The Famous and the Dead by T. Jefferson Parker Read Free Book Online Page B

too.”
    Bradley turned and took in Hood, then tossed him an ice cream bar. “Nice suit, bro.”
    â€œThanks for saying so.”
    â€œYou still look more like a cop than a gun dealer.”
    â€œYou look unhappy. Did they fire you?”
    â€œThey’re trying.”
    â€œCan’t get used to you working for the North Baja Cartel?”
    â€œHood? I endure your piety only as a way to get into your home and visit my wife.”
    â€œIf it was up to me, that door would still be locked.”
    â€œYou’ll make someone a sweet bitch someday.”
    Erin snapped her empty stick and set it on the wrapper beside her. “Can’t you drooling primates shut it off for just one minute?”
    â€œI’ll be in the kitchen,” said Hood.
    He put the pops in the freezer and poured a light bourbon and sat at the stout wooden table. From back in the house Reyes’s bathroom pipes thumped and whined. Hood listened to the soft voices coming from the other room. He couldn’t hear the sentences, just fragments and syllables here and there, but the tone was of pleading and denying, apology and accusation. He looked into the living room where the couple faced each other from opposite ends of the long sofa, and he saw the firelight play upon their profiles—Erin’s fine features and Bradley’s tragic mask alike etched by light and shadow. He understood that Bradley would win this war because his need was larger. It was only a matter of time. He thought again of Bradley’s mother, Suzanne, and the reckless need she had awakened in him. Maybe need was a kind of strength, he thought, though he had never heard it called that. Daisy and Minnie lay on the tile near Erin and facing Bradley, their muzzles to the tile but their eyes asparkle like bits of glass.
    Using his phone, Hood checked his e-mail and social networks and his Mike-specific webpage but found only two new messages, chiding and familiar, from “Incipient Madness” and “Bonkers,” which he suspected to be Mike himself. Nothing else. Not one sighting, not one lead, not even a crank reply to his endless inquiries in the ether. In the last few months, roughly half of his contacts had asked him to cease and desist. But there were always new contacts. New hope. New blood. He turned off the phone and slid it back onto his belt. When he looked up, he saw Bradley on his feet, leaning over Erin to kiss the top of her head while she slept.
    Bradley walked toward the door, then stopped and turned to her, and from where he spoke Hood heard his words clearly. “Let me make a home where we can begin again.”
    He waited for her reply, but she didn’t move. He stared at Hood for a long moment, then came into the kitchen. He went to the cupboard and took down a glass, which he filled from the tap and drank down. Then another. “Have you talked to Warren?”
    â€œNo. I’m letting you hang yourself.”
    â€œI appreciate that. An hour with Warren, though, and you could pretty much take me down. Isn’t that what you want? Or are you just going to let me turn in the wind a little longer? Really enjoy the show before you sell me out.”
    â€œSell you out. That’s funny. Wake up. My silence is for her.”
    â€œEverything we do is for her.”
    â€œShe’s a good reason but a bad excuse.”
    â€œI hated the way you tried to take over my mother. And I hate the way you’re trying the same thing with Erin. You’ve got the morals of a dog.”
    â€œSuzanne took over me. And Erin I’m protecting.”
    â€œFrom me. Protecting my wife from me.”
    â€œYes, from you—someone arrogant and selfish enough to almost get her and the baby killed. Or have you forgotten that already, in your rush to reacquire what you want? You also betrayed her trust and broke her heart. Now you have to let her put it back together. It’ll take time. And I’ll tell