Easy Prey

over to her window, not quite a jig. “All these other cities, all these big crimes, the media goes in, the controversy lasts for months. We have a big crime and bang , one killer’s dead, and bang , the other guy confesses to a national audience. One week. The goddamn movie people think the sun shines out of our asses.”
    Lester seemed embarrassed. He said, “Yeah, but you know . . .”
    “Don’t say it,” Rose Marie said. “Don’t even think it.”
    “Can’t help it,” Lucas said. “A lot of things got fucked up this time around, and I personally fucked up most of them. I jumped all over Rodriguez. I bought Olson. I didn’t think that the shooter could be using a rifle, because it was a .44. Dirty Harry’s pistol. I didn’t think about the way the word gets around in a small town. . . .”
    “We’ve all got a little hubris in us,” Rose Marie said.
    “Yeah, yeah,” Lucas said.
    “You more than most,” she added.
     
 
TOM BLACK SAID, “They took her up to a regular room.”
    “She’s better,” Lucas said.
    “She’s gonna make it,” Black said.
    “You gotta go get some sleep,” Del told Black.
     
 
MARCY WAS AWAKE.
    “Don’t do that pneumonia shit anymore,” Lucas said.
    She didn’t smile. She whispered, “Hurts.”
    “I know, goddamnit.”
    “Hurts,” she said again. She looked at Lucas as if he might be able to help. He sat helplessly with his hands in his lap. “I know it does. . . .”
    LUCAS HADN’T SEEN Jael since the fight in the gas station, although she’d left a message. And he had a call-back slip from Catrin. Weather needed to talk to him: “About a frog,” the message slip said.
    He didn’t quite know how to start. Instead of starting, instead of deciding anything, he went back to his office, put his feet on a desk drawer, leaned back in his chair, and tried to work it out. One thing was, he really wanted a couple more days with Jael. Of course, Weather—the only woman he’d ever really loved. But remember the time that he and Catrin . . . Jeez. That thing with the Lady Remington, that he’d done with Jael on the phone—Catrin had invented that.
    He smiled, remembering, and he’d almost fallen asleep when the phone rang.
    He jumped, opened his eyes, picked it up.
    A woman’s voice said, “Lucas?”
    •  •  •
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