Read Online Snake Eater by William G. Tapply - Free Book Online Page A

behind the wheel. Cammie met them halfway. The three of them formed a huddle with their arms around each other’s shoulders. They leaned forward so that their foreheads appeared to be touching. I could hear the low rumble of the black man’s voice. It sounded as if he was praying.
    After a few minutes, they straightened up. Cammie took each man by the arm and led the two of them back toward where Terri and I stood.
    “Brady Coyne, Terri Fiori, this is Roscoe Pollard”—indicating the fat black man—“and Vinnie Colletti. Daniel’s dear friends.”
    I stepped forward and shook hands with each of them. Roscoe’s eyes were large and dark and damp. “Hello, brother,” he said softly in a deep bass voice.
    Vinnie, who was shaped like a linebacker, said nothing when we shook. His eyes refused to meet mine.
    Each of them nodded shyly at Terri.
    “I called Vinnie and Roscoe right before you got here,” Cammie said to me.
    “You should’ve called sooner, sister,” said Roscoe, who I took to be the spokesman for the two men. “We’re only twenty minutes away. You shouldn’t have been alone.”
    Cammie nodded. “I know. It was…I guess I wasn’t thinking very clearly. I called Brady right away, he said he was coming, and…” She shrugged.
    “You’re Daniel’s lawyer,” said Roscoe to me. Up close, I saw that he was fat like a sumo wrestler. All that flesh was composed of great mounds of muscle.
    “Yes,” I said to him. “His lawyer.”
    “You got him out of jail.”
    I shrugged and nodded.
    “Daniel talked about you. He liked you.”
    “I liked him, too.”
    He dipped his head in a kind of a bow. “Thank you for coming.”
    I nodded.
    “We got here as fast as we could,” he said to Cammie. “The, um, all the official vehicles were already here. We decided to wait till they left. No sense of confusing things.”
    Cammie smiled and nodded.
    Roscoe turned to me. “Me and Vinnie live up the road a ways. Turner’s Falls. We were with Daniel over there. We were family. We helped him build this.” He waved at the shop and the house. “We hung around with him. Shooting the shit in the shop. Fishing, hunting, catching bait.” He shook his head.
    I understood that Roscoe and Vinnie had chosen to wait for the police to leave before they made their appearance. Their motives, I figured, were their own business.
    “Let’s go up to the house,” said Cammie. “We’ll have coffee.”
    The five of us went up to the house. Cammie, with her arms around the massive backs of the two big men, looked like a child between them.
    We took coffee out onto the deck. Cammie sat staring dry-eyed off toward the river. It would take a while to sink in. Roscoe and Vinnie said little. Vinnie Colletti, in fact, had barely uttered a word since he arrived. Neither Terri nor I tried to disturb the somber mood. We all sat there with our own thoughts.
    Sometime later we heard the sound of a motorcycle moving fast toward the house. Cammie jumped up without speaking and walked quickly around to the front.
    Roscoe and Vinnie exchanged smiles. They remained on the deck.
    Terri and I followed behind Cammie. As we got there, we saw a helmeted man skid a big Harley to a stop in the driveway. He leaped off his bike, took off his helmet, and held out his arms to Cammie. She ran to him and hugged herself against him. He held her for a long time. They swayed back and forth, and it was hard to tell who was comforting whom.
    He was a tall, very thin man with a deeply creased face and a scraggly beard. He murmured into Cammie’s ear. I noticed that Cammie was crying against his shoulder.
    After several minutes the man lifted his head and noticed me and Terri. He whispered something to Cammie, who turned to look at us. Then she stepped out of his embrace, took his hand, and led him to us.
    “Brady Coyne, Terri Fiori, this is Brian. Brian Sweeney.”
    Sweeney held out his hand to me and we shook. He dipped his head shyly and murmured, “Mr.