The same way the grease under Boon's nails was simply part of what his hands looked like. They stood 6 feet apart in the parking lot. 37 years of knowing each other. 22 years of near silence between them. You look old, Sully said.
You look older, Boon said. Sully looked past him at the garage at the sign at the Harley parked to one side. Nice setup, he said. Working on it. The particular pause of two men who have things to say and are taking a moment to decide the order.
Come inside, Boon said. Coffeey's on. They sat in the small back office. Boon poured two cups from the machine he kept there. Nothing special, just functional.
They sat across from each other at the work desk. The way men sit when they've been through enough together that formality would be insulting. Sully looked at his coffee, then at Boon. You want to do the other thing first or after? Sully said.
Boon knew what he meant. The other thing was 22 years of something neither of them had said out loud to the other in all that time. Tell me about Pierce first, Boon said. Sully nodded. He pulled out his phone.
An old model kept because it worked and there was no reason to replace a thing that worked. He turned the screen to show Boon a photograph. 2016. Sully said, "Ray Dutton's funeral. " Boon looked at it. A gathering outside a small church, 50 or 60 people.
And in the background, clearly not present in any official capacity. A man in a dark suit standing with the posture of someone who had come to confirm something rather than to mourn. Pierce, Boon said. Pierce. Sully set the phone down.
Dutton died of a legitimate heart attack as far as anyone can establish. But Pierce drove 90 minutes to show up personally at a mid-level fixer's funeral. He looked at Boon. Why does a county commissioner drive 90 minutes to pay his respects to a man like Dutton? Because Dutton knew something, Boon said.
Because Dutton knew something, Sully confirmed. PICE wanted to see for himself that it went into the ground with him. He drank his coffee. When I heard PICE was making inquiries about you, the 199 thing clicked into place. What did he actually buy from us that fall?
Boon, do you remember the name? Boon looked at the wall pulled the memory up from somewhere he'd left it deliberately undisturbed. Dale Whitfield, he said, ran for county commissioner that year. Pierce needed something irregular in his finances. Couldn't find it through legitimate means, so he came to us through Dutton, Sully said.