Read Online The Redeemers by Ace Atkins - Free Book Online Page A

need is another heart attack to keep me away from fishing or the ski slopes. We’re going back to that time-share in Aspen in February. You should fly up to Colorado sometime, Johnny. I think you’d just love it.”
    “I been there,” Stagg said. “Lots of rich women in fur coats and men dressed up like queers. No thank you, sir.”
    The waitress set down a ceramic mug for Cobb and walked off, checking on other tables, giving Stagg the privacy that everyone knew he needed at the corner booth. If Johnny had company, everyone knew to set down the food, or coffee, and walk away. Let Johnny tend to his business. The truck stop was filled this morning, eighteen-wheelers backed up nearly ten slots for the diesel pumps, credit card receipts unrolling, register bells jingling.
    “So how you been, Larry?”
    “Fine,” Cobb said. “I ain’t complainin’.”
    “You sounded worried on the telephone.”
    “Nah,” Cobb said. “I ain’t worried. Just trying to get things straight. Make sure everything’s working out with the bridge. I hadn’t heard a word in two months. I just figured that . . . Well, you know.”
    “That it was a done deal?”
    “Yeah,” Larry Cobb, that greedy son of a bitch, said. “Yeah, that’s about it.”
    “It is.”
    Cobb was a man of medium height and impressive girth. He hadn’t done manual labor since the eighties but shuffled his feet and bounded around as if he were a big man on account of his thickness. He had a big fat stomach and big fat arms that he’d cross over the bulk with a lot of self-satisfaction. He was bald, with white hair ringing his head, and kept his white beard just short enough not to look like a redneck Santa Claus. Two of his teeth were gold, and he’d taken to wearing a Mississippi State jacket just to show he didn’t care a whit for Johnny’s beloved Ole Miss. Mainly, he just lorded over his world—a single-wide trailer out back of north Mississippi’s biggest lumberyard.
    “Johnny, I appreciate the business and all, but a man’s got to go and plan ahead. You know? I got to turn down business to take on a project like this. And I got other folks, equipment people up in Memphis, who are wanting to go ahead and get paid. I mean, you can’t just talk about building a big highway bridge on a Monday and start work on a Tuesday. We need to start clearing them woods.”
    “I’m pretty sure I know how this all works, Larry,” Stagg said. “Maybe the reason that you and Debbi can fly up to Colo-rado and queer around with all them California folks like Mississippi come to town.”
    “I didn’t mean nothing, Johnny,” Cobb said. “It’s just that it’s been—”
    “Two months.”
    “Yeah—”
    “Eight weeks.”
    “Well,” Cobb said, a plate with two eggs and bacon sliding in front of him. The way the cook had arranged the plate made the breakfast look like a man’s face. Two yolks for eyes, and a big wide bacon grin, burnt to a crisp just like Larry Cobb’s big old fat ass liked it. “Yeah,” Cobb said, slurping on his coffee, bent over the breakfast and shoveling it into his mouth. Making those Mmm-mmm sounds. Son of a bitch.
    The place in front of Johnny Stagg was clean, a rolled-up paper napkin around the silverware, an unsoiled place mat showing a cartoon image of Mississippi and all the famous things that happened across the state. Elvis in Tupelo. Faulkner in Oxford. And Faith Hill over in Ridgeland. Stagg sure loved to hear that woman sing. He was a true fan of her talent and her beauty.
    “You want me to butter your bread for you?” Stagg said.
    Cobb sat up just a little straighter and eyed Johnny, getting the message, putting down the knife and fork and licking his lips. He nodded and nodded as he thought, wiping his mouth with a napkin. “Easy for you,” Cobb said. “Ain’t it? You don’t have no physical investment in the project.”
    Stagg grinned, looking over Cobb’s shoulder, and spotted Sam Bishop, Jr., Tibbehah County