The Detonators Read Free Page B

retires from this crazy outfit. You know that. It works both ways. If you’re ever needed again, really needed, you’ll be called.”
    “Well, I thought a long time before I dialed that emergency number; but it looked as if they were going to bury me so deep nobody’d ever find me. And I…” He stopped and drew a long breath. “I’d heard the girl was looking for me. I wanted to see her again, Matt. My little girl. Just once before… Is she here?”
    Well, people do get mushy about their kids, even fairly tough people. “She’s outside,” I said.
    “So she came!”
    I said quickly, “Don’t get your hopes up,
amigo
. She’s been brainwashed most of her life. You’re an evil, violent man. Brutally beating up half a dozen helpless little cops and coastguardsmen and smuggling nasty marijuana are exactly what she expects of you. She’s just surprised it wasn’t coke or heroin.”
    He grinned at me crookedly. “You don’t pull any punches, do you?”
    I shrugged. “You’ll see her in a minute. What would be the point in letting you entertain any fond expectations, even briefly? To be blunt, your daughter is a fairly impossible, stuffy, little female prick. But she did come.”
    “Yes,” he said. “And if anything happens to me, you’ll look after that impossible, stuffy, little female prick for me, won’t you? Because you owe me one and I’m asking.”
    I nodded. That was the second personal matter involved here, the fact that he’d once saved my life. “You didn’t have to say it.”
    “Sorry. I had to know. She’s got nobody else, now that that self-righteous bitch I married is dead.”
    “Consider it signed and sealed. But Mac has pulled the right strings, and you’ll be out of here in a few hours. Maybe you can make your peace with her and do your own looking-after.”
    He shook his head. “It’s a nice thought, but I doubt that what’s between us can be changed in an afternoon, after all the years her witch-mother had to work on her. And I may not have too much time, if you know what I mean; so let me give you a quick rundown on the arrangements I’ve made for her, just in case.” After he’d finished, he said, “Well, that takes care of that. Now, what about the boat?”
    I said, “That’s the tough part. The Coast Guard is apparently being sticky. Pressure is being brought to bear, and we’re looking for that creep you were dumb enough to invite on board, to get a confession out of him. But it’ll be another few days, at least.”
    He grimaced. “Bunch of uniformed pirates! What do they do with all the vessels they steal? Oh, excuse
me
! Impound. Confiscate. For a bit of grass worth a few hundred on the street—even assuming it was my grass, which it wasn’t—they grab themselves a boat worth fifty grand easy. What the hell kind of justice would that be, even if I were guilty? Legal larceny!”
    I said, “Take it easy. Don’t flip all over again. And incidentally, you didn’t do so well the first time, did you?” I stared at him hard. “Granted, that seems to’ve been a good enough blow to the throat, judging by all reports, and you couldn’t know that Coast Guard guy would be so handy at doing emergency surgery with his little knife. But as for the rest, just a bunch of piddling little fractures and lacerations. Very bad for the team’s reputation. We’re supposed to be the guys who leave them dead, Mr. Barnett.”
    He stared right back at me with his head held at that odd angle. “You know the answer, Matt. That billy club didn’t do me a damn bit of good in the vision department. I haven’t recovered from it yet and probably won’t. Cop bastard.”
    I nodded. “I just wanted to be sure. Anything I can do?”
    “There’s nothing anybody can do. That was checked out by the medical experts a long time ago. They told me at the time not to let people bounce things off my skull, ha-ha; that’s why I was retired, although we didn’t publicize it. But thanks