“What exactly are you going to be hunting?” he finally asked.
I carried on wrapping. “Why d’you ask?”
“An M24. Not that you can’t use it for hunting, I mean, that’s what it was originally for. With a few modifications.”
“Beasts of prey,” I said without looking up.
“I never heard that,” Jim said and laughed.
I didn’t laugh.
“Not that it’s any of my business, Tomás, but you do know that the wolf is protected now, right?”
“Is it?”
“Yup. But relax, I ain’t planning to snitch. Wolves have been seen in Cedar Creek, dammit, that’s just a half hour from downtown, and this is a free country, people have the right to protect themselves, if you ask me. Or am I wrong, Tomás?”
“Damn right they do,” I said.
Back inside the store I paid in cash.
“Don’t see that too often,” said Jim.
I heard someone enter behind me. Don’t know why I turned, maybe it was something about the footsteps, the coughing, the gravelly voice speaking. Two uniformed cops, a man and a woman. I felt my heart beat faster. I picked up my change, wedged the rifle under my arm, looked downward and marched out. I saw the empty cop car in the parking lot. Nothing strange about police coming to a shooting range, I told myself, they probably come here to practice. All the same I walked faster than I normally would. And when I heard that gravelly voice calling “Sir! Wait!” then I knew that no matter how well you’ve planned things—whether it’s for a family’s future, or for how to handle losing one—you haven’t a hope against the play of chance.
Should I stop? Run? Tear the bubble wrap off the rifle and attack?
I stopped. Turned slowly.
The cop was running toward me. He hadn’t taken the gun out of his holster yet but he was holding something in his hand. I tensed, not quite sure yet what for.
“Jim says you forgot this, sir,” he said as he caught up with me.
I saw now what he was holding. The target. I must have left it on the counter.
“Thank you so much,” I said. I tried to smile as I wedged the target inside the bubble wrap.
“Courtesy of theMPD.” The cop laughed. And I could see then he was a man it would have been easy to like. I laughed too. Because he had no idea he was face-to-face with the man who’d shot a Jordan gun dealer two days before, and in just a few more hours was going to be at work again.
20
The Eyes, October 2016
It was three thirty and the bell over the door of Town Taxidermy rang.
Mike Lunde emerged from a door behind the counter with a pair of reading glasses pushed up on his forehead.
“Detective Oz,” he said, wiping his hands dry on his rough blue apron.
“Lunde.” Bob looked around. Apart from the animals the place was as deserted as it had been the previous time.
“What can I do for you?”
Bob smiled and patted a white-tailed deer. “I was wondering if I could hang around here for a while this afternoon.”
Lunde gave Bob a look of mild astonishment.
“We don’t have any other leads on Gomez,” Bob explained. “This is the only place where we can expect him to show up.”
