Clayton stood up. “So tell me what happened. The only way I can protect you is if you lay it out straight. How did you know about the money in the first place?”
Choctaw wiped his raw, reddened eyes and took another swig from the bottle. “Let’s just take the money and get out of here,” he said. “Frankie and Lenny already took their cut, so that leaves a little over a hundred and twenty-five grand here.” The deputy reached into the open garbage bag and grabbed a wad of crumpled bills. “We could just take a bag apiece and dip out, boss.”
“Are you out of your mind, Deputy? There are federal agents on the way here right now to recover this money and haul your ass into custody. I talked them into letting me bring you in, to keep you from getting shot to hell. I need to know how you and Chester knew to rob these guys. Why wouldn’t the owner come looking for you? Who’s going to just write off a loss that big? Where did you get your information from?”
Choctaw laughed a delirious laugh. Clayton grabbed his shoulders and shook him. “This is no joke, Deputy. I had to do a lot of convincing to get them to let me come out here and bring you in myself. Now, I can’t help you if—”
“Who did you convince?” Choctaw suddenly looked hard and angry.
“What?”
“Who exactly did you have to convince?”
“The feds.”
Choctaw loosed another laugh; this time it was a deep belly laugh that bordered on maniacal. Clayton grabbed Choctaw by the front of his loose red flannel shirt and pulled him face-to-face. “What the fuck is going on here?”
“It’s rigged, boss. The feds are what’s going on here.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about how it doesn’t matter what you do to protect me. I’m not walking away from this.”
“What are you not telling me, James?” Clayton was close to shouting.
“Chester said it was a fed who set him up with the robbery. He said the guy knew exactly when and where to hit those biker guys. He said no one would come looking for it. He said by the time we rode into the sunset, the dude we were stealing from would be dead.”
“That’s bullshit. That doesn’t make any sense. Why would a dirty fed do that without taking a cut for himself? What does he have to gain by serving it up to you guys? Why not just take it himself?”
“I don’t know, boss. I was just doing Chester a favor. Frankie and Lenny were in, I couldn’t say no. Chester was convinced the guy was on the level.”
“You got a name?”
“No. Chester never told any of us, but I did think it was pretty weird that the day after Chester comes to me with all this, that Holly joker shows up out of the blue, saying he knows all kinds of shit about Halford and you.”
“Holly? You think he’s Chester’s dirty fed? That’s crazy. He’s the agent assigned to the case.”
“I don’t know shit, boss. I just know I’m in a lot of trouble and whoever it is isn’t going to let me live through it. I didn’t know what to do, so I came out here.”
Clayton let go of Choctaw’s shirt and pushed him back toward the bags of cash. The wheels in his head were spinning to a blur. This didn’t make sense.
“Start at the beginning, and tell me everything you know.”
“That’s it, boss. That’s all I know.”
“Did you know the money was on its way to my brother?”
“Halford? Oh, Jesus. Now I know I’m going to die. What am I going to do?”
“You don’t have to worry about that.” Clayton took the jar of shine from him and turned it up. Choctaw looked confused but didn’t ask, and Clayton didn’t explain. Instead, the deputy looked at the bags of cash at his feet. “It’s a lot of money, boss. I mean, why can’t we just walk away, right now? I can disappear. You can say I wasn’t here when you got here and—”
“That’s not going to happen. We’re going to sit here and wait. If Holly is involved in this shit at all, we’ll know in just a few minutes.”
“He’s coming here?”
“Any minute now.”
The deputy snatched his rifle up off the bed and pointed it at Clayton.
Clayton set the jar on the floor. “What are you doing, Deputy?”
“They’re going to kill me, boss. I can’t be here. You can’t keep me here.”
“You have lost your mind. Put the rifle down. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
That’s when Choctaw’s head exploded.
3.
Clayton watched Choctaw’s headless body collapse to the floor, and spun around to face the back door. Holly racked the shotgun and lowered it.
“Are you all right, Sheriff?”
Clayton raised his Colt.
“Hey, slow down, Sheriff.”
Clayton held his gun on Holly and wiped blood spatter from his beard. “You just killed that boy in cold blood.”
“The hell I did,” Holly said. “I saw him holding that rifle on you and thought you were in trouble. A thank-you for saving your ass would be nice.”
Clayton thumbed the hammer back. “Bullshit. I had this under control. You killed him to keep him from fingering you.”