Standing maybe a dozen feet from us was a bird that looked like a large rooster if that rooster had grown to twice its normal size. It had very long, featherless legs and turned its head slowly to regard us. It took one long languorous step, then another. The third step came more quickly and by the fifth footfall it was moving at least ten miles an hour. That speed doubled by the eighth span and then the bird was gone.

“Roadrunner,” Fearless said. “Outrun ninety-nine percent of men.”

“We should get going,” I said.

“Tell me sumpin’, Easy.”

“What?”

“What you plan to do about Lola?”

“Why? Don’t you trust me?”

“Better’n that. I respect you. An’ you know that’s somethin’ rare.”

“You mean most people don’t think I’m all that?”

“It ain’t no insult, Ease. It’s just that most people is afraid’a you ’cause you know folks like Mouse an’ Charcoal Joe and that crazy Redbird. But I ain’t afraid’a pain or death so I don’t go there. Other people amazed at how smart you are but my friend Paris is the smartest man I ever met, even smarter than Jackson Blue.”

“And so why do you respect me?” I asked.

“Your honesty,” he said with a straight face.

“Honesty? I lie all the time.”

“Only ’cause you’re into the shit. Every pig farmer knows that there ain’t no way to clean out a hogpen without gettin’ messed. But you cleanin’ it up and in the end you do the best you can. In the end the truth come out.

“That’s why I’m askin’ ’bout Lola. She lost her son. That’s enough grief for any mother.”

When I can afford it I let my heart listen to Fearless. He knew people better than most, and though he couldn’t beat an eight-year-old at checkers, he was rarely wrong about things that mattered.

“I hear ya, Fearless. I like her too. But she pulled me into this thing with her son and if my count is right there’s at least five men dead behind it.”

Fearless stared at me like an avenging angel weighing sin. Then he sniffed and stood up.

“Let’s go, man,” he said.

40

40

Back at the office I showered and shaved, made oatmeal with raisins and cream, then sat at my desk trying to figure out what to do next. I’d learned a few things from Lola and Donata, Reynolds and Mona Strael, but I was no closer to getting my hands on the money that might save my life.

There was a call I should have made, but a rare bout of procrastination stayed me.