balk by the pound, you didn't get enough to feed a parking meter."
Willets looked over at me, blinked twice, then backhanded me with his revolver. The barrel and the cylinder caught me above the left eye, snapping my head back and opening the skin. There was an instant of blackness, then a field of gold sparkles, and then only sharp pain above the eye. I could feel blood run down across the outside corner of my eye. I grinned. "You didn't think it'd come to this when you sold them, did you? Guys like you never think that far ahead. Only now it's here and happening fast and you're scared shitless. You're in the deep water, Willets, and you oughta be scared."
He wet his lips and looked again at the men in the rain. Scared, all right. "I'm not the guy who has to worry about it."
"Were you in on Rebenack?"
He still didn't look at me.
"That's perfect, Willets. Perfect."
LeRoy and Milt came back to the Polara. Prima went behind the lounge, alone, and LaBorde and the mustache climbed into Escobar's Beamer. The Beamer pulled away, and Willets's highway car came from behind the lounge. We pulled out, and the highway car fell in behind us. No one had stirred in the Bayou Lounge, and no one had come out to look. All of it had been covered by the rain and the thunder.
I said, "I can't believe you didn't go for it, Milt. Two thousand a head is a lot of money."
Rossier turned in the front passenger seat and grinned at me. His old man's face looked cracked and splintered, and he was holding Bennett's government.45. He said, "Goddamned right it is. You almost had me, you sonofabitch. I woulda swallowed the whole damn hook if Willets here hadn't tipped me."
"Willets isn't the only cop who knows. A lot of people are in it, and Jo-el Boudreaux is going to take you down. The blackmail won't work anymore."
Willets licked his lips. "He's right, Milt. We oughta not play it this way."
Milt said, "Who else knows?"
Willets was licking his lips again. "The guys out at the station, Jo-el's wife and that lawyer from Baton Rouge, and Merhlie Comeaux. Comeaux went home, and the two women are at the Boudreauxs'."
Milt Rossier nodded and grinned still wider. "We'll just round'm up and kill'm and that's that." He said it the way you'd tell someone you wanted pickles on your potted meat sandwich.
I said, "You're out of your mind."
Willets said, "Jesus Christ, that's crazy."
Milt nodded. "We'll see."
Willets said, "You can't just kill all these people."
Milt nodded and asked Bennett if he knew how to get there, and Bennett said yes. Willets was licking his lips every few seconds, now. He said, "Hey, Milt, you don't mean that, do you? You can't just murder these people?"
Milt cocked his head and looked at Willets as you might a slow child. "Son, simple plans are best. What else can I do?"
Willets squirmed in his seat, holding the service revolver limply in his lap. I wondered if I could move fast enough to snake it from him before Milt shot me. Willets said, "But that's three officers. That's Jo-el's wife. How we gonna explain all that? Jesus Christ."
I said, "Hey, Willets, how do you think he's going to explain you being the only one left alive?"
Milt Rossier said, "Oh, that one's easy." Then he pointed LeRoy Bennett's.45 at Deputy Sheriff Thomas Willets and pulled the trigger. The sound was enormous, and the heat and muzzle blast flashed across my face, and Tommy Willets's head snapped back into the seat and then jerked forward, and a spray of red splattered on the vinyl and the door and the windows and me. When Willets's head came forward he slumped to the side and was still.
LeRoy said, "Man, dat was loud as a pork fart, yeah."
Milt reached back and took Willets's revolver and had Bennett pull over. Bennett put the body in the trunk and we went on. I said, "You really mean it. You're going to kill everybody, aren't you?"
Milt said, "Uh-hunh."
We drove to Jo-el Boudreaux's house and turned into the drive, Prima pulling the highway car in behind us. I said, "If you hurt them, Rossier, I swear to God I'll kill you."
LeRoy said, "Save the big talk, asshole. You gonna need it later."
Milt got out of the car and met Prima and the mustache, and together they went to the front door. Around us, the street was quiet