?She heard you talking in your sleep. She thinks you?re going to hell.?
?You just don?t get it, do you??
?Get what, boss??
?It?s right yonder, all around us, in the haze of the evening. We?re already there,? Preacher said, gesturing at the darkening plain.
?You one unusual gringo, boss.?
WHEN HACKBERRY HOLLAND woke inside a blue dawn on Saturday morning, he looked through his bedroom window and saw the FBI agent Ethan Riser in his backyard, admiring Hack?s flower beds. The FBI agent?s hair was as thick and white as cotton, the capillaries in his jaws like pieces of blue and red thread. The iridescent spray from Hackberry?s automatic sprinklers had already stained Riser?s pale suit, but his concentration on the flower beds seemed so intense he was hardly aware of it.
Hackberry dressed in a pair of khakis and a T-shirt and walked barefoot onto the back porch. There were poplar trees planted as a windbreak at the bottom of his property, and inside the shadows they made on the grass he could see a doe and her fawn watching him, their eyes brown and moist inside the gloom.
?You guys get up early in the morning, don?t you?? he said to the FBI agent.
?I work Sundays, too. Me and the pope.?
?What do you need, sir??
?Can I buy you breakfast??
?No, but you can come inside.?
While the agent sat at his kitchen table, Hackberry started the coffeemaker and broke a half-dozen eggs in a huge skillet and set two pork chops in the skillet with them. ?You like cereal?? he said.
?No, thanks.?
At the stove, Hackberry poured a bowlful of Rice Krispies, then added cold milk and started eating them while the eggs and meat cooked. Ethan Riser rested his chin on his thumb and knuckle and stared into space, trying not to look at his watch or show impatience. His eyes were ice-blue, unblinking, marked by neither guile nor doubt. He cleared his throat slightly. ?My father was a botanist and a Shakespearean actor,? he said. ?In his gardens he grew every kind of flower Shakespeare mentions in his work. He was also a student of Voltaire and believed he could tend his own garden and separate himself from the rest of the world. For that reason, he was a tragic man.?
?What did you want to tell me, sir?? Hackberry said, setting his cereal bowl in the sink.
?There were two sets of prints on the Airweight thirty-eight the road gang supervisor gave you. We matched one set to the prints of Vikki Gaddis we took from her house. The other set we matched through the California driver?s license database. They belong to a fellow by the name of Jack Collins. He has no criminal record. But we?ve heard about him. His nickname is Preacher. Excuse me, are you listening??
?I will be as soon as I have some coffee.?
?I see.?
?You take sugar or milk?? Hackberry said.
Ethan Riser folded his arms and looked out the window at the deer among the poplar trees. ?Whatever you have is fine,? he said.
?Go ahead,? Hackberry said.
?Thank you. They call him Preacher because he thinks he may be the left hand of God, the giver of death.? Ethan Riser waited, his agitation beginning to show. ?You?re not impressed??
?Did you ever know a sociopath who didn?t think he was of cosmic importance? What did this guy do before he became the left hand of God??
?He was a pest exterminator.?
Hackberry began pouring coffee into two cups and tried to hide his expression.
?You think it?s funny?? Riser said.
?Me??
?You said you were at Pak?s Palace. I did some research. That was a brick factory where Major Pak hung up GIs on the rafters and beat th
em with clubs for hours. You were one of them??