Read Online L. A. Outlaws by T. Jefferson Parker - Free Book Online Page B

baby. She took the infant and sat down cross-legged with her back to the man, who ladled up the water in his hands and spilled it onto her shoulders. He kissed her neck.
     
     
     
    The heat was too heavy and soon everyone had gone back inside except the young boy, who continued to fish the pond. He hadn’t had a strike in over an hour but he still seemed keenly interested in what he was doing. The boy changed his lure for the fifth time. Lupercio saw that he could either kill them all and then search for his diamonds, or he could come back another time when they were gone. The trouble was that Suzanne Jones would likely fence his jewels soon, and this opportunity would be lost forever.
    Then the young boy reeled up his lure to the rod tip, turned and started across the meadow toward Lupercio.
    Lupercio watched the boy approach and the distance between them shorten, and he rapidly weighed cause and effect and made up his mind what he would do.
    The boy was slender and dark-skinned and his eyes were gray. “How do you catch the fish?”
    “With patience.”
    “I mean bait or a lure?”
    “Worms.”
    Lupercio picked up his Styrofoam cup of worms and handed it to the boy, who lifted the lid and pried through the earth with a finger.
    “These look good,” said the boy.
    “They are good.”
    “You don’t have a bobber. How do you see the strike?”
    “By feel. The small fish are brave and confident. You can feel them take the worm if it’s hooked right.”
    “Teach me how to catch them,” said the boy.
    “They’ve stopped biting in the heat,” said Lupercio. He lifted his hat and wiped his forehead as if to prove this, then set the hat back in place slightly higher up, enjoying the new strip of cool. “And I have to go home now to my family.”
    “Maybe later today when it’s not so hot?”
    “Maybe.”
    “No, never mind. We’re going to the movies today. Sunday afternoons. I just remembered.”
    Lupercio smiled inside. “Then some other time. Keep the worms. Put them in the refrigerator and they’ll stay alive for days.”
    The boy looked at him. “I’ll pay you for them.”
    “Okay.”
    The boy pulled a wallet from his back pocket. It was smooth leather, and new, and Lupercio read the name embossed across the back: Jordan.
    Jordan tucked the worm cup under one elbow, took out a dollar and handed it to Lupercio.
    “Thank you,” said Lupercio. “When you feel the hook move, set it. Even at the slightest movement, set it. If you’re not sure, set it. You’ll be surprised.”
    Jordan nodded, then turned and walked back across the meadow.
    Lupercio watched him go, understanding that he had just determined his own fate. He had revealed himself for the diamonds. He’d always believed that he would die in the pursuit of something beautiful but never imagined his death would begin with a boy trying to catch a fish.
    When the family drove away at four in a red Yukon, Lupercio rose from the shade of the greasewood trees alongside the stream.
     
     
     
    He had a good feeling about the barn and decided to search it first. Two hours was plenty for the barn, the house and the garage, so long as you had a feel for where to hide things. Lupercio had that feel from years of hiding his own earnings—the cash and dope and jewelry and stolen everything that he’d spent a lifetime amassing and protecting.
    He picked open the padlock, slid the heavy rolling door aside just a little and slipped in. He found the lights. He saw the pickup truck and had an even stronger feeling that this was where she’d put the gems.
    He had just put his hand on the green latex painter’s gloves in his pants pocket when the door thundered open to a bright sky and two men appeared in the doorway silhouetted by the orange sun.
    They walked toward him. They were young and even bigger than the Hawaiian, with long black hair and faces that looked chipped from stone. Indians from the reservation, thought Lupercio.
    Their hands were empty