what he did to her, or ask a girl called Cindy to meet him in a seedy bar. Is this the seedy bar? And what are the chances of a sinister text arriving while an FBI agent is holding his phone? Jesus.
‘I think it’s here somewhere,’ she shouted back. ‘I heard the buzz.’
‘You can leave it,’ said Billy. ‘I’ll be out in a minute.’
With a gun to pressed to the back of my neck.
She walked quietly around the front of the bar, leaving the phone where it was. She sat very still, then pretended to look through her bag for a pen. Her heart slowed, but there was a small tremble left in her hand. Billy came up behind her, laid a hand on her shoulder and kissed the top of her head. She reached up and rested her hand on his.
‘Hey,’ he said.
‘Hey.’
He walked over to his phone and checked the message. Ren watched his face. There was no story in it to read.
‘Where’s your drink?’
‘I changed my mind,’ she said. ‘I need to get back to Breck.’
‘What?’
She nodded.
‘Oh,’ said Billy. ‘I was going to fix us something to eat.’
Whoa. Too domestic. ‘I can’t, I’ve … got to meet up with my bosses.’
‘Code for “I can’t possibly eat with you because that would be weird.”’
And you know all about code … And I feel terrible for even thinking that.
She stood up and kissed him briefly on the lips. ‘I’ll talk to you later.’
‘You always say “I’ll talk to you later,” and you never do.’
She smiled back. ‘It’s just a saying. You know, like “How are you doing?” or “I love you.”’
‘What?’
Ren laughed. ‘I think Homer said that.’
‘Really?’
‘Oh, not him – Homer Simpson. Gotta go.’
When Ren finally got away from the Brockton Filly, it was three a.m. A miserable, beautiful, hopeless song played on her iPod to back up her mood. Her hand would never have shook, her heart would not have sped up if Billy Waites had been just who he was and not who he had become. She had been in situations worse than that, she had risked more, but never did she have to ask herself a similar question to the one that was running through her mind right now.
Was I looking for reassurance that Billy Waites was bad… or reassurance that he was good?
Ren woke with aching shoulders and stiff legs. She took a bath instead of a shower to try to relax her muscles.
Bob had an audience of several detectives when she got to his office.
‘I was just telling the guys,’ he said, ‘there was some late-night action at the hospital. Some guy was dumped out of a car and collapsed in the sliding doors.’
‘What was wrong with him?’ said Ren.
‘The Frisco guys could barely keep a straight face. He said some guy jumped on him, poked him in the neck and the face, did some weird shit to his stomach and his – “privates” is what he called them – and left him in agony. Then bundled him into a car and dumped him at the hospital.’
‘Kind of them,’ said Ren. ‘Where did he say it happened?’
‘He didn’t. He was understandably reluctant to provide anyone with more information because, of course, there were some outstanding warrants for his arrest.’
‘On what charges?’
‘Child support.’
‘That’s it?’
Bob nodded. ‘Yup …’ He turned to her, his expression grave. ‘Something smells bad with this guy.’
‘Really?’
‘No, I mean seriously. We found his truck – he had been transporting manure.’
Ren laughed. ‘Ew. Why?’
‘Some bullshit reason …’
‘OK, we could be here all night … talking shit.’
The detectives were laughing as they moved past her and went back to their offices.
‘Where’s this guy now?’ said Ren.
‘In my little jailhouse,’ said Bob.
‘What’s his name?’
‘Erubiel Diaz.’
‘Exotic.’
‘There was one car driving through the parking lot of the Medical Center around the time Diaz was dropped off,’ said Bob.
‘What, are you actually following up on this?’ said Ren. ‘Some dirtbag gets taken off the streets, and you’re going to go find the people who did us that favor?’
‘The guy hasn’t paid his child support – is dirtbag maybe going a little too far?’
Ren paused. ‘Um, maybe … Did you get the registration?’
‘Nope. The driver did quite a cool shimmy around the cameras, by the looks of it. It was like that naked Austin Power thing.’
‘Here, let me save you some time on this,’ said Ren. ‘Could I go talk to him? He may know some of our masked men.’
‘Why would you think that?’
‘I just would.’
‘Knock yourself out,’ said Bob. ‘He’s in a cell right now. You speak Spanish?’
‘I have ways of communicating …’
Bob led Ren through reception, down a series of hallways and through the steel door into the jail.
‘Hey,’ said Bob to the female guards behind the desk. ‘The reception area,’ he said to Ren. ‘The inmates need anything sent to their room, they call here: fluffy towels, robes, scented candles …’
‘Yeah, and today’s Champagne-and-Hooker Tuesday,’ said one of the guards.
They all laughed.
‘Agent
