Storm Front

said.
    She shook her head: “This is really starting to hurt me,” she said.
    Virgil sighed and said, “Ma, I really don’t want to do that.”
    “Can’t see how we can avoid it, now,” she said. “We’re all jammed up here.”
    “You really don’t know where Jones is?”
    “No,” she lied, and steered Virgil in another direction. “I know where the red Volvo is, but I don’t know where he is, or what he’s driving now.”
    “Where’s the Volvo?”
    “Up in one of the Gustavus’s parking lots.”
    “All right,” Virgil said. “Now. Let’s work through some details.”
    —
    T HEY WORKED through a plan for the next day. Bauer agreed that he would call Virgil with the exchange point as soon as he got it.
    “You’re not going to try to sneak up on me and take the stone away, when I get it, will you?” Ma asked.
    “I’m not sure I could, out here in the countryside,” Virgil said, but he didn’t say yes or no.
    “Think real hard about that, because I don’t think you could, either. I’ll make a whole bunch of stops, and if you jump me before I get the stone . . . I just won’t show up at the auction, and the whole deal will fall through.”
    “I’ll think hard about it,” Virgil said.
    When Virgil left, he looked back and saw a light go on, on the second floor. And he wondered, was Ma going up to the bedroom with Tag? Or was Jones up there, and now on his way down? Or what?
    He watched for anyone looking out at him, then got in his truck, retrieved the extra GPS unit, stepped over to Ma’s truck, and stuck it on the frame.
    —
    B ACK AT THE HOUSE , Ma came down from the bathroom, paused on the landing to watch Virgil’s taillights rolling out the driveway, then walked the rest of the way down and said to Bauer, “I don’t know what to do. I’m stuck between two men.”
    “Take me,” Bauer suggested.
    “You’re not in the running, sweetheart,” Ma said. “I was talking about the Reverend Jones and Virgil.”
    “Flowers is pretty sweet on you,” Bauer said. “That’s obvious.”
    “I’m not sure of that, not at all,” Ma said.
    “Take my word for it: he is,” Bauer said.
    Ma sat on the arm of an easy chair. “So what do you think I should do?”
    “Play it by ear. Get the stone from Jones, take it to the auction, like Virgil said. But meet me first. I’ve got a camera, we’ll put it on a tripod. I want to handle the stone, show it off for the camera. That’s all I need, and then I’ll be happy.”
    “I guess I could do that,” Ma said. “I don’t see any harm in it.”

20
    A wad called: “Al-Lubnani just got a call from the Hatchet. He has just gone to a meeting now. He says he might be getting the money.”
    “Keep your head down,” Virgil said. “This Hatchet sounds like a nutbag.”
    “I have thought to take myself out and get lost,” Awad said.
    “Do you have a favorite bar?”
    “The Pigwhistle.”
    “Go there. Although, for a guy like you, it’s a poor choice. No coeds at the Dog.”
    “As a man who knows these things, where should a man like myself go to meet women who will fornicate with me?”
    “Ah, well, hmm, I’d try the Rooster Coop,” Virgil said. “It’s a cowboy bar. Don’t tell them you’re Lebanese—tell them you’re part Apache. If a part-Apache can’t get laid in the Rooster Coop, he can’t get laid.”
    “I have cowboy boots,” Awad offered.
    “Then you’re good,” Virgil said. “But go to a drugstore first and pick up some protection. You don’t want a bunch of little Apaches running around.”
    “I have many of those protections here in my apartment, which I buy, like you Americans say, just in case,” Awad said. “I am going now.”
    —
    V IRGIL GOT the double-secret phone from under the car seat, brushed some pizza crust crumbs off it, and pushed “1.” Lincoln answered two seconds later: “Yes?”
    “Al-Lubnani has gone to pick up the money from the Hatchet.”
    “We know. We’re all over him. And Awad—we just heard you tell Awad to go to the Rooster Coop to get laid. That’s fine. Now, you should just stay out of this.”
    “I’m starting to feel oppressed,” Virgil said.
    “That’s your role in life,” Lincoln said. “Go home.” She hung up.
    Is not,
Virgil thought.
    But he went home anyway, got online, read the news, thought about calling Ma, just for a social chat, but resisted the idea, and finally went out to the garage, turned on all the lights, climbed in his boat and