Heads You Lose - Lisa Lutz [39]
Paul got two beers from the fridge and passed one to his sister. He turned on the television and found a rerun of Nightcrimes. They sat in silence for as long as Lacey could stand it.
“Did anyone ever investigate our parents’ death?”
Paul muted the television and turned to his sister.
“What’s got you asking about that?”
“Big Marv. He made it sound like maybe it was no accident.”
NOTES:
Dave,
Look, I watered Big Marv and Doc Holland, and planted more seeds of suspicion. I even included my own fake TV show to try to maintain some sense of consistency for the reader.
In return for these olive branches, I have two minor requests for chapter 12: How about a Terry Jakes–free chapter and no wayward clues? Let’s build on the core mystery here, rather than inventing new diversions.
Lisa
Lisa,
Big Marv and I both appreciate your acknowledgment of his existence. I’ll see what I can do about your requests, but doesn’t telling each other what to do violate the spirit of the project?
Remember what happened when you refused to let go of the whole Baccarat showdown in The Fop? Sometimes you have to trust someone else to get the job done. You wouldn’t remove your own appendix, would you?
Dave
CHAPTER 12
“No shit,” Tate said, putting his crossbow down in the dewy grass. “The boars would come right into the village?”
“They’d come right through your front door if they felt like it,” said the old man on the other end of the log. “It got so bad that we had to call a truce and team up with the Commies just to clear them out. We spent a whole day with ’em driving the pigs back into the forest, picking off as many as we could. At the end of the day we roasted them up together and drank a few barrels of beer. The Koreans were better shots. Our GIs would shoot ’em up so bad there was hardly anything left to eat.”
Tate just nodded.
“Two days later was the battle of Longsing. My battalion was wiped out. I lived in the forest for six days after that,” Sook said. “That’s when I really learned about them. Some say you have to learn to think like they think, well that’s bullshit. Best you can do is just be quiet and patient. Korean wild pigs are some smart, persistent assholes, but they don’t hear so good. They might smell you, but they won’t pinpoint you unless they can hear where you are. First time I caught one I dropped my knife. That’s a wrestling match I don’t care to repeat.”
A man learns a lot about himself when his only weapons are silence and a knife, Tate thought to himself. He’d slept only a couple hours after his shift at the Timberline, but he felt alive out here, ready to do battle. Wild pig season was only a few weeks long, but it was his favorite time of year.
“The thing about the Korean ones, though,” Sook continued, in an elegiac tone, “they were almost blond. Beautiful. Soft hair like golden sheep. Sus scrofa coreanus.”17 He said it like the name of a high school sweetheart.
Sook was the only guy in town Tate could stand hunting with. For everybody else, it was a chance to get drunk and bitch about their wives. Fucking tea party. Even at his age, Sook could still easily handle a bow with a hundred-and-fifty-pound draw.
“So does Mapleshade know you’re out here freezing your wrinkled ass off?” Tate asked.
“Don’t ask, don’t tell,” said Sook, shrugging as he stood up from the log. “I help to smooth things out around there, they stay out of my affairs. As far as they know, we’re getting the early-bird special at Diner with the rest of the bluehairs.”
Tate picked up his crossbow and the two headed farther into the forest. “So that little Hansen girl’s had a rough time lately,” he said.
“Seems to think she’s Nancy Drew,” said Sook.
“Who?” said Tate.
“Never mind. Anyway, Lacey took me to that yuppie doctor, figured she could use me as a rent-a-grandpa. She’s poking around in there, looking through Doc Holland’s old records. Egan doesn’t have a clue. I guess he’s sweet on her.”
“Little bitch came sniffing around the bar last night,” said Tate. “You’d think after everything that’s happened, she’d start minding