Shadow Prey

here . . . . I know, I know . . . . No, bullshit, I don’t do that and the men here don’t do that. You tell me one time . . . Billy? Billy?” He shook his head and dropped the receiver to his lap. “Fuck it, he hung up.”
    “What’s he say?” Lily asked.
    “He says us white boys are going to snipe him,” the negotiator said. The negotiator, who was burly and black, smiled and picked up the phone and started dialing again. “He’s probably right, fuckin’ white boys with guns.”
    The line was busy.
    “Where’s that file Anderson made?” the negotiator asked his radio man. The radio man passed a notebook. “Call the phone company, tell them what’s happening and ask them to check the number, see where the call’s going.”
    “Check his family,” Lucas suggested. “There oughta be a phone number.”
    The negotiator found the Bemidji number in Anderson’s notebook, dialed it, found it busy. “That’s it,” he said. “We ought to have somebody get onto the sheriff’s office up there, get them to go see his wife. We might want to talk to her. We can get her to call here, and then switch her in, so we can hear what they’re saying.”
    A plainclothes cop hurried up. “One of the roommates says that Hood tried to fire a rifle and it blew up on him. He’s hurt. He’s got a cut on his face, he’s bleeding. The roommate doesn’t think it’s too bad.”
    Lucas looked at Lily, and Lily grinned and nodded.
    Five minutes later, the negotiator got through again.
    “You can’t get out, Billy. All that’s gonna happen is that somebody’s gonna get hurt. We’ll get you a lawyer, free, we’ll get you . . . Fuck.”
    “Try his wife?” Lucas suggested.
    “How about those two guys who came out?” asked Lily. “Maybe they’d help . . . .”
    Kieffer drifted up to the car. “I thought you were out of here,” Lucas said, standing to confront him.
    “We’re observing,” Kieffer said bitterly.
    “Observe my ass.” Lucas stood directly in front of Kieffer, their chests almost touching.
    “Fuckin’ touch me, Davenport,” Kieffer said. “I’ll have your ass in jail . . . .”
    “I’ll touch you,” Lily said, pushing between them. Lucas reluctantly gave a step. “You gonna put me in jail for assault? I’m not so polite as these Minneapolis assholes, Kieffer, and I don’t have to honor any of Daniel’s deals. I can go talk to the TV on my own.”
    “Fuck it,” Kieffer said, stepping back. “I’m observing.”
     
    The negotiator tried again, spoke longer this time. “You can trust us . . . . Wait a minute, let me talk to a guy . . . .”
    He finally turned to Lucas, covered the mouthpiece on the phone and said, “You know any Indians?”
    “A few.”
    “You want to try him? He’s scared. Mention these people you know . . . .”
    Lucas took the phone. “Billy Hood. This is Lucas Davenport from the Minneapolis cops. Listen, you know Dick Yellow Hand, a friend of Bluebird’s? Or Chief Dooley, the barber? Do you know Earl and Betty May? They’re friends of mine, man. They’d be worried about you. I’m worried about you. There’s nothing you can do in there. You’ll just get hurt. If you come out, you’ll be okay. I swear.”
    There was another moment of silence. Then Hood said, “You know Earl and Betty?”
    “Yeah, man. You could call them. They’d tell you I’m okay.”
    “You white?”
    “Yeah, yeah, but I don’t want to hurt anybody. Come on out, Billy. I swear to God nobody wants to shoot at you. Walk on out and we can all go home.”
    “Let me think, man. Let me think, okay?”
    “Okay, Billy.” The line went dead.
     
    “What?” Lucas asked the negotiator, who had been listening on a headset.
    “He may be calling these people. Earl and Betty, was that their names?”
    “Yeah. Just about everybody knows them.”
    “We’ll give him two minutes and try again.”
    Two minutes later, the line was busy. After three, they got through. The negotiator said a few words, then handed the phone to Lucas.
    “Is this the guy who knows Earl and Betty?” Hood asked.
    “Yeah. Davenport,” Lucas said.
    “I’ll come out, but I want you to come up here and get me. If I just come outside, one of those white boys is gonna snipe me.”
    “No, they won’t, Billy . . . . Listen . . .” Lucas hunched over the phone.
    “Bullshit, man, don’t bullshit me. Those guys been against me for a long time. Ever since I was born,