Ray looked stricken. “Ten thous…?”
“You killed a policeman, Mr. Short. It’s a very good price.”
“I was thinking of something else, sir,” Emil said. “Were you.”
“Yes, sir.”
“What were you thinking, Mr. Rothert?”
“I heard that… I understand you do… a certain business. With certain parties. Foreign investors, sort of..
For the first time Thaw smiled. “What business would that be, Mr. Rothert? I have any number of businesses and you’re interrupting all of them. Please do get on with it.”
She saw that Emil was distinctly uncomfortable now but determined to do as the man said and get on with it. And even before he opened his mouth again she knew exactly where he was going with all this. It was rumored at the courthouse. She’d heard it a dozen times. You goddamn son of a bitch, she thought.
“ Women, sir,” he said. “I understand you… that you deal in women sometimes.”
For a moment Thaw just stared at him as though he was speaking in some unknown tongue. He looked at Marion and then at Janet and when his eyes went back to Emil again he laughed and his hands went wide and spiderlike across the table. Behind him, Coombs smiled.
“You’re offering me these? In exchange for a car?” “Uh, yes, sir.”
Thaw laughed again and shook his head.
“Rothert,” he said, “these parties you’re talking about are interested in twelve-year-olds. Twelve-year-olds, Rothert. Do you understand me? Do you see the problem here?”
Emil nodded toward Marion.
“Sir, this one in particular. Have somebody try her out, that’s all I’m asking. She’s a little crazy, see? She’ll do anything. You don’t think you can use her? Fine, no car. We’ll figure out something in the morning.”
“Hey, Emil,” Marion said, “screw you!”
“That’s all I’m asking, sir.”
“Fuck you, Emil!”
She turned on her heel and went for the door, turned the knob. Twisted it. Shook the door and pounded it. “What have you got to lose, sir?” Emil said.
“You fucking prick! Open the fucking door!” she yelled to the guard outside. She turned to Emil. ‘Tell him to open the fucking door! ”
Thaw leaned back in his chair and sighed. Marion twisted at the knob one last time and then she was moving fast across the room to the glass double doors to the widow’s walk beyond, and to Janet it looked like she just might kick the damn things in in order to get out of there. Thaw stood up from his chair and shouted.
“ Big!”
The glass doors parted and Marion stopped dead in her tracks. The man standing in front of her was big all right-as big as a goddamn bear and looked easily as dangerous. She recognized the long square jaw and scraggly beard. The arms beneath the cutoff sleeves of his faded denim shirt were easily as wide as her thigh. A massive chest tapered down to an almost graceful waist. Six-foot-six, 320 pounds, she remembered. “Big ” Micah Harpe. In person.
He didn’t move.
He didn’t have to.
And seeing him there finally after having searched for him ever since arriving scared the hell out of her and made her heart leap all at once. With Micah Harpe it would be all or nothing. She’d known that from the very start.
Thaw sat down again and leaned back in his chair.
“You heard?” he said.
“I heard a talking asshole, sure. How about you?”
Harpe’s voice had a Kentucky twang to it that surprisingly was not at all unpleasant.
“About the same, Big. About the same. I’m wondering, though. Is Mr. Harrison still here?”
“Downstairs, I think.”
“Downstairs?”
“Think he was planning to stay awhile.”
“You might try him, then. If he’s happy, perhaps we can accommodate these gentlemen. If not…”
“Will do.”
He took a single step toward Marion, reached out and wrapped his huge hand in her hair and pulled her toward him. Then he turned to Emil, released her hair and shoved her at him like a kid would pass a basketball and with no more effort.
“You’re the one trading here,” he said. “You handle her.”
The waiting was making Alan crazy. He guessed it wasn’t doing Frommer a lot of good either. The man kept lighting one cigarette after another. A couple of puffs and he’d stub it out and a couple minutes later light another. It was as though he wanted to smoke but was determined to be smokeless if and when any news came through. The roadblock was one of dozens throughout the area but standing at this one felt like being all alone in the world, cut off from everybody and everything, waiting for a train that was never going to pull on in.
“I don’t get it,” Frommer said. “Homes are pretty few and far between around here and we’ve pretty much covered them all. We’ve got the roadblocks set and we’ve checked the access roads for miles damn near to the state line. We’ve got enough highway patrol units working these mountains to flush out a jackrabbit. They can hide overnight in the woods but the car sure can’t. So how come I’m doing everything right and they’re still not showing?” He lit another smoke. “You maybe thinking what I’m thinking?”
He was.
“Hole-in-the-Wall,” Alan said.
“We’ll need a warrant. Know any judges who are early risers?”
“As a matter of fact I do,” he said.
A year ago he’d slept with her. Janet never knew.
Now, she thought, it’s got to be now.
Ahead of her on the stairs Emil was hauling Marion down, cursing and fighting him all the way but Janet knew his strength firsthand and knew it wasn’t going to do her a damn bit of good. Billy was smiling, having a fine old time with all this, laughing and poking her with his index finger from behind. Ray ignored him but seemed to consider Marion with something like regret.
In one way or another each of them was focused on Marion. She stopped and turned.
“Micah Harpe,” she said. “Big.”