Josh scratched his neck and looked around. Got me chilren on down dare aint seen theys daddy in a while.

The troopers expression turned serious. Okay.

Man say I gone git dare from dis here road.

Well, the man didnt tell you exactly right.

Huh, you knows hows I git dare, den?

Yeah, you can follow me, but I cant drive the whole way.

Josh just stared at the man. My chilren, dey bin good. Dey wanta see Daddy. You hep me?

Okay, I tell you what, were close to the exit you need to take to head on down that way. You follow me there, and then youre on your own. You stop and ask somebody else. Hows that sound?

Aight. Josh touched the bill of his cap. The trooper was about to return to his cruiser when he glanced at the camper. He hit his light through the side window and saw the stacked boxes. Sir, you mind my taking a look in the camper?

Josh didnt flinch, although his hand edged toward the front of the seat, where his gun was. Hell, no. The trooper went to the rear of the camper and opened the upper glass door. The wall of boxes stared back at him. Behind the stacks, Rufus huddled under the tarp in the darkness of the camper.

What you got in here, sir? the trooper called out.

Food, Josh called back, leaning out the window. The trooper opened one box, shook a soup can, opened the box of crackers and then replaced it, closed the box and then the camper window. He walked back to the drivers side window.

Lot of food. The trip isnt that long.

Axed my chilren what dey want. Dey say food.

The trooper blinked. Oh. Well, thats good of you. Real good of you.

You got chilren?

Two.

Aight, den.

Have a safe trip. The cop walked back to his cruiser. Josh pulled back onto the road after the cruiser did. Rufus appeared at the camper window. I was sweating a damn river back there.

Josh smiled. You got to take it cool. You play badass, they cuff you. You act too polite, they figure you scamming their ass and they cuff you. Now, you be old and dumb, they dont give a shit.

Still a close call, Josh.

We caught us a break with the Mexie. Theyre real big on family, kids. Talk that shit and theyre cool with you. If hed been white, we might have had us a big problem. Once he made up his mind to look, Whitie wouldve pulled everything out of that camper until he found your ass. Now, a bro mightve cut me some slack, but you never know. Sometimes, they got that uniform on, they start to act white.

Rufus stared at his brother with a look of displeasure.

Now, the Asians, they the worst, Josh continued. You cant say shit to them. They just stand there and look at you, not listening to a damn word, and then go off and do what theyre gonna do. Might as well just shoot them mothers before they kung fu your ass. Yeah, its real good we met up with Officer Pedro. Josh spit the chew out the window.

You got everybody figured out? Rufus said angrily. Josh glanced at him. You got a problem with that?

Maybe.

Well, you live your life the way you want, I live mine the way I want. We see who makes it farther. I know you had it hard inside, but it aint no picnic on the outside. I got me my own little prison right out here. And nobodys convicted me of a damn thing.

God made all of us, Josh. We all his children. Aint no good trying to divide us all up. I seen plenty of white folk beaten up in prison. Evil comes in all forms, all colors. Bible says so. I aint judging nobody except on themselves. Only way to do it.

Josh snorted. Look at you, saying that. After all Tremaine and them done to you. You telling me you dont hate them, want to kill em?

No. If I felt that way, thatd mean Vic took the love from my heart. Took my Lord away from me. He does that, that means hes controlling me. Aint nobody on this earth strong enough to take God from me. Not old Vic, you or anybody else. Im not dumb, Josh. I know life aint fair. I know black folk aint riding on top of the world. But I aint adding to the problem by hating people.

Shit. You got the gold card from God to hate every white person ever born.

Youre wrong. I hate them, its like hating myself. I went down that road when I first went to prison. Hated everybody. The Devil had me, but the Lord took me back. Cant do it. Wont do it.

Well, thats your problem. Sooner you get over that the better. *����*����* That was a big oversight on your part, Frank. You take out Rider and his wife, but you didnt search his office?

Rayfields grip tightened around the phone. Well, tell me exactly when I was supposed to do that. If I had done it before we killed him, he wouldve gotten suspicious and maybe gotten away. If we had gotten caught going through it now, there wouldve been questions I dont have answers for.

But you just told me they ruled it a murder-suicide. The cops arent going to investigate that anymore.

Probably true.

So you can hit his office. Like tonight.

If the coast is clear, well do it.

Have you found the letter Harms got from the Army?

Not yet He broke off as Tremaine burst into his office, waving a piece of paper. Hold on.

Tremaine slid the paper in front of Rayfield, who went pale as he read it. He looked up at a grim Tremaine.

Whered you find it?

That SOB hollowed out one of the bed supports. Pretty slick, Tremaine grudgingly conceded. Rayfield spoke into the receiver. In terse sentences he conveyed the contents of the letter.

Was this your doing, Frank?

Look, if the guy had died in the stockade the way we planned, they wouldve done an autopsy, right? Well, this was the only way to cover that hole. We all agreed.

But, Christ, Harms didnt die. Why didnt you have it expunged from the system later?

I did! Dont you think if I hadnt, it wouldve come out during the investigation? Rider wasnt stupid, he wouldve pounced on that as a defense.

So if you took it out of the record back then, why did the Army send him that letter all these years later?

Who knows? Some dipshit clerk could have come across a piece of paper and put it back in, or these days entered it into a database. Once in the Armys official record, you never know if somethings going to resurface, no matter how hard you tried to bury it. Its the biggest damn bureaucracy in the world. You cant account for everything.

But it was your job to stay on top of it.

Dont tell me what my job is. I tried to stay on top of it, but its not like I could check on it every stinking day for the last quarter century.

The voice sighed. So now we know what triggered Harmss memory.

Any strategy comes with risks.

Well, maybe Rider had a copy of this letter.

I dont see how Rufus Harms couldve had access to a copier, and the letter wasnt part of what he filed with the Court, we know that for a fact.

But we cant be sure that he didnt. Thats all the more reason for you to go over Riders office tonight.

Rayfield looked up at Tremaine and then said into the phone, All right, well hit it tonight. Fast and hard.

["C42"]CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

Senator Knight warmly greeted Fiske and Sara as they entered the foyer. Behind him, they could see the place was filled with the business and political elite of the nations capital.

Glad you could come, John, Jordan Knight said, shaking his hand. Sara, you look radiant as always. He gave her a hug and they exchanged pecks on the cheek. Fiske looked over at Sara. She had changed out of her business attire and into a light summer dress of soft pastel colors that accented nicely her suntanned skin. The bun was gone and her hair swept appealingly around her face. She caught Fiske staring at her and he quickly looked away, embarrassed, before accepting a drink from one of the waiters. Sara and Jordan Knight did the same. Jordan looked around, seemingly a little embarrassed himself. I know the timing on this damn thing is atrocious. He eyed Sara closely when he said this. I know Beth feels the same way, although she wont admit it.