Eagle, Kathleen (35 page)

But
what about...

"Don't
you want to believe I'm your father, Sid?"

"It's
just too unreal. You know, watching you."

"I
kinda feel the same way, but I think we'll get real after a while, don't
you?"

The
boy shrugged. "You're still really good. Why did you retire so
young?"

"It's
a long story, and I'll tell you about it when we have more time. Okay? I'll
tell you everything you wanna know if you'll return the favor. Because I've got
a lot to learn about you." He glanced at the clock, then turned and
signaled to the man a few bleachers up. "Hey, Skeez, have you heard
anything from Dozer since he left?"

Skeezix
shook his head, froze, lifted a finger—wait a minute. His radio was squawking
to him. "Hold on, here's..." He listened for a moment. "He's out
to your place, Blue. Possible break-in in progress, sounds like."

"Good."

Skeezix
did a double take. "Good?"

"Good
timing." Reese laughed, then affected a
Dragnet
voice as he turned
to Sid. "Don't worry, son. Dozer Bobcat's on the case."

***

Dozer
killed his headlights and radioed in, reporting that he was investigating a
complaint and he'd be back with the specifics. He'd already asked Gene flat out
if he'd have any problem turning Earl Sweeney in if they caught him in the act.
Gene was a little confused until Dozer told him about the earlier break-in and
the attack on Blue's dog. Gene was tired of Earl's throwing his weight around
anyway, but it was the part about the dog that really got to him. He sure liked
that mutt.

Dozer
eased the dark patrol car onto the Blue Sky approach. He was counting on Blue's
new air-conditioning for some white noise inside the house. When they got close
enough to identify Sweeney's pickup, Gene's face lit up as if he were the kid
who'd just tagged home base.

Then
it clouded over again.

"We
gotta catch him in the act of doing something he can't worm his way out
of," Gene said. "He could be checking something out here. Maybe he
was driving by, and he thought he saw a prowler." Dozer gave him a
get-real look, and Gene shrugged. "Well, you know he's ready with some
excuse if Blue comes home."

"He
cut the screen before."

"He'll
say it was already cut. You don't think he'd actually go in through a window,
do you?
Earl?
Hell, he was just makin' it look good."

"Don't
look too good right now," Dozer remarked as he slid out of the patrol car
and eased the door shut.

The
back door was open. Dozer signaled Gene to cover it while he circled the house.
He saw a flashlight in use in one of the back rooms. He decided to send Gene to
the front door, and he took the other one, the probable exit. They waited.
Dozer was beginning to worry about what Sweeney might be up to—possibly messing
with something important—when Gene appeared at the corner of the house.

Dozer
motioned him closer. "What the hell is he doin' in there?"

"Sweeney's
such an asshole, he's probably takin' a crap in the middle of his damn
burglary," Gene whispered. He scanned the length of the house, caught a
glimpse of light.

"Maybe
we should go in."

"I'll
go see what I can see through that front bedroom window. The ground's higher on
that side." Gene returned in little more than a heartbeat. "Holy
Christ, he lit a match!"

"Goddamn,
we're going in. Take the front." Dozer gave Gene a few seconds to get into
position before he entered through the back door. "Police! We know it's
you in there, Sweeney. Put out the damn—" Dozer could hear the scrambling
at the other end of the house. He smelled the smoke. "There's no way out
except through me."

It
was too dark to see who was barreling down the hallway, but the voice yelling
"Fire!" was unmistakable. Dozer knew the house and remembered a trick
Reese had used on him when they'd been chasing each other in the dark: fake
left, jump right, throw the pantry door open behind you.

Ka-boom!

In
the dark, Sweeney ricocheted around the kitchen like a ball on a bumper pool
table, colliding with the pantry door first, then falling back against the
refrigerator before he toppled over a table, taking what sounded like the whole
room down with him. Dozer hit the lights just as Gene hurled himself through
the door.

Dozer
tossed him a set of handcuffs and started toward the bedroom. "Arrest him.
He set the place—"

It
wasn't much of a fire yet, but enough smoke to sting a guy's eyes and set him
coughing to beat hell. Flames were just beginning to curl around a pile of
folders and papers in the middle of the bed in the back room. Dozer flopped the
blanket over on itself, then beat on it with a towel. He finished it off with a
wastebasket full of water from the bathtub. He opened a couple of windows and
turned the air conditioner in the other bedroom on Exhaust before he headed
back to the kitchen.

Gene
had gotten Sweeney on his feet and cuffed his hands behind him. "Says he
was just lighting a cigarette in there when you scared the shit out of him,
Doze."

"What
cigarette?" Dozer wiped his face on his sleeve. "All I saw was a
bunch of what looked like mail and papers."

Eyes
popping and jaw jacking up and down, Sweeney looked the same as he had when the
dog had cornered him. "I saw something... somebody..."

"What
I saw was you setting a fire back there, Sweeney. Now, you've got a right to
remain—"

"Don't
start that shit with me," Sweeney croaked. "This ain't funny, now;
take these damn cuffs off."

"Are
you gonna try to tell us our eyes deceived us?" Dozer challenged as he
surveyed the mess on the kitchen floor. A sheet of plywood with chicken wire
and broken green plaster, a bunch of toy horses, and all kinds of little men
were scattered across the room. He didn't know what this had been, maybe
something for Blue's new kid. He shook his head and turned to Sweeney.
"Why didn't you answer when I told you who it was?"

"You're
trying to trap me. You set me up, didn't you?"

"Are
you nuts? Why would we be setting you up? You set yourself up, you
asshole."

"It
wasn't me," Sweeney claimed.

Dozer
and Gene looked at each other and laughed.

"You
can't prove anything, and I've got nothin' more to say."

"That's
fine by me. Proving comes later, anyway," Dozer said as he opened the back
door and signaled Gene to bring the prisoner through. "It's the hauling
you in that's the fun part."

"My
brother isn't gonna like this."

Gene
laughed again.

"I
don't imagine he will," Dozer said.

Hauling
Sweeney in was definitely the fun part. It brought a lot of wide-eyed stares at
the police station, generated several what-the-hells, both silently mouthed and
loudly voiced. Sweeney cursed them roundly, but they booked him anyway. He
insisted on calling his brother before they put him in a cell. Dozer called the
gym and told Skeezix to tell Reese that his house had in fact been broken into
again, but this time they had a suspect in custody.

***

Reese
dropped Sid and Crybaby off at Helen's, along with the personnel file Titus had
provided on the elusive Peter Jones, whom Helen suspected of being part of a
card scam. But so far, according to her superiors, there was no Peter Jones. He
was not licensed as a dealer with anybody anywhere. She said the photograph of
the man would be especially helpful.

Reese
promised to stop back after he paid a visit to the police station. And when Sid
overheard the bit about a break-in, he was dying to go with him. But Reese
didn't figure this particular excursion to be the best way for the boy to get
acquainted with his roots.

Dozer
and Gene took Reese back to the drunk tank, which was where they had put Earl
Sweeney. The padded cell was separate from the block, so it afforded him some
privacy. More consideration than he deserved, Gene said on the way down the
hall, but he was a fellow cop.

Sweeney
sat cross-legged on the mat on the floor, which was all the drunk tank provided
other than a toilet. He looked up at the three men, one at a time, letting each
read the contempt in his eyes. He leveled the bulk of it at his partner, Gene,
who turned it around like the refection in a mirror.

Dozer
wasn't one to waste an opportunity to salt a genuine jerk's wounds.

"I
don't know why anybody'd be trying to burn a bunch of mail and a bed, unless it
was love letters. Damn it, Blue, have you been leadin' poor ol' Earl on?"

Reese
knew about the fire, but he hadn't heard about the bed. "He set my new bed
on fire?"

Dozer
shook his head. "Didn't look too new."

"My
dad's bed?" Reese grabbed one of the cell bars, leaned closer, peered at
the prisoner in disbelief. "What, Earl, you're trying to help me out,
burning his stuff? You did this out of respect, right?" He glanced over
his shoulder at Dozer. "The old way, I would have torched the house. Earl
must be more traditional than I am. He was offended by my pitiful half-assed
ceremony." He turned back to the brown bug on the floor mat. "Right,
Earl?"

"I
ain't sayin' nothin' till my brother gets here."

"What
you were after wasn't there, Earl, so you made an ass out of yourself for
nothing," Reese said. Sweeney challenged him with a stare. "My
father's papers,
Earl.
They're not at the house. See, I committed his
records and ramblings to memory. I know it all by heart." He chuckled as
he spread his hand over his chest. "So I guess you'll just have to get rid
of me."

"Ain't
tryin' to get rid of nothin'," Earl spat. "There was somebody
prowling around your place. Somebody broke in again, and it wasn't me."

"Again?"
Reese looked at Dozer.
"Again?"

Dozer
shrugged innocently.

"What's
this all about?" Preston Sweeney demanded as he rounded the corner, ready
to take over. He pointed an imperious finger at his caged and downcast brother.
"Keep your mouth shut, Earl. You're digging yourself in deeper." The
finger arced forty-five degrees. "Dozer, you tell me why you've got my
brother locked up."

Dozer
was more than happy to step up to the plate and tell the story, judiciously
omitting any mention of the game plan he'd made with Reese.

"Okay,
look, it's obviously a big misunderstanding," Preston said, converting the
emperor's tone to the politician's. "I tell you what, Blue, this guy
worships you. Now, I don't know what he thought he was doing—"

"Investigating—"

"Shut
up, I said!" Preston barked. Then, down a notch, "You're being
stupid, Earl." And for Dozer, Sweeney did a quarter turn, lowered his
voice another notch. "That's all it is. Just Earl being stupid. He'll pay
for any damage he caused." Finally, for Reese's benefit, another quarter
turn as he became the picture of reason. "You don't wanna press any
charges here, Blue. You've got a brother, I've got a brother. They both make
mistakes, but this one, sounds like these guys got there before it got out of
hand."

Preston
was so slick, such an artful shape-shifter, that Reese was truly tempted to
applaud.

"I'd
say breaking into my house and setting the bed on fire was Earl being stupid.
But shooting my dog—"

"You
can't prove—" Earl met Reese's cool glare with childish hostility. "I
will
shoot that sonuvabitch the next time!"

"Shut
up, Earl," Preston said with a sigh. "Like I said, Blue, this guy's
worshipped you since day one, and I don't think that's always healthy. Who
knows what he was looking for? Maybe a souvenir."

Dozer
nearly gagged.

Preston
turned his back on the cell, blocking Dozer and Gene for a one-on-one with
Reese.

"Listen,
we've both got brothers. Yours is a hell of a lot smarter than mine, and it
takes a smarter man than Earl to commit any real serious crime, you know what
I'm saying? But he's the only brother I've got." He lifted his head, kept
his gaze and his voice steady. "A man has to look after his own."

"Does
he really," Reese said tonelessly, but he was thinking he had to hand it
to the little twerp. He had balls. Conveniently located at Reese's knee level.

"Damn
straight." Preston stepped back quickly and buttoned his sport jacket, as
though he'd caught somebody ogling him.

Reese
laughed.

"You
can just sit here for tonight, Earl," the tribal chairman said as he moved
away. "Tomorrow you can tell me what the hell you thought you were doing,
walking into Reese Blue Sky's house and playing with matches. Right now, I
don't wanna hear it. It's bound to embarrass me."

Preston
Sweeney gave Reese a parting look, an unmistakable warning, before he took his
leave.

"What
happened to the evidence you found when my dad was killed?" Reese asked
Gene as they left the building with Dozer, headed for separate vehicles.