rickety cot the nurses had rolled into Ricky’s room.
The pizza was from Domino’s, not some leathery slab of cheese someone threw in a microwave, but a real pizza Doreen had probably paid for. The bed was warm, the pizza was real, and the door was locked. He felt safe, not only from the other inmates and the gangs and violence certain to be close by, but especially from the man with the switchblade who knew his name and had the picture. The man who’d burned the trailer. He’d thought about this guy every moment of every hour since he dashed from the elevator early yesterday morning. He’d thought about him on Momma Love’s porch last night, and sitting in the courtroom that afternoon listening to Hardy and McThune. He’d worried about him hanging around the hospital where Dianne was unaware.
SITTING IN A PARKED CAR ON THIRD STREET IN DOWNTOWN
Memphis at midnight was not Cal Sisson’s idea of safe fun, but the doors were locked and there was a gun under the seat. His felony convictions forbade him from owning or possessing a firearm, but this was Jack Nance’s car. It was parked behind a delivery van near Madison, a couple of blocks from the Sterick Building. There was nothing suspicious about the car. Traffic was light
Two uniformed cops on foot strolled along the sidewalk and stopped fewer than five feet from Cal. They stared at him. He glanced in the mirror, and saw another pair. Four cops! One of them sat on the trunk,
and the car shook. Had the parking meter run out on him? No, he’d paid for an hour and been here less than ten minutes. Nance said it was a thirty-minute job.
Two more cops joined the two on the sidewalk, and Cal started sweating. The gun worried him, but a good lawyer could convince his probation officer that the gun was not his. He was merely driving for Nance.
An unmarked police car parked behind him, and two cops in plain clothes joined the others. Eight cops!
One in jeans and a sweatshirt bent at the waist and stuck his badge to Cal’s window. There was a radio on the seat next to his leg, and thirty seconds ago he should have punched the blue button and warned Nance. But now it was too late. The cops had materialized from nowhere.
He slowly rolled down his window. The cop leaned forward and their faces were inches apart. “Evening, Cal. I’m Lieutenant Byrd, Memphis PD.”
The fact that he called him Cal made him shudder. He tried to remain calm. “What can I do for you, Officer?”
“Where’s Jack?”
Cal’s heart stopped and sweat popped through his skin. “Jack who?”
Jack who. Byrd glanced over his shoulder and smiled at his partner. The uniformed cops had surrounded the car. “Jack Nance. Your good friend. Where is he?”
“1 haven’t seen him.”
“Well, what a coincidence. I haven’t seen him either. At least not for the past fifteen minutes. In fact, the last time I saw Jack was at the corner of Union and Second, less than a half an hour ago, and he was getting
out of this car here. And you drove away, and, surprise, here you are.”
Cal was breathing, but it was difficult. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Byrd unlocked the door and opened it. “Get out, Cal,” he demanded, and Cal complied. Byrd slammed the door and shoved him against it. Four of the cops surrounded him. The other three were looking in the direction of the Sterick Building. Byrd was in his face.
“Listen to me, Cal. Accomplice to breaking and entering carries seven years. You have three prior convictions, so you’ll be charged as a habitual offender, and guess how much time you’re looking at.”
His teeth were chattering and his body was shaking. He shook his head no, as if he didn’t understand and wanted Byrd to tell him.
“Thirty years, no parole.”
He closed his eyes and slumped. His breathing was heavy.
“Now,” Byrd continued, very cool, very cruel. “We’re not worried about Jack Nance. When he finishes with Ms. Love’s phones, we’ve got some boys waiting for him outside the building. He’ll be arrested, booked, and in due course sent away. But we don’t figure he’ll talk much. You follow?”
Cal nodded quickly.
“But, Cal, we figure you might want to cut a deal. Help us a little, know what I mean?”
He was still nodding, only faster.
“We figure you’ll tell us what we need to know, and in return, we’ll let you walk.” <
Cal stared at him