Without remorse - Tom Clancy [305]
He was letting one of his junior seamen do the driving, enjoying the morning, standing outside the cramped wheelhouse, drinking some of his home-brewed coffee.
'Radio,'one of the crewmen said.
Oreza went inside and took the microphone. 'Four-One Alfa here.'
'Four-One Alfa, this is English at Thomas Base. Your pickup is at a dock at Dame's Choice. You'll see cop car there. Got an ETA?'
'Call it twenty or twenty-five, Mr E.'
'Roger that. Out.'
'Come left,' Oreza said, looking at his chart. The water looked plenty deep. 'One-six-five.'
'One-six-five, aye.'
Xantha was more or less sober, though weak. Her dark skin had a gray pallor to it, and she complained of a splitting headache that analgesics had scarcely touched. She was aware that she was under arrest now, and that her rap sheet had arrived on teletype. She was also canny enough to have requested the presence of a lawyer. Strangely, this had not bothered the police very much.
'My client,' the attorney said, 'is willing to cooperate.' The agreement had taken all of ten minutes to strike. If she was telling the truth, and if she was not involved in a major felony, the possession charge against her would be dropped, subject to her enrollment in a treatment program. It was as good a deal as anyone had offered Xantha Matthews in some years. It was immediately appearent why this was true.
'They was gonna kill me!' she said, remembering it all now that she was outside the influence of the barbiturates, and now that her attorney gave her permission to speak.
'Who's "they"?' Captain Joy asked.
'They dead. He killed 'еm, the white boy, shot 'em dead. An' he left the drugs, whole shitload of 'em.'
'Tell us about the white man,' Joy asked, with a look to Freeland that ought to have been disbelieving but was not.
'Big dude, like him' - she pointed to Freeland - 'but he face all green like a leaf. He blindfold me af'er he took me down, then he put me on that pier an' tol' me to catch a bus or somethin'.'
'How do you know he was white?'
'Wrists was white. Hands was green, but not up here, like,' she said, indicating on her own arms. 'He wear green clothes with stripes on 'em, like a soldier, carry a big .45.I was asleep when he shoot, that wake me up, see? Make me get dress, take me away, drop me off, he boat just go away.'
'What kind of boat?'
'Big white one, tall, like, big, like thirty feet lon'.'
'Xantha, how do you know they were going to kill you?'
'White boy say so, he show me the things in the boat, the little one.'
'What do you mean?'
'Fishnet shit, like, and cement blocks. He say they tell him they do it before.'
The lawyer decided it was his turn to speak. 'Gentlemen, my client has information about what may be a major criminal operation. She may require protection, and in return for her assistance, we would like to have state funding for her treatment.'
'Counselor,' Joy replied quietly, 'if this is what it sounds like, I'll fund it out of my own budget. May I suggest, sir, that we keep her in our lockup for the time being? For her own safety, the need for which seems quite apparent, sir.' The State Police captain had been negotiating with lawyers for years, and had started sounding like one, Freeland thought.
'The food here is fo' shit!' Xantha said, her eyes closed in pain.
'We'll take care of that, too,' Joy promised her.
'I think she needs some medical help,' the lawyer noted. 'How can she get it here?'
'Doctor Paige will be here right after lunch to see her. Counselor, your client is in no condition to look after herself now. All charges against her are dropped pending verification of her story. You'll get everything you want, in return for her cooperation. I can't do any more than that.'
'My client agrees to your conditions and suggestions,' the lawyer said without consulting her. The county would even pay his