Feast Day of Fools (Hackberry Holland 3)

“Now and then.”

“Working for Sholokoff?”

“I did some contract stuff for him. I work for myself. I never ‘worked’ for Josef Sholokoff.”

“Why the wait?” Hackberry asked. Through a side window, he could see Eladio urinating inside a grove of citrus trees.

“You want to attack a houseful of armed men in daylight?”

“I don’t know if Ms. Ling can afford to write off the next four hours.”

“She hit me with a piñata stick, but I’m risking my life to save hers,” Collins said. “I don’t think she’s got any kick coming. Maybe Sholokoff will take some of the starch out of her.”

Hackberry kept his face turned away so Collins would not see the emotion he was trying to suppress. Through the window, Hackberry saw Eladio turn his back to the barn and zip his fly, then remove a cell phone from his pants pocket. “What’s your plan?” Hackberry said.

“I’ve arranged to have the cellar door and the French doors left unlocked on the patio. Three of us go through the French doors, and two go straight down the steps into the cellar. In the confusion, we’ll pop two or three of them before they’ll know what’s happening. The others will cut bait.”

“How do you know that?”

“They’re for hire. They go whichever way the wind vane turns. How do you think revolutions get won? You get the religious fanatics and idealists on your side, people with no monetary interest. What kind of weapons did you bring?”

“An AR15, a cut-down twelve, a Beretta nine-millimeter, and our revolvers.”

“Y’all didn’t end up with any of that Homeland Security money?”

“Worry about your own ordnance, Mr. Collins. How far is Sholokoff’s place?” Hackberry said, his gaze wandering out the window, where Eladio was walking back toward the front of the barn.

“Three miles, more or less,” Collins said.

“We go in now.”

“Impetuosity might be your undoing, Mr. Holland.”

“It’s Sheriff Holland to you.”

“Not here it isn’t. The only title that counts down here is the one you pay for.”

“Is there any reason one of your men would be using his cell phone while he’s hosing down a lime tree?”

Collins’s eyes sharpened, but they did not leave Hackberry’s face nor glance in the direction of Eladio, who had just walked through the barn’s entrance.

“You saw that?” Collins said.

“Ms. Ling’s life is hanging in the balance. Why would I try to throw you a slider?”

Collins’s mouth flexed, exposing his teeth, his eyes staring at the straw scattered on the dirt floor of the barn. “You’re sure about what you saw?” he said.

Hackberry didn’t reply.

“All right,” Collins said, his eyelids fluttering. “We go in now. Later, I’ll clean up the problem you just mentioned. How about the woman?”

“You mean my chief deputy?”

“Yeah, that’s what I just said. Can she take the heat in the kitchen?”

“You’re really a test of Christian charity, Jack.”

“Don’t patronize me. I won’t abide it.”