Bad Blood

die.” He pushed the storm door open. “Come on in. What the hell are you doing here?”
    Virgil kicked the snow off his boots and tracked into the living room, and Holley clicked off what looked like a new television and pointed Virgil at one of two purple corduroy La-Z-Boys.
    Virgil sat, and said, “You gettin’ any?”
    Holley scratched his crotch and said, “Matter of fact—”
    “Okay, I don’t want to hear about it,” Virgil said. “How old is she?”
    “A nice, crisp sixty-four,” Holley said. “She has an orgasm, the neighbors run for the tornado cellars.”
    “Jesus, Clay, she’s a child. You’ve got kids older than she is,” Virgil said.
    “Yup. Two of them, anyway,” Holley said. “Why are we talking about my sex life? It’s not all that interesting.”
    “I was hoping you were shacked up with somebody so you could go away for a couple days,” Virgil said. “I want to borrow your house. And maybe a few of your friends.”
    Holley studied him for a moment, then chuckled. “This is gonna be good, isn’t it?”
     
     
    HOLLEY LISTENED to the story and said, “Marie lives two houses down, so I could stay there—I stay over every once in a while anyway, when I’m too fucked-out to walk back to the house. I’ll tell you what, that Viagra stuff can be the curse of old age.”
    “Man, I really don’t want to hear about it,” Virgil said.
    “Anyway, we definitely could set up a surveillance system. We’ve got the Johnsons down on the one corner, and the Johnsons down on the other corner—they’re not related—and the Pells, and the Schooners . . . they’re all retired, they’ve all got cell phones. I can call them up right now, we can meet over at Marie’s. She’s got the biggest house. These folks’ll all go for it.”
    “So you’re ready to say ‘yes’?”
    “Hell, yes. Goddamn interesting thing you got going here, Virgil,” Holley said. “I’ll call up the TV and give ’em an interview when you bust everybody. Be a hero.”
    “You’re welcome to do that—I can even give you a name or two,” Virgil said. “All right. Call your friends. Let’s see if we can do it tomorrow.”
     
     
    IT ALL WENT BETTER than Virgil had any right to hope, he told Coakley later that evening, when he got back to Homestead.
    “His girlfriend slapped together a batch of oatmeal cookies, and we got all of these old folks there, having a party, and told them what we wanted to do, and they were all for it,” Virgil said. They were back in bed, covers up to their chins. “I called Gordon, and she’s up for it. I’ll go up there tomorrow, pick her up, truck her ass over to Hayfield. Davenport got me Shrake and Jenkins, a couple of thugs, perfect for this, and they’re coming down tomorrow. We’ll make the call tomorrow, noon or early afternoon. That’ll give Roland time to talk to other people, get organized, and get up there.”
    “I think we’re putting a lot of weight on the idea that they’ll be able to trace the call,” Coakley said.
    “Got to,” Virgil said. “They wouldn’t take any other kind of hook. They’ve got to work for it. They’ve all got computers, and it won’t take a genius to work the reverse directory. Clay’s in there, C. Holley. They’ll find it.”
    “What if they don’t come?” Coakley asked.
    “Well, I’m gonna put a bug in their ear,” Virgil said. “I’m gonna go talk to Alma Flood tomorrow, sometime when this weird guy isn’t there—the chicken plucker.”
    “Wally Rooney.”
    “Yeah. I’m going to let it slip that we’ve got information coming, and see if I can squeeze anything out of her. Talk the Bible to her for a while. There’s something going on with her; I don’t know what. But—I’m gonna let her know that we’ve got a source, and that we’re closing in on them. That’ll give them a push.”
    “Can’t talk about child sex to her,” Coakley said. “Not yet.”
    “Not yet. But I can talk about Kelly Baker, and how she was abused. I can wonder if more church members might have been involved. Leave the impression that I’m ignorant, but learning, and that we have this source—”
    “What do I do?”
    “If we snap the trap on these guys tomorrow evening or the next day, you gotta be ready to get a warrant and hit Rouse,” Virgil said. “Rouse is the key. There’re a lot of photos—that’ll bring down the whole thing. So we snap the trap, if we get one inch of info, from anybody we get, about