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.He trudged up to bed.I cleaned up, looking around, and found a paperback by Stephen King about a big weird dog.Took it to bed and read a lot longer than I'd planned to.Very scary dog.Very scary writer.Wondered if he would be able to guess what kind of person Evan Lawrence was: as scary as King's dog, but in a different way.I kept trying not to think about Anne Renzetti, but the instant I turned the light out, there she was.The thought that kept flashing on and off right in the front of my mind was YOU BLEW IT.YOU BLEW IT.Later on there was another sign, farther back and not as bright, which kept saying YOU'LL NEVER GET A BETTER SHOT AT IT.At what? Home and fireside? A riding mower for Christmas? A golden retriever who'd ride with his head out the car window, panting?As the old spinach eater said, "I yam what I yam."ThirteenTHERE WAS some red tape to be arranged about the estate and the vehicle registration, so we didn't get out of town in the van until so late on Monday, the twenty-sixth, we got only as far as a place called Robstown, about ten miles west of the Corpus Christi city line.We holed up at a motel on the far side of Robstomn, on U.S.77, and as soon as we got in the room, Meyer started looking up Rodefer in the Corpus Christi phone book.He found nine Rodefers, but none of them were Coy Lee or C.L.or even C.So Meyer wanted to go right down the list."We're right near the city.Why not? Why does it have to be lanterns first when we can eliminate this one right away? Or maybe find out it is the right one."There was no answer at the first Rodefer.As he started to call the next one, I realized I should be doing it.To his obvious relief I took the phone and placed the second call."Hello?" A female voice, hesitant, neither young nor old."This Miz Rodefer?""Well… the way you say it, it isn't Rod, it's like Road.""Ro-defer.Sure, I knew that.It's just, I guess, ma'am, I haven't rightly said it in so long, I said it wrong.Mebbe you can ha'ep me, ma'am.Long long time back I went to school up to Austin with Coy Lee Rodefer, and I'm over here in a motel next to Robstown, and I was looking in the book to see if old Coy Lee was in the book and he isn't.But there is a bunch of Rodefers and I thought, Well, why not take a chance and see if he's related to them, and so they'd know where he is today.Him and me were on the same runnin' team together.""Coy Lee, he's my husband's first cousin! What did you say your name is?""Travis McGee, ma'am.Just passin' through the area.""Well, if you were up there in the college with him, then you'd know why he had to drop out.""I just purely don't know, Miz Rodefer.You see I had to drop out too on account of bad sickness in the family, and I had to go home to take care.I've always promised myself I'd go back someday and finish up, but I somehow just never did.""What happened was he got so tired and run down and wore out, they thought up there he had that… what do they call it? That kissing sickness.I can't think of the name.""It doesn't come to me either right at the moment.""Anyway, after they gave him a lot of blood tests it turned out he had the leukemia.""That's too bad! He was such a strong fella.""He came on back here and moved into his old room with his folks.He was in and out of the hospital I can't remember how many times.He'd go into revision… that doesn't sound right.""Is it remission, ma'am?""That's it! Anyway, it was pure hell on his mama, and I think it was what really turned his daddy to drink.His daddy was my Ben's father's brother.He didn't last a year after Coy Lee died.""Oh, he, died!""They both did, Coy Lee and his daddy, not quite a year to the day.His daddy died drunk, rolling the pickup over hisself at three o'clock in the morning.With Coy Lee it was pitiful.He went down to no more than ninety pounds, and he died in the hospital with his mama holding his hand and telling him everything was going to be real fine.I'd just started going with Ben, and he was broke up about it more than I realized he would be.It's sure some terrible sickness, but I hear they can do a lot more for people that get it than they used to be able to do.The thing that was so pitiful was it was the only child they had.His mama she married a man with seven grown children about two years after Coy Lee's daddy killed hisself.What I'll do, I'll tell her a fellow that was a friend of Coy Lee's up in Austin, he called to locate Coy Lee, and I had to tell you what happened to him.""You tell his mama he was a good boy.He was a good friend, and I'm sure sorry to hear what happened.You tell her that everybody that knew him up there in Austin, they liked him just fine.""She'll be glad to hear that, and I'll be telling her tomorrow.""Thanks for helping me out.""Sorry it had to be such bad news.But that's how it goes.""It surely does.Good evenin'."Meyer had been sitting close on the side of my bed to hear both sides of the conversation.He moved away, shaking his head, as I hung up.No matter how many times you do it, how many times you pretend to be someone you aren't, and you get the goodhearted cooperation of some trusting person, you feel a little bit soiled.There is no smart-ass pleasure to be gained from misleading the innocent.In the country places of the Sun Belt, friendship has a lot of meaning.And when you want to know something, you find out the quickest way you can, even to trading on something that never existed.We looked into the motel restaurant and decided to try almost anything else we could find.We drove over into the city and found a steak house where they guaranteed they would not, under any circumstances, fry the steak.Over coffee Meyer finally said, "That was depressing, talking to that woman.""You didn't know old Coy Lee good as I did.""No jokes, hmm?""No good jokes, at least.""I was wondering what we would do.Suppose we found him in Corpus Christi? What if he was Evan Lawrence and Jerry Tobin and Coy Lee Rodefer? And we appear in front of him in these indigenous clothes, these big hats and twill pants and funny shirts.What then?""We try not to appear in front of him at any time.""Just locate him?""And bring him to justice.Like they used to say in the series there with Marshal Dillon.Gunsmoke.""Isn't that going to be exceedingly difficult, Travis?""If we never get any more evidence than we have now, which is next door to nothing at all, exceedingly is a mild word.""So what then?""Meyer, for God's sake, we can't lay it all out in advance.We'll play it by ear.Maybe he has been messed up in other things.We might stumble across something that can be proved against him.He seems to like killing women.For money.Maybe he was clumsier some time we don't yet know about.Martin Eagle would like to know where he is, if and when we find him.I just have the feeling that the farther down the back trail we go, the more we'll learn.I am not going to sneak up on the ridge and dry-gulch him.As far as we know right now, he isn't wanted by anybody for anything.Maybe he didn't kill four people.Maybe somebody set the charge to kill him, thinking he'd be on your boat that day.Maybe he was on the boat.You're supposed to be the logical one, not me."He managed a smile."I'm not doing very well, am I? I can't seem to think about it.I want him shot.I want him dead."Early the next day we were well down into the Valley of the Rio Grande.We went on into Harlingen, which had every fast-food chain either of us had ever heard of, and a lot we hadn't.We found a place to stop and look at the map.The likely counties were Willacy Hidalgo, Starr, Zapata, Jim Hogg, Brooks, and Kenedy.Lots of grove land down in the valley, more big vegetable farms and ranchlands as you went north.If this was the area where Evan Lawrence a.k.a [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.He trudged up to bed.I cleaned up, looking around, and found a paperback by Stephen King about a big weird dog.Took it to bed and read a lot longer than I'd planned to.Very scary dog.Very scary writer.Wondered if he would be able to guess what kind of person Evan Lawrence was: as scary as King's dog, but in a different way.I kept trying not to think about Anne Renzetti, but the instant I turned the light out, there she was.The thought that kept flashing on and off right in the front of my mind was YOU BLEW IT.YOU BLEW IT.Later on there was another sign, farther back and not as bright, which kept saying YOU'LL NEVER GET A BETTER SHOT AT IT.At what? Home and fireside? A riding mower for Christmas? A golden retriever who'd ride with his head out the car window, panting?As the old spinach eater said, "I yam what I yam."ThirteenTHERE WAS some red tape to be arranged about the estate and the vehicle registration, so we didn't get out of town in the van until so late on Monday, the twenty-sixth, we got only as far as a place called Robstown, about ten miles west of the Corpus Christi city line.We holed up at a motel on the far side of Robstomn, on U.S.77, and as soon as we got in the room, Meyer started looking up Rodefer in the Corpus Christi phone book.He found nine Rodefers, but none of them were Coy Lee or C.L.or even C.So Meyer wanted to go right down the list."We're right near the city.Why not? Why does it have to be lanterns first when we can eliminate this one right away? Or maybe find out it is the right one."There was no answer at the first Rodefer.As he started to call the next one, I realized I should be doing it.To his obvious relief I took the phone and placed the second call."Hello?" A female voice, hesitant, neither young nor old."This Miz Rodefer?""Well… the way you say it, it isn't Rod, it's like Road.""Ro-defer.Sure, I knew that.It's just, I guess, ma'am, I haven't rightly said it in so long, I said it wrong.Mebbe you can ha'ep me, ma'am.Long long time back I went to school up to Austin with Coy Lee Rodefer, and I'm over here in a motel next to Robstown, and I was looking in the book to see if old Coy Lee was in the book and he isn't.But there is a bunch of Rodefers and I thought, Well, why not take a chance and see if he's related to them, and so they'd know where he is today.Him and me were on the same runnin' team together.""Coy Lee, he's my husband's first cousin! What did you say your name is?""Travis McGee, ma'am.Just passin' through the area.""Well, if you were up there in the college with him, then you'd know why he had to drop out.""I just purely don't know, Miz Rodefer.You see I had to drop out too on account of bad sickness in the family, and I had to go home to take care.I've always promised myself I'd go back someday and finish up, but I somehow just never did.""What happened was he got so tired and run down and wore out, they thought up there he had that… what do they call it? That kissing sickness.I can't think of the name.""It doesn't come to me either right at the moment.""Anyway, after they gave him a lot of blood tests it turned out he had the leukemia.""That's too bad! He was such a strong fella.""He came on back here and moved into his old room with his folks.He was in and out of the hospital I can't remember how many times.He'd go into revision… that doesn't sound right.""Is it remission, ma'am?""That's it! Anyway, it was pure hell on his mama, and I think it was what really turned his daddy to drink.His daddy was my Ben's father's brother.He didn't last a year after Coy Lee died.""Oh, he, died!""They both did, Coy Lee and his daddy, not quite a year to the day.His daddy died drunk, rolling the pickup over hisself at three o'clock in the morning.With Coy Lee it was pitiful.He went down to no more than ninety pounds, and he died in the hospital with his mama holding his hand and telling him everything was going to be real fine.I'd just started going with Ben, and he was broke up about it more than I realized he would be.It's sure some terrible sickness, but I hear they can do a lot more for people that get it than they used to be able to do.The thing that was so pitiful was it was the only child they had.His mama she married a man with seven grown children about two years after Coy Lee's daddy killed hisself.What I'll do, I'll tell her a fellow that was a friend of Coy Lee's up in Austin, he called to locate Coy Lee, and I had to tell you what happened to him.""You tell his mama he was a good boy.He was a good friend, and I'm sure sorry to hear what happened.You tell her that everybody that knew him up there in Austin, they liked him just fine.""She'll be glad to hear that, and I'll be telling her tomorrow.""Thanks for helping me out.""Sorry it had to be such bad news.But that's how it goes.""It surely does.Good evenin'."Meyer had been sitting close on the side of my bed to hear both sides of the conversation.He moved away, shaking his head, as I hung up.No matter how many times you do it, how many times you pretend to be someone you aren't, and you get the goodhearted cooperation of some trusting person, you feel a little bit soiled.There is no smart-ass pleasure to be gained from misleading the innocent.In the country places of the Sun Belt, friendship has a lot of meaning.And when you want to know something, you find out the quickest way you can, even to trading on something that never existed.We looked into the motel restaurant and decided to try almost anything else we could find.We drove over into the city and found a steak house where they guaranteed they would not, under any circumstances, fry the steak.Over coffee Meyer finally said, "That was depressing, talking to that woman.""You didn't know old Coy Lee good as I did.""No jokes, hmm?""No good jokes, at least.""I was wondering what we would do.Suppose we found him in Corpus Christi? What if he was Evan Lawrence and Jerry Tobin and Coy Lee Rodefer? And we appear in front of him in these indigenous clothes, these big hats and twill pants and funny shirts.What then?""We try not to appear in front of him at any time.""Just locate him?""And bring him to justice.Like they used to say in the series there with Marshal Dillon.Gunsmoke.""Isn't that going to be exceedingly difficult, Travis?""If we never get any more evidence than we have now, which is next door to nothing at all, exceedingly is a mild word.""So what then?""Meyer, for God's sake, we can't lay it all out in advance.We'll play it by ear.Maybe he has been messed up in other things.We might stumble across something that can be proved against him.He seems to like killing women.For money.Maybe he was clumsier some time we don't yet know about.Martin Eagle would like to know where he is, if and when we find him.I just have the feeling that the farther down the back trail we go, the more we'll learn.I am not going to sneak up on the ridge and dry-gulch him.As far as we know right now, he isn't wanted by anybody for anything.Maybe he didn't kill four people.Maybe somebody set the charge to kill him, thinking he'd be on your boat that day.Maybe he was on the boat.You're supposed to be the logical one, not me."He managed a smile."I'm not doing very well, am I? I can't seem to think about it.I want him shot.I want him dead."Early the next day we were well down into the Valley of the Rio Grande.We went on into Harlingen, which had every fast-food chain either of us had ever heard of, and a lot we hadn't.We found a place to stop and look at the map.The likely counties were Willacy Hidalgo, Starr, Zapata, Jim Hogg, Brooks, and Kenedy.Lots of grove land down in the valley, more big vegetable farms and ranchlands as you went north.If this was the area where Evan Lawrence a.k.a [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]