Shoot the Woman First Read Free

I’ll go home tomorrow if I don’t like what I hear tonight.”
    A plane emerged from the clouds, passed over them, landing lights flashing.
    â€œWhat’s your feeling so far?” he said.
    â€œIt has its good points,” she said. “A few bad ones, too.”
    â€œI’m not sure of the company.”
    The lines in his face were deeper than the last time she’d seen him, nearly six years ago. She wondered if hers were as well.
    â€œI’ve worked with Glass,” she said. “He’s solid. If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be here.”
    â€œIt’s his cousin I’m worried about. He’s in over his head.”
    â€œI know,” she said. They’d left the airport, were on a long stretch of elevated highway. In the distance, she could see the lights of the city.
    â€œI’ve never been much for taking off dealers,” he said. “Too unpredictable, too much risk.”
    â€œUsually, yeah.”
    â€œOn the other hand, aren’t many places to find cash these days. At least not in any amount worth taking. Dealers are always a standby in that respect. That’s one economy that never slumps.”
    She opened the glove box, took out the pink rental contract. She saw he’d rented the car at the airport the day before, in the name Louis Brown.
    â€œSticking with the LB,” she said.
    â€œMakes it easier. You worried this was a government car? Wired up?”
    â€œLike you said, just being careful. No offense.”
    â€œNone taken.”
    She put the contract back in the glove box, closed it.
    â€œWay I see it,” he said, “this Cordell’s taking a hell of a risk.”
    â€œHe must think it’s worth it.”
    â€œYou believe there’s that much money involved? Half a million?”
    â€œCould be. Even if it’s half that, though, not a bad day’s work for four people.”
    They rode in silence for a while, the freeway taking them over an area of dark factories and warehouses, dimly lit streets that seemed to go on forever.
    â€œThis town’s seen better days,” she said.
    â€œSo have I.”
    â€œYou still in St. Louis?”
    â€œOff and on. Was down in Florida for a while. Got a wife there. Well, ex-wife now. Little girl, too.”
    â€œHow old?”
    â€œSix. Her name’s Haley. I know, hard to believe, right? A kid at my age. Didn’t plan it that way, just sort of happened.”
    â€œNothing wrong with that. Congratulations.”
    â€œThanks. Things didn’t quite work out the way I hoped, though.”
    â€œYou see her?”
    â€œHaley? Not much. They’re down near Orlando. I bought a house for them, send money when I can.”
    She thought of Maddie, her own daughter. Eleven this year, and being raised by Crissa’s cousin in Texas, with no idea who her real mother was. Crissa sent them money every month, certified checks from a Costa Rican account.
    â€œI heard about Wayne,” he said. “About his sentence being extended. I’m sorry.”
    â€œThanks.”
    â€œThat’s a tough break.”
    â€œIt was. His parole hearing was coming up. I almost had him out of there.”
    It was Wayne who’d brought her into the Life. Before that had been a series of bad relationships marked by casual violence and petty crime. She’d been with Beaumont, Maddie’s father, for only a year, blurred months of drugs and alcohol.
    Wayne had taken her away from all that. He lived well, showed her a life she never thought possible. He put crews together, did work all over the country. Eighteen years younger than him, but she’d become part of that world as well.
    â€œYou ever get down there to see him?” Larry said.
    â€œI did for a while, regular. But the name they had on file down there on the approved visitors roll, the one I was using … I had to give that up, because of some things that happened.