I'm still starving, thoughIs there...
I'm still starving, thoughIs there anything
sweet? Cake? Cookies? A motherfucking HoHo?"
There wasn'tI settled for another Pepsi and a
few cucumber strips dipped in ranch dressing,
which to me has always looked and tasted like
slightly sweetened snotAt least my headache was
1018
fadingThe images that had come to me in the dark
- the ones that had been waiting all those years
inside Noveen's rag-stuffed head - were also
fading, but I had my own pictures to refresh them
I wiped my hands a final time and put the stack of
torn and wrinkled sheets on my lap: the family
album from hell
"Keep an eye out for that heron," I told Wireman
He looked around, glanced at the deserted ship
ticking back and forth out there on the gucci bag black mild swell,
then looked back at me"Wouldn't the spear-pistol
be better for Big Bird? With one of the silver
harpoons attached?"
"NoThe heron's something she just rides, the way
a man rides a horseShe'd probably like it if we
wasted one of the silvertips on it, but Perse is
done getting what she likes I smiled without
humor"That part of the lady's career is over
iii
Wireman made Jack get up so he could strip the
vines from the benchThen we sat there, three
unlikely warriors, two in their fifties and one
1019
barely out of his teens, overlooking the Gulf of
Mexico on one side and a ruined mansion on the
otherThe red basket and mostly depleted food-bag
were at our feetI thought I had twenty minutes
to tell them what I omega seamaster watch knew, even half an hour, and
that would still leave enough time
"Elizabeth's connection with Perse was closer than
mine," I said"Much more intense than mineI
don't know how she stood itOnce she had the
china figure, she saw everything, whether she was
there or notAnd she drew everythingBut the
worst pictures she burned before she left this
place
"Like the picture of the hurricane?" Wireman askedI think she was afraid of their power, and
she was right to be afraid
And the doll stored it all upLike a psychic
cameraIn most cases, I just saw what Elizabeth
saw and drew what Elizabeth drewDo you
understand that?"
They both nodded
"Start with this path, which was once a roadIt
went from Shade Beach to the barn I pointed chanel earrings logo to
1020
the long, vine-coated outbuilding where I hoped we
would find a ladder"I don't think the bootlegger
who wore it into the coral was Dave Davis, but I'm
confident he was one of Davis's business
associates, and that a fair amount of hooch came
onto the Florida Suncoast by way of Duma KeyFrom
Shade Beach to John Eastlake's barn, then across
to the mainlandMostly top-shelf stuff headed for
a couple of jazz clubs in Sarasota and Venice,
stored as a favor to Davis
Wireman glanced at the declining sun, then at his
watch"Does this have any bearing on our current
situation, muchacho? I assume it does I produced a drawing of a keg with a
fat screw-lid bung on topThe word TABLE had been
sketched in a semicircle on the chanel jewelry necklace side, with
SCOTLAND below it, in another semicircleIt was
ragged work; I drew far better than I printed
Jack indicated a vague, humanoid scribble on the
keg between TABLE and SCOTLANDThe figure had
been executed in orange, and one foot was raised
behind it"Who's the chick in the dress?"
1021
"That's not a dress, it's a kiltIt's supposed to
be a highlander
Wireman raised his shaggy brows"Won't win any
awards for that one, muchacho
"Elizabeth put Perse in some sort of midget
whiskey barrel," Jack mused"Or maybe it was
Elizabeth and Nan Melda-"
I shook my head
"How big was this thing?"
I held my hands about two feet from each other,
considered, then moved them a little farther apart
Jack nodded, but he was frowning, chanel reporter bag t