When the Women Come out to Dance (2002) (12 page)

"A cop," Raylan said. "I see his buddy's here, the one the
y call Devil? And a skinhead from Florida with dyed hair."

"I saw them."

"You let 'em hang around?"

"They raise a ruckus, we can bust 'em."

It wasn't long after, Devil himself strolled up, Dewe
y Crowe trailing him. Devil said, "What time's the show?" A s he looked in the office Art stepped in front of Devil an d shoved him aside, Devil saying, "Hey, come on, me and Iz ar e buds." Art told him to keep away from the door and Devi l said, "He never saw Boyd up there in Cincy. Even if he says h e did to please you, you know he didn't. But why would he? Iz's going down anyway for the weed."

They brought Boyd along the corridor and stoo
d him in line with three marshals and two ATF agents an d turned out the light in the office. It was off a good ten minutes, the lineup standing in place, before it came on again.

Raylan noticed Boyd was the only one didn't move or fidge
t during that time. Now Art came out with the Bureau peopl e who'd been in there with Israel and told Boyd he could go.

Boyd saw Raylan and came over.

"I'm gonna sit down with my lawyer when I leave here.

They went through my house saying they had probable caus
e to look for guns. They tore up my posters and threw 'em i n the trash barrel with my gook ears, burned up my privat e property."

"It wasn't yours," Raylan said. "The house belongs to th
e Marshals Service. You can understand they don't like all tha t Nazi shit hanging on their walls."

"It's some govermint can take a man's house from him,"

Boyd said. He looked up the corridor to where Devil an
d Dewey Crowe were waiting for him, then back to Raylan.

"Last night this marshal's telling me how one time yo
u gave this fella twenty-four hours to get out of town or you'
d shoot him on sight. Is that true?"

"Was a gangster I saw shoot an unarmed man," Rayla
n said. "I didn't feel he deserved any special favors. I gave hi m the option and he turned it down."

"Well, all the trouble you're causing me," Boyd said, "I
t hought I'd make you the same offer. Get out of Harla n County by tomorrow noon or I'll come looking for you. Tha t sound fair?"

Raylan said to him, "Now you're talking."

When he told Art Mullen Boyd had set thi
s deadline, Art said, "It's become something personal?" frowning, at first not liking the sound of it.

"That's what it looks like," Raylan said, "since Boyd and I
g o back, but it isn't. You're the one gave him the idea whil e you're busting up his house last night."

"Our house," Art said.

They were having their noon dinner of steak and eggs a
t the Western Sizzlin Steak place out on the 421 bypass.

"I see you and him both cut from the same stock, born
a hundred years past your time."

Art had said it once before and it reminded Raylan of
a woman named Joyce saying pretty much the same thing bu t in different words. He was seeing her at the time he shot th e gangster in Miami Beach, and Joyce had trouble accepting th e fact he had deliberately shot and killed a man. She told hi m he had an image of himself as a lawman, meaning an Ol d West lawman but without the big mustache, and he believe d it might be true in some deep part of his mind. Another tim e Joyce said, "The way you put it, you said you called him out.

What did you think, you were in a movie?" Her saying i
t caught him by surprise, because at times he did see it tha t way, as something he had borrowed from a western movie. H
e liked westerns a lot.

By the time they were into their flame-kist steak and eggs, both dipping toast into the yolks, Art had come to appreciat e Raylan's situation.

"We're like big-game hunters, you know it? Only you'r
e the bait, like a goat tethered to a post. All we have to do i s keep you in sight." Art took time to chew up a bite of steak.

"What'd he say exactly, he's coming for you or we're coming?"

"He said he was."

"But we don't know if he wants to shoot you or blow yo
u up, do we?"

Raylan, mopping up his plate, didn't comment, lettin
g Art have his fun.

"Or, Boyd might jump the gun," Art said, "do it ahead o
f time, when you aren't looking. I was you I'd check under th e car before you turn the key."

He said later on when they were having their pie, "I kne
w bringing you here was a good idea."

IX.

Boyd didn't hate Raylan any more'n he'd hate
d those dead gooks without ears. Taking Raylan out was like a military objective, better to look at with a clear head than ge t emotional about it. Up at Sukey Ridge he told the skinhead s gathered for the raid into Virginia he was putting it on hold , there was a matter he had to settle first. The skins gave hi m their shrugs and popped open beers.

He had already put the two locals, the Pork brothers, up o
n that hill that was behind the Mount-Aire Motel, where Raylan and the rest of the feds were staying. The brothers had Russian binoculars, deer rifles, an AK-47 and a cell phone an d were told to stay in the trees and watch for Raylan Givens.

Call and report whenever his Town Car came or went, a bi
g shiny Lincoln losing its shine. One of the Pork brothers said , "What if we get a clear shot at him?"

Boyd wasn't sure they could hit the motel from beyon
d two hundred yards, but it gave him an idea. How to set Raylan up and get him off by himself. He told the Pork brothers to sit tight, he'd let them know.

He told Devil Ellis and the skin who wore the alligato
r teeth, Dewey, he was thinking of taking his shot that night. I t was Devil said, "I thought you were giving him twenty-fou r hours."

Boyd said what that actually meant was the next time yo
u saw the person, not the next day to the hour. Hell, the gu y would be dug in waiting on you. He said, "I know Rayla n ain't leaving, so I may as well hit him when it suits me." H
e told them he had considered waiting across the road from th e motel with an RPG and when the Town Car pulled in blow i t to hell. "But there's no cover over there to speak of, the mal l close by," Boyd said, "and I'd as soon plug him face-to-fac e anyway."

Both Devil and Dewey said they wanted to be there whe
n he did, and Boyd surprised them saying they would, as the y were gonna be his backup. They acted tickled to death till h e said, "You know Raylan will have his own people," and coul d tell they hadn't thought of that. But then he said, "How'd w e keep the law busy when we robbed those banks?" It got thei r heads nodding, both of 'em grinning, showing they stil l wanted to be along. "I've thought of a way to keep the fed s out of the picture," Boyd said, "if we can get the timing down. The idea, separate Mr. Givens from his pack of suit s and get him off by hisself."

Oh boy, they liked the sound of that, asking how they'd d
o it, blow up a car? Boyd said, "I got another plan. What I wan t you fellas to do is locate Raylan and let me know where he'
s at, from now on."

Late afternoon, Raylan came out of Ar
t
Mullen's office in the courthouse to see Ava coming along th e corridor in a beige outfit, skirt and sweater, pearls, Ava getting better-looking by the day, her expression becoming a big smile as she came up to him.

"My lawyer's still talking to the prosecutor, but it's lookin
g good. Come on with me while I have a smoke."

She took him outside, saw the benches on Central Stree
t occupied--"Geezers're always sitting there," Ava said--an d they went over to the bench in front of the Coal Miner s Memorial: six columns of dead miners close to ten feet high , Raylan's dad's name among them. He found it as Ava, smoking her cigarette, told him she was pretty sure she'd get off with no more'n probation. "I plead to some kind o f manslaughter and I won't have to go to prison. Hey, wh y don't you come by for supper? I'll fix you something nice."

Raylan said, "Baked possum?"

"I only cooked that for Bowman. I got mad at him on
e time and put roach powder in it? He goes, 'Honey, this is th e best possum I ever et.' Didn't even get sick. I'll pick up a cou-W
p le of nice fryers and fix you some hot biscuits and gravy." Sh e grinned at him. "Look at you licking your lips."

Raylan said all his life fried chicken was his favorite, but h
e had to hang around, didn't know when he'd be off.

Ava said, "I'm fixing it anyway." She looked him in the ey
e saying, "You're a big boy, Raylan. You want to come, there'
s nothing on earth gonna stop you."

Devil had his hair cut and beard trimmed a
t the Cumberland Barber Shop, across the side street from th e courthouse. He put on his hat and got in Dewey's junk Cadillac, parked in front of the shop. Dewey said, "You missed it.

He come out with Ava, they talked and he went back i
n again. You said you thought that red Dodge over on Centra l was Bowman's? It was. Ava got in it and drove away."

Devil said, "Wasn't for Boyd I'd have me some of Ava."

Dewey said, "Wasn't for Boyd me and you could have u
s the marshal. Say we took him out, what would Boyd do, kic k and scream? He does that anyways."

Devil said, "You got the nerve to shoot a marshal?"

Dewey said, "I got the nerve and a reason to."

They were silent, thinking about it, till Devil said, "Tha
t barber didn't say one goddamn word to me the whole tim e he's cutting my hair."

Ten of six they watched Raylan come out of the courthouse with four other suits and go to their cars parked on Central.

Dewey said, "We get out on the highway--you're drivin
g 'cause it's my idea--I reach in back for the twelve-gauge and blow him away. What's wrong with that?"

Devil said there wasn't nothing wrong with it.

Except once they got to 421 two other marshal cars wer
e on Raylan's tail all the way to the Mount-Aire Motel. Devi l called Boyd to tell him Raylan was back in his room.

"Roger that," Boyd said, and told Devil
, "Okay, he should be leaving again pretty soon. I got a way t o bring him to me I think'll work. He leaves, you stay on him."

Devil's voice said, "Where you at?" sounding surprised.

"Down the road from Ava's. You stay on him, hear?"

Boyd sat in his Jeep Cherokee by the JESUS SAVES sign, th
e road here like a tunnel through the trees, dark as night. H
e called the Pork brothers on the hill behind the motel and tol d them to get ready. "You saw him come back? . . . Okay, yo u see his car pull out again, you let it go. Understand? But the n any other cars pull out to follow him? You open up on 'em.

Pour it on, as many rounds as you can squeeze off."

The Pork brother on the phone said it was near dark, ho
w would they see the cars? Boyd said, "Jesus Christ, they pu t their lights on, don't they? Aim back of the headlights."

Boyd believed the suits would spot 'em and swarm u
p there with sheriff's deputies and state police and shoot thos e two fat boys down, but didn't see losing them would handicap him any. It was the reason the Pork brothers were up there.

He drove through the tunnel of trees to a semidry creekbe
d he turned into and stopped about fifty yards in to leave th e Jeep. It was a place he'd used to slip up on the house, mak e sure Bowman wasn't home. It was close by. Boyd move d through the pines toward a light shining in the front room , meaning she was home. He rapped on the door. It opened, an d he saw right away Ava was expecting company.

X.

She had on her party dress, the shiny green lowcut one with the straight skirt she'd worn to Bowman's funeral. Seeing Boyd instead of Raylan gave her a start and all she could say was, "Well, hi," disappointed. There was nothing to hide, so she told Boyd she'd invited Raylan for a homecooked supper but didn't know if he'd make it or not.

Boyd came in sniffing, saying, "Mmmmmm, frie
d chicken." Saying, "Why don't you call Raylan and remin d him? Go on, he's at the Mount-Aire." And gave her the phon e number.

Well, then she became suspicious. Why would Boyd kno
w that? "You've talked to him?"

"Honey, me and Raylan are old buddies. I thought yo
u knew that?"

She hesitated because it sounded fishy.

"Go on, give him a call. But don't say I'm here."

"Why not?"

"I'm not staying," Boyd said, "so why mention it. I can se
e you want to flirt with him some."

"We was neighbors," Ava said, "that's all."

"I know, and you want to talk about old times and so on. Go on, call him."