Cripple Creek Read Free Page B

remembering his kindness and concern, thirty straight leg lifts into what amounted to an hour-long
     regimen, wall slides and step-ups to go, muscles beginning at last to forgive me, none of us are exempt.

CHAPTER THREE
    THE MAN BACK IN our holding cell, Judd Kurtz, wasn't talking. When we asked him where the money came from, he grinned and
     gave us his best try at a jailyard stare. The stare just kind of hung there in no-man's-land between close-cropped brown hair
     and bullish neck.
    We made the necessary calls to State. They'd pull down any arrest records or outstanding warrants on Kurtz, run the fingerprints
     Don Lee took through AFIS. They'd also check with the feds on recent robberies and reports of missing funds. Barracks commander
     Bailey said he'd get back to us soonest. We woke bank president Stew Daniels so he could put the money in his vault.
    "Want me to stay around?" I asked Don Lee. By this time dawn was pecking at the windows.
    "No need to. Go home. Get some sleep. Come back this afternoon."
    "You're sure?"
    "Get out of here, Turner."
    Still cool out by the cabin when I reached it, early-morning sunlight skipping bright coins across the lake. Near and far,
     from ancient stands of oak and cypress, young doves called to one another. Mist clung to the water's surface. I didn't come
     here for beauty, but it keeps insisting upon pushing its way in. Val's yellow Volvo was under the pecan tree out front. Two
     squirrels sat on a low limb eyeing the car suspiciously and chattering away. As I climbed out, Val stepped onto the porch
     with twin mugs of coffee.
    "Heard you were back in port, sailor."
    "Aye, ma'am."
    "And how's the Fairlane?"
    "Not bad, once you discount crop dusters trying to land on the hood."
    I'd finally broken down and bought a car, from the same old Miss Shaugnessy who rented out her garage to Jimmy Ray, who bought
     beer for minors. Thing was a tank: you looked out on a hood that touched down two counties over. Miss Shaugnessy'd bought
     it new almost forty years ago, paying cash, but never quite learned to drive. It had been up on blocks since, less than a
     hundred miles on the odometer. Lonnie was the one who talked her into selling it to me. Went over with a couple of plate lunches
     from Jay's covered in aluminum foil and a quart of beer and came back with the keys.
    I don't remember too much more about that morning. Val and I sat side by side on the porch on kitchen chairs I'd fished out
     of the city dump up the road. I told her about Don Lee's latest catch. About the money in the nylon sports bag. Told her I
     was tired, bone tired, dead tired. Watched sparrows, cardinals, and woodpeckers alight in the trees and bluejays curse them
     all. A pair of quail ran, heads and shoulders down like soldiers, from brush to brush nearby. A squirrel came briefly onto
     the porch and sat on haunches regarding us. I think I told Val about the pork chop.
    Next thing I know she's beside me on the bed and I'm suddenly awake. No direct sunlight through east or west windows, so most
     likely the sun's overhead.
    "What, you didn't go in to work today?"
    "New policy. State employees are encouraged to telecommute one day a week."
    "What the hell for?"
    "Clean air legislation."
    "Someone's been trucking in the other kind?"
    "Sorry. Thought you were awake, but obviously you're not quite. I did mention the government, right?"
    "See your point."
    "You said to wake you around noon. Coffee's almost fresh and Cafe Val's open for business. Need a menu?"
    "Oatmeal."
    "Oatmeal? Here I hook up with an older man, expecting to reap the benefits of his life experience—plumb the depths of wisdom
     land all that—and what I get is oatmeal?"
    She did, and I did, and within the hour, following shower, shave, oatmeal breakfast, and a change of clothes, I pulled in
     by city hall. The Chariot and Don Lee's pickup were still there, along with June's Neon. Blinds were closed.
    Those blinds never get closed except at