Harper peered at the picture and drawled, 'Looks like Jim, gettin' him some head. Damn, I wish I knew her- she looks like she knows what she's doing.'
He still had the slightly amused look on his face. He was about to say something else when Climpt stepped past Lucas, grabbed Harper by the shirt, and hauled him out of the chair. 'You motherfucker.'
Harper covered his gut with his elbows, kept his hands up in front of his face. He didn't want to get hurt, but he wasn't scared, Lucas thought.
'Hey, hey,' said Lacey, trying to intervene. 'Let him…'
Climpt shoved Harper at Lucas, who caught him, still off-balance, said, 'Fuck, I don't want him,' and spun him into the wall. Climpt caught him on the rebound, dragged him backwards by the collar and as Lacey shouted, 'Hey,' banged the back of Harper's head against the opposite wall, then pulled him forward, letting go as Lucas put his hand in Harper's face and snapped him backwards into the chair.
'Knock it off,' Lacey said.
'Set your own kid up for this shit, didn't you?' Climpt said, his face an inch from Harper's. Harper spit at him, a spray of spittle. Climpt caught him by the shirt collar and the skin under his neck and hoisted him a foot out of the chair. 'Sold his ass to faggots and anybody else who wanted some young stuff. You know what they're gonna do to you in the joint? You know what they do to child fuckers? You're gonna wear out your kneecaps kneeling on the floors, blowing those guys.'
Lacey, face red, had Climpt by the shoulder, pulling at him. Lucas put his arm between Harper and Climpt, said, 'Gene, let him go. Gene…'
Climpt looked blindly at Lucas, then dropped Harper back in the chair, turned away, wiped his face with his forearm.
'Motherfucker,' Harper said, pulling down his shirt.
Lucas turned to Lacey. 'Could you get Shelly on the radio? Don't mention the Polaroid directly, but tell him we got something. And we need to see him.'
Lacey stepped back, reluctantly. 'You guys won't…'
'No, no,' Lucas said. 'And listen, ask him about the Mueller kid, if there's been any progress.'
'What about the Mueller kid?' Harper asked.
'He's missing,' Lucas said, turning back to him.
Lacey was walking out through the kitchen. When the back door banged shut, Lucas stepped up to Harper. 'I believe you spit on deputy Climpt, and I feel kinda shortchanged, you know. You didn't spit on me.'
'Fuck you,' Harper said. He looked from Lucas to Climpt and back. 'I got my rights.'
Lucas took him by the shirt as Climpt had, jerked him out of the chair, ran him straight back at the wall, slammed him against it. Harper covered, still not ready to resist. Climpt caught his right arm, twisted it. Both Lucas and Climpt were bigger than Harper, and pinned him on the wall.
'Remember what you said about your vise?' Lucas asked, face half-turned to Climpt. Climpt grunted. 'Watch this-this is nasty.'
He caught the flesh between Harper's nostrils by his thumb and middle fingers and squeezed, his fingernails digging into the soft flesh. Harper's mouth dropped as though he were going to scream, but Climpt's hand came up and squeezed his throat.
Lucas squeezed, squeezed, then said, 'Who's the woman in the picture? Who is it?'
Harper, his body bucking, shook his head. 'Better let go of his throat for a minute, Gene,' Lucas said, and he let go of Harper's nose. Harper groaned, thrashed, sucked air, and Lucas asked, 'Who is that, asshole? Who's the woman?'
'Don't know…'
'Let me try,' Climpt said, and he caught Harper's nose as Lucas had, his thick yellow fingernails squeezing…
The sound that came from Harper's throat might have been a scream if it had been pitched lower. As it was, it was a kind of blackboard scratching squeak, and he shuddered.
'Who is it?' Lucas asked.
'Don't…'
Climpt looked at Lucas, who shook his head, and they both released him at the same moment. Tears were running down Harper's face and he caught his head in his hands and dropped to his knees. Lucas squatted beside him.
'You know some stuff,' Lucas said. 'You know the woman or you know somebody who knows the woman.'
Harper got one foot beneath him, then heaved himself up. His eyes were red, and tears still poured down his face. 'Motherfuckers.'
Climpt cuffed him on the side of the head. 'You ain't listening. You know who this is, this woman. If you don't spit out the name…'
'You're gonna what? Beat me around?' Harper asked, defiant. 'I been beat around before, so go ahead. I'll get my fuckin' lawyer.'
'Yeah, you put a fuckin' lawyer out there and I'll pin this fuckin' picture on the bulletin board at the goddamn Super Valu with the note that you sold Jim's ass,' Climpt said. 'They'll find your fuckin' skin hanging from a tree out here, and you won't be in it.'
'Go fuck yourself,' Harper snarled. There was blood on his upper lip, trickling down from his nose.
Climpt pulled back his hand but Lucas blocked it. 'Let it go,' he said.
Outside, as they were loading into the trucks, Lacey said, 'Where's Harper?'
'Probably fixin' some dinner,' Climpt said. Then, 'He's okay, Henry, don't get your ass in an uproar.'
Lacey shook his head doubtfully, then said, 'Can I see that Polaroid again, just for a minute?'
Lucas handed it to him and Lacey turned on his truck's dome light and peered at the photo.
'Check this, right here,' Lacey said. He touched the edge of the photograph with a fingernail. Lucas took it.
'It looks like a sleeve.'
'Sure does,' said Lacey, holding the photo four inches from his face. 'Now, this here is a Spectra Polaroid. Spectras come with a remote control, a radio thing, so it might of been that there were only the two of them. But if that's a sleeve, and if there's somebody else behind the camera…'
'The camera angle's downward,' Lucas said. 'That'd be high for a tripod.'
'So there must be a bunch of them,' Lacey said.
'Yeah, probably,' Lucas said, nodding. 'We already know he was with a heavy white guy and here's a woman.'
'Damn-if it's a bunch of people, it's gonna tear this county up,' Climpt said.
'I'd say the county's already torn up,' Lucas said.
Climpt shook his head: 'This'd be worse'n the murders, a bunch of people screwing children. Believe me, around here, this'd be worse.'
CHAPTER 9
They headed back to town, Climpt riding with Lucas.
'Kind of liked your style back there,' Climpt said.
'Thanks. I've worked on it,' Lucas said.
The radio burped: Carr. Need to see you guys at the courthouse.
'Did you find the kid?' Lucas asked.
Nothing yet, Carr said.
Off the air, Lucas told Climpt, 'I fucked up. The school principal was worried about cops talking to kids without the parents' permission. I took the kid out to his house so I could explain to his father. Goddammit.'
'You didn't fuck up,' Climpt said. He fumbled a cigarette out of a crumpled pack and lit it with a paper match. 'That's not the kind of thing you can know. You're dealing with a crazy man. And you've got a reputation. People
