“Yeah, a box.”
“Look inside it.”
“What for?”
Hackberry set the box on the foot of the bunk and picked up the magazine from the floor. He rolled it into a cone and slapped Barnum across the head. Then he slapped him a second time and a third. “I want to tear you up, Mr. Barnum. I don’t mean that figuratively. I want to throw you down those stairs. That’s how I feel about you.”
Barnum’s eyes were filming, his face blotched. “You don’t have the right to treat me like this.”
“Look inside that box.”
“Somebody’s head is in there?” Barnum said, his expression defiant, his eyes lifted to Hackberry’s.
Hackberry hit him again, this time tearing the cover loose from the magazine. Barnum lifted his hand to protect himself, then looked down into the box. The blood drained from his face. “Oh God,” he said.
“Tell me what you see.”
“It’s a hand and a foot.”
“Are they male or female?”
“Sir?”
“Answer the question.”
“There’s hair on the ankle. It must be a man’s.”
“Look at the hand.”
“What about it?”
“Look closer. There’s a ring on it. Look at it.”
“I’m not responsible for this.”
“That’s a University of Texas class ring. The hand and the ring belong to Temple Dowling. The people who did this to him will probably start on Anton Ling next. Right now I’d like to rip you apart. Instead of doing that, I’m going to ask you a couple of questions, and you’re going to answer them. Got that?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Where were you and Jack Collins hiding?”
“Just like you said earlier, right south of the border. But Jack’s gone by now.”
“Gone where?”
“That’s anybody’s guess. You see him and then he’s gone. He’s standing in one place, then in another, without seeming to move. I’ve never known anybody like him.”
“You’re just catching on to the fact that there’s something a little unusual about him?”
“I don’t know where Jack is. I don’t know where Miss Anton is, either. I feel awful about what’s happened. My sister died in the Towers. I wanted to get even with the people who killed her. I didn’t want any of these other things to happen.”
Hackberry let out his breath and felt the heat rise out of his chest like ash off a dead fire. “I want you out of here,” he said.
“Say again?”
“You heard me. Hit the road.”
“I don’t get it.”