The Territory A Novel - By Tricia Fields Page 0,94
other, listening to his cowboy boots banging down the stairs.
“What do you do with information like that?” Otto said finally. “The people of this town ought to know the kind of yahoo they elected into office.”
“He operates inside the margins, but just barely.”
“You think he’s mixed up with Red’s death? With Medrano?”
“I don’t know.” Josie shook her head. “Here’s what bothers me, though. We know Deputy Bloster was cooking the books. He was submitting a vague expense summary directly to the commissioners. The sheriff provided Dillon a whole box of receipts and paperwork that Bloster had cooked, but before that, all those doctored receipts never left his own office. They didn’t have to. The commissioners never asked for them. The city police? We have to submit a detailed expense report with receipts attached. Is it that Moss hates me and wants to make my life miserable? He figures a good ole boy like Martínez would never screw the city? Or is Moss in on the scheme?”
FIFTEEN
Standing at the bathroom sink, putting on mascara, Pegasus was thinking about her brother. She wondered if he had left town and was thinking he was a son of a bitch for not calling her first, when she heard banging on the outside of the trailer by the living room door. She put her makeup down and grabbed the pistol she kept by her bedside table. She popped the magazine into the gun and advanced a bullet, then leaned against the wall in the kitchen to peer out the side of the curtains. She saw a man flattened against the side of the trailer beside the door and grinned. Kenny was checking out her response.
She yelled, “Step away from the door before I shoot a bullet through your head!” She unlocked the dead bolt, swung the door open, and pointed the gun toward Kenny’s head in one fluid motion.
He smiled widely. “Nice. Very nice. You win this round.”
He followed her inside the trailer. The air-conditioning had been running all day, and the temperature was almost cold. Kenny sighed and flopped on the recliner, staring at the empty space where the couch used to be.
“They have a Goodwill downtown. Stop by and tell them you’re looking for a couch. Tell Marie you’re my sister. She’s got connections around town. She’d probably get it delivered, knowing her.”
She nodded and threw an old bed pillow on the floor and sat on it, leaning her back against the living room wall. “So what’s the plan?” she asked.
“I want to take you out for lessons one more time before I hit the road. I think you’ll be okay. I got the word around town that you’re a badass. Somebody’ll think twice before coming out here and screwing with you.”
“Why do you want to draw attention to me? Nobody even knows I exist here.”
He laughed. “Red Goff laid out on your couch like a mortuary? Trust me. Everybody knows who you are and where you live. You’re either the joker’s right-hand girl, or they want to take you out for killing the desert’s last messiah. No in between out here in the sticks.”
“I don’t ask for this. This stuff just follows me around. You’re quick enough to stay two steps in front of it. Not me, though. I’m always knee deep in the sewage.”
“You hang out here where I know where you are. I got some guys keeping an eye on you, watching the trailer and the gas station.” He leaned to one side in the recliner and pulled his wallet out of his back jeans pocket. He took out a wad of cash. “There’s five hundred bucks there. I paid Drench your rent for the next six months. That ought to keep you floating until I get things settled.”
“What things?”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“So, take me with you. Let me help.”
He stood. “Hide your money. Let’s go shoot.”
* * *
Josie paced the office after Moss left, thinking through the mayor’s actions and his response to her subterfuge, trying to determine if he was an idiot or a criminal. Otto got annoyed with her and left to buy a snack. She considered his remark about counseling and knew he was right. She had always thought a line-of-duty killing would be something she would attack rationally, break it down into pieces like any other problem. Once she examined the events leading up to the shooting, the act itself, and her actions afterwards, she would determine if the killing was justified. She would answer