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The sound of the slide lock registered only distantly for Shaw. Fury—fury directed at himself, plain and simple—blended with the chaos of the caffeine and adrenaline, and his brain felt like what you saw in movies sometimes, when someone cut a power cord and sparks started to fly, and the cord twisted and snaked and shot out more sparks.
One moment, he’d been standing there, keeping an eye out. The next, Welch had rolled over the side of one of the storage units and landed next to Shaw. He’d already had the gun ready and everything. Because, of course, this had been planned.
“Don’t do anything stupid,” Welch said from the other side of the roll-up door.
“A little late for that,” North said. “Jesus Christ, you left the fucking light on for us.”
“You cool?” Welch asked. “Everybody’s got to stay cool. You start shouting, and we’re done.”
North caught Shaw’s eye, and Shaw struggled to shut down that live wire of rage. He focused on his body, on the way his heart pounded, the feel of his pulse in his fingertips, his still-drying sweat and the cool of the air conditioning. He thought about the roll-up door, the panels. A fraction of an inch thick, all of them. Maybe if they squeezed behind one of the support columns like cartoon characters, they’d have a chance; otherwise, they were fish in a barrel.
“We’re some chill-ass cucumbers,” North said.
Seconds ticked past. Shaw’s shirt, bunched with sweat under his arms, was starting to itch, and he was aware again of a sour stink that lay under the smell of the weed, and even fainter, the hint of something cold and antiseptic. Somewhere in the building, metal boomed, and Shaw flinched. North did too, and then he let out a shaky breath.
Welch’s laugh sounded nervous. “That’s the AC coming on. Every couple of hours. Wasn’t like that before. You can’t sleep in this place.”
“What’s the deal, Philip?” North asked as Shaw worked his phone out of his pocket. North nodded in approval as Shaw began typing out a message to Emery and John-Henry:In storage. Back of building. Welch here with a gun.He made sure his phone was on silent and sent the message. At the same time, North was speaking to Welch again. “You’ve got us where you wanted, I guess. So, what’s next?”
“Where I wanted. Man, I didn’t want any of this. This is some bad shit, you know?”
“Oh yeah? What happened?”
“What happened? The whole thing, man. It was bad from the start.”
“What’s that mean?” North asked. “Somebody set you up?”
“You’re goddamn right.”
“You didn’t kill Dalton Weber and Sheriff Engels?”
Welch hesitated. “You want me to tell you about that, you got to get me out of here.”
“How am I supposed to do that?”
“Man, I don’t know. Figure it the fuck out!”
The panic in his voice sounded like a thing unraveling.
Shaw said, “It went wrong, didn’t it?”
Welch made a noise that seemed like a yes. Rubber squeaked on concrete. And then more words poured out of him. “It wasn’t supposed to be the sheriff. It was supposed to be Ezell.”
“What happened?” North asked.
“I don’t know!”
“Why don’t you walk us through—”
“No, no, no! You listen to me now, ok?” He paused like someone trying to corral his thoughts. “These motherfuckers, they’re trying to kill me. They want Ezell. So, I figure I give them Ezell, and they let me walk. How about that?”
“I don’t know,” North said. “You’ve got to tell me more than that.”
“He’s at this lake. Bolmer Lake. There’s some old shop, that’s where he’s hiding.”
“How do you know where he is?” Shaw asked.
“Man, I followed him. I went out to that church first thing, right? And they didn’t want nothing to do with me. So, I left. But then I started thinking maybe I shouldn’t have left, so I went back. I just sat down the block for a while, watching, and then you two showed up. And then, a little later, I was still watching that place when they kicked you out. And then that jackass Gid rabbited, and you followed him, and I followed you. And when we got to that little house where Gid wanted to poke around, you know who I saw? Just pure chance, the headlights shining right on his face.”
