Ocean Prey (A Prey Novel #31) - John Sandford Page 0,116

soccer ball down the hallway to the kitchen. As he turned back, he realized for the first time that a dog was barking at them, crazy, excited, and maybe panicked barking, and he looked down and saw a dachshund dancing around Curry’s feet.

“Everybody shut up!” Lucas shouted. “Somebody get the goddamned bird.”

The younger woman shouted, “Stay away from my bird! You motherfucker, stay away . . .”

The bird came after Lucas again and he swatted at it with his gun, smacked it hard, two or three small feathers flying. The bird crashed into a wall and fell flapping to the floor, and the woman came at Lucas with her fingernails. She had to pass Devlin, who stuck out a foot, tripped her, and she went down in a pile, landing on the dog, which squealed and ran under a chair.

In a moment of stunned silence, Lucas said, loudly, but not shouting, “You’re all under arrest. Everybody except the old guy.” He pointed at the elderly man, who shrugged.

Curry said, “We want a lawyer.”

“You’ve got one coming,” Lucas said. “Right now, you’ve got the chance to commit several more felonies. You want to do it, it’s up to you. If you don’t want to do that, sit down.”

The younger woman crawled to the couch, used it to push herself up. She began to cry and the older woman patted her vaguely on the back and stuck her hand down between the couch cushions behind her.

Lucas moved quickly to stand over her, his pistol next to her nose. “Is that another gun?”

She said, “It’s my Kleenex pack.” She dug deeper, and came up with a Kleenex purse pack and began excavating a tissue.

The bird was up, but not flying; it walked around the room with an occasional, questioning squawk, avoiding Lucas. Lucas asked the younger woman, “Could you put the chicken somewhere? With the dog? Stick them in a bedroom?”

She was still crying and gathered up the bird and said to the dog, “Come on, Noodles.” The dog wandered after her, and Lucas followed her down the hall and watched as she put the bird in a bedroom with the dog. He pointed her back to the couch, and Curry asked, “What’s this all about?”

“It’s about a life sentence,” Devlin said. “Without parole. And this lady? This your mother?”

Curry glanced at the old lady and said, “Mother-in-law.”

“It’s about her going for a gun, which is aggravated assault on a federal officer which is about six to eight years, minimum. And this lady”—he pointed at the younger woman—“went after a federal marshal with her fingernails. That’s assault, that’s a couple of years.”

Lucas ran his fingers through his hair, across his burning scalp, came away with blood. “As for that fuckin’ chicken, I’m gonna wring its neck . . .”

“That’s a very valuable sulphur cockatoo,” the younger woman said. She sat on the couch next to the old woman. “That’s no kind of chicken.”

“What the fuck do you want?” Curry asked.

Devlin looked at Lucas, who shrugged and said, “Sansone. We want Sansone. We’ve got a lawyer coming to explain all of that to you, your options.”

“I want an attorney,” Curry said. “I’m not answering any questions, I want a lawyer, I haven’t done anything wrong.”

Lucas: “Really? You already unload all that heroin?”

Curry opened his mouth to answer, then slammed it shut, and the younger woman sobbed, “Oh, no.”

“We’re not going to ask any questions. Not without you saying okay,” Lucas said. “What we’re going to do is, you’re going to listen to a lawyer talk. Then, you’re all four going to the Manhattan federal lockup. If you’re not interested in talking to us, we’ll hold you for seventy-two hours and then we’ll give you any lawyer you want or call in a federal public defender.”

“If I talk to you, Sansone will have me killed,” Curry said.

“Sansone will be in prison and you won’t be,” Lucas said. “You and your family will be in witness protection. Nobody in witness protection has ever been killed.”

Devlin asked Lucas, “You want to call Orish?”

* * *

Lucas called, told her what had happened, and she said, “Good. Expect company in three or four minutes. They’re close.”

Lucas passed the word to Devlin, then went into the kitchen, got a kitchen chair, brought it back to the living room and told Curry to sit. He did. Five minutes later, the doorbell rang, and Devlin let three women inside, all in dresses and high heels, all carrying tote bags with brightly colored