BooksBarbecue
Back The Deal Goes Down
Chapters (55)
  1. Cover
  2. Other Titles
  3. Dedication
  4. CHAPTER ONE
  5. CHAPTER TWO
  6. CHAPTER THREE
  7. CHAPTER FOUR
  8. CHAPTER FIVE
  9. CHAPTER SIX
  10. CHAPTER SEVEN
  11. CHAPTER EIGHT
  12. CHAPTER NINE
  13. CHAPTER TEN
  14. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  15. CHAPTER TWELVE
  16. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  17. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  18. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  19. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  20. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  21. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  22. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  23. CHAPTER TWENTY
  24. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  25. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  33. CHAPTER THIRTY
  34. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  35. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  43. CHAPTER FORTY
  44. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  45. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  46. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  47. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  48. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
  49. CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
  50. CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
  51. CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
  52. CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
  53. CHAPTER FIFTY
  54. CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
  55. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I could already make a long list of the problems, the dangers, and the clear why nots. What I couldn’t understand, at all, was why I’d said yes. I had never killed anyone for money. I had never killed anyone out of anger, hatred, jealousy, or greed. Never for revenge, for pleasure, as an alternative to divorce, or as the fifty-first way to leave a lover. The problem was that it had launched the mechanism inside me that insists that if I’ve said I’m going to do something, then, like kid that’s taken a dare or a gangster that’s made a stand, I must do it. Once I thought that was a virtue. Maybe, I somehow lived in a world, back then, in which it was, and the world had changed around me. Maybe it was always a fool’s cap. The sensible, grown-up mechanism that should say forget about it—it was a mistake, a foolishness, a lie, if that’s what you want to call it—is not as self-propelled and not nearly as strong. How could I know—how could anyone know—if they were an insane person in a sane world or a sane person in an insane world. I may have blurted that question out loud—or maybe just thought it forcefully. In any case there was no reply. Just some blank gazes.

Hopefully, fortunately, surely, all that was moot.

Madelaine would wake up to the realization that she’d discussed murder-for-hire with someone she barely knew. She’d desperately hope that it would be forgotten by both of us. I’d never hear another word about it. That was far more likely, and frankly, much to be preferred.

CHAPTER THREE

AT THE END OF THE ROAD

I HEADED HOME, TRYING TO figure out how to explain things to the cats.

I turned off the county road onto Shanty Road, heading up into Hellmenn Hollow, where I lived, tucked between Round Bear Hill and Slate Mountain. The air had turned crisp and clear. The low-hanging clouds had blown out, but they’d left their mist on the last of the autumn colors, making them vivid in the sun. I knew it was beautiful. I knew any of us who lived here were blessed to do so, but I only knew it like the answer to questions on a civil service exam.

After the first four miles the pavement ends, and then there’s another five of dirt road to my house, the last one, sitting up there by its lonesome. As I came around the wide, eighty-year-old oak on the final curve that hides the house from sight, I saw a car there.

It was unmistakable.