Winter’s hip was sore from the bullet wound and he had three fractured ribs from his fall down the stairs. He ate a late breakfast in the hospital cafeteria and looked at the television screen, where a newscaster was getting about ninety percent of the facts wrong on the events in Tunica County. It was something he was accustomed to.
Sean had wanted to come back to Memphis, but he’d convinced her to wait for him to return to Concord.
Winter suddenly felt a presence over his shoulder and sipped his coffee as a man he thought he’d never lay eyes on again sat down across from him. The cutout put his coffee cup down on the table.
“Been a while,” he said.
“A year,” Winter said to the man whose name he had never gotten when they’d met at a small airport in Arkansas to discuss Paulus Styer.
“How’s the leg?” the man asked.
“I’ve had worse,” Winter said.
“We didn’t imagine you’d come out of this in one piece,” he said. “You never fail to surprise, Massey.”
“I’d sure like to stop doing that. What do I call you?”
“Mike.”
“Mike it is.” Winter waited.
“Odd you never mentioned you had Styer’s DNA.”
“You never asked.”
“That’s fair. I thought I owed you, so we’re taking care of the details on this one.”
“When have you not?”
“We also know you moved a friend of ours in the SUV. Took a while to figure that one out.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Of course you don’t. You know, we could use someone like you.”
“Work’s too hard, it’s dirty as hell, and I don’t like your management.”
“We have new managers now,” Mike said.
“Yeah, but you keep getting them from the same sewer.” Winter stood. “Try not to burn your mouth on that coffee, Mike. If we’re done?”
Mike opened his hands and nodded. “Call if you need anything.”
“I won’t.”
Winter used his crutches to walk over to where Hamp was performing magic for a bald child in pajamas.
Winter placed a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “Let’s you and me go upstairs and check in with the girls.”
“First, my big finish,” Hampton said, standing.
Winter waited, smiling as Hampton Gardner seemed to pluck two playing cards from thin air, placing one in each of the child’s small hands.
The child laughed, and his parents applauded.
The Great Mephisto put a hand to his stomach and bowed deeply.
129
It was three o’clock sunday afternoon when Alexa finally showed up in Winter’s room. “Hey, kiddo,” Winter said.
He turned off the TV. After the initial smile she’d been wearing evaporated, his antennae came out. She put the two manila envelopes she was holding on the table beside his bed.
“Is everything okay?” he asked.
“Not really. I turned in your rental, and your gun’s in one of these envelopes.”
“They released my gun?”
“Nobody’s interested in keeping it since the shooting isn’t going to generate any inquest. The FBI and Homeland are handling the incidents. You know the ‘official’ statement drill. Massey, when you think about this, just remember that you did good. Real good.”
“You all right?” Winter asked her again, trying to get at what was weighing her down.
“Well, there’s something you need to know. When I was at Brad’s earlier, a deputy came in with Jacob’s coat from the wreck. There was a recorder in the pocket that was damaged and didn’t work. I put the tape into another mini and it worked. You need to listen to it. I put another cassette into the damaged machine so they won’t know I took it.”
“What’s on it?”
“Troubling shit. No one else has heard it. I’m headed to the airport, since I’ve been ordered to join an investigation in progress. I’m going to turn this over to you. You decide how you want to handle it and let me know. I know you’ll do the right thing.”
She gave him a gentle hug and kissed him on the cheek. He saw that her eyes were filling with tears. She moved to the door and smiled weakly.
“Massey, if it weren’t for a few people like you, I’d have written the world off a long time ago. Sometimes I just want to turn in my badge and go live on the side of a mountain.”
When she left the room, Winter turned his attention to the envelopes. He reached over to the table and lifted the manila envelope that had Gardner written on it.
He took the end of the red string and unwound it from the plastic disk, then poured out a pocket mini-recorder.
Winter pressed the PLAY button. The tape began with Jacob’s voice telling the date of the day he was murdered. That was followed by a confession, a surreptitiously recorded conversation with Leigh, and the unmistakable sounds of his flight from the house, which had ended with his death and the recorder’s destruction. As Winter listened, he felt like a trapdoor had swung open beneath him.
Before he closed his eyes, he had listened to the tape three times, and still had no idea how he was going to use the information.
130
Leigh Gardner turned and smiled when Winter walked into the room where Brad Barnett lay in bed, a bandage encasing the left quarter of his head. His left hand was locked with Leigh’s right.
“Look who’s here, Brad,” Leigh said.
“Massey,” Brad said, smiling crookedly. His voice was no more than a low rasping. “Leigh told me that German bastard clipped you. Sorry I wasn’t more helpful.”
“He chewed on me some.” Winter shook Brad’s free hand gently. “You look a lot better than the last time I saw you.”
“Since you were injured in the line of duty, Tunica County has your medical expenses covered. Whatever you need.”
“We owe you everything, Winter,” Leigh said.
“I asked Leigh to marry me,” Brad said.
“I think it’s the meds talking.” Leigh giggled, squeezing Brad’s hand.
“Bullshit,” Brad declared. “I didn’t really believe it, but you were right about that bastard,” Brad said, meaning Styer. “Daddy never had a chance.”
“I was lucky,” Winter said. “And I had Alexa.”
“It’s over now,” Leigh said, frowning. “We bury our dead, help the wounded as best we can, and life goes on.”
“That’s that farmer realism talking,” Brad said. “Leigh’s a rock.”
“Yeah,” Winter agreed. “That she is.”
The door opened and Cynthia came bouncing in with a soft drink in her hand. She patted Winter’s shoulder playfully as she passed him, went to the bed, and kissed Brad’s cheek. “How you feeling, Pops?” She looked at Winter and her face lit up. “God, is that ever weird or what? I grew up in the same town with Brad and never knew he was my daddy.”
“Where’s Hampton?” Winter asked.
“Gone to spend the night with an old friend of Mama’s,” Cynthia said. “She works as a volunteer at the zoo. He’s helping her feed animals or some happy shit.”
“Cyn!” Leigh snapped. “Language.”
“Sorry,” Cyn said, shrugging.
“I brought you something,” he said, handing Leigh the envelope. “These are Jacob’s personal effects from the accident.”
“Thanks,” she said, dropping the envelope unceremoniously into a shopping bag beside her chair.
Winter’s cell phone rang. He opened it and put it to his ear. “Yeah, Billy. Leigh’s right here,” Winter said, handing Leigh his phone. “He needs to talk to you.”
“Yes? I can be at your office in an hour. Address?” she asked. “Yes, Winter can show me. Cynthia too? Sure, I guess so.”
Winter put the cell phone into his pocket and spent the next fifteen minutes making idle conversation with Leigh and Cynthia. He had thought it would be more difficult.
131
Winter directed leigh to a large three-story building in downtown Memphis that housed Lyons, Battle, Cole amp; Vance, where a dozen attorneys were growing steadily richer.