“Deal?” Possum scratched his head, and Popeye licked his bare foot, voicing her approval. “What you saying? I make a deal with Trooper Truth?”
Popeye jumped back up in Possum’s lap and licked his face with enthusiasm. Possum blew out a loud, tense sigh and began to type, just in time, because Andy was about to give up on getting a response.
Dear Trooper Truth,
I swear you can trust me. But my problem is, is I gonna get in trouble if I help you out? See, I’m sort of trapped by Smoke and the road dogs and if I set them up and even if it works, I’m afraid I’m gonna end up in jail.
See, it was me who shot Moses Custer in the foot, knocking his boot off, ’cause I had no choice or I would have been hurt bad. by Smoke and maybe shot, too. And Smoke always be saying he gonna hurt Popeye if I don’t do what he say.
I don’t know what to do.
Andy read the e-mail and realized for the first time that the son of a bitch Smoke was behind Popeye’s dog-napping. Andy knew that Smoke was not to be taken lightly. Andy also realized with relief that he was in a perfect position to make an honest bargain with whoever this anonymous road dog was, so he fired back an e-mail to him.
Dear Anonymous,
The bullet you say you fired at Moses missed. He was in the hospital because the road dogs beat and cut him up so badly. Did you beat on him, too? Or cut him?
Trooper Truth
Dear Trooper Truth,
No! All I did after trying to shoot him was help dump the punkins in the river. As for the cutting, that was Unique. I sure is glad that bullet missed! Maybe now I can forgive myself and Hoss won’t be mad at me no more.
Andy was unclear about the Hoss reference and didn’t understand what Anonymous meant by the cutting’s being Unique, but he decided to take a risk.
Dear Anonymous,
Surely you must know that Hoss would want the road dogs caught so nobody else, including Popeye, is in harm’s way. I doubt very much that Hoss has been mad at you, because he would know that bullet missed Moses. Hoss knows everything. He’s possibly been disappointed in you for not turning in Smoke and the road dogs. Now is the time to make things right, and a place to start is to tell me how I can find Smoke and the other pirates without them figuring anything out. By doing so, you will be granted immunity in exchange for your assisting the police. And I think you know by now that I always tell the truth.
Trooper Truth A reply landed in the mailbox moments later.
Dear Trooper Truth,
Go to the race and look for a pit crew with a Jolly Goodwrench flag. That’s us pirates. I’ll have Popeye and do my best to stay out of the way, but you should know that Cat been taking helichopper lessons from the state police and plans to fly all of us to Tangerine Island after Smoke kills a lot of people.
“Jesus, ” Andy muttered as he stared at the message. There was only one state policeperson he could think of who might be giving anyone flying lessons right now, since the state police were so critically short of pilots at the moment. “Macovich. You stupid son of a bitch!” Andy said out loud. “What the hell are you doing?”
Macovich wasn’t a saint, but he wasn’t terribly bright, either, and Andy tried to work through Macovich’s motivation. He dug through his briefcase until he found the paperwork on the Bag Man case he had worked last year. He dialed Hooter Shock’s home phone number.
After much clunking and groping and coming to, Hooter groggily answered, “Hello?”
She assumed it was Macovich, who had been calling her a lot and stopping at her tollbooth, even when he didn’t need to. That man was sex-addicted, she angrily thought. She had never seen anything like it. Most men she dated for the first time gave her at least an hour or two to figure out whether she might be remotely interested in holding hands or digging tongues halfway down each other’s throats. But Macovich had kept grabbing at her under the table when they were drinking in that booth at Freckles. It was a shame, really. Hooter had liked him a fair amount when they’d chatted out by the traffic cones.