The Big Time

CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE

TROY SAW HIS GRAMPS'S pickup in the dirt patch along with a navy sedan in the deepening shadows beneath the pine trees. Gramps met them at the door.

"Gramps?" Troy said. "What are you doing here?"

"Just providing counsel," Gramps said, smiling at Troy's mom. "Someone thinks I'm not only old but wise, too."

Gramps gave Troy's shoulders a squeeze before leading them into the kitchen. Bob McDonough sat at the kitchen table with two other men, both with short hair and wearing crisp, dark suits. Troy's mom pointed to a chair for him to sit in. She positioned herself by the sink, leaning back against the counter with her arms folded. Gramps took a stool from the corner and sat down on it next to her.

Bob McDonough introduced the men in suits as Agent Kerns and Agent Williams, with Williams having the friendlier-looking face of the two.

It was Williams who said, "Troy, do you know what kind of trouble your father is in?"

"I think so," Troy said.

The agent nodded and said, "And did your mom tell you that if you help us, we'll do everything we can to minimize the time he spends in jail?"

"She said one year instead of ten," Troy said, looking hard into the agent's eyes. "Or maybe he might not even go."

"Yes," Williams said, "that's right. Now, we can't promise anything specific other than that whatever would have happened, it'll be a lot better for him with this deal. We'll tell the judge that he helped us through you. And it is possible he won't go to jail at all. Maybe just lose his license to practice law and get probation."

"Can't you just leave him alone completely if I help you?" Troy asked, his voice desperate.

It was Agent Kerns who scowled and shook his head.

"Not completely, Troy," Agent Williams said. "I'm sorry."

"What if I don't help?" Troy said, raising his chin.

"We can't make you," Agent Williams said, glancing at Troy's mom and Gramps, then at Bob McDonough. "But like I told your mom, I think you'd regret it, Troy. No one wants his father in jail, and that's where he's headed right now. We aren't going away. We'll get these people. It may take years, but sooner or later they'll make a mistake. They've made one right now, but we can't take advantage of it without your help."

"Let's talk about what it is you want him to do," Troy's mom said. "He's not doing anything dangerous. No way. I told you all that."

"And we promised it wouldn't be," Agent Williams said. "No one will suspect a thing."

From his pocket, the agent removed a quarter. He flipped it in the air for everyone to see, then caught it and slapped it down into his palm. "All he has to do is drop this down behind a piece of furniture or slip it into the cushions on the zebra couch in G Money's living room. Not that anything could happen, but if it does, we'll be listening the whole time. We're set up next door, and we can be inside in a matter of seconds if Troy needs us."

"You saw the couch?" Troy asked. "Then how come you didn't do it yourselves?"

"We see the couch with spotting scopes and heat-sensing equipment from the neighbor's roof," Agent Kerns said in a stern voice. "That couch is where Luther Tolsky does all his business. They come and go and we can see them, but we can't hear anything. We get a listening device in that room and we can nail this guy good."

"Wait a minute," Troy said. "Luther Tolsky? The big, scary-looking guy? Bald with a thick black beard and a tattoo on his neck?"

Agent Williams narrowed his eyes at Troy and said, "You've seen him, right?"

"At the dome with G Money and my dad," Troy said, "and at G Money's pool, playing cards."

"That's our target, a very bad man," Agent Williams said, "but also a very smart man. He changes the place he conducts business every week. We never know where he'll be. He has a lot of contacts: people he can trust or people too afraid to tell him no. By the time we get the court orders for the wiretaps in place and figure out a way to get someone inside to plant one of these quarters, he's already moved on.

"But with your dad staying there, this will be easy."

"What if he can't get into the living room?" Troy's gramps asked.

"Look, we're not asking for guarantees," Agent Williams said. "We just want Troy to try. Nothing can happen. Look at this thing. It's a quarter."

The agent handed it to Troy's mom. She turned it over in her hand and passed it to Gramps before she asked, "What do you think, Dad?"

Gramps rolled the coin around with his fingers, then held it out away from him to see it better before he said, "Dropping this thing, I can't see how it could hurt, Tessa."

"No," the agent said, "it can't, but it could help. It could help us, and help his dad stay out of jail."

Troy's mom looked at Gramps. He sighed, gave the quarter back to Agent Williams, and nodded. In a quiet voice he said, "If he doesn't do it, Tessa, I'm afraid Troy will always look back on this moment and regret it. Jail is a horrible thing, and I think, good or bad, Troy loves his father. You know that."

"I wish his father loved him back as much," Troy's mom said.

Troy hung his head.

Softly his mom said, "I shouldn't have said that, Troy. I'm sorry."

Troy shrugged and said, "It's okay. I understand. I still want to help him, Mom. I'm not afraid, and maybe he's not as bad as they think. That's possible, right?"

Troy looked at the agents. Kerns's lips disappeared into the flat slit of his mouth.

Williams tilted his head and said, "Well, sometimes strange things happen; but in this business, it usually turns out just the way you think it will."

Everyone sat quiet for what seemed like a long time before, in a soft and serious voice, Troy's mom asked, "If we agree to this, Agent Williams, when would you want him to do it?"

The agents looked at each other, and it was Kerns who answered.

"Right now. Tonight."