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"Has a nice taste, doesn't it?"
De
"I don't put sugar in mine no more, it's still a treat."
"Vernice, why would Kirkbride hire a guy for security who's a known criminal?"
"Arlen told Mr. Kirkbride it takes one to know one. Says he can spot anybody hanging around the property who's up to no good."
"According to Charlie?"
"Who else. He has the ear for all the dirty stuff that's going on. He talks and people talk to him. He says Arlen told Mr. Kirkbride he had been cleansed of his sins by his conscience beating on him and time served."
"He talks like that?"
"Arlen's a bullshitter."
"And Kirkbride believes him?"
"Not 'cause of anything Arlen has to offer, like drugs. The reason they're close, they both love to dress up and take part in those Civil War battle reenactments. They been doing it for years. I mean you wouldn't believe how serious they are. Mr. Kirkbride 's always the general. Arlen's under him and brings along his boys, Jim Rein, Junebug, all these gangsters in Confederate uniforms."
It reminded De
He mentioned it to Vernice and she said, "Yeah, they're thinking of making it an a
"Charlie's not into dressing up, is he?"
"You betcha he is. It's why Arlen was here to see him. He said he heard Charlie's go
He came home right as De
What he said was, "Why would anyone want to shoot Floyd?… Jesus, the poor guy," and felt it, he did, seeing that pathetic figure in that mangy suitcoat too big for him.
"You called the cops?"
This was the part he wanted to hear, what happened after.
Charlie said he called nine-eleven. Sheriff's deputies came in about twenty minutes. Then a couple of detectives, also from the Sheriff's Department. Then the crime-scene people arrived and the medics. They took pictures, fooled around. The medics were ready to haul Floyd away, but were told to wait. One of the detectives was chewing out a deputy for calling the state police on his own. A new guy, Charlie said, one he hadn't seen around before. They waited over an hour for the guy from the CIB-that's the Criminal Investigation Bureau of the Mississippi Department of Public Safetyto come from Batesville, the closest district office, fifty-two miles away.
"The investigator arrives," Charlie said. "He tells me he's John Rau and starts asking the same questions the local guys asked me. How it was I found the body, all that. What Floyd was doing here. He looks over the crime scene and asks if they lifted Floyd's prints. One of the sheriff's detectives says, `We know who he is. Jesus Christ, don't you? It's Floyd Showers. He ratted somebody out and got fuckin popped for it.' This John Rau has a suit and tie on, a nice way of handling himself. He's reserved, never raised his voice once. He said he wanted the prints sent to Jackson. Meaning the Criminal Information Center. John Rau told me later they have a method of handling prints nowlike you put 'em in a machine and the guy's sheet comes out."
Vernice said, "How do you remember all that?"
Charlie said, "You remember what you want to remember," turning his head to look at De
Vernice said, "What're you telling him that for?"
Charlie was wearing a sportshirt hanging open over his T-shirt. He took a business card from the pocket and handed it to De
De
"At the hotel. He'll come by some time in the morning. I said come in the afternoon and see the show."
"What'd he say?"
"It'll most likely be around eleven." Charlie squinted then. "I ran into this colored guy staying at the hotel? Robert Taylor, doesn't have a bad arm. He's in seven-twenty. Wants you to call him tomorrow. You know this guy?"
"He saw me dive," De
Vernice subscribed to the National Enquirer, preferring it over other supermarket tabloids because "they get deeper into the stories and're better written." She kept back issues she hadn't had time to read on the screened porch, saying, "They come every week, but it seems like near every day."
De
"This Robert Taylor saw you dive, huh? What else?"
"He saw Arlen Novis and the other guy… What's his name?"
Charlie hesitated but then told him, "Junior Owens. They call him Junebug."
De
"Jesus Christ-she tell you everything's going on? That woman sure likes the sound of her own voice."
"Charlie, all Robert saw were two guys talking to me up on the perch. He wasn't watching when Floyd was shot."
"But he was in the crowd come out to the crime scene." Charlie sounding hoarse keeping his voice down. "He knows what happened now and he can put you there."
"He won't," De
"How do you know?"
"Robert's got his own agenda."
"The hell does that mean?"
"Take my word," De