Rain Gods (Hackberry Holland 2)

Darl had pulled up a chair and was sitting on the far side of the desk. He had a face like a parody of a stage character?s, with a cleft in the chin and a tiny mustache, the cheeks slightly hollowed by either age or a sickness he disclosed to no one. Hackberry smelled a mint on his breath and wondered what time that morning Darl had poured his first drink.

?Vogel had a gaping hole where a molar should have been. It wasn?t broken off. There were deep bruises inside the lips,? Darl said.

?He was tortured??

?Have you eaten lunch??

?No.?

?How much do you want to hear before you eat??

?Get to it, will you, Darl??

?There was a lot of penile and testicular damage. It was probably done with a metal instrument. Probably the same pliers somebody used on his mouth. Cause of death was a coronary.?

?His neck wasn?t broken??

?It was broken, all right, but he was already dead when that happened.?

?You?re sure about all this??

Darl fitted a cigarette into a gold holder, then put it and the holder away, as though remembering Hackberry?s proscription against smoking in the building. ?Maybe he pulled his own tooth,? he said. ?Or maybe the steering wheel hit him in the face and cut him inside the mouth but not outside. Or maybe his genitals were remodeled by the airbag that didn?t inflate. You want to know what I really think??

?Go ahead.?

?That whatever information this poor guy had, he begged to give it up unless his wick went out first. I hope that?s what happened. I hope he sank down in a big well of blackness. I got to have a smoke. I?ll be outside.?

?I need to make a phone call. Go to lunch with me.?

?I already ate.?

?Go to lunch with me anyway,? Hackberry said.

After Darl had gone outside, Hackberry called the FBI agent Ethan Riser. ?I?ve got a problem of conscience here. I?m going to lay it off on you, and you can do whatever you want with it,? he said.

?What?s this big problem?? Riser said.

?Junior Vogel was probably run off the road yesterday and tortured to death. Your man from ICE, this character Clawson, wanted to put him in custody, but I talked him out of it.?

?Clawson was talking with Vogel??

?You didn?t know??

?I don?t always have an opportunity to talk with Clawson directly.?

Hackberry wondered at the amazing amount of latitude bureaucratic language could create for its practitioners. ?I think Junior had Pete Flores?s disability check in his possession,? he said. ?I think he was probably going to forward it to Pete. We should have been on top of that check, you guys as well as me and my department.?

?We were.?

?Sir??

?Clawson had another agent on it. They messed up.?

?You sure that?s all there is to it?? Hackberry said.

?Want to explain that??

?I think your man Clawson has serious psychiatric problems. I don?t think he should have a badge.?