“Got it.” Harris lifted his rifle and shoved a magazine into place.
Dalton started to move but Harris grabbed his arm. “Look over there.” He pointed toward the hospital.
A cop car, a Jeep, turning into the ER parking area.
“Fuck,” Navarro said.
Two cops, a woman and a heavy set guy, got out. They stood talking near the rear of the vehicle. A minute later they walked through the ER’s double sliding doors and disappeared.
“What now?” Harris asked.
“Bet they’re just stopping by to check on things,” Dalton said. “Maybe got someone in the ER acting up, or intoxicated, or something.”
“Or they’re smart,” Harris said. “They might know what we’re up to and know Jason and the girl will be in the park.”
“How could they know that?”
“Maybe Jason isn’t on board? Maybe he flipped?”
Dalton considered that. “I don’t think so. I suspect they think we’re long gone,” Dalton said.
“What about the attorney?” Navarro asked. “They ain’t going to think he killed himself.”
“No way they know about him yet,” Dalton said. “If they did, they wouldn’t be here at the ER having coffee and donuts. They’d be over at his place scratching their pointy heads.”
Harris leaned his rifle against the wall and rubbed his hands together. “It’s getting cold up here.”
“Let’s get this done,” Navarro said.
Dalton looked at Harris. “If those cops head our way, take them out.”
“That’ll wake up the whole town for sure.”
“So will getting into a shootout with them. Better they’re eliminated before they know what hit them. Think you can do that from here?”
“No problem. I can shoot the eyes out of a squirrel at a hundred yards.”
“These aren’t squirrels.”
“Much bigger targets is how I see it.”
Dalton nodded. “If this goes south, get the car quick. We’ll head up that way.” Dalton pointed north up Davis Road. “Use the trees for cover and meet up by that cemetery we saw earlier.”
“Sounds good.”
Dalton tapped Navarro’s shoulder. “Let’s move.”
CHAPTER 69
Marla didn’t like any of this, nor did she trust the decision she had made. But hadn’t that been her life for years now? One stupid decision after another? It started in high school. Knocking back vodka, tequila, whatever, even smoking weed. Okay, lots of other kids did that. No harm, no foul. But then that guy she met over in Knoxville and the night spent on his boat. The sex, the meth, the end of everything. Why had she let him talk her into trying that poison? Why couldn’t she kick it? Return to her old self? She knew the answer. Because she was weak and made poor choices. Always had. At least after that night. She simply lacked the strength to climb from the ditch and back on the path.
As she walked toward the park, shoulders hunched, hands shoved in her jacket pockets against the cold, damp night air—at least the rain had stopped—she considered her latest choice. Work with Jason? Actually sell drugs? Enter a world where if she got caught it wouldn’t be simply another trip to rehab? She’d spend decades in some cage.
Why was she turning her back on the help Buck had offered? Unlike Tommy, and Jason, and anyone else in her world for that matter, he seemed truly concerned. She believed he really wanted to help. What was she thinking?
She knew at least part of the answer. Hadn’t others tossed her a lifeline? Reverend John, for sure. Cassie, too many times to remember. Hadn’t she tried that path? Rehab, recovery? Hadn’t she failed every time? Why would this be any different? She simply wasn’t strong enough.
Had she ever been? School had been easy. Sports, too. Dating whoever she wanted, a snap. Life had been effortless for her. Never testing her abilities or her strength.
What Jason offered was an endless supply of what she needed. Maybe enough money so she could get out of Reverend John’s house; for sure, off the streets. Or was it a lie? Simply another ploy to have sex with her? She didn’t like Jason and she surely didn’t trust him.
She was going to tell him so.
She crossed Davis Road, still wet from the rain, and entered the park. She headed toward the oak tree where she and Tommy, and now Jason, made their deals. He was leaning against the trunk, a cigarette hanging from his lips.
“Hey,” she said.
“Hey yourself.”
“Look, I’ve been thinking about what you said. Me working for you. I don’t think I can do it.”
“Sure you can. It’s not that hard.”
“Maybe I’m not sure I want to.”
He dropped the half-smoked cigarette to the ground and crushed it. “That’s different.”
“It’s just that if I get caught, it will be bad. I can’t go to jail. I’ve been there and it scares the hell out of me.”
He reached out to touch her face, but she stepped back. He dropped his hand to his side.
“Look, Marla, this is your chance to get all the fix you need. Get enough money to get an apartment. Like me. Not stay over there with that old man.”
“He’s nice.”
“I’m sure. But doesn’t he keep a close eye on things? Make all the rules?”
Marla nodded.
“With your own place it’s your rules. You’d be free to do whatever you want, whenever you want.”
“I don’t know.”
“Relax,” Jason said. “It’ll work out.”
She looked around. “You said you had some new stuff.”
“It’s coming.”
“What does that mean?”
“My boss. He’s meeting us here. He’s got it.”
Her head swiveled as she inspected her surroundings. “I thought you said they were gone.”
“They will be. Right after they deliver what you need.”
“I don’t want to meet him,” Marla said. “I should go.”
“Take a breath, Marla. It’ll be okay.”
She shook her head, stepped back. “I really should go.”
Jason reached in his pocket and extracted a small plastic bag. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”
God, she wanted to run. Every fiber of her being screamed that she should get as far away as she could. But the bag of white powder held
