Groom took a drag on his cigarette and then tapped it on the porch railing, knocking the ash into the damp pine needles below. He reached into his breast pocket and removed a pack of cigarettes. He held it out to Winston. “Marie said you quit years ago, but now might be a good time to start again.”
Winston hesitated for a moment. He turned and looked back at the house, and then he reached out and took a cigarette that Groom had shaken loose from the pack. Groom struck his lighter, and Winston leaned toward the flame. After its long absence, the feel of the smoke in his lungs shocked him at first, but the pleasant sweetness of the cigarette and the familiarity of it in his hand relaxed him. It all felt effortless and natural.
“What’s the news?” Groom asked.
“Sheriff down in Horry County called today,” Winston said. “That’s Myrtle Beach. They made a huge bust.”
“What was it?”
“Cocaine,” Winston said. “About twenty kilos. Some weapons too.”
“How far away is that?”
“Sixty-five miles or so.”
Groom was quiet for a moment, as if he was thinking over what little bit of information Winston had given him. “That can’t be all of it if it’s tied to your aircraft,” he said. “That aircraft is too large for that. If it is tied to it, more drugs will turn up.”
“We’re hoping they’ll match something with what we’ve got, ballistics or something,” Winston said.
Groom looked over at him. “I’d be hoping the same thing,” he said. He took a long drag on his cigarette, and Winston did the same.
Chapter 10
Three garage-style doors opened out to the beach, and the breeze that ran through the bar was cool and humid. Colleen pulled her jacket tighter around her and took another sip of her beer. Although the voices of other people and the noise of the music weren’t loud inside—not loud enough to drown out the sound of the distant waves at low tide—the buzz surrounding her met her ears like voices speaking in a dream. Everything seemed strange, even the weather, especially the weather. It was still summer in Dallas, at least it felt like summer, and thinking about this made Colleen feel that a fog had been lifted, and for the first time since returning home she felt the mystery of seasonal change in the air.
She and Danny had spent most of the evening at a restaurant/bar down by the Oak Island pier called Whale of a Time. They’d knocked back round after round of Budweisers, picked through a shared basket of fried flounder, coleslaw, and french fries, and even danced to the jukebox when one song or another spoke to them enough to leave their bar stools and wander out to the dance floor.
As usual, Danny was outspoken and funny, indifferent to the people who watched them dance or listened to the things they talked about. Unlike Colleen, Danny had dressed up for Halloween night, in black jeans and a black Izod shirt with the collar popped up around his face, a trail of blood on either side of his lips, and large, plastic vampire teeth that popped out of his mouth and landed on the bar or dance floor whenever he laughed. Colleen eventually wrapped the teeth in a napkin and slipped them into her purse without him noticing.
While he danced, Danny kept his eyes closed as if watching a movie of himself in his head, as if everything in the room were drawn toward him and his movement. Colleen, on the other hand, kept her eyes open; she watched Danny move, looked around at the costumed people in the bar, watched her own reflection in a narrow strip of mirror that hung behind the liquor bottles. Her hair was still pulled back in a ponytail that had spent the day working itself loose, and she wore a black tank top beneath her jean jacket and tight jeans with her Keds. Danny’s dark brown hair brushed his collar where he wore it long in the back and spiked with gel in the front. A tiny gold hoop in his right ear caught the light. While they danced, Danny would open his eyes for a moment and wink at Colleen as if they were the only two people in the world. He made her feel that way, and she had never envied someone so much in her entire life.
Danny was a licensed realtor, and he worked in his father’s real estate office, but Colleen knew he spent most of his time in Wilmington or Raleigh, places that could sometimes seem as far away as Mars. She couldn’t imagine why Danny had remained in Oak Island after high school, but perhaps someone would ask the same question about why she had returned. Regardless, here they both were now on Halloween night, dancing to the Eurythmics, the Go-Go’s, the Cure, and screaming over the music as if the bar were packed with people just like them.
Colleen lost count of how many beers she’d had, and the basket of fried fish sat in front of her, cold and congealed. She turned over a piece of flounder, found a french fry hiding beneath, and popped it into her mouth.
“Cheer up,” Danny said. He leaned his body against hers, and she grabbed the bar to keep from toppling off her stool.
“I am cheery,” she said. “I’m full of cheer.”
“Bullshit,” he said. “You look worn-out and angry.”
“This is my ‘I just lost my baby and my marriage is unraveling’ Halloween costume,” she said.
“Oh, honey,” he said. He took a drag from his cigarette and put his arm around her and pulled her close to him. She felt him turn his head to blow smoke away from her.
“I just can’t believe Myra Page told you about what happened at the grocery store,” she said. “How embarrassing.”
Danny took his arm from around her and sat up straight. He tapped his cigarette into the ashtray. “Myra didn’t tell me,” he said. He took a drag and blew more smoke. “Rebecca Henderson did. She’s one of my daddy’s agents, and Myra’s the one who told her.”
“Jesus,” Colleen said. She dropped her forehead into her hands, the heaviness of her own head almost rocking her off the stool again. “That’s even worse.”
“Oh, come on,” Danny said. “Who cares about those little tramps? Did you get a look at Myra’s baby? If Pete thinks it’s his then he’s dumber than she is. If that girl had as many poking out as she’s had poking in she’d be a damn porcupine.”
Colleen raised her head to the ceiling and laughed. Danny smiled and took another drag.
“That’s right,” he said. “Keep your head up. You don’t need to worry about what anyone on this damned island thinks. You’re a Dallas girl now. Don’t mess with Texas, bitches.” He turned toward her so that his knees touched hers. He lifted his cigarette and pointed toward the beach outside. “And later, when you vomit on the beach out there, I’m going to be right beside you, holding your hair.”
She leaned forward and rested her head on his shoulder. He dropped his cigarette in the ashtray on the bar and put his arms around her.
“Come on, now,” he whispered. He rubbed her back. “Come on, now,” he said again.
“You always make me feel better,” she said. She sat up and looked at him. “Thank you for calling me. I wish I were more fun.”
He gasped and widened his eyes as if gravely offended by what she’d just said. “You can beat me, tie me up, and make me write bad checks,” he said. “But don’t you dare bore me. Lord knows nothing about you has ever bored me.”