The Black Death Read Online Free Page B

ruined, and Matt knew that no matter the condition of the bike, he was going to have to find Free again.
    ***
    There was undoubtedly evil in Free. Matt could see that, and probably even somebody without his unique vision could, too, though not as vividly. But the nastiness infecting Free’ssoul hadn’t consumed him yet. There was a chance Matt could still save him, or at least prevent Free from doing something awful to someone else.
    It would be nice if Matt didn’t have to kill him.
    Matt pondered the thought as he made the short trip to Kenny’s garage, crossing in front of the sheriff’s office, his heart still racing in his chest. It seemed that if it was possible, then perhaps he was arriving before Mr. Dark’s assimilation was complete. Kenny calling to him made Matt jump, and he headed toward the voice and the gas station.
    “I was right, Matt,” said a somehow filthier Kenny. “Tranny is fucked. Which is good news on one hand, and bad on another. Shouldn’t be too expensive of a fix—bikes like this are a dime a dozen, so parts are easy to come by. As far as money goes, you’ll be lookin’ at about a thousand, at the high end maybe twelve fifty.”
    “Well, that all sounds good. What’s the bad part?”
    “Bad part, assumin’ the money wasn’t already the bad part, is that it’s gonna take me a day to do the job, and I won’t have parts to start until tomorrow night. So, at minimum, you’re gonna be lookin’ at two days stayin’ out back, eatin’ at Mortimer’s, and not doin’ a whole lot besides that.”
    Matt, quite sure that on a few of those things Kenny was right, was also fairly certain there were a number of things that were going to be occupying his time over the next few days.
    “Yeah, that’s all right. I can use some time off the road, to be perfectly honest. Might not be much to do here, but I figure I’ll make do.”
    “It’s not all bad,” Kenny said, shrugging. “You get drunk a couple of times, it’ll seem like you were never even waitin’.”
    “Hey, I had a question for you, because you strike me as somebody who probably knows just about everybody here.”
    “Shoot.”
    “You know a dude named Free? Stands a little taller than me, seems to be in some sort of bandanna club with his buddies?”
    Kenny gave a look over his shoulder, almost as if he thought Matt were setting him up for a very unfunny joke and Free was going to be standing right behind him and pissed off if he said the wrong thing.
    “I know him,” said Kenny. “Why are you wonderin’ about that dude?”
    “I met him over in Mort’s place. Seems like an okay guy.”
    “Yeah, I guess you could say that. He’s an okay guy. Hooked up, too. In real tight with some of those high-dollar boys that like to go a little wild at Sally’s.”
    “Sally’s?”
    Kenny leaned in real close to Matt, as though he were sharing some deeply private information. “A whorehouse, couple miles from here. Rumor is...Well, rumor is guys with some real money have their fingers in the pot. Like I said, a guy like you or me could spread some money around, wind up gettin’ some tail, have a good time. There’s a couple of cats that run with Free that have
real
money, real connections, too, and if you believe the rumors, they like to do more than screw around in there. They run a lot of what happens around here.”
    “When you say connected, do you mean the Redneck Mafia?”
    “That’s exactly what I mean, only they aren’t somethin’ that you talk about. Rumor is they had a sheriff killed a few years back, and nothin’ come of it because they got the state boys wrapped up, what with money and Sally’s. That’s what I meant earlier when I said Frank needs to keep out of people’s business. This little shitburg town, this whole county, even—this is mafia turf, and that’s why what they say goes. I heard about that kid Frank brought down earlier, all fucked-up on that new meth? That’s them just trying