A Hard Death
Jonathan Hayes
“Let there be light!” said God, and there was Light!
“Let there be Blood!” says man, and there’s a sea!
Byron, “Don Juan”
Contents
Epigraph
Chapter 1
The airboat was nearing the edges of the Glades, wending…
Chapter 2
Jenner watched the old man push the shopping cart across…
Chapter 3
Out in the Everglades, Jenner ran along the old canal…
Chapter 4
Jenner climbed the concrete barrier and scrambled down the embankment.
Chapter 5
The tow truck pulled the car over the lip of…
Chapter 6
Jenner straightened. “You guys got a camera?”
Chapter 7
Adam Weiss was thinking: This is bullshit. This guy is…
Chapter 8
It was well after dark when Nash drove the patrol…
Chapter 9
The deputy sat inside the car, watching them move the…
Chapter 10
Jenner asked all staff other than Flanagan, and Bunny Rutledge…
Chapter 11
Cause of death wasn’t an issue—anyone could see someone had…
Chapter 12
Jenner walked out into the steel-gray morning, blinking in the…
Chapter 13
Adam Weiss leaned back against the tree, his ear still…
Chapter 14
The manager served Jenner his Fontaine Shack Special Burger.
Chapter 15
Jenner’s route home took him back through the heart of…
Chapter 16
Jenner was woken by a loud bang from the lot…
Chapter 17
The phone was a grinding dentist’s drill jammed into the…
Chapter 18
After pushing the dog out of his cabin, Jenner walked…
Chapter 19
At first, he made pretty good time. The sedge was…
Chapter 20
Jenner stood in the mud, peering into the hammock as…
Chapter 21
It was after eleven a.m. The rain had settled to…
Chapter 22
The swamp buggy lumbered toward them, ripping a broad V…
Chapter 23
Adam Weiss pumped the pedals hard, then coasted, lifting up…
Chapter 24
They brought the bodies by airboat to the Coast Guard…
Chapter 25
Things were worse at the office. Driving down the scrub…
Chapter 26
Just after three p.m., they heard the sirens.
Chapter 27
In the makeup chair, Amanda Tucker had finally had enough…
Chapter 28
In the shadow of the gatehouse eaves, Adam Weiss waited…
Chapter 29
Alone in the quiet of the morgue, Jenner sat on…
Chapter 30
Jenner dropped the paperwork in the office, then sat at…
Chapter 31
Their conversation was brief—there wasn’t much to say, and she…
Chapter 32
Jenner flicked on the lights in the garage. Marty’s car,…
Chapter 33
The Palmetto Court again. Jenner left his muddy waders in…
Chapter 34
Jenner lay in bed, talking to Annie Carr on the…
Chapter 35
As soon as Jenner’s seat belt clicked shut, the dog…
Jenner glanced up at the autopsy room clock. Three p.m.
Chapter 37
The shadows of the western poplars were longer now, crawling…
Chapter 38
The truck seemed larger; Adam dismissed it as a trick…
Chapter 39
It was just after quarter to seven when Jenner pulled…
Chapter 40
They took Adam out to the fields south of Bel…
Chapter 41
The clubhouse at the Port Fontaine Polo Grounds Country Club…
Chapter 42
Adam was flying now, pedal to the metal, pedal to…
Chapter 43
The black Mercedes SUV sheared into a howling skid, the…
Chapter 44
The maître d’ escorted Chip Craine through the lobby and…
Chapter 45
Jenner walked out beyond the barrier of the box privet…
Chapter 46
Jenner drove the Bentley back to Stella Maris, taking it…
Chapter 47
The sound of movement.
Chapter 48
Jenner woke at seven a.m. Maggie was wearing her white…
Chapter 49
Clay Martin tapped the desk in front of Arlene Soto…
Chapter 50
As Cooper and Martin left the office, a small mob…
Chapter 51
Jenner shook his head. Something was definitely not right here.
Chapter 52
Bunny was suturing the body closed when Highway Patrol showed…
Chapter 53
Jenner watched the two troopers walk back down the hall…
Chapter 54
With the entire mortuary staff standing in the sheriff’s office…
Chapter 55
Three hours: enough time to get up to Bel Arbre…
Chapter 56
Rudge found Jenner in the loading dock, standing over a…
Chapter 57
They drove north on I-55 into a darkening sky. Rudge…
Chapter 58
Rudge was calling Jenner from the roadside, his jacket held…
Chapter 59
Maggie looked at the dog Jenner had brought in.
Chapter 60
Rudge and Jenner ate in the parking lot next to…
Chapter 61
The UFL visit could’ve gone better. The farm manager mistook…
Chapter 62
It was past seven p.m. when Rudge dropped Jenner at…
Chapter 63
Deb Putnam sat on Jenner’s porch, stomach growling.
Chapter 64
Daylight. Jenner had left the curtains open, and the cabin…
Chapter 65
Brodie stood at the top of the gentle slope, looking…
Chapter 66
At ten thirty a.m., Jenner was dictating his report on…
Chapter 67
Leila, the head of Craine’s household staff, was waiting for…
Chapter 68
In the embalming room, Smith watched Reggie Jones open Mrs.…
Chapter 69
When he was safely out of Port Fontaine and onto…
Chapter 70
At lunchtime, her mom still wasn’t back from the memorial…
Chapter 71
A steady stream of mourners filed in and out of…
Chapter 72
The medical examiner’s office was still deserted. Bucky and Calvin…
Chapter 73
When the staff began to drift back into the office…
Chapter 74
Smith was edgy. It was a cash month—every fourth month…
Chapter 75
Jenner decided to try Maggie Craine one last time. The…
Chapter 76
After the memorial service, the news cameras around the medical…
Chapter 77
The office was deserted; the staff had knocked off early…
Chapter 78
Hold still just a sec, Amanda. I’m going to tape…
Chapter 79
Jenner didn’t see Maggie’s text at first. It
wasn’t until…
Chapter 80
Rudge checked the clock on his kitchen wall: he’d made…
Chapter 81
Amanda Tucker was waiting for Jenner at his cabin, standing…
Chapter 82
Onscreen, Dooley Wilson was at the piano in Rick’s bar…
Chapter 83
Amanda Tucker stood at the sink, holding up the hem…
Chapter 84
Jenner parked the Accent in front of the Super Target.
Chapter 85
Still no answer from Rudge.
Chapter 86
Dr. Ade was in the waiting room, talking with Maggie. Maggie…
Chapter 87
Jenner needed to see Rudge, talk it out, figure out…
Chapter 88
It was past eleven p.m. when they reached Rudge’s place…
Chapter 89
Jenner had been fired, for all intents and purposes, but…
Chapter 90
They were all watching Jenner—the uniformed officers, Bartley, Halvorsen, the…
Chapter 91
It was late, but he knew her mother was out.
Chapter 92
Jenner stood in front of the charred husk of his…
Chapter 93
Jenner woke to the sound of gulls. He was in…
Chapter 94
Jenner was sitting at the wicker desk, wearing a fresh…
Chapter 95
Chip Craine looked well-rested, tanned, and healthy in sunglasses, open-necked…
Chapter 96
A faint, coppery smell of sweat and paper and coin…
Chapter 97
Twenty minutes later, Jenner returned to his room carrying two…
Chapter 98
Jenner drove slowly through the municipal lot, past cop cars…
Chapter 99
The interrogation room smelled of stale sweat. As the video…
Chapter 100
When Jenner had finished his good-byes at the morgue, Flanagan…
Chapter 101
Jenner called Deb Putnam; she was in the field, on…
Chapter 102
Jenner was relieved the Mercedes wasn’t in the shelter parking…
Chapter 103
The Polo Course was a luxury development, seven or eight…
Chapter 104
Deb Putnam steadied the clipboard on the hood of her…
Chapter 105
Jenner was a few miles south of Bel Arbre when…
Chapter 106
As she got out of the car, Nash murmured, “Doc…
Chapter 107
Brodie stood on the farmhouse porch, looking at the bunkhouses.
Chapter 108
Doctor! Get her gun! Get her pistol. Now!
Chapter 109
Nash motioned down the highway ahead, tapped his gun against…
Chapter 110
Smith and Bentas watched the Taurus approach up the main…
Chapter 111
Nash was jittery and pale, talking a mile a minute.
Chapter 112
Brodie watched Craine drive up. He climbed onto the porch…
Chapter 113
“Jenner? I think the bleeding has stopped.”
Chapter 114
Nash felt his rain-soaked shirt cling to the gun wedged…
Chapter 115
“Hey, officer. Brodie wants to know have you taken care…
Chapter 116
Jenner needed to get rid of the body, get it…
Chapter 117
In the dull light in the shed, Deb was sitting…
Chapter 118
They had to get moving. Now.
Chapter 119
Brodie watched Chip Craine, shirt untucked, face ruddy and glistening…
Chapter 120
From the shadows along the shed, Jenner watched Craine take…
Chapter 121
The hierarchy at the farm was preserved at dinnertime as…
Chapter 122
Bartley finished strapping on his body armor standing inside the…
Chapter 123
Brodie was relaxed. He’d been planning for this moment for…
Chapter 124
Deb draped her arm over Jenner’s shoulder, and together they…
Chapter 125
Bartley was in the Explorer with two of the team…
Chapter 126
Craine stood on the dock, staring up over the fields…
Chapter 127
Jenner lay by the road toward the north end of…
Chapter 128
The bunkhouses exploded into a single curtain of orange flame…
Chapter 129
Jenner ran the length of the dock and dove, swimming…
Chapter 130
Fifteen minutes later, Jenner still hadn’t found her. He was…
Chapter 131
Deb held still as the bright light cut through the…
Chapter 132
Brodie, up on the bench behind the airboat’s stick, peered…
Chapter 133
Above the engine, Brodie yelled, “Where’s the girl?”
Chapter 134
The light from the airboat had gone, and Deb couldn’t…
Chapter 135
Brodie’s eyes scanned the banks of the river. Nothing. It…
Chapter 136
Brodie turned the airboat back toward the farm, then let…
Chapter 137
They came out of nowhere, two boats, big searchlights flooding…
Chapter 138
In Port Fontaine, the heavy rain had started late enough…
Chapter 139
Maggie? It’s over.” Jenner stood. “Put the gun down, now.”
Chapter 140
At the farm, it was pandemonium. Jenner parked on the…
Chapter 141
It was two days before they let Jenner leave Douglas…
Epilogue
At sunset, they flocked to the edges of the farms…
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Other Books by Jonathan Hayes
Credits
Copyright
About the Publisher
CHAPTER 1
SOUTH FLORIDA: THE WESTERN EVERGLADES
The airboat was nearing the edges of the Glades, wending its way through a series of small sloughs. The dry season had been unusually harsh, and parts of the swamp where Tony could normally fly over the sawgrass at full speed were shallow mazes of protruding sedge and parched marl.
The airboat, bought used from a local tour operator and beefed up with a Chevy big block engine, had a flat hull that could glide through the shallowest marsh. Tony was perched high up on the stick, in front of the safety cage around the roaring six-foot propeller.
The going was slow. The airboat was always tricky—the stick controlled the two vertical rudders, but there was no way to slow down, no reverse, and the slower you moved, the harder it was to steer.
With six passengers, the boat was near capacity. Smith was boss for the day, Bentas second in command, and Tony on the rudder. And Brodie had sent Tarver—that boil on the ass of humanity—along for the ride. And then there was their cargo, the two Mexican prisoners, the whole reason for the trip.
Squinting into the setting sun, Smith shifted the shotgun into his left hand, scowled, and turned to make a cutting gesture to his pilot. Tony throttled down, abruptly tapping the stick forward to send the airboat scudding left to miss a rotting tree limb.
The Mexicans sat in the front row, each hooded with a white plastic bag that read DELFINE PIGLET FEED in red; the heavier one’s shirt was soaked in blood—Tony’s handiwork. A coarse yellow nylon rope hung slack between their necks, tying them together for their last precious moments of life. Their wrists were lashed behind them; Smith hadn’t bothered shackling them to the seats—where were they going to go? They knew he’d shoot them if they
went into the water, shoot to wound, let the gators finish them off.
He wondered what he’d do in their place. They knew what was going to happen: when men finally made it into the inner circle, while still high on all the money they’d be making, Brodie showed them his special videotape. And once they’d seen the video, the men knew they were in, that there was no turning back.
The fat one wouldn’t quit blubbering, the sound so loud even the noise of the prop couldn’t drown it out. Smith was sick of that shit, but if he just gave in and blew Gordo’s head off and dumped the body, there’d be nothing to show the other workers, no way to teach them that the Rule was the Rule, and the Rule must be obeyed.