"You want me to dress up? Like in a hoopskirt with all those petticoats they wore?"

"Just the hoopskirt. Nothing under it."

They walked into Junebug's manufactured home and Jim Rein said, "Man, we's just talking about you," to Eugene Dean watching TV with Junebug. They sat at either end of a green-plaid sofa, a dozen empty beer cans on the low table in front of them, the ashtray full of b.u.t.ts, the smell of marijuana in the air.

Eugene said, "Hey, Fish, how they hangin'?"

Jim Rein said, "Just like you left 'em."

Arlen turned off the giant TV and then adjusted his Confederate slouch hat to feel just right, Junebug yelling at him, "Hey, I'm watching my f.u.c.kin show. They's just about to start hitting each other."

"Arguing over the Confederate flag," Eugene said, no shirt on, showing his sunken chest and ribs. "The white guys're skinhead militia, they say it's part of our heritage. The colored guys say well, it ain't part of ours, motherf.u.c.kers. They bleep it, but you can tell what they're saying."

"Look like some gang n.i.g.g.e.rs," Junebug said, "they got off the street." Arlen said, "Bug, have you been telling people we shot Floyd?" Junebug held a beer can on his knee looking up at Arlen. "Man, are you crazy?" A scowl on his face.

"And that diver was up on the ladder the whole while?"

"Jesus Christ, Arlen, it wasn't me told anybody, you f.u.c.kin moron, it was you. I'm behind the bar looking right at you when you told Bob Hoon and one of his boys. They'd just delivered a load of crank."

Arlen said, "You gonna stick to that story?" "It's the truth. Ask Bob Hoon." Arlen turned his head to Jim Rein.

Jim Rein put his hands around to his back and brought out a U.S. Army Colt .45 from under his shirt hanging out.

Arlen said, "Bust him."

Junebug tried to sit up saying, "Hey, come on-"

And bam bam, Jim Rein shot him.

A dog started barking and scratching at a door.

Arlen held his eyes on Junebug slumped back against the plaid sofa, his eyes open. Eugene had his eyes hooked on Jim Rein.

Jim Rein said, "He ought to be dead. I shot him through the heart." Arlen said, "You heard him lie to my face?" He looked up. "That dog don't quit I'm gonna shoot it it."

That got Eugene up. He went to the kitchen door the barking was coming from, telling Arlen, "I got it, I'll take care of the dog," went through the door and closed it again. Jim Rein said, "He's more worried about that dog than hisself." Arlen said, "Eugene didn't do nothing. Put your gun away." Eugene came back in the room, his shoulders sagging, hesitant, saying to Arlen, "Don't look at me like that. You either, Fish. You know I'll keep it right here."

"I was thinking of something else," Arlen said.

"That money you made off the h.o.m.os?"

"Made, but didn't get none."

"What happened to it?"

"I don't know. The lawyer spent it or hid it someplace. I checked every bank in Jackson, wasn't one had an account in my name. I went back to see the lawyer and asked him where my money was. He kept saying I didn't have none. So I went and got a gun and shot him. Like Fish done Junebug, through the heart."

"Whyn't you make him tell where it was?"

"I lost my temper. I know, I should've caused him some pain first, but I lost my G.o.dd.a.m.n temper."

"I'm gonna ask you a question," Arlen said, "while Fish stands there with his pistol waiting on the answer. Did you get hold of the money-what was it, two hundred thousand?"

"Around there."

"And hid it yourself?"

"Who from if it was mine?"

"You owed me a third."

"Yeah, for getting me that f.u.c.kin lawyer."

"And the pitchers."

"Man, if I had that money I'd have paid you first thing, and you know it." Arlen made him wait till finally he said, "I believe you, Ace."

They had a discussion about Junebug, what to do with him. Arlen said to leave him where he was at. Eugene said, "Arlen, this is where I live live." Where he'd been staying since his release from Delta Correctional, it was home. His dog had to have a place to stay and she was used to living here.

Jim Rein said, "What's her name?"

"Rose."

"Yeah? That's a pretty name."

"She's a b.i.t.c.h, but I love her."

It meant one of them would have to take Junebug in his car someplace and dump him. Arlen picked Jim Rein. First they had to find Junebug's keys so they could bring the Cadillac in the garage and put Junebug in it. The next step was to carry him out there. They went to pick him up and saw another problem, the blood on the sofa, all over the back cushion, and the bullet hole in it. Jim Rein telling them it was why he used the .45, it was a stopper. You get hit with it you weren't going nowhere. They began to discuss what to do with the sofa. Arlen said, "Well, it ain't mine," and told Eugene to put it in his truck and get rid of it. Dump it in the river. Arlen decided that's where Junebug should go, dump him in the river, too, downstream, or state cops'd be all over them by tomorrow. The next decision to be made, what to do with the Cadillac. Eugene said, "s.h.i.t, we don't want to dump it, it's a good car. How 'bout he left it here when he disappeared?"

Arlen thought about it and said no. "Fish'll take it over to Arkansas and sell it to a n.i.g.g.e.r." Once they had Junebug in the garage-Arlen inside watching that TV show-Eugene said to Jim Rein, "Fish, you know Wesley?"

"The bartender?"

"Yeah, Wesley. You ever talk to him?"

"If I want a drink."

"Wesley says to me, 'You want to hear a funny story?' He says one Arlen told the other night to old Bob Hoon when he was in."

Jim Rein had Junebug in his arms. He bent over to lay him in the trunk of the Cadillac, then looked at Eugene as he straightened.

"I know what you're gonna say."

"I don't care," Eugene said. "It don't make a bit of difference to me." Jim Rein said, "Me neither."

12.

VERNICE SAID TO ROBERT on the phone, "Well, you sure rise and shine early. He's still sleeping, the last I heard." Robert asked if she'd have Dennis call him when he got up and Vernice said, "Sure thing." on the phone, "Well, you sure rise and shine early. He's still sleeping, the last I heard." Robert asked if she'd have Dennis call him when he got up and Vernice said, "Sure thing."

Maybe he was awake by now. She went into Dennis' room to check and looked down at the sweet boy lying on his side, arm under the pillow, the sheet almost to his bare shoulders. She went back to the door and listened, the house quiet except for the faint sound of Charlie in the next room sawing wood. Vernice closed the door and slipped out of her robe going to the bed. She got in behind Dennis and squirmed over to press her body against his bare back. She hoped he'd have to go to the bathroom and would brush his teeth while he was in there, but if he didn't it was okay. She raised her head enough to nibble at his ear and whisper, "Hi, stranger." He stirred and she kissed his neck. Now his hand came around to her hip, like he was checking to see who this was in bed with him.

"It's just me," Vernice whispered, almost saying "little me," hunching her shoulders, Vernice down another four pounds in the past two days. She was pretty sure he was awake now but didn't want to rush him, appear too anxious. She said, "Dennis?"

He made a sound like "Hmmmm?"

"You think a person can look good but be too thin?"

It took a moment for him to say, "I guess," sounding more awake now.

"Did you know Jane Fonda had a twenty-fiveyear battle with bulimia?"

"What's bulimia?"

"You eat and then throw up on account of low self-esteem. But she got over it. Estranged husband Ted Turner got Jane to believe in herself." "I thought it was finding G.o.d did it." "That was in an old issue."

He came around enough to look up at her and Vernice gave him a peck on the cheek. She said, "How was the show yesterday?"

"Billy Darwin doesn't want Charlie calling dives anymore. He said, 'Get somebody to introduce you, tell the crowd about the splash zone and let it go at that. No more Charlie telling stories from the old dugout.' He said do a few dives in the afternoon if you feel like it and savehe said, 'save the daredevil stuff for the show at night.' "

"You want, I'll introduce you," Vernice said. "I know I can do that."

"But then you know what he said, Billy Darwin? There's a guy standing here-the ones Charlie picked up at the airport, the Mularonies, remember?"

"Anne," Vernice said. "Charlie thought she was too thin."

"The guy tells Billy Darwin he wants to be sure I get a few days off from diving so I can take part in the reenactment. Me. I don't even know the guy. Billy Darwin says, 'Well, he knows you.'

He tells me the guy laid a check for fifty grand on the casino cashier. The man's comped all the way and that includes me. If Mularoni wants me in the reenactment, I'm in the reenactment. I said to him, t doesn't make sense, I never even heard of the guy.' Billy Darwin says, t's up to you. Get in uniform or pack up your show.' Then he says, t's not much of a draw anyway.'"

"And you don't even know know this person?" this person?"

They heard a toilet flush.

"Nuts," Vernice said, "Charlie's up." She rolled out of the bed, picked up her pongee robe from the floor and put it on. Going to the door she said, "Oh, that colored fella, Robert? He wants you to call him."

The phone rang in Robert's suite-all the phones. He put his hand on the one next to the bed and said to Anne, putting her warm-ups back on, "Where'd you tell Jerry you were going?"

"To work out."

"Weren't lying, were you?"

"If he ever starts, we're f.u.c.ked."

"No danger, the man likes the way he is." Robert picked up the phone. "Is this Dennis I'm about to speak to?"

"What's up?"

Robert said to Anne, "It's Dennis."

So Dennis would say, "Somebody's there with you?"

"The maid. She's getting dressed." "Come on-"

"See, what you do, believe everything I say and you won't have to mind-f.u.c.k yourself thinking about it. Listen, I want to introduce you to somebody."

"His name Mularoni?"

"Hey, how'd you pick up on that?"

"Billy Darwin. I do the reenactment thing or the gig's over."

"He didn't need to put it like that-s.h.i.t. You were gonna do it, weren't you? All we wanted, make sure you got some days off. Mr. Mularoni's the kind of man can make it happen. You understand what I'm saying? I want you to meet him."

"How about Anne?"

Robert put his hand over the phone and watched Anne sitting on the bed putting on a tennis shoe. He took his hand off the phone and said, "Dennis, you got chops working now I hadn't noticed. That was cool, that 'How about Anne?' d.a.m.n."

"I'm diving at two."

"You can if you want. But Mr. Billy Darwin agreed you could cut that one."

"Why?"

"Have time to get the uniform and the gun and s.h.i.t. We meeting in their suite at one o'clock, have some lunch."

"What if I'd rather dive?"

"Dennis? Listen to me. You're hungry. You eat, wait an hour and then you can dive all you want."

He hung up, Anne looking at him now, ready to leave.

"How'd he know about me?"

Robert was already thinking about it. He said, "Gimme another minute or two."

Mularoni was introduced to Dennis as Jerry, not Germano. In his fifties, shorter than Dennis with a head of thick dark hair and a beard, a poser with the cigar, the dark sungla.s.ses. He seemed pleasant enough, but also the boss, saying, "Dennis, come here," put his arm around Dennis'

shoulders and brought him to the balcony, the doors wide open.

"The ladder stands eighty feet high. That correct?"

"Exactly," Dennis said. "Eight ten-foot sections."