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Meanwhile, life went on. Heartsick as I was over what had happened to Chip and my part in it, I still had to follow through, so I pulled myself together and went through the motions. I hired a rental truck and a crew of three in Horizon and made a show of the 'delivery' a week or so later. Signing this, commanding that. Waving around a bullshit 'invoice' I'd had that Tall Meadows dealer cook up showing what a bargain I'd gotten for a sum of money just high enough to be believable and low enough for folks to believe me and Ryan coulda swung that axe. Clever lad, this Mango Fishkettle, look at the trick he pulled outta his hat.

Clever. But I hadn't reckoned with the response I'd get. I'd hoped the cover story was waterproof enough.

But water forced its way in anyway. A couple days later, Billy Sandbanks pulled on up nice and slow in his 950 and stepped out.

"Howdy, Mango."

I tried to keep calm. Focused on the engine I was fixing; like I'd I barely noticed him. Like he wasn't looming over me as the biggest thing in the entire universe at that very moment. "Howdy, there, Billy."

"You busy?" Stupid question. But you know southern manners.

"Kinda." I sighed to myself. He was here for something. He wasn't going away till he got it. "Anythin' I can do for you?"

"Thought I'd come by, see this new-fangled gizmo of yours. Everyone seems so impressed."

"I don't know why. It's just a piece of diagnostic equipment."

"Ain't you proud of it?"

"Well, I guess."

"How about you give me the nickel tour?"

There wasn't much I could say without being unfriendly, and God only knew what can of worms that might open. He wasn't here to see the T-111. Whatever he really was here for, he'd come in the open and in broad daylight, so the best course was to humour him and find out what it was. I wiped off my paws and waved him over. "Sure. It's just in here."

So we padded in over the dust and oil stains and I introduced him to the machine he'd murdered Chip over. It was a supremely surreal moment. Probably for both us of.

"Nice," he said, smoothing a paw over the panel. "Must have cost a lot."

I felt like someone was stepping on my grave. "Ordinarily they cost about eighty thou."

He looked at me. "And where'd you come up with that?"

"I didn't. 'Bout half that. One of the reasons I volunteered for a stint was to get in touch with some other guys in the biz. They put me onto some leads. Once I was sprung, I went huntin', and I found this out in Tall Meadows. Other reason was to make it the scratch it took. Between what we had and what I got and what I could borrow, we just managed."

"Well, that's nice and convenient. Glad that worked out for you so tidy."

"Wasn't easy."

"I'll bet." He took a good long look at the machine. "Eighty grand."

"Well, this one was about forty."

He was quiet a moment. Contemplative. It was a rare moment for him, at least in my experience. I saw his lip curl for just a moment. "I tried to do right by you," he said. "Remember?"

I nodded.

"I know I was an asshole to you all those years. Was feeling my oats, and you were such a.... I dunno. You stood out. You pound down the nail that sticks up; that's the rule. Shit, even now you don't quite sound like one of us. Not really. But later on I thought about how you acted back then. You knew better than to fight back. You didn't beg or wimp out; you took your lumps. And you kept your trap shut. Didn't go cryin' to the teachers or the office. You took it like a man and moved on. And I started thinking, well, shit... Isn't that the kind of animal you want runnin' with you? So I offered you a slot. Remember?"

"Yeah."

"Tried to make amends. Square the circle with you, like, and do you a favour. And you turned me down."

"Yeah."

"'Cause you were too good. You were gonna hold it over my head, and never let me make things right."

I took a deep breath and considered my words. "Billy, I made my peace with it a long time ago. Wasn't nothin' to make up. I didn't owe you no favours, and you didn't owe me. And that's where I wanted it left."

"I wanted to make things square."

"We're already square."

"Oh, are we?"

He let that hang in the air for a minute.

"Well, I do wonder about that," he said quietly. "I find m'self wondering if you really ever believed that. Or if I should."

"I just told you so."

"I'm wonderin' what else you got to tell."

I folded my arms on my chest. I wasn't the cub he used to beat on anymore. "Meaning what?"

But Billy wasn't the bully just used to beat on cubs anymore, either. No, he'd become something much more than that. And it was standing right in front of me. "You know what's going on around here."

I narrowed my eyes. I didn't bite. I let him say it.

And he did. He said it slow and greasy, closing the space between us as he did. "Folks are sayin' Chip got murdered. That someone had it in for him. Do you believe that?"

My mouth was the Great Table Desert. But I stood my ground. I licked my nose, just to get something wet on my tongue. "Looks that way."

For a second, I wondered what he was gonna do. To me.

Then he up and turned away. Tossed his paws in the air. "I don't know what happened to Chip. And that flatfoot doe bitch sweatin' my balls hard as she can don't change a thing."

So Sandy was breathing down Billy's neck. That was good. Very good. Likely why he hadn't been breathing down mine, or worse.

"Then as I see it, you ain't got nothin' to worry about."

"I got plenty to worry about! I make, and run, shine. And I don't need the attention. 'Specially if someone else is responsible."

"Who you got in mind, Billy?"

"Just what did you and Chip talk about that night?"

"What night?"

"When you two was up there slippin' around on Sidewinder Creek."

"And how'd you know about that?" was what I didn't say, except inside my head. Beulah knew we were going 'fishing'; maybe,_maybe_Chip had said where; maybe not. But she sure as hell didn't tell Billy that, and I sure as hell didn't, either. Which left only one possible source.

Chip.

I needed to be very, very careful here. Much more careful than Billy had just been. I shrugged; I said, "Probably the same things you talk about when y'all go fishin'. Man stuff."

"Yeah," he growled. "Maybe he said something you didn't like. Maybe your little trip to popgun practice was just cover."

I couldn't believe it. He was actually working a way to pin Chip's murder on me. The weird thing is, he had no idea how close to getting me in trouble he actually was. I'd been nowhere near a military base in months. And if anybody thought to check that out, it'd be pretty incriminating. As scared as I was, I almost wanted to laugh.

"But then, you got a lot of secrets, don't you. Pelton and Dawn, yeah, they're yours. You owned up to them 'cause their mothers weren't married. Just open-legged sluts. But how many more you got, Nicky?" He looked up at the ceiling, to where Ryan lived, and leered.

"I'd appreciate it," I said, "if you'd stop making these little insinuations designed to come between me and my brother."

"You care about him?"

"Course I do. He took me in. Brought me up."

"Funny, didn't seem to stop you helpin' yourself up onto his wife, all the while him tryin' to save his marriage."

That stung. I should have seen it coming. In my defence, though, Ryan was doing anything_but_trying to keep Luanne close by that time, and no one knew that better'n her. But saying so now was only feeding the troll.

"How can he look at Priss and not see what's plain to anyone else with eyes to see?" he said, voice like broken glass on a roadway; eyes as black as holes waiting to swallow the weak. "You know, I'm constantly surprised that we all don't wake up some morning and find you've just up and run off with her," he smiled. "Just disappeared."

I felt a chill that was like the cold before something under pressure explodes. I knew what he meant by that. It was one thing to threaten me. But to threaten little Priss? That put him beyond the pale. I knew now for sure he'd murdered Chip. He was threatening me. He was threatening Priss. My daughter or Ryan's; didn't matter. The implication was hanging there in the narrow space between us. Staring into that evil, leering face, I should have been seeing red. But what I was seeing was green. The green light for everything I now knew I had to do.

"I think the friendly little tour has ended," I said, steely-eyed. "I'd be obliged if you would leave. Now."

"Would you."

"I would."

He tapped his fingers on his thigh, like he was thinking of something to say, but thought better of it at the last minute. He didn't say anything else. He just turned and headed back to his truck. He padded back out into the sunlight calm and cool, like he had all the time in the world.

I made up my mind that I had none to waste.

* * * * *

Being in the Guard had introduced me to a lot of interesting people over the years. Animals from all walks of life, from all over the Freelands. Some of those contacts had been pretty illuminating and potentially useful. I had tested the utility of some of them in minor ways in the past few years. Now I had a somewhat bigger ask in mind.

"I think I'm gonna have to go outta town," I told Jewel. "Wouldn't do to make the calls I have to make on my pawPad."

"I'm comin' too."

I snorted. "The fuck you are."

"The fuck I ain't. Tox ain't around to look after your ass. And who you gonna talk to on the trip?"

I sighed.

"You go tell Ryan you're headin' out, and I'll get ready."

"Fine. Whatever." I reached for my cap.

"And Mango..."

"Hmm?"

"You get in that truck without me, and I'm gonna bite your dick off."

"You're assumin' I'd come back for you."

"You know I can find you wherever you are."

"That's a fact," I said. "That is a fact."

I stepped out and climbed the stairs to Ryan's place. Knocked a couple times pro forma and then let myself in. Not like we ain't walked in on one another in the middle of someone before. We didn't have no secrets from each other.

Well. Not many.

He was sitting in his chair watching ColumStock races. Drunk, but not very. Just lit up a little. I wouldn't have wanted him working nothing heavy or getting behind the wheel, but otherwise, he was fine. "Whattayah want?" he said without looking up.

"Just wanted to let you know, I'm headin' out for a bit. Making a run out to Barkwell."

"Everything squared away?"

"Nothing's pending. At least, nothing that needs doing today."

"Alright. Fine."

"Go a little easy on that stuff this afternoon, huh? For me?"

He looked at me out of the corners of his eyes. I saw him nod a little.

"Thanks, Ry. I'll be back in... I dunno. Four hours? Maybe five? Want anything?"

"Maybe pick up a bucket of chicken for supper."

"Right. I'll see you later."

"Get the good stuff this time," Ryan said.

I turned and looked at him. "Eh?"

"Buy the more expensive extract this time."

I shifted my cap and turned away. "Don't know what you mean."

I heard him rub his pads on the hardwood. "Nicky, I think I've been a real good sport about this. You gonna stand there and call me a fool to my face?"

I turned and looked into them calm yellow eyes. The eyes of my brother, father, uncle, friend, boss, and principal irritant for the past twelve years. Maybe the man who loved me most in all the world.

"The good stuff it is," I said, and I left.

Couple minutes later I was sitting in the truck going over the numbers I'd have to call when Jewel hopped in, dressed in a Truenorth tuxedo, all denim from adenoids to ankles; straw cowboy hat rounding out the ensemble. Shit, I wanted to slowly peel it all off her again and have her right there in the cab.

"How do I look?"

"Like my mother," I breezed.

"Yeah, well, whose fault is that? Start the fuckin' truck," she pouted. "Weirdo."

Being on the road with Jewel was a whole different experience from being on the road with Toxic. Jewel's conversation consisted mainly of_Wouldn't it be fun to suck your dick over there,_ and, What do you s'pose's at the end of that there road, and, I'd love to fuck you under that tree, right out in the open... I suppose that was my fault. I indulged her in these things. Goddess Alight, it was hard not to. She was so good at winding me up. But it was distracting, and I had work to do. I turned on the radio and she kind of got the message.

Still. It was nice to have her along.

I made my phone calls. We picked up some Wallaggin's into the bargain. Then we got that bucket of chicken and took it on home to Ryan.

And then I waited.

Got a phone call from a booth somewhere. Told me where to show up, and when.

I took delivery a couple of days later. What I'd asked for wasn't cheap. Luckily, I'd recently come into the funds it took to cover it.

So now it was time to plot.

I had my doubts that Billy would be stupid enough to drive something so big and recognizable as his 950 up to a top hat lab. But Shark sure as shit was, and he had only the one car besides; his Land Dart. I figured he was a good candidate. And Greg, well, he'd bought himself a supercharged Peerless, but he only trotted it out to shine folks on. When he was working, he still drove the rickety old Lifter he'd come up with outta high school. I knew for sure that thing would show up on site at some point. So, one quiet evening, I just took me a nice stroll of the nieghbourhood and had me a nice discreet visit with them fine vehicles before sauntering on home.

It was a busy few days after that. Between work at the garage, keeping an eye on Ryan's intake, and being with Anne Marie, every other moment I could spare and stay awake, I was watching the monitor and seeing who went where. Shark ran around far and wide, likely running shine or maybe even top hat. Greg went to work, his cubs' school, grocery store, and at least one night, parked just outside John and Laurie Flashready's house. John worked rotating shifts. You figure it out.

But then, one afternoon, I watched both of them cars vanish way up into the hills and end up at the same place, and within 20 minutes of each other. I smiled. There it was.

It was time to go see it for myself.