Slow Burn by G. M. Ford Read Free Book Online Page A

the
Speaker and not Slalom, so don't even say it. When I tell you what we're gonna
be doing, you'll understand why."
    He took me at
my word.
    "What
about Dickie or Don?" I asked.
    "Denny's
doing the long limbo," said Harold.
    "Trollin'
for topsoil trout," George added.
    Ralph sensed my
confusion. "He fell off the viaduct, Leo. Busted his neck. Dickie took it
real hard. Ain't nobody seen him since."
    We finally
settled on Hot Shot Scott.
    "What's
the job?" George asked.
    As I began to
speak, George found a small spiral-bound notebook in the pocket of one of his
coats and started to take notes. When I'd finished, he asked, "What about
inside? What are we gonna do about that?"
    "I was
thinking I'd fix up Frank and Judy."
    "Gonna
take a lot of fixin'."
    "You let
me worry about that. That way we've got Harold, Ralph and Norman to run the
crews and you to keep the whole thing working. "Any questions?"
    "Who's
gonna look for the cow?"
    "It's a
bull, and I am."
    "When do
we start?"
    "Tomorrow
morning. But I want to see everybody at four this afternoon."
"Where?"
    "Third Avenue. In front of the Rainier Club." George wrote it down and looked up. I
headed to the far end of the bar and had a few words with Bonnie. Bonnie wasn't
real enthused, but she said okay.
     

Chapter 5
     
    He had the
James Dean slouching-in-a-doorway thing down. He wore a tight pair of jeans, a
belt with a rodeo buckle and a white cowboy shirt with pearl buttons and the
sleeves cut off. If I had arms like that, I'd cut my shirtsleeves off, too.
Hell, if I had arms like that, I'd cut the sleeves off my sport coats.
    "Why don't
ya just take a minute and have you a good look," he said. "That way
we won't be spendin' our quality time together with you sneakin' peaks at me,
okay, podna?" I thought his finishing grimace might have been a smile. It
was hard to tell.
    The face looked
like it had been assembled from mismatched parts and, as such, gave conflicting
impressions. A vertical scar ran the length, coming out from under his sandy
pompadour and eventually disappearing beneath his chin. The scar had puckered
an area of skin beneath his left eye, forming a pink teardrop of flesh that
seemed to be forever rolling down his ruined cheek. A second, angrier scar ran
from the corner of his mouth back under his ear, pulling his lips into an
insincere grin. His right ear was fully an inch higher than his left. The
patches of skin through which the scars did not pass seemed to have small
pieces of gravel sewn beneath the surface.
    He gave me a
lopsided grin. "Always wear your seat belt, podna."
    "I'll
remember that," I promised.
    It was as if,
somewhere inside, a switch was flipped.
    "Show's
over," he said suddenly. "Whacchu want?"
    "I want to
see Mr. Del Fuego."
    "Lots of
folks wanna see of Jackeroo."
    "I'm Leo
Waterman," I said. "I'm here about security for the convention."
I handed him my handy new credentials. He took only the briefest glance before
handing it back.
    He stuck out
his hand. "Rickey Ray Tolliver," he said. His hand was callused to
something more akin to weathered bone than to flesh, but his grip was light.
"They called about you sometime earlier, podna. Come on in, the Jackster
wants to have a word with ya."
    He swung the
door aside and stepped back.
    I walked
through an ornate vestibule into a large central room. Maybe thirty-five by
forty-five. Furniture out away from the walls. Three separate seating areas,
one with its own little library corner, a full bar, beige wool carpet up to my
ankles that ran down the wide hall, off the back of the room that must lead to
the five bedrooms.
    He was about
sixty, wearing a fire-engine-red suit over a ruffled tuxedo shirt that he wore
unbuttoned nearly to his navel. I'd never seen a grown man in a red suit
before, but somehow, on him, it seemed to work. Probably because it matched his
eyes and his face. His thick head of white hair was welded in place, except for
a single shock up near the front that he allowed to