the tiniest bit and nodded.
I said, 'A moment will come. When it does, I want you to move back under these tables. You, too, Edith. Did you hear me?'
Edith was as waxy as a mannequin, and I couldn't be sure that she heard me. Then Rossier came over and kicked me hard in the leg, twice. 'Shut up that talk!' He tore off strips of the duct tape and covered our mouths.
We sat on the damp cement floor and watched Rossier and Prima and the mustache move around the processing shed, making their plans. Rene followed Rossier like a dog after its master. Rossier went up to the main house and came back with a couple of pump shotguns and a thin, weathered man with mocha skin. Another thug. He gave one of the shotguns to the mustache and the other to Donaldo Prima. They talked for a while in the doorway, Rossier pointing and gesturing, and then the black man and the mustache went out into the rain. Setting up a field of fire. I worked at the duct tape with my tongue and rubbed it against my shoulder and the gutting table's leg, and it began to peel away.
Milt stayed in the sliding doors, looking out, and in a little bit lights appeared and LeRoy Bennett's Polara came toward the sheds. It wasn't alone. Jo-el's highway car was behind it, but he wasn't coming in with sirens wailing and light bar flashing. He came slow and easy, like he was trying not to make things worse than they were. LeRoy put his Polara on the side of the processing shed, then came inside. He was soaked, but he looked excited. He said, 'I got'm. I told'm what you said and they came just like you said they would, goddammit! I got their goddamned guns. I busted their goddamned radio.' He was smiling a crazy grin, like we were kids and all of this was some kind of summer-camp game. Blood simple.
Edith straightened to see, and so did I. From where we sat you could see through the wide opening and out to the highway car. Parked in the killing field. Joel got out of the near side of his car and stood in the rain, and Berry and Dave Champagne climbed out the other side. I thought I saw a shadow slip from the rear of the car when Berry got out, but I couldn't be sure. Milt Rossier said, 'Where's the other one?'
Bennett said, 'Who?'
'The one knocked you on your ass, goddammit!' Pike wasn't with them.
Bennett squinted out into the rain. 'We couldn't find him, Milt. He's still out in the swamp.'
Rossier swatted at Bennett, his face etched hard. 'You dumb sonofabitch! I said
'We couldn't find him, Milt!' Whining. 'Hell, we'll get him come light.'
Milt Rossier said, 'Shit!' then went to the big door and yelled, 'Come on in here, Jo-el, and let's talk this thing out!'
Out in the rain, Jo-el yelled back, 'Like hell, you bastard. You come out here. You're under arrest!' Boudreaux stayed where he was.
I heard something at the rear of the shed, out where they wash the blood and the scales. Pike, maybe. I worked my feet under me and rubbed harder at the tape, thinking that if things didn't work out I would try to put myself over Lucy.
Rossier yelled, 'I got your wife, goddammit. Now get in here and let's talk about this.'
Jo-el came forward and stepped inside the door. His side holster was empty. He saw me first, and then he looked at his wife and Lucy. He seemed older and tired, like a man who had run a very long race and had not been in shape for it. He said, 'You okay, Edie?'
She nodded.
No one was looking at me. I got to one knee, the other foot beneath me.
Jo-el said, 'How we gonna work this out, Milt?'
Rossier said, 'Like this,' and then he raised Tommy Willets's service revolver. I lunged forward just as Joe Pike stepped in through the back and shot Milt Rossier high in the left shoulder, spinning him around and spraying blood like polka dots across Jo-el. Edith made a wailing sound deep in her throat and came off the floor and into Milt Rossier as if she'd been fired from a cannon. Even with her hands and mouth taped she battered at him with her head and face, her eyes wild and rolling. Rossier dropped his gun and grabbed at his wound, making a high whining sound. Rene went for Joe Pike, and Pike shot him square in the chest two times, the.357 Magnum loads putting Rene down on his knees. Rene tried to get to his feet, and Pike shot him in the center of the forehead. Rossier tried to shove past Edith for his pistol, but I hit him low in the back. Prima fired his little revolver at Pike, but Pike dived to the side. The people outside were yelling. LeRoy screamed, 'I'll get the sonofabitch' and stood up from behind one of the gutting tables where he'd run for cover. He aimed his.45 at me, his tongue stuck in the corner of his mouth like a kid trying to color between the lines, and then a tiny red dot appeared on his chest. He looked down at the flicker and said, 'Huh?' just before his back blew out and something kicked him across the
