Read DR07 - Dixie City Jam for Free Online Page B

turn in his seat and stare back at me. Then the helicopter
circled and hovered no more than forty yards to the south of us.
    'What they doin'?' Batist said.
    'I don't know.'
    'Let's get goin', Dave. We don't need to be stayin' out here
no longer with them spouts.'
    'You got it, partner,' I said.
    Then the helicopter gained altitude, perhaps to five hundred
feet directly above us, high enough for them to see the coastline and
to take a good fix on our position.
    I left the Clorox marker bottles on the deck and pulled the
sash weight back up from the bottom. We could return to this same area
and probably find the sub again with my sonar, or 'fish finder,' which
was an electronic marvel that could outline any protrusion on the gulfs
floor. But the sky in the south was completely black now, with veins of
lightning trembling on the horizon, and I had a feeling that the Nazi
silent service down below was about to set sail again.

----
chapter
four
    We lived south of New Iberia, on an
oak-lined dirt road next
to the bayou, in a house that my father had built of notched and pegged
cypress during the Depression. The side and front yards were matted
with a thick layer of black leaves and stayed in deep shade from the
pecan and oak trees that covered the eaves of the house. From the
gallery, which had a rusted tin roof, you could look down the slope and
across the dirt road to my boat-rental dock and bait shop. On the far
side of the bayou was a heavy border of willow trees, and beyond the
willows a marsh filled with moss-strung dead cypress, whose tops would
become as pink as newly opened roses when the sun broke through the
mist in the early morning.
    I slept late the morning after we brought the boat back from
New Orleans. Then I fixed coffee and hot milk and a bowl of Grape-Nuts
and blackberries, and took it all out on a tray to the redwood picnic
table under the mimosa tree in the backyard. Later, Bootsie came
outside through the screen door with a glass of iced tea, her face
fresh and cool in the breeze across the lawn. She wore a sleeveless
white blouse and pink shorts, and her thick, honey-colored hair, which
she had brushed in swirls and pinned up on her head, was burned gold on
the tips from the sun.
    'Did you see the phone messages from a police sergeant on the
blackboard?' she asked.
    'Yeah, thanks.'
    'What does she want?'
    'I don't know. I haven't called her back.'
    'She seemed pretty anxious to talk to you.'
    'Her name's Lucinda Bergeron. I think she probably has
problems with her conscience.'
    'What?'
    'I tried to help her on an insubordination beef. When I asked
her to do a favor for Batist, she more or less indicated I could drop
dead.'
    'Maybe it's just a misunderstanding.'
    'I don't think so. Where's Alafair?'
    'She's down at the dock with Batist.' She drank from her iced
tea and gazed at the duck pond at the foot of our property. She shook
the ice in the bottom of the glass and looked at it. Then she said,
'Dave, are we going to pay for his lawyer?'
    'It's either that or let him take his chances with a
court-appointed attorney. If he's lucky, he'll get a good one. If not,
he can end up in Angola.'
    She touched at her hairline with her fingers and tried to keep
her face empty of expression.
    'How much is it going to cost?' she said.
    'Ten to twenty grand. Maybe a lot more.'
    She widened her eyes and took a breath, and I could see a
small white discoloration, the size of a dime, in each of her cheeks.
    'Dave, we'll go into debt for years,' she said.
    'I don't know what to do about it. Nate Baxter targeted Batist
because he couldn't get at me or Clete. It's not Batist's fault.'
    The breeze blew through the mimosa, and the shade looked like
lace rippling across her face. I saw her try to hide the anger that was
gathering in her eyes.
    'There's nothing for it, Boots. The man didn't do anything to
deserve this. We have to help him.'
    'All this started with Clete Purcel. He enjoys it. It's a way
of life with him. When are