After the Rain

Chapter Eleven

Broker gave his name and came under the intense scrutiny of a very curious dispatcher the moment he was buzzed in through the security door. She directed him through the radio room and pointed to two men, one in uniform, who appeared in a doorway. Then she immediately reached for a phone.

“We’ll walk you down to Norm’s office. Jim Yeager,” said the husky one in jeans and a T-shirt, extending a hard farmer’s mitt. “This is Barry Sauer, state highway patrol,” he said.

Broker shook their hands in turn. Sauer was obviously working today. He wore a dark brown shirt and tan trousers and had a full service belt strapped around his waist. He had the creased and spit-shined military bearing that the people who bossed state cops liked to see in their troops. Yeager and Sauer kept glancing at Broker’s bandaged left hand. But there was more to their curiosity.

They came in to look me over. Word’s out.

They were old-fashioned cops, like Broker’s dad had been. Two of the biggest, strongest guys in town. But they had quick eyes and were light on their feet and Broker decided that strong did not imply dumb with this bunch.

Stay alert.

Sheriff Norm Wales, like his deputy, Yeager, came in special today. He wore jeans and a golf shirt and stood waiting in his office doorway. He waved the two cops off and they retreated back down the hall. “That where you got shot?” he asked, pointing to Broker’s hand. The remark got Broker’s attention. Wales was letting him know he was up to speed. He had a soft, reserved voice, sad, blue basset-hound eyes, sandy brown hair, and thirteen-inch wrists.

“How’d you know?” Broker asked back as they shook hands.

“I had this little sheriff’s convention to get the book on you. When I heard you were coming I talked to Jeffords in Cook County again. He handed me off to Eisenhower in Washington County, who says, by the way, you forgot to turn in one of his shields.” Wales paused and cleared his throat. “In case you were thinking of flying any false flags. We seem to have a rash of that going on last couple days.”

Broker shifted from foot to foot. This prairie cop had done his homework.

Wales indicated a chair in front of his desk. “Go on, sit.” He closed his office door, went around behind his desk, sat down, and said, “Your daughter is just fine. She’s up at the municipal pool, swimming laps. We’ve had people watching her ever since this started. But the fact is, looks like she’s running in some pretty heavy company.” Wales gave Broker a very direct look. “Wouldn’t you say?”

“I just got here,” Broker said, as he dropped into the chair.

“Your kid got very strangely abandoned in my town and suddenly I got sheriffs coming out of my ears. Gets a guy to thinking. So I took a flyer, had the county attorney call somebody he knows who works in the Minnesota AG’s office,” Wales said.

“Who?” Uh-oh.

“Tim Downs. My guy met him at a seminar at the University of Minnesota. I believe you’re acquainted.”

Shit. “Sure. Downs and I worked in St. Paul together some years back. We were never what you’d call close.”

Wales tugged an earlobe. “Right. Downs had a knack for Internal Affairs and you had a knack for undercover. Not exactly compatible assignments. And, well, Downs did go to law school…”

They let it cook between them for a few seconds and then Wales resumed: “Downs says some people back in your state think you’re one of the bad guys. Eight years back you dropped out of police work, showed up in Vietnam. The story goes you dug up a shitload of lost gold bullion. To hear Downs’ version, you’re a cross between a mercenary and a pirate.” He paused. “You want some water or something? You don’t look so hot.”

Broker held up his hand. “Infection.”

“Uh-huh. So-are you some kind of freelance pirate, or what?”

Broker defaulted to his basic operating persona. He maintained strict eye contact and kept his voice flat and steady. “Wales, I own this little resort up on Lake Superior. We got pretty good walleye and lake trout fishing if you’re ever up that way.”

“Yep. Downs told us. He also told us you’re married to Nina Pryce, a gal in the Army who’s stirred up enough controversy that Downs says she got her name in Newsweek a couple times. Saturday, I got Nina Pryce showing up in my county. Sunday, I got you.”

Broker watched Wales furrow his forehead, the sheriff thinking he might try to stare Broker down. Wales decided not to and nodded. “Okay?” He opened his large hands in a reasonable gesture. Broker noticed he wore a copper bracelet around his right wrist. “I’ll make this simple. The federal undercover population of my county has just shot up considerably in the last two days. All I want to know is-are you part of the problem or part of the solution?”

Broker was exhausted from the drive, his hand hurt, his head hurt. All the unflappable reflexes he’d cultivated over the years failed him utterly. He was an angry dad whose kid had been deserted. Fuck a bunch of feds. “Goddamn bitch,” he muttered. “All I know is, I came to get my kid,” Broker said hotly.

Wales sensed a chink in Broker’s surface and his demeanor toughened perceptibly. “You and your wife are broke up, right?”

“What are you getting at?”

“Well, just what is it that your wife does in the Army?”

“Last I heard she was in Italy.” Broker hoped that was general enough. Goddamn you, Nina, I’m going to wring your neck.

Wales squinted at Broker. “She’s a long way from Italy now.”

“Guess so. We’ve been out of touch.”

Wales leaned back and steepled his fingers. He stared briefly at a county road map that hung on the wall. “How do I say this?”

“Try straight ahead.”

“Straight ahead it is. Nina showed up with this Jane lady and they put considerable effort into looking, ah, like they were involved together.”

“Say again?” Broker came forward slightly in his chair.

“Traveling as, ah, a quarreling couple,” Wales said.

Broker stared at him.

“Actually, we don’t have a whole lot of experience with this sort of thing out here…” Wales talking slower now, deadpan, drawing it out and studying Broker’s feverish face for a reaction.

“C’mon, Wales. You don’t strike me as a guy who talks sideways,” Broker said.

“Alternative lifestyles. I believe that’s what you call it in Minnesota, ain’t it?”

“Wales?”

“Out here I guess we’re less kindly disposed toward…alternative lifestyles, but naturally we’re working on it,” Wales said.

“What exactly is it you want to tell me?”

“This Jane lady Nina’s traveling with works real hard at looking sexy in a strident way that excludes men. She comes across queer.”

“Ah,” Broker said as a jagged fever spike flared up through the roof of his mouth and jabbed into his brain.

Wales continued his careful scrutiny. “Gotta give them an A for effort. You worked UC, you know how hard it is to put an agent into a small community. I didn’t buy it at first look, but there’s some who did. Like maybe their intended target. Or maybe not. Maybe he’s just bored and this gambit amuses him.”

“You might as well tell me the whole story,” Broker said in his best neutral voice.

“Sure, I can do that. Yesterday around noon this soap opera rolls into town. We get a call, two women having a domestic in the parking lot of a virtually closed local bar. They got a little kid with them. So our deputy goes and cools them out. Various accusations pass back and forth. My cop separates them. Gets them to agree on a plan to diffuse the conflict. The plan is to locate you to come get your kid. Jane gives my guy a contact person to find you. Jane takes your kid and checks into the motel. Then Nina…”

Wales paused, massaged his right wrist where he wore the copper band. “Arthritis. Copper’s s’posed to help.