Shadow Prey

pleading . . .
    Hart’s face vanished in an electronic instant, to be replaced by that of a woman newscaster. “We’ve just gotten word that there has been another assassination attempt in Brookings, South Dakota, apparently related to the killings done by the Indian extremist group responsible for the assassinations of the New York commissioner of welfare and a federal judge in Oklahoma. The target of the South Dakota attempt was Elmer Linstad, the state’s attorney general . . . .”
    The woman paused, looked at her desk, then up again. “CBS news is reporting that Elmer Linstad, attorney general of South Dakota, is dead in an assassination in Brookings, South Dakota. His assailant was shot by a bystander and has been taken to a Brookings hospital . . . .”
     
    “Billy’s dead and John’s been shot.” Shadow Love, carrying a long cardboard box, pushed into the apartment. He kicked the door shut and tossed the box on the couch. A printed label on the side of the box said CURTAIN RODS.
    “What?” The Crows, startled, stared at him.
    “You deaf?” Shadow Love asked. “I said Billy’s dead. John’s been shot. It’s on the TV.”
    The Crows’ apartment had come with a television, but they rarely turned it on during the day. Now they did, and the loops were running.
    William Two Horses Hood, the anchorman said, had been positively identified as the slayer of John Andretti, the New York City welfare commissioner. He had been shot to death by a New York police officer after Hood had taken a Minneapolis officer hostage. The Minneapolis officer was not hurt. John Liss, a Sioux Indian from Minneapolis, was in guarded condition in a Brookings hospital . . . .
    “That’s the hunter cop,” Shadow Love said, tapping the screen over the film sequence of Lucas. “He found him.”
    “Motherfucker,” Sam whispered as they watched the tape. Aaron began to weep and Sam patted him on the shoulder. They watched the tape again, then the one of the killing of Linstad, and then a rerun of the on-street press conference, with Larry Hart.
    Sam looked at his cousin. “Remember him? He’s one of the Wapeton Harts, Carl and Mary’s boy?”
    “Yeah. Good people.” said Aaron. He turned to Shadow Love. “He’s working with this cop?”
    “Yes. And everybody likes him, Larry Hart. I went to school with him. Everybody liked him in school. Everybody likes him now. The hunter and Hart and this bitch from New York, they’ll find us. There are people who know the Crows, who’ve probably seen you on the streets. And they’ll talk . . . .”
    “You don’t know that,” said Aaron.
    “Yes, I do. Just like I knew they’d find Billy. If they don’t find us by accident, somebody will turn us in. And it could be one of you, or Leo, or John. Or maybe one of their wives.”
    “Nobody would do that . . .” Aaron objected.
    “Sure they would, if this hunter pushes the right buttons,” Shadow Love said.
    “And of all of us, you’d be the only one who wouldn’t break?”
    “That’s right,” said Shadow Love. “Because you know what gets people? Love. That’s what it is. Cops use it. They say, Help your friend; betray him. They catch Sam and they want Aaron. So they say on the news that Sam is dying, he wants his cousin to pray him into death . . . . Could you stay away?”
    Aaron didn’t answer.
    “I’d never betray us, because I don’t have anyone I love enough,” Shadow Love said with a subdued sadness. “Sometimes . . . I wish I could. I never had a laugh, you know. Never got to play catch-me-fuck-me with some chick. The only one, ever, they could use against me was Mama. With her dead, there’s no pressure they could put on me.”
    After a moment, Aaron said, “That’s the most awful thing I ever fuckin’ heard.” Behind him, Sam nodded, and Shadow Love turned away.
    “That’s the way it is,” he said.
    Aaron, tears running down his face, said, “They’re all going. There’s only Leo now.”
    “And us,” said Sam.
    Aaron nodded. “If Clay doesn’t come in after South Dakota, one of us may have to go to Milwaukee.”
    Sam glanced at Shadow Love, involuntarily, just a peek, but Aaron caught it. “No,” he said.
    “Why not?” Shadow Love asked, his words like an ax-edge. “I’m part of the group; I have a stone knife.”
    “This action is not for you. If you want to help, go out to Rosebud and talk to the old men. Learn something.”
    “You don’t want