The Racketeer Page 0,85

his grass, and he says three hours. He points to a tractor shed where a fancy John Deere riding mower is parked. It looks new. He says he's a country boy who prefers the outdoors, likes to hunt and fish and pee off the back porch. Plus, he still thinks of prison and life there with a thousand men surviving in close quarters. No sir, he loves the open spaces. While we walk and talk, Slade and Cody wander aimlessly about, mumbling to each other as they look at the sun and rub their chins.

"I like it here," I say, pointing, taking charge. "I want those hills in the frame."

Slade seems to disagree, but he and Cody nonetheless start hauling gear from their van. The setup takes forever, and to show my artistic temperament, I start barking about the time. Gwen has brought along a small makeup kit, and Nathan reluctantly agrees to a touch-up with powder and a bit of blush. I'm sure it's his first, but he needs to feel like an actor. Gwen is wearing a short skirt and a blouse that's hardly buttoned, and part of her act is to see how easily the boy can be teased. I pretend to look over my notes, but I watch Nathan as he watches Gwen. He loves the attention and teasing.

When the camera, lights, monitor, and sound are almost ready, I take Nathan aside, just the two of us, director and star, to contemplate my vision.

"Okay, Nathan, I want you to be very serious. Think about Gene, his murder at the hands of the federal government. I want you to be somber, no smiles, no fun here, okay?"

"Got it."

"Speak slowly, almost painfully. I'll ask the questions, you look at the camera and just talk. Act naturally. You're a nice-looking guy and I think the camera will like you, but it's important to just be yourself."

"I'll try," he says, and it's obvious Nathan is really looking forward to this.

"One last thing, and I should have mentioned it yesterday. If this film does what we hope, and blows the cover off the DEA, then there could be some retribution, some payback. I don't trust the DEA for one second - a bunch of rogue thugs - and they might do anything. That's why it's important for you to be, shall we say, out of the business."

"I'm clean, man," he says.

"You're not dealing in any way?"

"Hell no. I'm not going back to prison, Reed. That's one reason I moved over here, away from my family. They're still cooking meth and selling it, not me."

"Okay. Just think of Gene."

Cody puts the mike on him and we get situated. We're on a set, in folding chairs with lights and wiring all around us. The camera is over my shoulder, and for a moment I feel like a real kick-ass investigative journalist. I look at Gwen and say, "Did you forget the still shots? Come on, Gwen!"

She jumps as I bark and grabs a camera. I say, "Just a couple of stills, Nathan, so we'll have a clear record of the lighting." He frowns at first, then smiles at Gwen as she snaps away. Finally, after we've been here for an hour, we start filming. I hold a pen with my left hand and scribble on a legal pad.

Malcolm Bannister was right-handed, just in case Nathan might be suspicious, which he does not seem to be.

To loosen him up, I start with all the basics: name, age, employment, education, prison, criminal record, children, no marriages, and so on. A couple of times I tell him to relax, repeat something, we're just having a conversation. His childhood - different homes, schools, life with his big brother, Gene, no father, a rocky relationship with his mother. At this point, he says, "Look, Reed, I'm not going to say bad things about my mother, okay?"

"Of course not, Nathan. That's not at all what I intended." And I quickly change the subject. We get around to the meth culture of his youth. With some hesitation, he finally opens up and paints a depressing picture of a rough adolescence filled with drugs, booze, sex, and violence. By the time he was fifteen, he knew how to cook meth. Two of his cousins were burned alive when a lab blew up in a mobile home. He was sixteen when he first saw the inside of a jail cell. He dropped out of school and life got crazier. At least four