"No," Stonie said. "Except he doesn't seem to do much. Doesn't work. Lives with his mother."

"Maybe he's in your program, Cord," Pud said.

"He is very cute," Cord said.

Stonie patted Cord's hand.

"Shhh," she said.

They both smiled.

"Why do you ask?" SueSue said.

It would have been great theater to say, Because he's your brother, but it didn't seem to get me anywhere.

"Do you know the terms of your father's will?" I said.

"We inherit everything, the three of us," SueSue said.

"But Penny runs things," Stonie said. "Neither one of us knows anything about business."

"She sharing equally?" I said.

"The estate hasn't been settled yet, but Penny gives us both money."

"How are you feeling about Penny?"

"I don't know," SueSue said. "I mean, she's our sister and she's taking care of us."

"And she locked us up and broke up our marriages," Stonie said.

"Our marriages were already broken," SueSue said. "Penny's always been bossy."

Sapp looked at me. I nodded.

"Now I know why the caged bird sings," I said.

"What the hell does that mean?" SueSue said.

"I don't know," I said. "It's too hard for me."

FIFTY-FIVE

THE CALL WOKE me early in the morning, just after sunrise.

"You want to know who killed Walter Clive," somebody whispered, "get on Route 20. Drive twenty miles west from the Lamarr exit. Park on the shoulder. Get out of the car and wait."

"What time?" I said.

"Be there at midnight tonight. Alone. We'll be able to see you for miles."

"How nice for you," I said.

The whisperer hung up. I tried dialing*69, but it didn't work on the motel extension. I looked at my watch. Quarter to six. I got up, showered, and went to my car. When I got onto Route 20 I set the trip clock on my car, and in twenty miles, I stopped. It was open country with gentle hills and some tree cover. The whisperer was right; they could see me coming. I went on to the next exit, turned around, and headed back to town.

Tedy Sapp was out of bed when I got to the Bath House Bar and Grill, drinking coffee in the empty bar with a slender gray-haired man in a light tan summer suit and a blue oxford shirt. There was a box of cinnamon donuts open on the table.

"Once a cop, always a cop," I said, and took a donut.

"This is Benjamin Crane," Sapp said. "My main squeeze."

We shook hands. He grinned at Tedy.

"Gotta go," Crane said. "You have business, and I have to gaze into many eyes."

He left.

"Been together long?" I said to Sapp.

"Ten years."

"Love's a good thing," I said.

"Even the one that dare not speak its name?"

"Even that one."

Sapp poured me a cup of coffee. I drank it and ate my donut while I told him the deal.

"Called early," Sapp said, "so they'd be sure to get you."

"Yep."

"It's a setup," Sapp said. "And a stupid one. They gave you all day to figure it out."

"The price they paid for calling early," I said. "I figure it's Delroy."

"Good choice," Sapp said. "He's stupid enough. You're going to need help with this."

"I know," I said. "You got a rifle?"

"Yep."

I had a street map of Columbia County I had bought when I first arrived. Sapp and I studied it on the table.

"Here's about where they want you," Sapp said.

"I know," I said. "I've been out there."

"Of course you have," Sapp said. "It's not a bad spot for them. Used to hunt birds out there, once. But when the highway got built the birds left. Now nobody goes out there, it's just a piece of empty land the Interstate goes through."

"And I don't want to drive up at midnight and stand outside my car and get shot to pieces."

"No," Sapp said. "Here's where you want me to be."

With his pencil Sapp marked a blue road that wound more or less parallel to Route 20, a mile or so to the north.

"Piece of the old state road," Sapp said. "Was the main drag before the Interstate. I can park over here." He made a small circle. "And walk in behind them. About a mile maybe, mile and a half."

Sapp poured me some more coffee. I stirred in cream and sugar and I took another donut.

"When you have a couple donuts," Sapp said, "you know you've eaten something."

"Figured you for a dozen raw eggs a day," I said.

"And a good case of salmonella. I don't believe all that protein crap. You do the work, you get the muscle."

"Good," I said. "Gimme another one."

"I'll plan to get there early."

"Yes," I said. "Might be nice to walk the mile and a half in daylight."

"Yep. Country's not real rough, but there's trees and some ground cover. Easier in the light."

We drank coffee and cleaned up the last of the donuts. It was a little after eight-thirty in the morning.

"I got a vest," Sapp said. "Left over from my cop days."

"Thanks," I said. "I know this isn't your fight."

"I'm sure the bastards are homophobes," Sapp said.

"I'm sure they are," I said.

Sapp disappeared again and came back with a dark blue Kevlar vest.

"If Delroy's there," I said, "let's try not to kill him."

"Man," Sapp said, "you spoil everything."

"I know," I said. "But if he's alive I can turn him in and the thing is done."

"Business before pleasure," Sapp said. "What you should do is get something that's not obvious, and put it on the roadside at the twenty-mile spot, so I'll have a marker when I come in from the back."

I stood, and picked up the vest.

"I'll buy a cheap tire," I said, "and put it there. People see old tires on the highway all the time."

"I'll look for it," Sapp said. "You want a kiss goodbye?"

"From you?"

"Yes."

"I'd rather die," I said.

FIFTY-SIX

I WAS RESTLESS the rest of the day. I cleaned both my guns-the short-barreled.38 I usually carried, and the Browning nine-millimeter I had for high-volume backup. I reloaded both guns, and thumbed cartridges into an extra clip for the nine. I tried on the vest. Sapp and I were more or less the same size, so the vest fit. I did some push-ups. I stood in the motel doorway and looked up at the sky, which by midafternoon had begun to darken. I turned on the television set and found The Weather Channel. After about fifteen minutes of learning far more than I ever cared to know about a low-pressure area in the Texas panhandle, I heard them prophesying rain in Georgia. I did some more push-ups. I called Susan and, using a flawless southern accent, left a sexually explicit message on her answering machine. I took a walk. After the walk I went to the motel coffee shop and had a ham and cheese sandwich and a glass of milk. It started to rain. I stood in the doorway of my room and watched it for a while. It was a nice rain, steady but not too aggressive. Falling straight. The weather cooled. I took a nap.

When I woke up the afternoon had begun to turn into evening and the rain was unyielding. I took a shower and put on clean clothes and checked both guns again. The meeting on Route 20 could be a feint, of course, and they in fact intended to buzz me as I walked to my car to drive out there. Probably not. It was probably too clever for Delroy. But probably is not the same as certainly. If they intended to do that, how soon would they show up? Probably about ten-thirty. I thought about another sandwich, but I wasn't hungry. I had coffee instead. I didn't want to be sleepy later on. Then I went back to my room and strapped on both guns. The Browning I wore behind my right hipbone. The.38 I wore butt forward in front of my left hipbone. I put the extra clip in my hip pocket and a handful of.38 special ammunition in my pants pocket. Then, carrying the vest over my arm, I walked to my car and got in and pulled out of the parking lot. Nobody followed me. It was about nine o'clock-too early.