Hyenas Read Free

aren’t friends.”
    “You fought like they were your buddies,” Leonard said.
    “We didn’t fight well,” he said. “You kind of walked through us.”
    “I staggered a little,” Leonard said. “That chair hurt.”
    “You went down and you came up like a jack in the box,” Kelly said. “When you did that, I thought you were fucking Dracula.”
    “Actually, I would have been Blacula. Ever see that old movie?”
    Kelly shook his head.
    “Never mind,” Leonard said. “Look, it’s nice, you buying us coffee and a Danish—”
    “I’m having an apple fritter,” I said.
    “Okay,” Leonard said. “Danish and fritters, but if you’ve got something to say besides I’m sorry and let me buy you coffee, then let’s move on. Me and Hap are busy men. We got places to go, things to do, and people to see.”
    “Not really,” I said. “Our day is pretty open.”
    Leonard gave me a sour face.
    “I’ll pay you to help me out,” Kelly said.
    “We talking about moving a piano?” Leonard said.
    “No,” he said. “We’re talking about maybe you having to rough someone up.”
    “First off,” Leonard said. “Why? And how much?”
    “It’s my brother, Donnie. He’s in deep doo-doo,” Kelly said.
    “What kind of doo-doo?” I asked.
    “He got in with these fellas that rob armored cars,” Kelly said.
    We all sat there for a moment and let that statement hang between us like a carcass.
    “This is starting to sound like doo-doo that’s too deep,” I said.
    “It’s deep all right,” Kelly said. “He’s only twenty-one. Good kid, really.”
    “Except for wanting to rob an armored car,” I said. “I would consider that possibly a blemish on his character.”
    Kelly nodded.
    I said, “He’s twenty-one, you’re like, what thirty? You guys are some years apart, aren’t you?”
    “Thirty-one, and yeah, he was like a surprise,” Kelly said. “Dad wasn’t all that good about hanging around anyway, but that little surprise, Donnie, it was more than he could handle. He took the car out for an oil change, and just kept going.”
    “So what’s this got to do with me?” Leonard asked.
    “You know that robbery took place in LaBorde last year, the armored car guards at the bank?”
    “Yeah, I remember,” Leonard said. “They got the guards when they were transporting the money out of the bank to the truck. Just walked up with masks on and had guns and locked the guards in the back of the truck. It was maybe, what, two hundred thousand dollars they got?”
    “About four hundred thousand,” Kelly said. “They must have had someone waiting that drove up, picked them up and took them away. No one knows. All they know is they were there with Halloween masks on one minute, then they had the money, and then they were gone. That was it. Took the guard’s guns and put the guards in the back of the armored car and put plastic cuffs on them. Fastened one cuff to their left ankle, one to their right wrist. Then had them put an arm behind their back and fixed it there and pulled the plastic down to the other ankle, linked it from behind. That way they couldn’t move well, damn sure couldn’t run.”
    “That’s cute,” I said.
    “Was your brother one of them?” Leonard asked.
    “No, but I think he’s about to be.”
    “And, pray tell, why do you think that?” I asked.
    “Because in his room he’s got some articles about the heist,” he said.
    “That doesn’t mean anything,” Leonard said. “Hap has books about Satan, but he ain’t a Satanist. At least, as far as we know.”
    “Those damn books and that rap music,” I said. “They can change a man.”
    Kelly ignored me. Sometimes it’s all you can do. He said, “Yeah, but Donny, he has these friends come around, and they lock themselves in the back room for hours. I know they’re smoking dope. I can smell it. But what I really worry about is I think these friends are the robbers and they want to pull my brother in.”
    “That’s a