BooksBarbecue
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Chapters (54)
  1. Cover
  2. Title
  3. Chapter One
  4. Chapter Two
  5. Chapter Three
  6. Incident One
  7. Chapter Four
  8. Chapter Five
  9. Chapter Six
  10. Chapter Seven
  11. Chapter Eight
  12. Incident Two
  13. Chapter Nine
  14. Incident Three
  15. Chapter Ten
  16. Chapter Eleven
  17. Chapter Twelve
  18. Chapter Thirteen
  19. Chapter Fourteen
  20. Incident Four
  21. Chapter Fifteen
  22. Chapter Sixteen
  23. Chapter Seventeen
  24. Chapter Eighteen
  25. Chapter Nineteen
  26. Chapter Twenty
  27. Chapter Twenty-one
  28. Chapter Twenty-two
  29. Chapter Twenty-three
  30. Chapter Twenty-four
  31. Chapter Twenty-five
  32. Chapter Twenty-six
  33. Chapter Twenty-seven
  34. Chapter Twenty-eight
  35. Chapter Twenty-nine
  36. Chapter Thirty
  37. Chapter Thirty-one
  38. Chapter Thirty-two
  39. Chapter Thirty-three
  40. Incident Five
  41. Chapter Thirty-four
  42. Chapter Thirty-five
  43. Chapter Thirty-six
  44. Chapter Thirty-seven
  45. Chapter Thirty-eight
  46. Chapter Thirty-nine
  47. Chapter Forty
  48. Chapter Forty-one
  49. Chapter Forty-two
  50. Chapter Forty-three
  51. Chapter Forty-four
  52. Acknowledgments
  53. Special Thanks
  54. About the Author

Velvet sank down on the bed, felt the mattress with professional expertise. Not bad. Not bad at all. She held onto the sheets and stared at her reflection in the closet door for a long time. She matched the room, blue green bruises. She hadn’t expected this, didn’t want it, hadn’t expected to understand Robby even a little, or like her.

It made her want to break something.

The phone on the bedstand was round and squatty and lit up with blue neon. When she picked up the receiver, the light went out. A quick fumble in her wallet and she came up with the scribbled number.

Five rings. She got his answering machine.

“Hey, Lenny, listen, this is Velvet. You know, Velvet? Anyway, I got some good shit for you.” She curled up on the neon blue bed, pulled her head down and watched the closed door warily. “I found somebody else who’s seen somebody burn up. It ain’t no coincidence. Got to be the wiseguys.”

She considered for a second, gnawing on a broken nail, and said, “They’re running scared. One of them beat the shit out of me to shut me up. I’ll sell you names and facts for five hundred.”

She hung up and watched the blue neon flare again.

Technically, she supposed, she was guilty of stabbing Robby in the back. Technically.

Five hundred bucks. She could get out of town on that, get someplace new. Robby would understand.

She stretched out on the bed and, after a minute, turned on her side and pulled her knees up to her chest to nurse an ache in her gut.

Incident Four

CAMPBELL, LOUISIANA

Dwayne Elliot paced back and forth in the waiting area, fussing at the sleeves of the white robe he wore. They were too short, exposing thick hairy wrists. He was supposed to feel holy, he supposed. He just felt cold.

“Oh, you look fine, Brother Dwayne,” said Missy Collier. She looked up from her mimeographed church program and gave him a smile. Missy, now, she was a pretty woman. A little old for his taste and married to old Vern Collier besides, but three children hadn’t hurt her figure none, and he figured he wouldn’t kick her out of bed if she fell in. It occurred to him (a little late to do any good) that a Sunday morning baptismal service wasn’t the time to be thinking about that kind of thing, especially with her being married and all. Still, he had to wonder about what she was wearing under her white robe. Underwear, for sure. Front-hook bra? High-cut panties?