CHAPTER 14

It was Davy at the door and there was his old truck parked at the top of the driveway.

“Surprised to see me?” he asked.

“Not particularly.” But I was surprised to see him. There he stood, the tattoo at the side of his neck coming up out of his shirt, wearing jeans worn at the knees, workboots and a grin.

“You weren’t hard to find,” he said.

“And why did you want to find me?”

“Maybe it would be better if we talked inside.”

“Why? Your truck is parked out front. What have you got to say?”

“I think that hundred bucks you gave me isn’t enough.”

“You drove my fucking car ten miles. It took you a couple of hours of your time. Seems pretty good pay to me.”

“You think I’m some dumb shit-kicker who can be bought for a few bucks. You think I can’t add two and two. Well, you need to wise up. Some guy got picked up out of the surf the same day you had me pick you up. There was a big Mercedes at the far end of the parking lot and it turned out to be his. And there was nobody else on that beach that I could see. So I’m guessing that you had something to do with that poor sucker ending up in the drink. At least I don’t think you want me to go to the sheriff and tell him about picking up your car and driving out to North Beach just about the time that sucker took his bath. Am I right?”

“I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”

“A ranger comes into the saloon and he tells us about some rich dude who got picked up out of the surf at South Beach, and his car was at North Beach and he was wearing his good clothes, and there you were at North Beach without your car, so I put two and two together. I may not be a whiz at math but I can put two and two together. So I figure that you’d like me to keep this to myself. That was what you said to me. You said you’d like me to forget I ever met you. Forget I drove your car for you, and I figure it’s worth a lot more than a hundred bucks for me to keep my mouth shut”

“I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”

“Yes, you do. And I’m thinking that there ought to be at least another zero on what you gave me. And maybe a three instead of a one at the front of it.”

“You want me to pay you three thousands bucks for this shit? In case the ranger didn’t tell you, that rich dude told him that he went out for a drive and got caught by a sneaker wave and got swept out. He said it was stupid of him, and he didn’t say anything about anyone else. “

“And how do you know this?”

“I’ve got a friend who’s with the sheriff’s office. He read the report.”

“And why would he tell you?”

I had slipped up. And this hayseed truck driver was no hayseed.

“Because I was out there at that Lodge when it happened and I saw the report in the paper and I asked him about it. I’ve been out to North Beach. It’s fucking dangerous, and people have been pulled into that surf and died. I used to go out there with my wife and daughter.”

“And all that bullshit about me bringing your car out because you needed to get back and you didn’t want somebody to see you with some person. Somebody who wasn’t around when I picked you up?”

“Look. I asked you to do something for me. I asked you to bring my car out there. I have no idea what happened to some rich bastard who got himself in trouble. And there’s no way that I’m going to pay you three thousand dollars. It’s not worth it to me.”

He reached down to scratch his knee through his jeans. When he stood again he was still grinning. “I think you’ll think this over,” he said. “And I think you’ll decide that I’m worth it. I think you’ll figure out that I’m worth listening to. A sheriff’s deputy comes in to the saloon when he’s off duty. He knows everybody in there. He knows me. He knows I’m not a bullshitter. I went to the Lodge and I asked BJ, who works at the desk in the afternoons, about the guy in room 19. The guy with the Toyota. And he said he hadn’t seen him all day. But he had the room for another night. And I said, I met you in the saloon and you left your phone on the bar and I had your phone and I wanted to return it to you, and you said you were staying out at the lodge and. I figured you’d give me a reward, and BJ said, that was likely, and he gave me your address. So here I am. And if a simple shit-kicker like me can find you, somebody else can. “

“Get the fuck out of my sight. You want to tell the sheriff some story about me getting you to drive my car out there, that’s OK with me. If push comes to shove, I can produce the person who drove me out there, and you’ll have shit on your face.”

He continued to grin. “No, I think you’ll think this over. You have my number. It’s the one you called to set up the car pickup. I’m not greedy. Three thousand bucks means I can get a new truck. Nothing fancy, but something that’s more dependable than what I have. Nobody else knows that I know you. Nobody. I didn’t tell anybody at the bar and our hundred-dollar deal is between you and me. And the three thousand will be between you and me. Nobody else. I can keep my mouth shut. Think about it. But don’t think too long.” He turned and walked back up to his truck.

I watched him, waited until he fired up the engine, backed out into the street. He was something else that was loose. Something I hadn’t counted on. I thought of the Glock. I could kill him, put a bullet into him and it would be another West Marin mystery, a senseless killing that couldn’t be connected to a retired carpenter in Fairfax. Nobody else knows, he had said. Nobody to connect him with me. I can keep my mouth shut, he had said. Which meant that nobody knew he had come to me, nobody knew he had parked his truck in my driveway and tried to suck more money out of me. Nobody else knew. I could just wait for him until he took his truck of hay into Petaluma, and wait for him to come to a stop sign and pop him. Plenty of empty space in West Marin. The three thousand he wanted would turn into another three thousand and five thousand and ten thousand. He wouldn’t stop. I could see him sitting next to me at the bar, the tattoo rising from his shirt collar, green and red lines in an intricate design, part of what looked like a dragon. I remembered him banging the cup on the bar, calling out “six fives,” and his partner turning over his cup and saying “shit!” and a dollar bill sliding between them. Playing liars dice for a buck. No, he wouldn’t be satisfied with three thousand. He was a loose cannon and he would slide across the deck and slam into the railing. I needed to pitch this loose cannon overboard. I had pressed that gun into Winslow’s crotch and now I wished I had pulled the trigger. Davy’s grinning face stayed with me, and I knew that it would be easy to stop his grinning face, put him out of the way, make it possible for me to finish my business with Winslow. I would turn my attention to Winslow. The young truck driver hadn’t counted on my new identity: I was the egret, waiting to strike, and he was a minnow, finning in the shallows at my feet.