money.
I don’t tell them about Dylan. If they find out about him, they’ll know there is no way in hell I will ever let them near the money that can save my parents’ lives.
And the story I tell them gives me time. Time for all of us to sit on the couch and watch TV and wait for a call that may never come, while I try to figure how to get them out of here before T comes home and chaos ensues.
My phone rings.
– WHO IS it, dude?
– I don’t know.
– Well, is it your connection or whatever?
– I don’t know.
Rolf grabs the phone and looks at the screen.
– Where’s your caller ID?
I take the phone back.
– I don’t think it has that.
– You bought a phone and didn’t get caller ID? Dude, ID is key.
The phone rings for the fifth time. What if it’s Dylan? I don’t want to talk to Dylan in front of these guys. It rings again.
– Well, answer it, dude.
I hit the green button.
– Hello?
– Wade?
My stomach lurches. Then I get it.
– Hey, Sandy, what happened to the party?
– Party? Oh, yeah, baby, we got it goin’ on. But. Hey, hey, baby, good news. I, we came back to my place, and there was a message from my boss, Terry.
– Yeah?
– He says he knows something.
– Yeah?
– Yeah.
– OK, well?
– Well, yeah, but, baby, he wants some money and says he won’t. You know?
– Wait. Does he know where Tim? Hey, is T there, can I talk to?
– He’s indisposed, baby, in the john. But my guy.
– Right, your guy. How much?
– Just five. He said a grand, but I told him you were nice so I got him to go five.
– Thanks.
– Sure. So, he says the money, he wants to get the money and then he’ll tell you.
– He knows where Tim is?
– I think. He said he has some info on him, so I think so, yeah.
– So when?
– Um, he’s gonna come over in like an hour? Is that? Over here? Can you?
– Yeah, I’m just not sure how I’m.
That’s when I hear a noise in the background. A noise I now realize has been there through this whole call.
– Uh, you know, Sandy, I don’t have a car or.
– Well.
– So it’ll take me awhile and I’m still pretty fucked-up, so later would be good.
– Well, he’s really.
– So have T call and tell me what time.
I hang up. She’ll get me a later meet. But it won’t be T who calls. I’m sure of these things because of the way I could hear Hitler barking in the background. Hitler, who never makes a noise except for a fart, barking mad and angry through the whole call.
T’s in trouble.
And I’m being set up.
I look at Rolf and Sid, waiting for me to tell them what the deal is. And I realize that being set up may be just what I need right now.
SID STILL hasn’t said a word to me. He sits as far from me as possible, his arms and legs crossed. I sit on the couch between the two of them and Rolf tells me what they’ve been up to.
He tells me how, after I left them, they drove down to Vegas. How they found T’s trailer and realized there was no way to stake it out without being seen by everyone in the trailer park. He tells me how Sid decided it was time to ditch the bus. How they left it on the roof level of a parking garage at one of the malls in Paradise, Sid hot- wired a car a few blocks away, and they got a room at the Super 8 just up Boulder Highway from the trailer park. How they came back here after the sun went down last night and parked across from the park entrance until they saw T’s car leave. How they followed us, and how it wasn’t until we came back out of the apartment and they saw me take off my hat that they figured out that I was the cowboy.
Rolf nudges me.
– Cool ’stache, by the way.
I nod and look at the TV. My folks were moved back home from the motel last night. The reporters are staked out there now. The lawn is trampled and there’s a lot of empty paper coffee cups and McDonalds bags in the gutter. The reporters are milling around while a group of twenty or thirty gawkers stands behind a barrier on the sidewalk and snaps pictures. A sheriff’s car is in the driveway and a deputy is standing on the porch in front of the door. The camera zooms in suddenly as a curtain is pulled away from one of the upstairs windows, but the curtain drops back into place without anyone being revealed. That you, Mom? Dad? I’m sorry. I’m so.
I shake my head. Rolf continues.
– Anyways, when you guys came out with nothin’, we followed you over to that strip club. And, dude, what was that about?
– We needed to talk to someone.
– You took your time. We waited awhile, then I was like,
He points at the TV. It’s the footage of the SWATs again.
The bus is isolated on the roof of the garage, centered in the jiggling helicopter spot. The team edges up, assault weapons ready, and cracks the sliding door.
Rolf talks over the footage.
– At first, we were hidden and waiting for you guys. Then it just took forever, so we turned on the set and watched this happen live around one AM. Dude, was that freaky.
One AM, when I was in a casino, the last place on earth you’ll ever get news of what’s going on outside.
The morning briefing from Sheriff Reyes comes on and Rolf unmutes the TV.
– The van, the bus, was seen in the vicinity of the collision and shooting on Nicastro Road in the twenty-four hours before, before that, those, incidents. Also, tracks we believe are from this vehicle were recovered and matched. That is, they match tracks found at the scene of the shooting of Deputy Fischer. So, and all this makes us believe that the suspect Henry Thompson and his, his, accomplices may have fled in this vehicle. We put out, with the help of the FBI, we put out a BOLO alert, a “Be On the Look Out” yesterday afternoon. Last night we received word that the vehicle had been found by officers of the Las Vegas Metro Police Department. And the focus, the focus of the investigation is, we don’t really have much to do with it anymore, and this will be, I’ll only be briefing on the case as it pertains to the crimes committed in our jurisdiction. The hunt for Henry Thompson and his suspected
