“Okay, but you gotta give me a chance to get you back,” Bubba said.

Smudge laughed. “Lay it on me.”

“Tomorrow night. Highest score. Let’s raise the stakes higher, more than two hundred dollars,” Bubba said.

Smudge’s face lit up as he lit up a Winston.

“You’re on. Rain or shine,” Smudge said.

Bubba thought of the leak in his Jeep and everything else Muskrat had to say about it. Bubba tested Smudge one more time this morning.

“You want me to drive?” Bubba said.

“We’ll be better off in my hunting truck.” Smudge said exactly what Bubba anticipated. “I’ll drive, you can pay for gas. Meet me at my house.”

Brazil was watching out the window for West’s unmarked Caprice, and every other minute, he ran back to the bathroom and wet his fingers and ran them through his slightly gelled hair, giving it that wet look, making sure one strand fell down the middle of his forehead. He had brushed his teeth four times and couldn’t stand still.

When West parked in front of his house, he took his time. He waited for her to come to the door. He waited until she had knocked five times.

“Andy? Are you in there?” she loudly said.

He ran to the door and opened it, tucking in his uniform shirt, adjusting his duty belt as if he was busy with many things and running behind.

“Gosh, I’m sorry,” he politely said. “I was on the phone.”

It wasn’t quite a lie because Brazil had been on the phone. He just didn’t say when he’d been on it.

“I don’t have much time,” West smacked the volley back. “We’d better go. This was probably a bad idea,” she continued as she went down the steps. “I’ve got the day from hell. I’m not even hungry.”

Brazil locked the door and followed her to the car, his feelings stung again.

“It doesn’t matter to me,” he said. “If you need to get to HQ, you can go on. You don’t even have to give me a ride. It’s not a problem.”

“I’m already here,” she retorted.

“I’m not that hungry either,” Brazil announced.

West put the car in gear and pulled away from the curb.

“You should fasten your seatbelt,” Brazil told her.

“Forget it.”

“Look, I want to be able to get out of the car fast, too, if something goes down. But I don’t want to be thrown out, like through the windshield. Besides, how long does it take you to unbuckle a seatbelt, if you’re really honest?”

“You work the streets as long as I have, you don’t have to be really honest.” She reminded him of his inexperience and her high rank.

“Have you ever been to The Forest?” Brazil asked.

“What forest?”

“The neighborhood hangout on Forest Hill.”

“That’s the other side of the river.”

“There’s more parking there than downtown where the River City Diner is.”

“Since when are we eating breakfast again? I thought we’d decided that issue,” West said.