Golden Trail (6 page)

“Jesus,” Layne muttered, tilting his head to
the side and looking at the floor.

He was wondering, again, why she’d come to
his house that morning.

He was also wondering why she’d come to his
hospital room, looked at him the way she did, touched him, put her
mouth to his.

Rebound or something else?

“Tanner,” Merry called and Layne looked at
him.

“Let’s eat,” Layne said and watched as
Merry’s eyes flashed then his face closed off, not giving away
anything.

Then he smiled huge, a cover, grabbed a
basket that had something wrapped in a clean dish towel and he
replied, “Fuckin’ A, bubba.”

* * * * *

Layne inhaled from the cigarette, took it
from his lips and exhaled.

He had one smoke a day, after dinner with a
beer or, if the day had been shit, a whisky. Since quitting ten
years ago, he only had the one a day.

Unless the day was
really
shit.

He looked to Merry as Merry exhaled. Merry
didn’t have one smoke a day. He had a lot more.

They were both standing outside but Dave,
not smoking, was sitting on a garden chair. The boys were in the
house watching some movie on TV.

“So Stew’s fucked her over?” Dave asked.

Layne had told them about Gabby’s
problem.

“Yeah,” Layne answered.

“Can’t say I’m surprised,” Dave
muttered.

“That’d be because it isn’t surprising,”
Layne muttered back.

“I’ll keep my ear to the ground, big man,
but, with Stew, it could be anything,” Merry told him.

“It’s bad shit, she’s in danger, I gotta
know,” Layne said to Merry.

“What’d you get on your searches?” Dave
asked.

“He’s maxed out,” Layne answered. “Overdrawn
at the bank, credit cards over the limit, hasn’t paid any bills in
over six months, debt collectors circling, his truck has been
shopped out for repo. She’s been holdin’ on but the last three
months she’s struggled. Utilities are only two months out but I
figure she pays them so she won’t get shut off. She was always
current, always paid on time and the last six months, she’s been
juggling, payin’ late, fallin’ short, payin’ minimum payments
instead of payin’ the full amount. Now, outside the utilities, she
isn’t payin’ at all. She didn’t often carry debt, except around
Christmas. She’s been inchin’ up but, last two months, she’s shot
up and she’s also maxed. They’ve both been declined for new cards,
him twice in the last month and she’s tried taking out three.”

“That’s not good,” Merry mumbled.

“Nope,” Layne agreed. “She makes decent
money and never lived beyond her means. We bought that house
together sixteen years ago. Her mortgage is low. He lost his job,
which he hasn’t, she could take him on. She’d feel the hit but she
can do it. This kinda shit, he owes someone. Gambling. Betting.
Something.”

“I’ll ask around,” Dave offered.

“It would be appreciated,” Layne
replied.

Merry crushed his butt into the ashtray on
the outdoor table and twisted his head to his Dad.

“Got a date, Dad,” he said and Layne
smiled.

Merry was Jasper except forty years old.
He’d been married once, for six years. Before and since, he played
the field as often as he could. Like his sister, young, he’d been a
knockout and age hadn’t touched it, in fact, it seemed to enhance
it so Merry’s field was wide and varied.

Layne’s smile died when Dave got up from his
chair and headed into the house, muttering, “I’ll leave you to
it.”

Layne took one last drag and then crushed
out his cigarette on the exhale knowing now this invitation to
dinner was more than a family get together.

Layne watched Dave close the backdoor then
he locked his eyes on Merry.

“What?” he asked instantly.

“You know we gotta talk, it’s been six
weeks,” Merry replied quietly, his eyes on his Dad’s dark
backyard.

“Yeah, we’ll talk but not now. I took a hit
–”

He didn’t finish when Merry’s eyes sliced to
him and he growled, “Yeah, you took a hit.”

He was talking about Layne getting shot.

“I didn’t mean that kinda hit, Merry, the
hospital bills wiped me out. It kills to say it but I can’t focus
on that right now. I gotta take cases that pay.”

“You’re off on this one,” Merry declared and
Layne felt his neck muscles contract.

“No, Garrett, I’m not,” he said softly.

“Yeah, Tanner, you are,” Merry shot back.
“You’ve been blown.”

“You can’t work it,” Layne pointed out.

“I won’t be. Rocky is,” Merry returned.

Every muscle in Layne’s body contracted.

“What?” he whispered.

“She’s gonna cozy up to Rutledge, get in on
the inside,” Merry shared.

Layne’s fingers curled into fists and he
turned fully to face his friend. It took a lot out of him but he
didn’t grab his collar and shake some sense into him – or beat it
into him – both of which he’d prefer to do.

“Are you fucking
insane?
” Layne
asked.

“She’s all over it,” Merry retorted and
Layne sucked in a breath and it made a sound like a hiss.

Then he looked at the yard.

She would. Rocky would. She’d be all over
it.

He now had proof that Raquel was just as
nuts as ever and her brother surpassed her by a long fucking
shot.

“She doesn’t know what she’s doing,” Layne
pointed out.

“We’re talking. She’s learning. She’s good,”
Merry replied.

He looked back at his friend. “News flash,
man, I took three because of this shit six weeks ago and I know
what I’m doin’. You want that to happen to your sister?”

Merry leaned into Layne and he saw it in his
face. It wasn’t stark, he was trying to control it, but it was
there.

Fear.

“It was her idea,” he whispered.

“Fuck me,” Layne whispered back and it hit
him.

She knew. Merry told her everything. She
knew there was a dirty cop in the Department. She knew it was
Rutledge. She knew Merry couldn’t work it so he farmed it out to
Layne. She knew Layne got too close and Rutledge got tweaked and
Layne got ambushed. And, it was worthwhile to repeat, she knew
there was a dirty copy in the department.

And she knew her father’s partner
twenty-four years ago was a dirty cop. She knew that her father
knew it. She knew that her father was working at proving it and he
got close. And she knew because she’d heard the break in, she’d
heard her mother’s shouts, the partner’s replies, she’d called 911
then she’d heard the shots and she only stayed alive because she
was smart enough to hide and the partner had to get out before he
could find her because the sirens were approaching. Before the cops
could stop her, she saw her mother’s dead, bloody body in the front
entry of this same fucking house. And she knew her father had been
hit the same night and left for dead but, by a miracle, he’d
survived. Dave hadn’t made his wife’s funeral because he was in a
hospital room with a tube down his throat. Merry and Rocky had gone
with their grandparents. He also knew she’d testified at the
hearing.

And Layne knew this because she’d told him,
in the dark of night, in their bed, her body pressed to his, hers
trembling like she was freezing to death.

And Layne knew one last thing.

Raquel Merrick Astley would do anything to
take down a dirty cop.

“I can’t talk her out of it, man,” Merry was
still whispering.

“You should have never told her, Merry,
Jesus!
” he exploded. “What was in your fuckin’ head?”

“She… Tanner…
fuck,
” Merry hissed.
“When you got shot… fuck… let’s just say, Roc was not good. She
kept at me, wanted to know what you were workin’. And, big man, you
know,
you know
, when Rocky keeps at you, you got no choice
but to talk. Fuck, more than once in my career I wished I had her
in an interrogation room with me. She’s the master.”

He knew this. She wanted to know something,
she was a dog with a bone, and not just any dog, a vicious pit
bull. She never let anything go. Hell, their first Christmas
together, she knew every last present he gave her before she opened
them. He’d learned to go shopping last minute on Christmas Eve or
the day before her birthday and then come home and keep her
occupied in a multitude of ways where she couldn’t use her mouth to
speak and he’d had to do it for as long as he could so she’d be
exhausted or she’d always know what gifts he’d bought her.

He’d thought it was kind of cute and he
definitely liked the exhausting her part.

Now he did not find it cute.

Merry interrupted his thoughts.

“Did you hear me, Tanner? She was not good
when you –”

Layne cut him off, his mind on other things,
namely keeping Raquel Merrick Astley alive until her next
birthday.

“I’ll talk to her,” he declared.

“Oh boy,” Merry muttered, rocking back on
his heels and looking to the heavens.

Layne ignored him. “She start this gig?”

“Not yet,” Merry answered.

“What’s her plan?”

“You’re not gonna get it outta her head,”
Merry warned.

“What’s her plan, Merry?”

Merry pulled in a breath then blew it out.
Then he said, “She’s gonna reel him in.”

“Come again?”

“She’s gonna get on his radar, hopin’ he’ll
be interested, which I know he will, then she’s gonna get him to
ask her out and get close.”

Layne felt the leg of lamb, cooked with
rosemary and garlic and served with roasted potatoes, homemade
tzatziki sauce and fresh, still hot from the oven, homemade pita
bread followed with homemade baklava smothered in a sugary honey
roil in his stomach.

“She intends to sleep with him?” he
whispered.

Merry gave him an unhappy look.

Then he said, “We’re talkin’ Rocky here,
brother. My sister goes the distance.”

“Fuck,” Layne was still whispering.
“
Fuck!
” he repeated,
not
in a whisper.

“You talk to her, she’s gonna be pissed…
at me,
” Merry informed him.

“I’ll take that chance,” Layne snarled.

“Fuck, now
you’re
pissed at me,”
Merry muttered, studying him.

“Believe it, brother,” Layne clipped. “You
should have nipped this in the bud.”

Merry threw his arms out. “This is Rocky!”
He took a step closer to Layne. “We been skirtin’ this awhile,
Tanner, but here we are. It’s over, long over, but we all know
shit’s so fucked up between you two, it isn’t ever gonna get
sorted. We also know shit’s so wound up between you, there’ll
always be a connection. No,” his hand came up almost in Layne’s
face, close enough for Layne to snap his mouth shut, not close
enough for Layne to feel the need to take a swing, “do not bullshit
me. There’s shit you don’t know and I’m not gonna tell you but
let’s just say the last eighteen years you aren’t the only one been
lickin’ those wounds, keepin’ ‘em fresh.”

Another shot to the gut, this one bounced
around, tearing through a variety of organs.

“You are shitting me, Merry,
she
walked out on
me,
” Layne ground out.

“I’m not goin’ there,” Merry shot back.

“You brought it up,” Layne bit off.

“I’m just sayin’, you are not comin’ at this
in a position of
not
bein’ in the know of what I’m dealin’
with here. Roc gets somethin’ in her head, nothin’s gonna shake it
out and you and I both know it. The other part of this is, even
with that, you aren’t in the position to do dick about it.”

“You wanna bet?” Layne asked quietly.

“Yeah, I’ll bet. Tell me somethin’, brother,
she went all out tonight, why isn’t she here?”

Layne straightened and didn’t answer which
he knew, fuck him,
was
the answer.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought. She wanted to
be in on our little chat.” Merry indicated the two of them with a
hand jerking back and forth. “Tonight was her idea. Dad didn’t win
a fuckin’ leg of lamb in a poker game, for fuck’s sake.
Rocky
bought it. She isn’t stupid enough to think she can
head into this without as much firepower at her back as she can
get. She went to your house, proverbial olive branch, and you
shoved it up her ass. I get that right, brother?” Merry asked
cuttingly.

Layne didn’t answer this time because he was
grinding his teeth.

“You’re blown,” Merry stated. “You got two
sons, an ex-wife shacked up with the town asshole and three bullets
for your troubles. Rutledge knows you took your shot, he nearly
took your life makin’ his warning for you to back off so I reckon,
since you’re still breathin’, he figures he’s got nothin’ to fear
from you. He can only guess I gave you the intel. You’re close with
every cop in that department, half of us you worked with when you
served.”

“Yeah, but I’m closest to you and Colt,”
Layne reminded him.

“And?”

“And because of that he’ll make Rocky in
about a second,” Layne bit out.

“Yeah, and Rocky knows that. What Rutledge
doesn’t know is that I’m close to my sister and I talk to her. Not
a lotta cops share shit like this with their sister. Wife, maybe,
their sister? No freaking way.”

“That is, if their sister didn’t hear their
mother get murdered by a dirty cop in their own damned house,”
Layne reminded him and watched Merry flinch. “He’ll make her.”

Merry recovered quickly. “She’s not dumb,
Tanner. She’ll play it smart.”

“He’ll make her,” Layne repeated.

“He won’t make her, big man. Shit, he’s got
someone in that Department on his ass. Because he felt the heat
from you, he doesn’t know if it’s me, Colt, Sully or Haines. He’s
too busy tryin’ to figure out which one of us
made him
to
even think about makin’ Rocky.”

Layne was done with this conversation.

“I’m gonna talk to her,” he stated.