Voodoo River

Pike twitched the.357.

LeRoy Be

Milt Rossier stared at Pike for a time, then glanced over at LeRoy. LeRoy was feeling a little better, but his eye was swelling where Pike had hit him. It probably didn't inspire confidence. Rossier said, "I've gotta think on it. How can I let you know?"

I told him where we were staying in Baton Rouge, and then Pike and I started back around the house. Milt Rossier called after us. "Hey."

We turned back.

Rossier said, "Podnuh, if either of you ever pull a gun on me again, you'd best use it."

I smiled at him. "Milt, if we pull a gun on you again, we will."

CHAPTER 34

W hen we got back to Baton Rouge I called Jodi Taylor's room from the lobby and got no answer. The desk clerk told me that she had checked out sometime in the early afternoon and that she had left neither note nor message. He said that she seemed distraught. Hearing that she had gone created an empty feeling in my chest, as if I had somehow left a job unfinished and, because of it, had performed beneath myself. I said, "Well, damn."

Pike said, "It's a good night. Clear. I'm going for a run." The lobby was empty except for Pike and myself and the clerk. Desultory voices leaked from the bar. "Come with me."

"Give me a chance to make some calls."

He nodded. "Meet you out front."

We rode up to our rooms, and I changed into shorts and ru

"Did she say anything about Edith Boudreaux?"

"No."

Neither of us spoke for a time, and then Lucy said, "Studly?"

"Yes, ma'am?"

"Ben's going to bed at ten. You could come over and we could neck in the car."

"Pike and I are going for a run. It's been a helluva day."

She sighed. "Just so you know."

"I knew there was a reason I called you."

We hung up and I phoned Jo-el Boudreaux next. I told him exactly what I had told Lucy, and when I was done he said, "Did they go for it?"

"We'll see. Rossier will dig around to see if we're legit, and when he finds out we have something working with Escobar, he'll decide."

"Okay. Then what?"

"He'll call me here. When he calls, I call Escobar. We won't have much time, so you have to be ready."

"I can get my guys in five minutes. Bet your ass on that one, podnuh."

"Whatever."

Pike was waiting out on the cement drive at the hotel's entry, stretching his hamstrings. I joined him, bending deep from the hips until my face was buried between my knees, then sitting with my legs in a great wide V and bending forward until my chest was on the cement. After a day spent mostly driving, and with the tension of dealing with criminal subhumans, it felt good to work my muscles. Maybe I wasn't down about Jodi Taylor after all. Maybe I had merely grown loggy from a lack of proper exercise and was in serious need of oxygenation. Sure. That was it. What's bailing out on a client compared to proper physical conditioning?

Pike did a hundred pushups, then flipped over and lay with his legs straight up against the wail and did a hundred situps. I did the same. The kid from the front desk came out and watched, standing in the door so he could keep an eye on the desk. He said, "Man, you guys are flexible. Goin' for a run?"

"That's right."

"Gotta be careful where you run. We got some bad areas."

I said, "Thanks."

"I'm not kidding. The downtown isn't great. Any direction you go, you're go

Pike said, "I think I hear your phone."

The kid ducked inside, then reappeared shaking his head. "Nah. Must've been something else."

As my muscles warmed, the tension began to loosen and fall away like ice calving from a glacier and falling into the sea.

The kid said, "They say we're one of the top ten most dangerous cities in the country." He seemed proud of it.

I said, "We'll be careful."

Pike said, "Let's get going before I hit this twerp."

We ran south along the street that paralleled the levee, then up the little rise past the old state capitol building and then east, away from the river. The night air was warm, and the humidity let the sweat come easily. I concentrated on my breath and the rhythms of the run and the commitment needed to match Pike's pace. The run became consuming in its effort, and the focus needed to endure it was liberating. The downtown business area quickly gave way to a mix of businesses and small, single-family homes. Black. We ran along a major thoroughfare and the traffic was heavy, so we stayed on a narrow sidewalk as much as possible. The blocks were short and the cross-streets were numbered, and each time we crossed one you could get a glimpse of the lives in the little neighborhoods. We passed African-American kids on skateboards and bicycles, and other African-American kids playing pepper in the streets or tackle football on empty lots. They stopped as we passed and watched us without comment, two pale men trekking swiftly along the edge of their world, and I wondered if these were the areas the desk clerk had been talking about. As we ran, Pike said, "You did your best for her."

I took steady breaths. "I know."

"But you're not happy with yourself."

"I let her down. In a way, I've abandoned her." I thought about it. "It's not the first time she's been abandoned."

A lone ru

We ran past a high school and shopping centers, Pike and me on our side of the street and the black ru

I glanced over at him.

"You can't put something into her heart that isn't there, Elvis. Love is not so plentiful that any of us can afford to reject it when it's offered. That's her failing. Not yours."

"It's not easy for her, Joe. For a lot of very good reasons."

"Maybe."

The black ru