Дэвид Балдаччи - A Gambling Man [calibre]

The man backed away. “Yes ma’am.”

“One more thing,” said Archer. He walked over to the man and drilled him so hard in the face with his fist that the fellow was lifted off his feet and slammed against the side of the car before crumpling to the dirt.

“That was for Bobby H. And if I ever see you again, I’ll be the last thing you ever see.”

The man sat on the ground holding his broken nose and sobbing in pain.

Callahan turned and walked back to the Delahaye. “Let’s go, Archer.”

Archer stood there for a bit until she was almost out of sight. Then he did just as she said.

Chapter 13

THE DELAHAYE PROWLED THROUGH THE VALLEY like a muscular river drilling through rock. Archer had placed the weapons they’d taken in the trunk. Both he and Callahan were visibly shaken by what had happened. Archer’s mind was going a million miles an hour, and Callahan looked pale and distraught.

“I guess you think I’m a bad person,” Callahan said quietly, finally breaking the silence after about twenty-five minutes of nothing but the French car’s purr.

“I don’t think anything one way or another.”

“Girls have to know how to take care of themselves, Archer, at least this girl does. You think that just applies to guys?”

“No. But maybe I assume, just like all other guys.”

“Assume what?”

“That gunplay is for the men. Clearly, I’m wrong about that.”

“Fact is, my daddy taught me to shoot starting when I was eight years old. I could barely hold the deer rifle.”

“He taught you well. That was not an easy shot tonight with the bad light and distance.”

“He was as big as a barn. If I’d missed that lug I’d need glasses. And the other guy died from an accident. So that had nothing to do with me.”

Archer downshifted as the road began to curve sharply. They’d put up the car’s top because the temperature had dropped and the wind was pushing the cold into them like a railroad spike between the ribs.

“How about the little man then? You were going to shoot him in cold blood.”

“Maybe I was bluffing.”

“Don’t think so.”

She lit up a Camel and blew a puff of angry smoke at him. “How the hell do you know? How the hell do you know anything about me?”

“I’ve seen you gamble. You don’t have a poker face.”

She gave him a sideways glance that Archer—who was doing the same to her—felt to his toes. He wasn’t sure how to properly read this situation, mainly because he’d never met a woman like Callahan before.

So is that my fault or hers?

With an exhale of Camel smoke followed by a brush at her hair with a shaky index finger, she said, “Do we have to tell anybody about it?”

“I think there might be trouble if we don’t.”

She cranked her window down and flicked her Camel away. It caught a shaft of wind and glanced off an oak before sinking into the asphalt. She cranked the glass back up.

Archer continued, “But we have to think this through. They’re going to find the bodies. It was at a picnic area. Folks are going to stop there, just like we did. They’re going to unwrap their sandwiches, take out the potato salad, pour coffee out of the thermos, and then look around and start puking.”

“Maybe the other guy will get rid of the bodies,” she said.

“Why would he do that?”

“He’s got exposure, too, Archer. He’s a criminal, not us. We were just protecting ourselves.”

Archer shook his head. “I told Howells to get the hell out of Reno. And now he’s dead.”

She shot him a look. “So I say we forget it happened and if anybody asks we don’t know anything. Two murderers are dead; so what? They got what they deserved.”

He glanced at her purse. “Well, no matter what, you might want to do something with the Smith & Wesson, then.”

“Why?”

“Because your slug’s in the man’s back, that’s why. They can match bullets. And speaking of, we need to get rid of the guns in the trunk.”

She started to bite at a nail painted bright green until it bled, as she thought about this. “We still stopping at Coalinga?”

“Right now I feel like I’m never going to close my eyes again, but we need gas, and I need some coffee. And staying someplace feels like the right thing to do. We both can sort of calm down.”

“Can I have a pull on your flask?”

He worked it free from his pocket and passed it across.

She took a healthy swallow, sucked her lips inward in satisfaction, and recapped the flask. “That’s better. You want a shot?” she asked, holding it out.

“I’ve had enough shots for today, thanks.” He pointed to the river rushing parallel to the road. “That’s a good spot to dump them.”

“Okay, Archer, go ahead. But not my gun. We might need it in case that guy comes after us again.”

He got out, grabbed the shotgun, Derringer, and .45 from the trunk, walked down to the riverbank, and tossed them all in. He watched them float for a few moments in the strong current, and then they were gone, like fog in the heat of a rising sun.

He walked to the car, got back on the road, and sped up.

“You feel better?” she asked.

“Yeah. How about you?”

In a tone he had not heard her use before she said, “I…I killed a man back there, Archer. I…I’m not sure I’ll ever feel right again.”

He saw her hands suddenly start to shake and the muscles around her throat tense. Sweat bubbles rose up on her forehead.

He quickly pulled off the road, leaned over, and opened her door.

“Go ahead. Do it out there. Quick!”

She jumped out and ran behind a tree, and he could hear her being violently sick. She came back a couple minutes later rubbing at her mouth. Then she got into the car and shut the door.

“You okay?”

She nodded but still looked unwell.

“Sometimes there’s a delayed reaction. Like your mind can’t wrap itself around something right away.”

“Yeah.”

“They were going to kill us, Liberty, like you said.”

She pressed her face against the cool glass, closed her eyes, and exhaled a long breath. “Yeah. Now just shut up and drive.”

Chapter 14

COALINGA WASN’T A THRIVING METROPOLIS, nor was it the one-horse town Archer thought it was going to be.

Liberty eyed the welcome sign. “Where’d they get the name Coalinga? Is it Spanish?”

He pointed to his right. “There’s a railroad spur over there and those are loaded coal cars, so maybe there’s your answer.”

It was nearly ten o’clock, and the town seemed to be sound asleep, with no one out and most of the buildings closed up.

“I don’t know if we can get gas or coffee now, and we might end up sleeping in the car till morning,” said Archer. “Because the filling station over there is shut down for the night, and this doesn’t look like a two-gas-pump kind of town.”

“There’s a light on in that building over there.”

They stopped in front and climbed out. The air was cool and dry, and the wind had died down some. Archer slipped on his hat and locked up the Delahaye. The sign out front of the building read: CLANCY’S SALOON. OPEN AT NOON, CLOSE WHENEVER.

“I like Coalinga better already,” said Callahan as she saw this, too.

Archer held the door for her and they walked in.

The four hundred square feet inside consisted of a mahogany bar with ten backless stools, a jukebox with neon tubes blinking wearily, four tables with a pair of low-backed chairs designed in the form of a ship’s wooden wheel around each, a small dance floor made of scratched herringbone parquet on which not a soul was dancing, and a pay phone on the wall. A pencil dangled from a string tacked to that wall, and lines of phone numbers had been scribbled across the paint like math equations. A small window behind the bar was where the food came through for the patrons seated there. A single swing door to the left of that was where the meals came through for the dining area.