The garage doors were up at Barrett’s service station, his day already begun. Rebecca parked in front, and they opened the door and saw the pretty Indian girl behind the counter again. The inside of the shop smelled of tobacco and molasses, already thick with humidity.
Barrett’s wife nodded a hello to them, but before Rebecca could say a word the door from the garage opened and Barrett stepped inside. He’d seen them come in, Arlen could tell that from the way he entered, and for just a second something flickered in his face, a quick look of unease. Then he folded it beneath one of those grins of his and said, “Mornin’. What has y’all up so early?”
“Is there someplace we could talk in private?” Rebecca said.
He frowned. “Something the matter?”
“Should anyone else happen by,” she said, “I doubt you’ll want this conversation overheard.”
He gave up the game right then. Arlen expected he’d drag it out a bit, but instead he just nodded like he’d been expecting this and said, “The boy talked.”
“Because he needed to,” Arlen said. “He might’ve saved some lives, Barrett. You got no idea what sort of operation you’re putting into action tonight.”
“No?” Barrett’s jaw worked, anger showing in his eyes, and then he said, “Okay, follow me.”
He walked across the warped floorboards and back through the door into the garage. His wife didn’t say a word as they passed, but she looked noticeably tense, her eyes on the road as if she expected to see someone at their heels already. Arlen cast a look back at her as he went through the door and saw that there was a small revolver on a shelf beneath the cash register.
Barrett tugged the overhead garage doors down, sealing them in the dank, musty room. He put a stool in front of Rebecca and then sat on a stack of tires by the far wall. Arlen stood.
“I could have y’all arrested right now,” Barrett said. “And maybe I still will. But I’ll hear it first.”
“It’s her story,” Arlen said, “so I’ll let her do the telling. But let’s make something clear at the start—you want Wade. Not Rebecca, not Owen, not McGrath. You’re after Wade and Tolliver.”
“I want to clean the trash out of this county, and I’ll do that one at a time if I need to.”
Arlen said, “Really?”
Barrett held his eyes for a long time and then said, “I want Wade.”
“Okay,” Arlen said. “Well, we’re the best chance you’ve got of getting him. And a damn sight less useful in jail than out.”
“I could reach a different conclusion.”
“You won’t,” Arlen said, and then he nodded to Rebecca. “Tell it.”
She told it. Started with her father and wound through the past six months and the threats that had been levied at her brother. When she got to the part about Wade delivering Sorenson’s hands, Barrett’s face darkened, and he said, “You let that pass? You took evidence and tossed it into the sea? That’s the level of cooperation you care to show?”
“Cooperation with whom?” she shot back. “Was I supposed to call Tolliver? All you were to me was another local. And, I thought, a friend. Back then I didn’t know you were waiting to lock me up.”
He scowled and put a cigarette in his mouth but didn’t light it. “Go on.”
She went on. Up through Owen’s return and Paul’s last-minute disclosure. Then she showed him the bag with the five thousand dollars. Barrett accepted the money in the way Paul had—as if too harsh a touch would cause it to vanish. He studied the bills, and then he put them back into the bag and returned them to her.
“Stealing from Wade isn’t a real bright idea,” he said. “You been around here long enough to know that.”
“Well,” Arlen said, “you see, I intended to kill him. Today.”
Barrett stared at him.
“Yes,” Arlen said. “Believe it. We didn’t see any other way to get out of this. Now we’re hoping you’re the way.”
Barrett took the unlit cigarette out of his mouth and blew out a long breath, then rubbed a hand over his face.
“There are fifteen agents coming in tonight,” he said. “Two boats on the water, five cars on the roads. We had it set.”
“What you’d have gotten,” Arlen said, “was Owen for money-handling, and the McGraths for dope-handling. Maybe you could have thrown something at Rebecca. I’m sure you would have. And, if your boys had been paying enough attention, you’d have had me for murder.”
Barrett looked at him in silence.