Sunset Limited

TWENTY-EIGHT

IT WAS AN HOUR LATER. Terrebo

"Dave, don't do this," Helen said.

"He's in Iberia Parish now. I'm not going to have these pictures lost in a St. Mary Parish evidence locker."

"We get them copied, then do it by the numbers."

"He'll skate."

"You know a lot of rich guys working soybeans in Angola? That's the way it is."

"Not this time."

I went inside the foyer, where people waited in leather chairs for an available table. I opened my badge on the maître d'.

"Archer Terrebo

The maître d's eyes locked on mine, then shifted to Helen, who stood behind me.

"Is there a problem?" he asked.

"Not yet," I said.

"I see. Follow me, please."

We walked through the main dining room to a long table at the rear, where Terrebo

Terrebo

"What burning issue do you bring us tonight, Mr. Robicheaux?" he asked.

"Harpo Scruggs pissed in your shoe," I said.

"Sir, would you not-" the maître d' began.

"You did your job. Beat it," Helen said.

I lay the three photographs down on the tablecloth.

"That's you in the middle, Mr. Terrebo

"And you're way beyond anything I'll tolerate," he said.

"Get up," I said.

"What?"

"Better do what he says," Helen said behind me.

Terrebo

"You're under arrest, Mr. Terrebo

"I'm not going anywhere with you, sir. You put your hand on my person again and I'll sue you for battery," he said, then calmly began talking to the woman in a robin's-egg-blue suit on his left.

Maybe it was the long day, or the fact the photos had allowed me to actually see the ordeal of Jack Fly

I grabbed him by the back of his belt and hoisted him out of the chair, pushed him facedown on the table, into his food, and cuffed his wrists behind him, hard, ratcheting the curved steel tongues deep into the locks, crimping the veins like green string. Then I walked him ahead of me, out the foyer, into the parking area, pushing past a group of people who stared at us openmouthed. Terrebo

When I slammed the door I turned around and was looking into the face of the woman in the robin's-egg-blue suit.

"You manhandle a sixty-three-year-old man like that? My, you must be proud. I'm so pleased we have policemen of your stature protecting us from ourselves," she said.

THE SHERIFF CALLED ME into his office early the next morning. He rubbed the balls of his fingers back and forth on his forehead, as though the skin were burned, and looked at a spot six inches in front of his face.

"I don't know where to begin," he said.

"Terrebo

"Two hours after you put him in the cage. I've had calls from a judge, three state legislators, and a U.S. congressman. You locked him in the cage with a drag queen and a drunk with vomit all over his clothes?"

"I didn't notice."

"I bet. He says he's going to sue."

"Let him. He's obstructed and lied in the course of a murder investigation. He's dirty from the jump, skipper. Put that photo and his daughter in front of a grand jury and see what happens."

"You're really out to burn his grits, aren't you?"

"You don't think he deserves it?" I said.

"The homicide was in St. Mary Parish. Dave, this guy had to have stitches in his head. Do you know what his lawyers are going to do with that?"

"We've been going after the wrong guys. Cut off the snake's head and the body dies," I said.

"I called my insurance agent about an umbrella policy this morning, you know, the kind that protects you against losing your house and everything you own. I'll give you his number."

"Terrebo

The sheriff picked up a pink memo slip in the fingers of each hand and let them flutter back to his ink blotter.

"You've figured it out," he said.

LATE THAT AFTERNOON, JUST as the sun dipped over the trees, Cisco Fly

"Megan thinks she caused some trouble between you and your wife," he said.

"She's right," I said.

"She's sorry about it."

"Look, Cisco, I'm kind of tired of y'all's explanations about various things. What's the expression, 'Get a life'?"

"That guy who got thrown out the hotel window in San Antonio? Swede did it, but I helped set up the transportation and the alibi at the movie theater."

"Why tell me?"

"He's dead, but he was a good guy. I'm not laying off something I did on a friend."

"You got problems with your conscience about the hotel flyer, go to San Antone and turn yourself in."

"What's with you, man?"

"Archer Terrebo

His face looked empty, insentient, as though he were winded, his lips moving without sound. He blinked and swallowed. "Archer Terrebo

I went inside the bait shop and didn't come back out until he was gone.

THAT NIGHT THE MOON was down and leaves were blowing in the darkness outside, rattling against the trunks of the oak and pecan trees. When I went into the bedroom the light was off and Bootsie was sitting in front of her dresser in her panties and a T-shirt, looking out the window into the darkness.

"You eighty-sixed Cisco?" she said.

"Not exactly. I just didn't feel like talking to him anymore."

"Was this over Megan?"

"When she comes out here, we have trouble," I said.

The breeze gi

"It's not her fault, it's mine," Bootsie said.

"Beg your pardon?"

"You take on other people's burdens, Dave. It's just the way you are. That's why you're the man I married."

I put my hand on her shoulder. She looked at our reflection in the dresser mirror and stood up, still facing the mirror. I slipped my arms around her waist, under her breasts, and put my face in her hair. Her body felt muscular and hard against mine. I moved my hand down her stomach, and she arched her head back against mine and clasped the back of my neck. Her stiffening breasts, the smoothness of her stomach and the taper of her hips, the hardness of her thighs, the tendons in her back, the power in her upper arms, when I embraced all these things with touch and mind and eye, it was like watching myself become one with an alabaster figure who had been infused with the veined warmth of a new rose.