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Mafia and they didn't trust him."
"Who were you talking to?" " Charlie Hoke and our landlady." "They said he was in the Dixie Mafia?"
De
"What do you know about this Dixie Mafia?"
"Nothing. The first time I heard of them was in Panama City, Florida. Maybe a couple years ago."
John Rau took a little round hazelnut. "They're not like the organized crime families. There's a bunch right here that deals drugs. There's a bunch that hijack trucks and commit armed robberies. A bunch in prison who extort money from homosexuals on the outside. There're moonshiners, bootleggers, methamphetamine manufacturers… they're not associated with each other. The only thing they have in common, they're all violent criminals."
"Was Floyd one of them?"
"You saw the type of person he was. Can you see him pulling any kind of rough stuff? Showers said if we'd reduce his sentence to time served he'd work for us, keep us informed."
De
"He wasn't. I had him down as an idiot. It turned out he wasn't even close to what was going on. He'd tell us things were already common knowledge, in the newspaper, or he'd make something up. I don't know why they shot him. Five times, as a matter of fact. The medical examiner said, `This man was harder to kill than a cockroach.' "
De
John Rau smiled. "You count the stars?"
"I tried, they're too small."
John Rau picked up the wide part of the tie and looked down at it. "There are only thirty-five stars, the number of states in the Union by 1863. Even though we were now at war with the states that seceded, Lincoln would not allow the stars representing those states to be removed."
There was something wrong with that, too.
De
John Rau said, "You know what it is? Whenever a reenactment's coming up I begin to assume the attitude of the side I'll be on. This first Tunica Muster won't be a major one, Yankees'll be in short supply. Since I can go either way, I'll wear Federal blue this time. Probably represent the Second New Jersey Mounted Infantry. They were at Brice's."
"Brice's Cross Roads," De
And John Rau 's eyebrows raised. "You're taking part?"
"No, but Charlie Hoke is, and I hear Mr. Kirkbride 's go
John Rau was smiling again. "Walter loves old Bedford. Yeah, it was Walter and I put this one together. I happened to mention there's terrain east of here reminds me of Brice's, full of that scrub oak they call blackjack. I'd see it driving up from Batesville. Walter) umped on it. He said, `You want to do Brice's?' I hesitated because we have the Battle of Corinth coming up in September, one we do over there. Usually we feature the assault of Battery Robinett, which most every Southerner knows about. You've heard of it?"
De
"It was a Confederate assault on a Federal gun position. One of the heroes was a colonel of the Second Texas, William Rogers, KIA, shot seven times as he stormed the redan."
"Who won?"
"The Federals pushed them back. I reminded Walter of Corinth. Also the fact that Brice 's Cross Roads was two years after Shiloh and Corinth. Not that it matters, but I felt I should mention it. Well, then Billy Darwin heard about it. Right away he saw it as a promotion, a minor reenactment but a major a
John Rau stopped, his gaze raising, squinting as he said, "Is that Darwin up there?"
De
"That fella by the tank," John Rau said, "he's shining the spotlight on him, but you can't see it."
"I gotta go," De
"Mr. Lenahan, one more question."
De
"If you were to think of Floyd Showers as an animal, what kind would he be?"
Was he serious? De
He kept his gaze on Billy Darwin up there in shorts and a T-shirt, holding on to the ladder with one hand now, looking down, waving. De
"The hell you doing?"
The electrician, bib overalls and a hunk of snuff behind his lower lip, said, "You tell me and I'll know."
"I told you I set the spots."
"You the boss or him?"
"You think he's go
"What do you want 'em up there for?"
"To light the pool. So I can see the goddamn water. I told him, I light the show. And I do it when it's dark, not in bright sunlight."
De
"Coming down," De
Not more than a few minutes later De
"You made it."
"I had to see what it was like," Billy Darwin said. "A great view of the river, all the bends in it. But you know, I think the tank looks bigger than a half dollar. More like a teacup."
"You have to see it at night," De
The son of a bitch said, "Oh? I thought you'd use a hoist. What do you call it? That thing you hauled up the ladder sections with-a gin pole?"
By two o'clock De
Vernice was supposed to be here-see for the first time what high diving was all about-but she was home studying the script for tonight. Charlie Hoke would call the dives. He'd stand on the plywood deck below the three-meter board, no mike, he'd a
Charlie introduced De