“I’ll meet you there.” She spun around, batted her eyes for me and said good-bye.
“Nice girl.” I watched her wiggle as she walked away. All of a sudden everything had a sexual feeling about it.
A couple of vendors from down the row walked by, nodding to us and heading for the portable johns. The whole idea of this setup and what it stood for was foreign to me. It was like a summer camp, and your parents were going to pick you up Sunday afternoon. There was almost a feeling of make believe in the air.
“Skip, I don’t know what to think. After your story about last night, the gun and everything — ”
“Yeah. I know. And the note this morning? But this thing with Bruce Crayer has me confused. I mean, he’s the one who told us how powerful Cashdollar could be. Then all of a sudden he’s in the exact location of a shooting?”
“Let me borrow your cell phone.”
I handed it to him, hoping he wouldn’t use many minutes.
James dialed the number, waited, left a brief message, and handed the phone back to me.
“Daron Styles is going to call back.” He put his hands on the truck bed, lifted himself up, and walked to the front of the truck. He came back with two cold green labels and jumped down.
Daron Styles? I started to question the rationale of calling the con man, and then I remembered. “Oh, man, I forgot to get the beer.” I shook my head.
“Brook didn’t forget. Look. Foreign stuff.” He handed me a bottle and I took a long, slow swallow. God, it was good.
We sat on a wooden bench about fifteen feet from the truck.
“Money is safe?”
“We’re watching the truck aren’t we?”
“I guess.”
“I put it in the air filter.”
I’d waited long enough for the avoided explanation. “And what is Daron Styles calling back about?”
“I told you. He’s one of the reasons we’re here. He told me about this gig and how well he did selling religious statues and crosses and stuff. Daron worked for this road show, and he may be able to give us some insight.”
“Insight? Into what? How he was involved in the death of a vendor?”
“Into what’s going on.” He shot me a hard look. “Insight into these clowns who work here. I’ve got a lot of respect for Styles’s instincts. You may not approve of the businesses he runs, but he’s got a good head.”
“What’s he doing now?”
“He works right near the Versace mansion. You know, he sells stuff. Watches, purses, DVDs, scarves, stuff like that. The guy has his ear to the ground. His eyes on the world.”
I’d heard he was selling stuff. “So he knows what happened?”
“He knows the players. It’s a chance to pick his brain. He’ll at least have some ideas. I think it might be a good idea to have someone else helping us.”
I had my doubts. Daron Styles was a sleazy son of a bitch with a highly inflated ego. He’d never held a steady job for more than a couple of months, and the last I’d heard he was selling counterfeit merchandise out of his trunk. It matched what James had said about him.
“Maybe we don’t want to know something. Maybe we want to ignore this entire story, make our money, and go home.”
“And maybe, Skip, maybe we’ve already asked too many questions, and someone isn’t going to let us just walk away.”
“What the hell are you talking about? Are you crazy? You’re now the one doing this conspiracy theory thing and it makes no sense.”
“You believe the same thing. You know there’s something very strange going on here. You’ve told me the story about you and your uncle Buzz a couple of times. I thought about it, and I remember you said how you met this girl and the next day she’d been murdered. You’ve questioned this situation for ten years. Aren’t you the least bit interested? Don’t you want to take this just another step forward and see what’s going to happen next?”
I drained the beer. “We’ve got more of these?”
“We do, thanks to the beer goddess.”
I got into the truck and took two more bottles out of the cardboard carrier in the refrigerator. I carried them down to the bench.
“Skip, it’s better to be informed. Let’s see if we can figure out if any of our vendor group was responsible for the shooting. Let’s find out who messed with the truck. Let’s find out who stole our money. Let’s find out who is sending us threatening mail. They’re threatening to shoot us, Skip. Come on, dude, don’t you want to know who it was?”
I did think there were some serious problems. I didn’t trust any of the full-time vendors. I didn’t trust their businesses, their security system, or their poker game. I even wondered if James had won just because they wanted him to stick around. I know it sounds paranoid, but I wondered.
“Skip? I’m not crazy. I think we need to do a little investigating.”
“I know, I know. It’s a good chance to make some serious money, and it’s a good chance to see how Cashdollar makes his millions.”
“Yeah. All that too.”
“Jesus, James. The last time we did this — ”
“The last time we did this it was because you wanted to investigate a situation and I went along with you.”
He was right. And James had taken a severe beating because of it. We’d almost lost our lives. And it had been my pigheadedness. I’d talked him into it.
“So you want to look into this?”
“I do. I really want to. I’d like to say you owe me, pard, but I won’t, because you don’t. Good friends don’t owe each other. Am I right?”
I should have hit him.
“I’d like to know if we’re hanging out with a bunch of murderers. I’d like to get the guys who tried to sabotage our truck. I’d like to find the person who told us to leave, because, pardner, I have no intention of going anywhere. There’s still money to be made.”
“James, I think you’re crazy. But I’m in, because you’re right. You’re an asshole, but I do owe you.”
I could see a smile trying to form on his face. He’d won, but he didn’t want to gloat.
“Nah, I shouldn’t have said it. You don’t owe me anything, Skip. Seriously. You want to take a hike, hell, I’ll drive you home right now. On brand new tires. I’d like this to be an equal decision. Somebody is messing with us. We’ve stood up for each other since we were kids, am I right?”
He was.
“We’re in this together, amigo. Tell me I’m right.”
Selling his ass off, and I wasn’t even sure why. The thrill of the adventure, the stupidity of youth, I don’t know for sure what it was. “You’re right. I’m in.”
As we sat there sipping our second beer, the phone rang.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“H e’s going to pick us up.”
“Why? Where do I want to go with Styles?”
James looked around, as if to make certain no one was listening. “He said he’s got some information we might find interesting.”
“This guy is a scam artist. He was a crook in school, and I will bet he hasn’t changed.”
“Skip, he needs our help. He said he had a little favor and, if we help him, he’ll help us.”
I didn’t want to go anywhere with Daron Styles. The last time we’d met with him, he’d treated us to
