Read Online A Stained White Radiance by James Lee Burke - Free Book Online Page A

place.”
    â€œThere’re a lot of weird guys around these days. I think it’s got something to do with the times. The country has weirded out on us, Dave.”
    â€œI haven’t had to talk withany of Deputy Garrett’s family yet. It’s something I don’t want to do, either. But I hope I have something more to offer them than a statement about the country weirding out on us.”
    He looked momentarily shamefaced.
    â€œWhat do you want me to say?” he asked.
    â€œWho are these guys?”
    â€œYou tell me. You saw them. I didn’t.”
    â€œEddy and Jewel. What do those names mean to you? Who’s the guy with a mouthful of metal?”
    â€œI’m sorry about your friend in the basement. I wish he hadn’t gone in there.”
    â€œIt was his job.”
    He gazed out the window at a cloud that hung on the edge of the early sun. His face became melancholy.
    â€œDo you believe in karma? I do. Or at least I came to believe in it when I was in the Orient,” he said. His eyes wandered around the room.
    â€œWhat’s the point?”
    â€œI don’t know what’s the point. You ever hear of a flyer named Earthquake McGoon? His real name was Ed McGovern, from New Jersey. He was kind of a legend among certain people in the Orient. He was a huge fat guy, and one time he and his copilot, this Chinese kid, got locked up in a Chinese jail. Earthquake kept yelling at the guards, ‘Goddamn it, you haven’t fed me. Give me some goddamn food.’ They told him he’d already had his rice bowl and to shut his mouth. That night when the guards went home Earthquake bent the bars apart and told his copilot to beat it, then he pushedthe bars back into shape. The guards came back in the morning and said, ‘Where’s the other guy?’ Earthquake said, ‘I told you to feed me, and you wouldn’t do it, so I ate the sonofabitch.’
    â€œHe was one of those indestructible guys. Except he was doing a supply drop for the French at Dien Bien Phu and he got hit by some ground fire. He tried to get his parachute on but he was too fat. He told his kickers to jump and he was going to set it down on Highway One going into Hanoi. They said if he was going to ride it down, they would, too. He came in like a powder puff. It looked like they were home free, then his wing tipped a telephone pole, and they flipped and burned.”
    He looked at me as though I should find meaning in his face or his story.
    â€œThat’s what karma is,” he said. “Highway One outside of Hanoi is waiting for us. It’s all part of a piece. I’m sorry about your friend.”
    â€œHave you ever been in jail?” I said.
    â€œNo. Why?”
    I walked around the side of the desk.
    â€œLet me see your hand,” I said.
    â€œWhat are you talking about?”
    â€œLet me see your hand.”
    â€œWhich hand?”
    â€œIt doesn’t matter.” I lifted his right hand off the chair arm and snipped one end of my handcuffs around his wrist. Then I locked the other end to the D-ring on the floor.
    â€œWhat do you think you’re doing, Dave?”
    â€œI’m going to have some breakfast. I’m not sure when I’ll be back. Do you want me to bring you anything?”
    â€œYou listen—”
    â€œYou can start yelling or banging around in here if you want and somebody’ll move you to the tank. I think today they have spaghetti for lunch. It’s not bad.”
    He looked simian in the chair, with one shoulder and taut arm stretched down toward the floor, his square face discolored with anger. Before he could speak again I closed the door behind me.
    I walked across the street in the sunshine and bought four doughnuts at a café, then returned to the office. I wasn’t gone more than ten minutes. I unlocked the handcuff from his wrist.
    â€œThat’s what it’s like,” I said. “Except it’s