Black Oil, Red Blood

Chapter 18



Delmont didn’t feel like going home for the evening, so when Chief Scott invited him out for some beers, he readily agreed. The two of them met up at Caliente and ordered the fried rattlesnake appetizer with a side order of frog legs and a couple of Coronas.

Chief Scott seemed anxious. His mustache twitched when he ordered his beer.

Delmont waited for the waiter to leave before he said anything about it. “Whassamatter with you? You look like a rabbit on speed. Take a deep breath or something.”

Chief Scott leaned in toward Delmont. “It’s the goldarned Schaeffer case. I don’t know how much longer I can hold it together. I’m not used to having to cover my tracks all the time. It’s a lot of work, you know. Just staying honest would be a whole lot easier. If you tell the truth, you never gotta remember nothing.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Nash and Taylor were all over me, so I mighta let slip that the mayor told me to bury their case.”

Delmont swore. “You got a screw loose or something? What the hell would make you go and do a fool thing like that?”

“I dunno! Nash had me cornered! What was I supposed to do?”

“Anything but implicate the mayor! And yourself! Next thing you know, they’ll be knocking down my door!” Delmont whacked Scott upside the head. “You gotta pull it together, man!”

“I know, I know! It’s just that I been trying to keep an eye on those two all afternoon, and I think they left town.”

“What makes you think that?”

“I checked Nash’s files, and he’s gone off to track down some guy named Cameron Gilbert who has a Dallas phone number. I think Taylor and that fairy of a paralegal went with him. Nobody in town has seen ‘em for awhile.”

“What do you know about this Cameron Gilbert guy?”

“Nothing, except that he used to work for PetroPlex.”

Delmont gritted his teeth. If he were a betting man, he’d bet his hat that Cameron was the name of the ex-employee with the computer virus he’d learned about last night. Nash and Taylor were getting a little too close for comfort.

“Listen,” Delmont said. “You screwed up. You’ve been exposed. You gotta nip this thing in the bud right now.”

“How am I gonna do that?” Scott wanted to know.

“First thing you gotta do is get ’em back in town. Put out an APB on ’em or something.”

“And then what?”

“Don’t worry about it. We’ll figure it out then.”

Chief Scott pondered the situation. “On what grounds am I gonna put out an APB?”

“It don’t matter. Just make something up.”

“I can’t do that.”

“The hell you can’t. It’s either that or sit back and let the two of them ruin our gravy train. You haven’t got much of a choice in the matter anymore.”

Chief Scott let his head fall into his hands. “My wife is gonna kill me.”

“Not if you take care of things,” Delmont said. “Man up, already! If you don’t, you’re likely to get yourself killed by you know who. I think it ought to be pretty obvious to you by now that they ain’t afraid to put a bullet in the heads of people who cross ’em.”

“How can you be so calm about this? This ain’t what I signed up for, man. Not even close.”

“You think they’re paying you to sit on your keister? Get a grip. Nothing in life is free.”

“One lie on top of another. This whole thing is about to come crumbling down.”

Delmont grabbed Scott’s chin with one hand and slapped him across the cheek a few times with the other. “Hey! Not unless you let it. Now get on the phone and put out an APB!”

Scott shoved Delmont’s hands away from his face. “All right, all right! I’m puttin’ out an APB. But I don’t like it one bit.”

“Nobody said you had to like it. Just do it.”

Scott pulled out his cell phone and speed-dialed the station.