The Chamber of Commerce had mounted speakers and American flags on the corner lampposts and sixties and seventies rock and roll blared from noon until the bars closed.
He was standing across the street from the Spur when Brady came out. He watched him working the sidewalk like a politician, stopping to shake hands and clap shoulders.
Crane crossed at the intersection, following him east through a reeling street dance of curb-to-curb drunks and past the raised plywood stage where a band from Great Falls was butchering the chorus of CCR’s “Fortunate Son.”
Two blocks farther back, in the dirt and pigweed lot where Vorachek Saddlery had burned down, a gathering stood with their heads bowed before two sky-blue Dodge Power Wagons. The trucks were parked tailgate to tailgate, and in the bed of one a man paced back and forth wearing jeans and a leather vest, his beard grown to his waist. At certain points in his rant against Satan’s onslaught of alcohol, drugs and fornication, the beard lifted away stiffly, exposing his naked chest. Brady sat at the edge of the congregation on a cairn of blackened bricks. He was drinking a beer, and Crane squatted down next to him. They watched a young woman get helped up onto the bumper of the second truck and from there into the bed.
“Haven’t seen you in town in awhile,” Crane said.
“I haven’t been in awhile.”
The preacher stepped over the tailgates, the woman sinking to her knees in front of him. He spread his hand against her forehead and intoned, “‘We have been buried with Christ by baptism into death.’”
Brady sang, “‘It ain’t me, it ain’t me, I ain’t no fortunate son,’” then said, “I always liked that song.”
“But you been doing okay?”
“I’m doing great. You look like shit, though.” He took a pull from the beer.
The pickup bed was lined with plastic and filled with water that sloshed over the sidewalls and onto the dirt as the girl was lowered into it, the preacher cupping the back of her head and pinching her nose.
“That boy didn’t have to die like he did.”
Brady squinted through the weak glare of the streetlamp. “It wasn’t my first choice either.”
“Brought light and life to a formless world,” the preacher said.
“Cooking that shit wasn’t something he thought up on his own. He wasn’t even twenty yet.”
Brady swigged from his beer. “Hell, Crane, you don’t have to look so sad about it. I knew him a bunch better than you.”
The girl’s head came up, sputtering, and the preacher proclaimed, “And Jesus said unto Nicodemus: ‘No one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water.’”
“We aren’t kids anymore,” Crane said.
“Amen,” the crowd declared.
“It’d be a hell of a lot better all around if you turned yourself in.”
“For you, maybe. I don’t believe it would be for me.”
“Do you repent of your sins, my child?”
The girl was shivering, her wet clothes clinging.
Crane stood.
Brady was looking up at him. “My guess is you didn’t bring an arrest warrant out with you tonight.”
“I wanted to talk first.”
“Now we have.” The light fell so completely from his eyes they appeared mere replacements a taxidermist might have chosen.
Crane unsnapped the leather strap over the hammer of his pistol as Brady stood up next to him, dropping the beer bottle. They heard it break.
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,” the preacher said.
“This isn’t just going away.”
“For the love of our Savior, Jesus Christ.” The preacher’s arms were spread wide.
Brady lifted the front of his shirt. “What you’ve got to do now, old buddy,” he said, gripping the pistol stuck in the waistband of his jeans, “is decide just how fucking Western you’d like this to get.”
The worshipers were dispersing around them, a woman brushing past with a crying baby in her arms. Crane lifted his hand away from his side, and Brady turned with the crowd, pulling his shirt down over the gun.
“You be sure to call before you come out,” he called back over his shoulder. “I’d hate like hell to miss you.”
Twenty-nine
CRANE WAS STILL awake when the light came on in the hallway outside the cells. He heard her footsteps on the tiles and then she was standing at the open doorway.
“You mind if I come in?”
He sat up on the cot and leaned back against the wall. “What time is it?”
“It’s late.” Jean checked her wristwatch. “A quarter after three.” She sat on the cot across from him looking around at the graffiti on the walls, then set her purse on the floor. “Well,” she said, “here we are.”
“I guess so.”
“I saw Helen,” she said.
“She called. She said you two were thinking about starting a book club.”
She wagged a forefinger at him. “You’re funnier when you’re homeless.” She opened her purse, fishing around until she pulled out a joint. “You mind?”
“ Pearl ’s out there.”
“I don’t have enough for her too.”
He shrugged. “What am I going to do-put you in jail?”
“Twice as funny. You really are.”
She lit the joint, inhaled, then reached it across to him. They sat for a moment, holding the smoke in, and he took another hit and handed it back.
He turned his head aside to exhale. “You think we ever were in love?”
“You were with me.”
“Not the other way around?”
“I was in love with Griffin.”
He felt removed from his body and didn’t know whether it was the weed or something else. “Are you still?”
“He didn’t live long enough to disappoint me.”
“But you think about him?”
“Yeah.”
His face felt unnaturally relaxed, heavy in the cheeks and around the eyes, and when she offered the joint again he waved her off.
“Are you fucked up?” she asked.
He nodded. He could hear his hair scraping against the cinderblock. “I snuck a little from your stash,” he said. “About a week ago.”
“I know. Addicts always know exactly how much shit they’ve got left.”
“You aren’t an addict.”
“Don’t you think it’s cute, though? Saying I am.”
He thought about it. “It’s adorable.”
She fished a can of beer from her purse and opened it. “I’ve got more in here,” she said. “They’re cold.”
“I’m fine.”
“It’s weird.” She sipped the beer. “But you dying’s kind of sexy. It’s like you’re being sent on a secret mission, or to the front or something.” She set the can on the floor, stood up and undid the top two buttons of her blouse. “I feel like if I came over there right now, something could happen for us.”
She was only a step away, her hands at the waistband of her slacks. She had beautiful hands. “It’s not going to work,” he said.
“We could try.”
“I’m not up to the humiliation.”
She sat down, bending forward with her forearms against the tops of her thighs. Her blouse was open, and he stared at the rise of her breasts.
“I’m sorry about the other night,” she said. “He was just the most adventuresome guy in the bar.”
“I had it coming.” He lay over on his side, still looking at her. She tilted the can up. He watched her throat as she swallowed.
“I want you to come home,” she said. “Whenever you feel like it.”
“I will in the morning.”
“It’s cold in here.”