"Shut up and listen. We think Cobb was involved in a rape this afternoon. A black girl was raped by two white men, and I think Cobb was there."
"Cobb ain't into rape, Sheriff. He's into drugs, remember?"
"Shut up and listen. You find Cobb and spend some time with him. Five minutes ago his truck was spotted at Huey's. Buy him a beer. Shoot some pool, roll dice, whatever. Find out what he did today. Who was he with? Where'd he go? You know how he likes to talk, right?"
"Right."
"Call the dispatcher when you find him. They'll call me. I'll be somewhere close. You understand?"
"Sure, Sheriff. No problem."
"Any questions?"
"Yeah. I'm broke. Who's gonna pay for this?"
Ozzie handed him a twenty and left. Hastings drove in the direction of Huey's, down by the lake.
"You sure you can trust him?" Hastings asked. . "Who?"
"That Bumpous kid."
"Sure I trust him. He's proved very reliable since he was paroled. He's a good kid tryin' to go straight, for the most part. He supports his local sheriff and would do anything I ask."
"Why?"
"Because I caught him with ten ounces of pot a year ago. He'd been outta jail about a year when I caught his brother with an ounce, and I told him he was lookin' at thirty years. He started cryin' and carryin' on, cried all night in his cell. By mornin' he was ready to talk. Told me his supplier was his brother, Bobby. So I let him go and went to see Bobby. I knocked on his door and I could hear the commode flushin'. He wouldn't come to the door, so I kicked it in. I found him in his underwear in the bathroom tryin' to unstop the commode. There was dope all over the place. Don't know how much he flushed, but most of it was comin' back out in the overflow. Scared him so bad he wet his drawers."
"You kiddin'?"
"Nope. The kid pissed all over himself. He was a sight standin' there with wet drawers, a plunger in one hand, dope in the other, and the room fillin' up with commode water."
"What'd you do?"
"Threatened to kill him."
"What'd he do?"
"Started cryin'. Cried like a baby. Cried 'bout his momma and prison and all this and that. Promised he'd never screw up again."
"You arrest him?"
"Naw, I just couldn't. I talked real ugly to him and threatened him some more. I put him on probation right there in his bathroom. He's been fun to work with ever since."
They drove by Huey's and saw Cobb's truck in the gravel parking lot with a dozen other pickups and four-wheel drives. They parked behind a black church on a hill up the highway from Huey's, where they had a good view of the honky tonk, or tonk, as it was affectionately called by the patrons. Another patrol car hid behind some trees at the other end of the highway. Moments later Bumpous flew by and wheeled into the parking lot. He locked his brakes, spraying gravel and dust, then backed next to Cobb's truck. He looked around and casually entered Huey's. Thirty minutes later the dispatcher advised Ozzie that the informant had found the subject, a male white, at Huey's, an establishment on Highway 305 near the lake. Within minutes two more patrol cars were hidden close by. They waited.
"What makes you so sure it's Cobb?" Hastings asked.
"I ain't sure. I just got a hunch. The little girl said it was a truck with shiny wheels and big tires."
"That narrows it down to two thousand."
"She also said it was yellow, looked new, and had a big flag hangin' in the rear window."
"That brings it down to two hundred."
"Maybe less than that. How many of those are as mean as Billy Ray Cobb?"
"What if it ain't him?"
"It is."
"If it ain't?"
"We'll know shortly. He's got a big mouth, 'specially when he's drinkin'."
For two hours they waited and watched pickups come and go. Truck drivers, pulpwood cutters, factory workers, and farmhands parked their pickups and jeeps in the gravel and strutted inside to drink, shoot pool, listen to the band, but mainly to look for stray women. Some would leave and walk next door to Ann's Lounge, where they would stay for a few minutes and return to Huey's. Ann's Lounge was darker both inside and out, and it lacked the colorful beer signs and live music that made Huey's such a hit with the locals. Ann's
was known for its drug traffic, whereas Huey's had