“Four thousand . . . at Nordstrom’s, up at the Mall of America,” Fischer said. “I’m usually at Old Navy. I told him I needed new clothes for the job. He seemed to buy it, but he called an hour ago and said to tell you that he wanted a cut. I asked him, ‘A cut of what?’ He said, ‘You know what cut.’ I said, ‘No, I don’t.’ And he said, ‘Yes, you do. You ain’t that good a virgin.’ I said, ‘Fuck you, Larry, I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ He said, ‘Tell Wardell,’ and hung up. I think he must’ve been sitting there in the driver’s seat, all the way out to the West Coast and halfway back, wondering where I got the money, and thinking about how you guys got the store going right away after the apparitions, and he figured it out.”

“Oh, boy,” Holland said.

“He’s got no proof,” Skinner said.

“He doesn’t need proof. All he needs to do is start running his mouth, and we’re in trouble,” Holland said.

They all looked at one another, and Fischer said, “Well, we can’t just shoot him.”

“Of course not,” Holland said.

They looked at one another some more, and Skinner said, “We really can’t.”

“I know we can’t,” Holland said. “But we gotta do something.”

“When’s he get back?” Skinner asked.

“He makes the Des Moines terminal tomorrow night. He could try to sneak home and fake his logbook later, but he’s been caught doing that before. I expect he’ll stay there overnight.”

“We’ve got some time,” Skinner said. “Let me think about it.”

—

Ten minutes later, Holland snuck out the back door. As he was leaving, he said to Skinner, “I got one word for you.”

“Yeah?”

“‘Blackmail.’ Larry’s always been a little sleazy. See if Jennie knows what he’s been sleazy about.”

—

An hour later, with Fischer’s head in the hollow between his chest and shoulder, Skinner said, “I don’t know Larry all that well. I kinda stayed away from him, because, you know . . . Is he a straight guy? Has he ever been in trouble on anything?”

She couldn’t meet his eyes—she was about to betray her fiancé. She said, “He was investigated last year. By Iowa.”

“Yeah?”

“Somebody stole a trailer full of Legos at the terminal down in Des Moines,” Fischer said. “The Iowa cops were up here to talk to him because they knew his tractor unit was down there at the time. He denied it all, but one night, later on, he hinted that he knew where the Legos were. I think he’s still got a lot of them.”

“At his house?”