The Big Bad Wolf

CHAPTER 39

NED MAHONEY AND I were stuck in a close, dark pigsty of a bedroom with the suspect,

Rafe Farley. The woman, who assured us she was his girlfriend, had put on a filthy bathrobe

and been taken into the kitchen to be questioned.

We were all angry about what had happened outside. Two agents had been wounded by a

booby trap. Rafe Farley was the closest thing we had to a break in the case, or a suspect.

Things kept getting weirder. For starters, Farley spit at Mahoney and me until his mouth went

dry. It was so strange and crazy that at one point, Ned and I just looked at each other and

started to laugh.

“Think this is f*cking funny?” Farley rasped from the edge of the bed, where he was lodged

like a beached whale. We’d made him put on clothes, blue jeans and a work shirt, mostly

because we couldn’t stand the sight of his big rolls of fat and his tattoos of naked women and

a purple dragon eating a child.

“You’re going down on kidnap and murder charges,” Mahoney snarled at him. “You injured

two of my men. One might lose an eye.”



“You had no right comin in my house while I’m sleeping! I have enemies!” Farley yelled,

and spit at Mahoney again. “You barge in here cause I sell some weed? Or I screw a married

broad who likes me more than she likes her old man?”



“Are you talking about Audrey Meek?” I asked.

All of a sudden he went quiet. He stared at me, and his face and neck turned bright red. What

was this? He wasn’t a good actor and he wasn’t real smart either.

“What the hollered you talking about? You been smoking my shit?” Farley said finally.

“Audrey Meek? That chick they kidnapped?”



Mahoney leaned forward. “Audrey Meek. We know you know all about her, Farley. Where is

she?”



Farley’s piggy eyes seemed to be getting smaller. “How the hell would I know where she is?”



Mahoney kept at him. “You ever been in a chat room called Favorite Things Four?”



Farley shook his head. “Never heard of it.”



“We have a record of your conversation, a*shole,” Ned said. “You got a lot of explaining to

do, Lucy.”



Farley looked confused. “Who the hell is Lucy? What are you talking about, man? You

mean, like, I Love Lucy?”



Mahoney was good at keeping Farley off guard. I thought we were working okay together.

“You’ve got her in the woods somewhere in Jersey,” Mahoney yelled, then stamped his foot

hard.

“Did you hurt her? Is she all right? Where is Audrey Meek?” I picked up.

“Take us to her, Farley!”



“You’re going back to prison. This time, you don’t get out again,” I shouted in his face.

It was as if Farley were finally waking up. He squinted his eyes and stared hard at us. Lord,

he smelled, especially now that he was scared.

“Wait a f*cking minute. Now I get it. That Internet place? I was just showin’ off.”



“What’s that supposed to mean?”



Farley slumped down into himself as if we’d been beating him. úvorite Four is for freaks to

talk. Everybody makes shit up, man.”



“But you didn’t make up the stuff about Audrey Meek. You know things about her. You got

it all right,” I said.

“The bitch turns me on. She’s a fox. Hell, I collect catalogues from Meek, always have. All

those skinny-ass models look like they need a good unh, unh, uh!”



“You knew things about the abduction, Farley,” I said.

“I read the newspapers, watch CNN. Who doesn’t? I told you, Audrey Meek turns me on. I

wish I abducted her. You think I’d be sleeping with Cini if Audrey Meek was around here?”



I jabbed an index finger at Farley. “You knew things that weren’t in the newspapers.”



He shook his huge head from side to side. Then he said, “Got a scanner. Listen in on police

radios and such. Shit, I didn’t kidnap Audrey Meek. I wouldn’t have the balls. I wouldn’t. I’m

all talk, man.”



Mahoney cut in. “You had the balls to rape Carly Hope,” he said.

Farley seemed to be shrinking inside himself again. “Nah, nah. It’s like I said in court. Carly

was a girlfriend. I didn’t rape her none. I don’t have the balls. I didn’t do nothing to Audrey

Meek. I’m nobody. I’m nothing.”



Rafe Farley stared at us for a long moment. His eyes were bloodshot; everything about him was

pathetic. I didn’t want to, but I was starting to believe him. I’m nobody. I’m nothing. That was

Rafe Farley, all right.