Fat Tuesday(113)

"Actually, I didn't have the pleasure of a meeting. Any dialogue they had, they had with my friend there."

Gregory turned in the direction Dredd indicated, and was startled to see an effigy of Dredd sitting in a dilapidated rocking chair on the galerie, wet fishing hat and wig slightly askew atop a Halloween mask from which hung a Spanish-moss beard.

"I made him a couple years ago to bait a thief," Dredd explained.

"This * kept coming in and raiding my store every time I went out to fish or hunt.

"So I rigged up the dummy and set him adrift in one of my boats.

Caught the guy red-handed and beat him within an inch of his life.

Never came back." He chuckled."I got sorta attached to my friend and decided to keep him around. He listens when I want some company.

Damned ugly son of a bitch, but no uglier than me, I reckon. He sure came in handy this morning."

Gregory came around slowly. He looked at the recently scrubbed pier, looked into the water below it with repugnance, looked at the two monstrous gators sunning themselves on the far bank, looked at Dredd who stared back at him with satisfaction and calm defiance.

It was easy to guess the fate of the two men who had accompanied him here. Gregory swallowed his revulsion, but he supposed he owed Dredd his life. However, remembering Pinkie Duvall's determination, he knew the reprieve would be temporary."Duvall will send somebody else."

"Most likely," Dredd replied with a philosophical shrug."That's why you'd best be on your way."

"What about their car?"

"I'll take care of it."

He didn't elaborate on how he planned to take care of it, but Gregory was confident that the vehicle was about to disappear permanently.

"I ... Thanks, Dredd."

Dredd expelled a gust of cigarette smoke."You did good, boy. When I see Basile, I'll be sure and tell him that you made up for your past mistakes."

Gregory was touched by the old man's commendation, to an embarrassing degree. Tears came to his eyes, and Dredd must have noticed them because he too became embarrassed, and that made him cantankerous.

"Well, don't just stand there. After surviving what you've been through already, Basile would be pissed if I let you get dead or hurt or locked behind bars. So go on now. Git."

Reflexively Burke reached for Mac Mccuen as he fell."Mac!"

But Mac wasn't going to answer, he was dead. Even knowing that, Burke continued repeating his name as he lowered him to the floor.

Hearing approaching footsteps, he looked up to see Doug Pat running along the pier toward the shack."Is he dead?"

"Goddamn it, Doug," Burke said angrily."He didn't have a prayer."

"You wouldn't have either if he'd shot you in the chest from pointblank range."

Pat knelt down and felt Mac's carotid artery. After a moment, he stood, moving as though he carried a thousand-pound burden on his back.

He swore softly and dragged his hand down his haggard features.

Then he placed a hand on Burke's shoulder and looked at him with concern.

"Are you okay?"

"Okay? Jesus, Doug. No, I'm not okay. I just had another of my men shot before my eyes."

"Mac was going for his gun. It was him or you."

Indeed, Mac had fumbled his handgun from the holster at the small of his back. It was lying inches from his supine right hand. Despite this evidence to the contrary, it was hard for Burke to believe that Mccuen would have shot him in cold blood.

Pat said, "He was dirty. He'd made a deal with Duvall."

"He admitted that much."

"Did he tell you the terms?"

"The cancellation of a fifty-thousand-dollar debt in exchange for "That's partially right. Actually the deal was the cancellation of his debt plus a larger share of the profit if he killed you."

"Profit?"

Pat nodded down at Mac."That's the guy you've wanted We've got indisputable proof that Mccuen has been working for Duvall."

Burke looked at Pat with disbelief."Mac's a joker, a nuisance, a screw up.

"Part of the act. He was smarter than he let on. He made himself likable, he performed his duties reasonably well, but he didn't excel He persisted until he was assigned to Narcotics and Vice. All part of their plan. He's been Duvall's inside man since he signed on."

"There was always something a little off," Burke mused out loud.

"A cop's salary didn't jibe with Mac's standard of living. I had decided he was either a damn good gambler or the luckiest bastard I ever met."

"His luck ran out today."

"You say you've got proof of his connection to Duvall's operation?"

"For months Internal Affairs has been conducting a covert investigation. I'm the only one in the division who knew about it. I knew you were frustrated by the seeming lack of interest to ferret out the traitor, but I was sworn to secrecy and couldn't tell you.

Although," he added, "I was tempted to so you wouldn't quit on me.

"Anyway, after months of exhaustive investigation, I.A. traced the thwarted busts back to Mccuen." Softly, he added, "Including the one that went south the night Kev was killed."

Burke looked at him sharply.