“Not so much,” he said. “I used to, before Mom and I moved up here, when I went to that real school. But up here, there aren’t even any neighbors. But Grandpa says that’s okay, because it reduces the number of bad influences.” As he said it, he blinked, suddenly realizing that he might be talking to one. “There are bad influences all over the place, even in Braynor.”
Lawrence reached down and ran his fingers through the wet stones. He found a smooth, flat one. “Try this,” he said, handing it to Jeffrey. “But when you throw it, try to tip it up a bit, so you can skip it right over the waves.”
Jeffrey took the stone and looked back out to the lake. He took a moment to get his grasp right, leaned into it, then snapped his arm.
The stone hit the water, skipped once, skipped twice, then disappeared under the water.
“Not bad,” Lawrence said. “Not bad at all.”
“Thanks,” Jeffrey said. He looked at me. “I didn’t know you had any Negro friends.”
“I got all kinds of friends,” I said.
“Well,” he said, stepping out of the water and finding a pair of shoes that he’d left behind a tree, “I better get back. Mom’ll get mad if I’m late for my lesson. If I’m late, Grandpa might take the strap to both of us, and I always feel bad if Mom gets it because of me.”
I thought of the red welt I’d seen on May Wickens’s arm as she was leaving the coffee shop. “Sure,” I said.
“Nice to meet you,” Lawrence said.
Jeffrey slipped on his shoes. “Bye!” he said, and ran back up the road to the Wickens place.
Lawrence watched him run off, and I looked for a trace of anger in his eyes, but all I saw was sadness.
25
OUR PREVIOUS SURVEILLANCE WORK TOGETHER, when I was doing a feature for The Metropolitan on what it was like to be a detective and was hanging out with Lawrence waiting for some bad guys to rob a high-end men’s store, did not go particularly well. Lawrence would be the first to admit this. But at least attempting surveillance in the city has its advantages. It’s a lot easier to spy on people when you have side streets and alleys to hide in, and plenty of other cars on the road to blend in with.
But up here in the country, well, that was an altogether different thing. “You try to follow somebody on these roads,” Lawrence said, “it’s not going to take your subject long to figure out what you’re up to. You’re the only two out there.” And as far as sneaking up on the Wickenses’ farmhouse went, well, that presented a host of difficulties, it struck me, night or day. You couldn’t get inside the fence without being seen or running into the dogs. We could probably stay hidden on the other side of the fence, in the woods, where all we had to worry about now, evidently, was the bear.
“No, we’ll be better off watching them at night,” Lawrence said. “We’ll go through the woods, come around the back way.”
“I don’t know,” I said. “I can see a whole bunch of problems.”
“And your idea would be?” Lawrence asked.
“You know, there’s a lot less chance of being spotted if there’s one of us instead of two,” I said. “You could head off into the forest, and I could hang in back here, with the cell phone, and you could call me if you needed backup.” As soon as I’d said it, I recalled you could barely get a cell signal up here, but I didn’t want to confuse Lawrence with useless details.
“Backup,” Lawrence said. “That’s what you are.”
“Hey, I can do backup. I was born to do backup.”
Lawrence gave that some thought, but not for long. “It’s not that I don’t see merit in your idea. Taking you along is a bit like having to take your little sister on a date because your mom feels sorry for her.”
I didn’t much like the comparison, but felt this was not the time to take offense. Enduring some insults seemed a small price to pay if it meant I wouldn’t have to go anywhere near the Wickens place. “You see?” I said. “I knew you’d agree.”
“But seeing as how I’ve taken this project on for somewhat less than my usual fee, and by somewhat less I mean sweet fuck all, I think I’m entitled to a bit of assistance.”
“Like?”
Lawrence shrugged. “I might need you to take a bullet for me at some point.”
“Maybe if we just paid you.”
“Won’t hear of it,” Lawrence said. “Now that we’ve got that settled, we need to decide how to use our time most productively before it gets dark.”
“What’s the plan, Stan?”
“Okay, there are a number of things going on in this town that may or may not be related. Why don’t we assume, just for fun, that they are, which means if we make progress in one area, it might end up benefiting us in another.”
“Okay.”
“Why don’t you show me the co-op, where this Tiff Riley was killed, then the mayor, and then we can pay a visit to your local gay rights leader.”
“Fine. Just as soon as I bury the fish guts and make sure we’re not low on worms.”