The Last King of Texas (Tres Navarre #3)(27)

The rancher planted his boots on the street, glowered in our direction, then walked toward the sports car, where Del and Bo Peep were waiting. The three men stood together, looking at us. They didn't talk. That was a bad sign. It meant they had no disagreement about us.

"Are they going to show us the rides?" Jem asked. He was bouncing now, a well-placed fifty pounds on bad shocks, and the VW was bouncing with him. The three guys across the street didn't frown at us any less.

"Maybe we should drive on," I suggested.

Erainya opened her door, got out, and leaned across the car's roof. She hollered, "One of you guys Del?"

"Or," I mumbled, "maybe you have another idea..."

The three guys glanced at one another.

Del Brandon stepped forward. "Who's asking?"

"Who's asking? Come on, honey. You want to come closer, see we aren't monsters or anything?"

Something about the way Erainya talks — I've seen it a dozen times and I've never quite gotten the magic of it. It makes even the most hardened guys red around the ears. They check their zippers, check that their ears are washed, try to remember if they ate a good dinner. They get uncomfortable and deferential. Erainya immediately becomes the hard-assed mother from the Old Country they never had.

Del walked toward us, stepping carefully through the dark maze of crisscrossed railroad tracks. He stopped about five feet away from my window. From there, he could probably see Erainya's face, Jem's pressed against the glass behind me, my face in the driver's window. If Del recognized me from our brief encounter at Ines', he didn't let it show.

"What'd you want?" he asked.

"Look, honey," Erainya told him. "I didn't know you had another deal to take care of tonight. It's just I thought you'd be expecting me."

Del shook his head slowly, fishing around for some possible explanation. After almost a minute, when I was sure he was going to decide Erainya was bullshitting him, he seemed to come up with an idea. "You mean you're—"

"Sure," Erainya agreed instantly.

Del's large mouth opened, then closed. "Southwest Carnival? The buyer from Arno?"

"I don't want to mess up your deal," she said. "You go ahead with whatever."

Del came a step closer. He peered in at me, then back at Jem. "You've got a kid with you."

I was getting the feeling Del had never scored real high on those standardized achievement tests.

"That's Jem," Erainya agreed. "He's mine. What — you make kiddie rides, you've never seen kids?"

Del held up his hands, immediately defensive. "I'm just asking — I mean, if Arno sent you—"

He faltered, then gestured to where the human boulder and the old rancher stood waiting. "It's just that we didn't—"

"You think you can give us a few minutes afterward?" Erainya asked.

Del shifted, looked back at his two compadres. "It's kind of late."

"My five-year-old, he's still up. You got an earlier bedtime than a five-year-old?"

Del looked chastised. "What kind of unit do you need?"

"I won't know that until we talk."

"You're prepared to do business tonight?" He gestured toward the VW. "You ain't going to haul nothing in this."

"I am always prepared to do business."

Del thought about that, then nodded with a little more certainty. "I'll try to wrap things up. Wait here. You damn near screwed my deal."

"Manners," Erainya warned him.

He held up his hands defensively again, patted the air a few times, then retreated to his two friends.

The men talked. It took some doing, but Del apparently got the old rancher to ease up, to go ahead with whatever business they were planning.

Once the transaction started it went fairly fast. Bo Peep opened the gates and the rancher backed his truck in. The three of them opened the hangar doors and walked out a trailer — about the same size as the truck but twice as tall. We couldn't see much of the amusement ride on the trailer, since it was covered in yellow tarp, but the shape was like a giant tulip.

Once the men got it hooked up, the rancher handed Del a grocery bag. Del sat on the bumper of the truck and counted bricks of cash while Bo Peep and the rancher waited. Apparently Del was satisfied. He gave the bag to Bo Peep, shook hands with the rancher. No smiles anywhere. The truck pulled away with its huge trailer and disappeared down Camden. Del wiped the sweat off his brow, then looked across the street at us and waved big, indicating we should drive the VW in.

Erainya got in and closed the passenger door.

"I want you to notice something, honey," she told Jem. "I didn't lie to that man. Not once."

Del and Bo Peep stood in front of us, their faces yellow and stern in our headlights. As we came in Bo Peep walked behind us, very casually, and closed the gates. We wouldn't be leaving quickly. And we didn't have any bags of cash to offer Mr. Brandon.

"Honesty," I told Jem, "is good in small quantities."

THIRTEEN

"It's been a crazy day," Del Brandon said.

He opened Erainya's door for her. Jem clambered out first, did a beautiful  tight-end run around Del, then headed for the old-fashioned carousel animals that flanked the steps of the office.