Page 91 of Small Town Hunter

“Maybe you can help me one last time,” I add.

“With ahaircut?” She smirks.

“No. Information.”

“It’ll cost you.”

“How about twenty dollars.”

She stares at me all blank.

“Don’t try to hustle me, Jada, come on.”

“Fine,” she sighs. “I got two leads, though. You want to know where your girlfriend is staying right now, or where your redheaded fella ran off to?”

“You know where McCall went?”

“Nuh uh,” she smiles, shaking her finger in my face. “You can only pick one.”

It’s a choice between my mission and my Trina. It’s no choice at all.

“Where is she?”

“She’s staying across town at the Hotel Denver, second floor, room 43. She’s got a suite next to her grandmother’s. Her granny knows the owner. Old boyfriend.”

“How the hell do you know all that?”

“I know everything that goes on in this town,” preens Jada. “Including the fact that her granny told the Reverend if he didn’t let Trina go, she was gonna get the Feds on him for what he did to his last wife.”

The Reverend was married before? I guess that’s not surprising. I hope the poor woman gets her justice, but right now she’s beside the point.

“Thank you, Jada. I appreciate that.”

“Aw,” she says, her painted eyes softening. “Guess I’ll just tell you anyhow. Your redheaded man went to Texas in a ’95 Ford Taurus he bought from Quigley’s Auto Repair. He paid in gold coins and one of the coins had the rebel flag on it. Sweet Lick said it was the real article and there’s only two of its kind in the whole world. The coin was worth probably ten times more than the car but Sweet Lick didn’t tell Red that.”

“Thank you. That was…helpful.”

She looks at me hopefully. “Is there anything else…”

“No. You’ve done a lot for me, Jada, and I won’t forget it.”

“Don’t mention it, handsome. Maybe you’ll pass through here again?”

“Don’t bet on it.”

She blows me a kiss as I drive to the train crossing.

I don’t know what exactly I’ll tell Trina. I guess I’ll let the words just come like a dust storm. And they’ll have to move on into the distance just the same. Power, passion, fury, that ultimately changing nothing.

What we have here can’t last.

It just can’t.

I open my wallet and see the curl I cut loose from her mane. Shiny and soft.I love you, she told me in that cell.

The wind tries to snatch her from my fingers. But I hold on. I don’t know why; I just know I have to.

FOURTEEN

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