other things."
"It's those other things that worry me," Randall mumbled under his breath.
"Which is smart on your part." Once again Austin's tone was dark and
threatening.
"Look, can't we work something out?" Randall wheedled.
"If I promise to get help" -- "What scum bag took Tyler?" Austin didn't
so much as raise his voice, but he didn't have to for Randall to get themessage. His friend began shaking like a whipped dog. Good comparison, Austin thought, disgust and anger almost choking him.
"I.
want a name and where to find him." Randall gave him the name, though
reluctantly, then asked, "What are you going to do?"
"Have the bastard arrested."
"But he let the kid go," Randall said in a shrill voice.
"And you think that makes what the two of you did all right?"
"But no real harm came to him," Randall said. "That ought to count for
something. After I paid the guy to take the boy, I knew I'd screwed up.
That's why I let him go without asking for any money."
"Oh, really? How perceptive of you."
"Please, Austin, cut me some slack. The dealers who supply me with
cocaine are after my ass. They've already hurt me once."
"Tut-tut. My heart's bleeding." "What do you want from me?" Randall asked in a frantic tone.
"I'm a sick man. Can't you see that?"
What Austin saw was red. He reached down and grabbed Randall by the
shirt, then jerked him halfway up, so they were practically nose tonose. Randall's teeth were banging together so hard that Austin thoughtthey might break. He couldn't have cared less. Whatever happened toRandall was better than he deserved.
"You think that excuses what you did?"
"I told you, I was desperate and grasping at straws. I knew the Worthams
would pay the money to get the kid back. Old lady Wortham's rolling in dough." Ran- dall paused, then continued in a low, trembling voice.
"I was so scared of those goons, I guess I wasn't thinking straight."
Austin laughed another ugly laugh.
"Straight? Hell, you weren't thinking at all. Kidnapping that boy was
your lowest moment."
"I know that now."
"I don't think you do. What brains you had are obviously gone, fried
from sniffing that crap up your nose. But just for the record, when youkidnap a little boy, it can't help but affect him." Austin paused,fighting for control of his runaway emotions.
"What if someone had done that to one of your girls?"
Randall's face turned ashen, and for the longest time he didn't sayanything. "I ... I thought about them, and then I looked in the mirror and didn't like what I saw."
"Well, that makes two of us."
"What's going to happen now?" Fear once again tainted Randall's tone.
Austin ignored that question, along with the smell of fear that seemed
to seep from Randall's pores.
"What about the money from the land deal? Did you lie about that, too?"
Austin hated to ask that, for fear of what he'd hear, but he had to
know.
Ball-busting time had finally come.
"You ... you wouldn't, can't, understand." Randall's chin quivered,
and his gaze shifted.
"Try me."
"I'm sick, Austin." Randall was sobbing openly now.
"I can't seem to stop buying the stuff."
"The money, Randall! Did it go up your nose along with your family's
savings?"
"Yes," he whispered around the sobs.
"I never even gave it to the real estate company."
Even though Austin had suspected that was coming, he still felt as if
he'd been flattened by a bulldozer. "Not one red cent?"
"Not one cent."
For a moment silence filled the room. Austin's throat was paralyzed,
making it impossible for him to say another word. Randall was
frightened, too, he knew, once again leaning back into the wall as if to
dodge the blows he feared his confession would bring.
"That wasn't my money, you sorry piece of shit," Austin said at last,
bearing down on Randall again. "That was company money."
"I'm sorry, Austin. Honest I am."
"Save it, counselor, for the judge."
Randall's eyes widened.
"You mean you're going to turn me in?"
"As sure as God made little green apples."
"You can't!" he squealed, sounding like a stuck pig. "What about Mary Jane and the girls?"
"What about them?"
"Think what it will do to them."
"I don't give a shit. And if you did, you should've thought about it before you kidnapped an innocent boy."