Rain Gods (Hackberry Holland 2)

?Mrs. Dolan has children. They want her back. How about it??

?I?ll take it under advisement.?

?I don?t think you?re a man who hides behind a woman.?

?I don?t have to hide behind anyone. You hear that sound? Why don?t you come toward me a little more and check out your environment??

?Rattlers are holed up in here??

?Probably not more than a couple of dozen. Just flatten yourself out against the wall.?

?Your voice sounds a little strange, Jack.?

?He?s had an anaphylactic reaction to peanut butter. It may be fatal,? a woman?s voice said.

?You shut up,? Collins said.

?Is that right, Jack? You want to go to a hospital?? Hackberry said.

But there was no answer.

?I was a navy corpsman,? Hackberry said. ?Severe anaphylaxis can bring on respiratory and coronary arrest, partner. It?s a bad way to go, strangling in your spit, your sphincter letting go, that sort of thing.?

?I can squeeze this trigger, and you?ll be a petroglyph.?

?But that?s not what this is about, is it? You?re haunted by the women and girls you killed because your act was that of a coward, not because you robbed them of their lives. You don?t want redemption, Jack. You want validation, justification for an act you know is indefensible.?

?Sheriff Holland, don?t bait this man or try to reason with him. Kill him so he doesn?t kill others. I?m not afraid,? the woman said.

Hackberry gritted his teeth in his frustration with Esther Dolan. ?That?s not why I?m here, Jack. I?m not your executioner. I?m not worthy of you. You already said it?I?m a drunk and the sexual exploiter of poor third-world women. I?ve got to hand it to you, for good or bad, you?re the kind of guy who belongs to the ages. You screwed up behind the church, but I think the order for the mass shooting came from Hugo Cistranos and wasn?t your idea. That?s important to remember, Jack. You?re not a coward. You can prove that this morning. Turn Mrs. Dolan loose and take your chances with me. That?s what real cojones are about, right? You say full throttle and fuck it and sail out over the abyss.?

There was a long silence. Hackberry could feel the wind puffing around him, blowing coldly on his neck and the backs of his ears. Again he heard a rattling sound, like the wispy rattling of seeds inside a dried poppy husk.

?I?ve got to know something,? Collins said.

?Ask me.?

?That night I went inside your house, you said my mother wanted me aborted, that I was despised in the womb. Why would you treat me with such contempt and odium??

?My remark wasn?t aimed at you.?

?Then who??

Hackberry paused. ?We don?t get to choose our parents.?

?My mother wasn?t like that, like what you said. She wasn?t like that at all.?

?Maybe she wasn?t, sir. Maybe I was all wrong.?

?Then say that.?

?I just did.?

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?You think your words will make me merciful now??

?Probably not. Maybe I?ve just been firing in the well.?