The Queen of Cool (39 page)

“
You’re getting quite an
education.” Amused, Manny raised his eyebrows.

“
A crazy one,” Lo
smiled.

“
Where to?”

“
Stockyard,” Lo said.
“Exchange and North Main.”

Manny pulled out of the driveway and began
down Watercress Drive toward the Jacksboro Highway. The evening
traffic was light, so they made fast time in companionable silence.
He was turning left onto North Main Street when he glanced at
her.

“
Are you going to tell me
why we’re coming here?” Manny asked.

“
Oh,” Lo said. “Sorry. I
thought you knew. I keep forgetting that I didn’t tell you
everything last week. Was there an intruder at Sy’s?”

“
Someone from Jaden’s
office,” Manny said. “He said he thought they were open. Sy got rid
of him but we think his place is being staked out. We can’t meet
there anymore. Before you ask, I spoke to Ms. Kincaid today about
the guy. She said the guy does odd jobs around the office so
there’s no way to know what he was up to.”

They drove past rundown warehouses and
boarded up business buildings until they reached the old, brick
buildings and the hustle and bustle of the Fort Worth Stockyards.
Even on a Monday night, the party was just getting started. The
bars, nightclubs, and restaurants were filling with people looking
for an Old West good time.

“
Why are we here?” Manny
asked. He pulled his car into a tight parking spot on Exchange
Avenue. “Ghost hunting?”

“
Ghost hunting?”

Confused, Lo turned to look at him. He
pointed to the group of tourists listening to a tour guide on the
sidewalk in front of them.

“
There are quite a few
ghosts here in the stockyards.”

“
I thought there were only
cattle, stink, and drunks in the stockyards,” Lo said.

“
See how uppity you’ve
become,” Manny said.

“
Manuel Rodriguez, when
have I ever spent time down here?”

“
You’re right,” Manny
smiled. “You’ve always had those high-class airs. Me, on the other
hand? I’ve had a lot of good times down here. Mindy Sue and I still
come down here to see a band or two. I get my boots made at
McCreedys.”

“
Mrs. Williams says she and
her husband saw Elvis when he played the auction house,” Lo
said.

“
The Coliseum,” Manny said.
“Elvis played the North Side Coliseum on January 20,
1956.”

“
Yes, forgive my error,” Lo
smiled.

“
Got to keep the facts
straight,” Manny winked at her.

“
Did you ever find out if
he was gay?”

“
Who?”

“
Elvis,” Lo said. “You were
really hot about it when we were in Junior High.”

“
I’ve had a few other
things on my mind since then,” Manny said.

“
So he was gay,” Lo
said.

“
Watch yourself, Downs,
you’re on thin ice,” Manny said.

Lo laughed.

“
Why…”

“
Are we here?” Lo spoke
when he did. “It’s a secret.”

“
You’re very funny,” Manny
said. “Listen…”

“
Sorry, I’m just having
fun,” Lo said. “What do you know about Bonnie and
Clyde?”

“
I know that I brought you
a couple of books on them,” Manny said. “You asked me for their
criminal files. Um…”

Manny looked off into space. Lo scowled at
him.

“
I saw the movie. Everyone
dies in a hail of bullets at the end,” Manny said. “Does that
count?”

“
Very funny,” Lo
said.

“
Revenge is sweet,” Manny
said.

“
Detective Rodriguez, this
is serious business,” Lo said.

“
Okay, okay,” Manny said.
“Lay it on me.”

“
You know that Don was
interested in Clyde, right?” Lo asked. When Manny nodded, she
continued, “What I’m going to tell you is a story. Don was never
able to document the whole story but he, at least, was convinced it
was real.”

Manny nodded.

“
The story goes that Bonnie
and Clyde spent a lot of time in the Stockyards,” Lo said. “They
couldn’t be seen together. Separately, they just looked like
everyone else, but together they were easily recognized. They had
to stay in different locations so they wouldn’t get caught. Bonnie
was a particularly good card player and liked to play for pretty
high stakes. Clyde would rent the second floor room on the corner
of Exchange and North Main, room 305, in the old Stockyards Club.
It’s now the Stockyard Hotel. Bonnie would play with her back close
to the window on Exchange in the saloon just across the street. He
could sit in the window and watch to see if Bonnie was cheating on
him.”

“
More likely that he could
see the other player’s cards so they could cheat,” Manny
said.

“
Probably,” Lo said. “I
never thought of it. It was one of Don’s favorite
stories.”

“
So we’re here to…?” Manny
asked.

“
Well, Don left me the
photo in the journal, right?” Lo asked. Manny nodded. “He also left
the quote from Bonnie’s grave. There are so many pieces to this
whole big puzzle. It seems like everything is separate; nothing
connects to anything else. But one thing I know for sure is that
Don wanted me to look at Bonnie and Clyde. I read his favorite
books about the pair and learned… well, nothing more than I knew
already from Don. That leads me back here. So I thought we could
figure out if the story is true.”

“
Could Clyde have watched
Bonnie playing cards across the street?” Manny said. Lo nodded.
“Let’s go check it out.”

Manny got out of the car and came around to
help Lo. They crossed the street together and went into the
Stockyard Hotel. Manny spoke with the manager. With a wave of his
badge, they were able to get into the Bonnie and Clyde Room on the
corner of Exchange Avenue and North Main Street.

“
You sit right here,” Manny
said. “I’ll go out and you can see if you can see me.”

“
You’re a lot bigger than
me, Manny,” Lo said. “Bonnie was about my size. I should
go.”

“
All right,
but…”

“
I’ll be careful,” Lo
said.

“
I’ll call your phone when
I can see you,” Manny pulled up a chair next to the
window.

“
Oh, remember, he couldn’t
be seen from the street,” Lo said. “Or it would give them away.
“

“
Let’s test it,” Manny
said.

Lo nodded and left the room. She jogged down
the wide open carpeted stairwell to the first floor, turned then
padded down the stairs to the lobby. The group of ghost hunters had
moved into the hotel and were taking digital photos. Lo skirted
around the group and went out onto the sidewalk on Exchange Avenue.
She stepped into the crosswalk when her phone rang. Lo answered and
looked up to see Manny.

“
I can see you,” Lo
said.

Manny stepped back.

“
Nope,” Lo said. She heard
him sit down. She crossed to the sidewalk. “Can you see
me?”

“
Yes but it’s kind of
dark,” Manny said. “Can you go under a streetlight?”

Lo was looking around for a streetlight when
the headlights from a turning car caught her.

“
Oh yea, I can see you
easily,” Manny said. “I could sit here all day drinking whiskey and
help you cheat at cards. Bonnie must have sat with her back to the
street.”

“
How would they cheat?” Lo
asked.

“
With binoculars, I could
see at least three people’s cards and Bonnie’s,” Manny said. “If I
was a good card player, I’d know what everyone had that way. The
question is how would he signal her.”

A flash of light crossed her eyes.

“
What did you just do?” Lo
asked.

“
I moved the curtain,”
Manny said.

“
At certain times of day,
she could have seen the light change when you move the curtain,” Lo
said. “That would be easy.”

“
Okay, come back,” Manny
said. “I don’t like you standing out on that street corner. Tell me
when you see me.”

When the light changed, Lo started across
the brick street. She was so focused looking up at Manny’s window
that she caught her foot on a brick. Off balance, she fell forward.
Her hands moved automatically to catch her in a plank position.
Staring at the brick street, she saw something that had never
occurred to her before.

“
Ma’am, ma’am,” a pair of
brand new cowboy boots appeared in her line of sight. “Are you all
right?”

A large-bellied tourist bent down to her and
his new cowboy hat fell into the street. The man’s strong hands
lifted her off the street. He beamed at her.

“
I saw you trip and…” The
man said in an exaggerated Texas accent.

“
Hey,” Manny yelled from
the window. “Leave her alone.”

Lo looked up to see Manny pointing his
handgun at the tourist.

“
Jealous guy?” the man
asked out of the corner of his mouth.

“
My brother,” Lo said.
“He’s overprotective.”

“
No harm, no foul.” The
man’s accent slipped when he yelled up to Manny.

He picked up his hat, tipped it to Lo, and
walked off. Lo waddled across the street, through the hotel, and up
the stairs. Manny was running down the stairs to meet her. They met
on the first floor landing.

“
Let’s get out of here,”
Manny said.

He took her arm and they jogged out of the
hotel. They were on their way in minutes. They drove in tense
silence until Manny pulled into the Sonic drive-thru on Camp
Bowie.

“
Want to see if anyone’s
following us,” Manny said. “Plus, I figured you’re hungry,
sis.”

Lo smiled.

“
Mindy Sue was starving
every time she was pregnant,” Manny said. “What happened
there?”

“
I tripped,” Lo
said.

“
I saw that,” Manny pressed
the button and ordered dinner for them. “Was it the guy? Or did
something else happen?”

“
Something else,” Lo said.
“Thurber Bricks have a triangle pressed into them.”

“
Right,” Manny
said.

“
I was on Exchange Avenue,”
Lo said.

“
Exchange Avenue is made
with Thurber Bricks,” Manny said.

“
What’s short hand for
Exchange?”

“
You mean like in New York?
Like stocks?” Manny asked.

“
I’d abbreviate Exchange
with XCHNG,” Lo said.

“
You mean…”

“
The triangle and the X,”
Lo said. “Thurber bricks on Exchange Street. Triangle and an X. Get
it? Exchange Street? VX?”

“
Wow,” Manny
said.

“
I think the VX was there,”
Lo said. “Remember it was moved off base. We read that in Marilyn’s
journals. Jaden must have kept it here. He probably owns one of
these old buildings. There are a couple of boarded up buildings
down there.

“
Was? Kept?” Manny
asked.

“
Don moved the VX,” Lo
said. “In February.”

“
Don moved the VX?” Manny
repeated. “What?”

“
I think so,” Lo said. “I
had this dream or maybe it was a memory, I’m not sure, of Don
telling me he found out something horrible about Henry.”

“
When was that?”

“
September,” Lo said. “The
day I competed. We left about an hour later for Vegas. With the
competition and winning and everything, I didn’t remember. And last
night, I talked to Colonel Bozeman.”

“
Your dad’s friend?” Manny
asked. “I thought he was dead.”

“
I think we all thought he
was,” Lo said. “He was critically injured in an accident on base.
He thought someone purposely caused the accident. Tried to kill
him.”

“
Like Marilyn and Mrs.
Williams’ husbands,” Manny said. “What did he say?”

“
He said that when he was
better, he decided to clean up the base,” Lo said. “He was a higher
rank and had more authority. He came to the Base and the VX was
gone. It was around the time my dad died. He figured the two things
were connected so he kept silent and high-tailed it out of
town.”

“
Where is it now?” Manny
asked.

“
I can’t be sure,” Lo said.
“Colonel Bozeman sure doesn’t know.”

“
But you have an idea,”
Manny said.

Lo nodded.

“
Are you going to tell me?”
Manny asked.

“
When I’m sure,” Lo
said.

“
I don’t need to tell you
that if someone finds it, if these guys find it again, there’s no
telling who the highest bidder will be. Al Qaeda? The Taliban?
Russian Mob? They have enough to wipe out New York City, LA,
Boston, Dallas, and… every city in the US, Europe, hell, probably
the world if they’re frugal.”

“
I know,” Lo
said.

“
Don’t go off without me,”
Manny said.

“
I won’t,” Lo
nodded.

A roller-skating waitress brought them their
food and they ate in silence. Manny was sipping his malt when he
snorted.