Go With Me by Castle Freeman Read Free Book Online

nodded. Nate started the engine, put the truck in gear, and got them headed around in the road.
    “We can so argue with Blackway,” Lester said. He reached down behind the seat and patted the parcel he’d laid on the floor back there.
    “This here’s the argument.”

6
     
    SHE LIKES IT HERE
     
    “Kevin Bay,” said Whizzer. “She was Kevin’s girl. She and Kevin lived in a trailer there behind his folks. Past Dead River.”
    “She worked,” said D.B. “Where did she work? At the inn, didn’t she?”
    “Waiting tables,” said Coop.
    “Holds herself pretty high for a waitress, don’t she?” said D.B.
    “It seems as though she worked at the school, too, for a while,” said Whizzer.
    “She was a teacher?” Conrad asked.
    “No,” said Coop. “Some kind of teacher’s helper.”
    “Her and her You people. What’s the matter with you people? ” said D.B. “She’s coming in pretty high for a girl wipes the little kids’ asses at school.”
    “She’s a bright girl,” said Whizzer. “She worked at the nursery, too. Worked for Edie, there. Edie thought the world of her. No, she’s a bright girl. Hard worker. Good thing, too.”
    “Good thing, with Kevin,” said Coop.
    “What I meant, wasn’t it?” said Whizzer.
    “Her boyfriend?” asked Conrad.
    “Kevin was no prize, put it that way,” D.B. said.
    “I don’t know about that,” said Whizzer. “In school he was. Nobody ever said Kevin wasn’t smart. Quick. Teachers wanted him to apply to college.”
    “Can you go to college in jail?” asked Coop.
    “That’s the thing,” said D.B. “Kevin was smart, all right. He was too smart. He was the kind of smart that thinks everybody else is dumb.”
    “Kevin was a god damned mess, is what he was,” said Coop. “Had a juvenile record about a hundred pages long. Turned eighteen, never looked back. Graduated, like.”
    “Funny how often you see that,” said Conrad.
    “See what?” Coop asked him.
    “Blackway stopped him one night,” said D.B.
    “Stopped him?” asked Conrad.
    “Blackway was one of Wingate’s deputies,” said Whizzer. “He stopped Kevin on Route Ten for operation of a vehicle with defective equipment.”
    “Headlight was out,” said D.B.
    “Stopped both of them,” said Coop. “She was driving.”
    “That’s right, too,” said Whizzer. “She was. I forgot.”
    “Kevin had a bunch of dope in the car,” said Coop. “Bunch of pot.”
    “Had it hidden away under the backseat,” said D.B. “Where nobody would ever think to look for it.”
    “Clever kid,” said Coop.
    “I told you he was sharp,” said Whizzer.
    “Master criminal,” said D.B.
    “The girl didn’t know Kevin had anything in the car,” said Whizzer.
    “She said she didn’t know,” said D.B.
    “She didn’t,” said Whizzer.
    “Blackway did, though,” said Coop.
    “Sure, he did,” said Whizzer. “Blackway knew looking for dope under Kevin Bay’s backseat was like looking for ants at a picnic.”
    “Like looking for hot dogs at Fenway,” said Coop.
    “He also knew,” Whizzer went on,“with Kevin’s record and him being eighteen and not a juvenile anymore, he was in real trouble this time. He was going away.”
    “So he decided to work on him a little,” said D.B. “Put a little weight on him. What do you call it?”
    “You call it a shakedown,” said Conrad.
    “Decided to shake him down a little,” said D.B.
    “That’s a thing Blackway has going for him,” Whizzer said.
    “Had going,” said Coop.
    “Had,” said Whizzer. “Kind of a sideline he had. Deputy don’t get paid much, you know.”
    “You got to hustle,” said Coop
    “You got to be an entrepreneur,” said D.B.
    “Blackway took the dope,” said Whizzer.
    “Confiscated it,” said Coop.
    “Impounded it,” said D.B.
    “Told Kevin he’d let him go this time,” said Whizzer. “Told him it’d be a good idea for him to get clear out of town, because Blackway was going to be all over him from