2 Dog River Blues by Mike Jastrzebski Page A

was willing to hop in his car and drive down from Birmingham that day.”
    “And what happened after he saw the book?” I asked.
    “He didn’t,” Roy said. “I told him it belonged to a friend who wanted to know what it was worth before he sold it. He told me the value depended on the condition of the book, if it was complete, and whether we could determine the artist and who commissioned the book. Finally he said that if all the pages were as nice looking as the ones in the photos and if the book was complete it would probably bring a couple hundred grand on up to a million bucks or better at auction. He made me promise to call him back after I talked to my friend. A week later the book was stolen.”
    “Could this Winters guy be behind the theft?” I asked. “It’s sort of a coincidence that the book disappeared right after you talked to him.”
    Roy shook his head. “I don’t think so. I never told him where the book was, and he’s called me almost every day since then asking if my friend was ready to let him see the book.”  
    Jessica hadn’t spoken since Roy started his story, but I could tell she was dying to say something. She was fidgeting in her chair and every time Roy paused she started to lean forward. Roy must have noticed it too because he turned to her and said, “You have anything to add, Jess?” Her face clouded a little at the use of the nickname, but she ignored it.
    “You didn’t mention the part about why we’ve got to get the book back quick-like.”
    “What do you mean?” I asked.
    Roy jumped back in. “Daddy had a special case built for the book. It was air conditioned and humidity controlled. He once told me the book would fall apart if it was out of the case for too long.”
    “Now you can see why we need to find the book as fast as we can,” Jessica said.
    Roy stood and glared down at Jessica. “When I originally told you to let this whole thing go, you promised to drop it. You never should have brought Wes into this.”
    Jessica jumped to her feet. “That’s because after I talked to you I went to see Gran. She was afraid you’d shoot someone first and ask questions later, Uncle Roy. You know she couldn’t handle you going to jail. By the way, Wes, Gran’s dying to meet you. She was hurt bad when your daddy disappeared. We got to get you out there to meet her.”
    I felt like I was seasick and my left eye began to twitch. It wasn’t bad enough that I had to contend with Jessica’s advances toward me, now I had to worry about interacting with a grandmother I hadn’t even known existed a few days earlier. What would I have to say to her? More importantly, how was she going to explain away the fact that she’d never tried to contact me in the past.  
    I took a deep breath, thought calming thoughts about sailing away from Mobile, and stood to join my newfound family. “Now what?”
      “Now we go see your buddy Fish,” Roy said.
    “You know where we can find him?” I asked.
      “Last I heard he moved into his daddy’s house. It’s not far from here, over in Bayou La Batre. I haven’t been there in years but I don’t think I’ll have any trouble finding the place.”
    “When do you want to go see him?” I asked.
    “Now’s as good a time as any.” Roy turned and headed across the room.
    Jessica and I followed him to the gun safe. He pulled a ring of keys from his pocket, fit one into the case and opened it to reveal an extensive collection of weapons. I counted three hunting rifles, a military style rifle, a pair of Colt forty-five automatics, three smaller automatic pistols and four rather large revolvers, one of which I suspected dated back a century or more.
    “We aren’t playing his game though,” he said. “I’m too old for fist-fighting, but I pretty much always hit what I aim at.”
    I shot Jessica a questioning look and she shrugged. “This is why Gran didn’t want me asking Uncle Roy for help.” She turned to Roy and added, “We