?Collins let us live, so now he feels he?s stronger than we are. He won?t test himself again,? she said. ?He tried to give me money. I spit on his money and I spit on him. He?s not a lunatic. Everything he does is about pride. He won?t risk losing it again.?
?So who was the guy with the laser sight?? Hackberry said.
?It?s got to be Hugo Cistranos,? Pete said.
?I think you?re right,? Hackberry said. He opened the top on one of the boxed pizzas. ?You spat on Jack Collins??
?You think that?s funny?? she said.
?No, I did the same. Maybe he?s getting used to it,? he said.
?Where you going, Sheriff?? Pete said.
?To make a phone call.? Hackberry walked through the hallway toward the small room in back that he used as a home office. He heard footsteps behind him.
?I apologize for my rudeness,? Vikki said. ?You?ve been very kind to us. My father was a police officer. I?m aware of the professional risk you?re taking on our behalf.?
Better hang on to this one, Pete, Hackberry thought. He sat behind his desk and called Maydeen at the department and told her to put a cruiser on his house. Then he left messages at both of the phone numbers he had for Ethan Riser. Through the side window, he had a fine view of his south pasture. His quarter horses and the windmill and poplar trees were silhouetted against the purple coloring in the west like dimly backlit components in an ink wash. But the fading of the light, the gray aura that seemed to rise from the grass, gave him a sense of terminus that was like a knife blade in his chest. If the two young people had not been staying with him, he would have driven to town and visited his wife?s grave, regardless of the hour.
In some ways, Vikki Gaddis and Pam Tibbs reminded him of Rie. Rie?s detractors had called her a Communist and jailed her and her friends and turned a blind eye to the acts of violence done to them inside and outside of jail, but never once did she allow herself to be afraid.
Hackberry turned off his desk lamp and looked through the window into the darkness that seemed to be spreading across the land. Was it a suggestion of the Great Shade that we all feared? he wondered. Or a visual harbinger of what some called end-times, that morbid apocalyptical obsession of fanatics who seemed to delight in the possibility of the world?s destruction?
But the greater question, the one that sank his heart, was whether or not he would ever see his wife again, on the other side, reaching through the light to take his hand and ease him across.
The phone made his face jerk. It was Ethan Riser.
?I?m returning your call. What?s up?? Riser said.
?Hugo Cistranos may be in my neighborhood,? Hackberry said. ?What kind of leash did you have on this guy??
?You?re asking me if he?s under surveillance??
?I know you have him tapped. Where is he??
?I don?t know. Somebody saw him??
?We may have a guy with a laser sight in the neighborhood, but I can?t confirm that. Have you gotten any more feedback on those license numbers that may belong to Jack Collins??
?I?m at my granddaughter?s wedding reception right now. I returned your call as a professional courtesy. Either tell me specifically what is on your mind or call me back during business hours on Monday.?
?I need your assurances about Pete Flores.?
?In regard to what??
?If I bring him in, you don?t stuff him into the wood chipper.?
?We don?t stuff people in wood chippers.?
?Sell that stuff to somebody else.? The line was silent. Hackberry felt a rush of blood in his head that made him dizzy. He swallowed until his mouth was dry again and waited for the tautness to go out of his throat before he spoke. ?Flores didn?t see the mass killing. All he can do is put Cistranos at the scene. You already know Cistranos is dirty on the mass homicide. You must have wiretap evidence by this time. You must have information from CIs. Maybe you?ve already flipped Arthur Rooney. I think the only reason you haven?t picked up Cistranos is he?s bait. You don?t need the kid, do you??
?If you?re in contact with Pete Flores, you tell him he?d better get his ass into an FBI office.?
?That kid got fried in a tank because he believed in his country. You think he belongs in a federal prison or a place like Huntsville??
?I?d like to say it?s been good talking to you. But instead, I think I?ll just say goodbye.?
?Don?t blow me off, Agent Riser. You guys are determined to hang Josef Sholokoff from a meat hook, and you don?t care how you get him there.?