Night Moves (Doc Ford) - By RandyWayne White Page 0,73
own out of flint or bone—bone is a favorite.”
“You’re scaring me,” Tomlinson said. “Why do I get the feeling you enjoyed reading about this shit?”
“Good clean fun,” I replied. “Most productive strategy is spend hours in a tree over a game path. Or in a watering hole, breathing through a tube. Most productive technique isn’t throwing the spear—that’s not up close and personal enough. Either thrust up from the watering hole or lock your hands and legs around the spear and fall on your quarry from above. You know, become part of the weapon. Lots of blood and squealing—but none of the articles explained what to do if your quarry has long sharp horns.”
“Savages,” Tomlinson said. “The best argument against evolution looks back at those bastards from the bathroom mirror every morning.”
The man was sweating, I noticed, face paler than when he’d arrived, and his hands were shaking. I asked, “Are you okay?”
He rolled his eyes in a way that told me he was struggling with something.
“I thought you had a meditation class tonight?”
“It went great, and we were done before cocktail hour. Seven eager spirits psyched about receiving their mantras, man.” Then said, “I brought this, too,” and reached into a purselike bag he’s taken to carrying over his shoulder. It was a DVD. Unlike the disc Cressa had destroyed, this one was colored Macintosh white and was professionally labeled:
“GUY’S TRIBE” PILOT (1-of-3)
1. TARPON SLAYERS (RAW FT)
PRODUCER: C.K. BONO
“Guy’s Tribe,” I said. “Cressa told me Deano wanted to make documentaries but this sounds like he was shooting for his own series. Or a network. ‘Tarpon Slayers’—yeah, a series. She gave you this?”
“I need some water,” my pal said, then explained as he went to the fridge, “I found it next to the TV. Know what I did? I leveled with her—in a way. Told her I was hurt emotionally because she’d never confided in me. That she’d lied, in fact, about her family situation, but didn’t have a problem opening up to you. That really got to her, the honesty of it.”
“I wouldn’t say she opened up,” I replied. “It was more like she was trying a different lure.”
“I’m just not that cynical about people. Point is, Crescent got very soft and misty. Plus, after just a couple of hits, she was like stoned, as mentioned. Some of the stuff I found out about Rob’s dad and the brother—very interesting. Just when she was getting into it, though, she got a phone call and went outside to speak privately—a man she didn’t know well from what I overheard. So I decided it was okay to borrow the DVD after she had more or less handed me the keys to the family secrets.”
The Brazilian calling? I wondered about that as Tomlinson poured beer, not water, over ice and continued, “The father-in-law, Robert, he’s the king asshole in the family. Deano, the youngest son, has been a professional screwup most his life, so Daddy gave him one more chance by financing a production company. The kid borrowed against his inheritance for years, so his chunk of the fortune was gone long ago. Rob, the boy dweeb, has also lost patience. He wants to have Deano put away permanently. Cressa said she’s starting to agree.”
I asked, “Was Deano disinherited before Cressa married the older brother or after?”
Tomlinson gulped half his beer, then paused to consider what I was implying. “That’s a stretch,” he said finally.
“Depends on when the father cut him out. Did she say? If it happened before the marriage, it’s unlikely Cressa would mention it—too embarrassing and incriminating. Hate to tell you, old buddy, but I think your extrasensory powers were blurred by testosterone when you met that woman.”
Tomlinson said, “Whew,” as if enduring a cramp, then wiped his face with a towel while he tried to process it. “Okay, okay . . . so let me try and picture what you’re saying: the beautiful older woman loves the wild brother, Deano, but marries the straight brother, Rob, because he’s going to inherit the family fortune. Which means”—my pal didn’t want to believe it from the way he was struggling—“which means you think Deano knew from the beginning why Cressa married Robby. Went along with it to keep Cressa in the family. Like a secret pact, you mean.”
Placing the DVD on the counter, I replied, “I put scenarios together based on what we know, then project how people behave. What elements catalyze what actions. That’s where it usually blurs. It’s