A Cup Full of Midnight by Jaden Terrell Read Free Book Online Page B

mind.”
    “I’ll find out what I want to know,” I said. “One way or the other.”
    “I’m sure you will. But by all means, give me a call.” He held out the card between two fingers. “Byron, of course, will have to decide for himself.”

CHAPTER SEVEN
    A s Byron and Keating pulled away in Keating’s Buick Skylark, Josh turned to me and asked, “What was that? Some kind of pissing contest?”
    “Something like that. How’d you get here, anyway?”
    “Hitched. Don’t say it, I know it was stupid.”
    It was. I opened my mouth to deliver a lecture. Closed it again. What could I say that he didn’t already know? “Come on. I’ll give you a ride home.”
    “Could we just drive around for awhile?”
    “Roads are getting pretty bad.”
    “Just for a little while.”
    We drove past a mall that had been dying since the seventies, cruised through the parking lot of a movie theater shaped like a jukebox, and crossed onto Bransford past a row of specialty shops draped in Christmas lights. While I drove, Josh closed his eyes and leaned his temple against the passenger-side window. I wondered what I should say, or if I should say anything at all.
    We passed the darkened fairgrounds and came back out onto I-65 on the south side of town. The city came into view, the double antennae of the AT&T Batman building stretching up past the L&C tower and the rotating restaurant at the top of the old Hyatt Regency hotel. With the ice glistening in the lights, it may have been the most beautiful skyline in the world.
    I glanced over at Josh and said, “Why’d you do it?”
    He lifted his head. “I wanted to see the funeral.”
    “No.” I nodded toward his wrists. “Why’d you do that?”
    “You know you’re the first person who’s asked me that? I mean, besides my therapist. Everyone’s so freaked thinking if they ask, I’ll do it again. Like I’ll go right over the edge or something.”
    “You came pretty close to it already.”
    “I know. It’s complicated. Like . . .” He pressed his head hard against the window. “I can’t explain it.”
    “Can’t?”
    He shrugged. I wanted to ask why he hadn’t told me he was with Absinthe an hour before Razor’s murder, but something in his face told me this wasn’t the right time. Instead, I swung onto the 440 bypass loop, then onto the West End ramp. Past Centennial Park, where the full-sized replica of the Parthenon glowed in the mist, pale pillars lit with green and red. Not for nothing is Nashville called the Athens of the South. We drove to Music Row, circled the classical nude bronze Musica statue and headed back toward the Interstate. Passed a six-foot fiberglass catfish in a cowboy hat, and a few yards away, a man playing a guitar on the sidewalk. A Weimaraner dressed in an army uniform shivered at his feet.
    Josh leaned over me for a better look. “Can we give them something, Uncle Jared? It’s freezing out there.”
    I glanced into the rearview mirror, saw there was no one behind me, and slid to a stop. Rolled down my window and waved the musician over to the truck. He slung the guitar strap over his shoulder and picked his way across the slick street. He was about sixty, stiff with arthritis, or maybe just half frozen. The dog padded behind him, tail wagging. I stepped out of the truck, motioned Josh to stay inside, and shut the door behind me. Just in case.
    I handed the musician a twenty, and he pocketed it with a grateful smile.
    “Bless you, sir. God bless you.”
    I said, “You know Kaizen? Shelter over near the bus station?”
    “I heard of it. Why?”
    “Guy who runs it is a friend of mine.”
    He nodded toward the dog. “Can’t keep Charley in no shelter.”
    “Ask for Billy Mean,” I said. “Tell him Jared sent you. He’ll let you keep your dog.”
    “Billy Mean,” he said. “I heard of him. Some kind of badass in Vietnam.”
    “Long time ago,” I said.
    “Not to me.”
    It was a long walk, so I loaded them into the back of the