Free Whisper to the Blood by Dana Stabenow Page A

Park."
    "We sure won't," Howie said.
    "You will when the gold runs out," Mac Devlin said. His contempt
felt a little over the top, a little manufactured, and no one was listening to
him anyway.
    Doyle Greenbaugh came to Macleod's elbow with a tray of drinks, and Johnny
saw her hand him a credit card that was as gold as the nuggets Global Harvest
was prepared to pull out of the ground in Iqaluk, along with a brilliant smile.
Howie smacked him genially on the back and made sure he snagged the first drink
on his return.
    "It'll be twenty years minimum before the gold runs out," she
said, "and by then Global Harvest will have found something else worth
harvesting. It's a big fucking Park, in case you hadn't noticed."
    They laughed at that, Howie loudest of all, titillated by her use of profanity.
    "You!" Bernie said, pointing at Johnny. "Get out, and don't
come back for another five years!"
    His voice was loud and meant to carry, so naturally all activity came to a
halt while everyone turned to look where he was pointing. It was a technique that
Bernie had perfected over the years in ridding the Roadhouse of wannabe
underage drinkers.
    Johnny felt his face redden. "I'm not looking for a drink,
Bernie."
    Any other time an underage entered the bar Bernie wouldn't let up until the
door hit him in the ass. But then Bernie had not been the same since a year
before, when Louis Deem had robbed his house of a greater part of Bernie's gold
nugget collection and in the act of escaping had killed Bernie's wife and
eldest son, Fitz. Fitz had been a friend of Johnny's, and he could not look at
Bernie now without pain and sympathy. Bernie, unable to face it head on, turned
his back abruptly and said in a hard voice, "Then get the hell on outta
here."
    Johnny caught Doyle Greenbaugh's eye, and nodded at the door. Greenbaugh
nodded and said, "Take five, boss?"
    Bernie nodded without looking around, and Greenbaugh snagged his coat and
followed Johnny out on the porch. "Man, that Koslowski is one cranky old
bastard."
    Johnny stiffened. "He's a good guy, Doyle. He just lost his wife and
son last year, and he's not over it yet."
    "I heard. Helluva thing." Greenbaugh blew on his hands and shoved
them into his pockets. His coat wasn't down and wasn't a parka, and he started
to shiver almost at once. "How you doing, Johnny?"
    "I'm fine. I dropped by Auntie Vi's to see if you'd shown up, and she
said you were working here."
    "Yeah, I remembered your stories about the place. I didn't believe the
half of it when you told me." Greenbaugh grinned. "Especially the
belly dancers."
    Johnny laughed, appeased. "Now you know better."
    "No kidding. Anyway, I told Bernie I was looking for work, so he put me
on temporary while his regular barmaid is off."
    Johnny remembered his dad saying that the Salvation Army was the best place
to go for a bed and a meal when you were down to your last dime. It was the one
charity Jack had been willing to write a check to, but there was no Sally's in
the Park. A little shyly Johnny said, "Are you okay for cash?"
    Greenbaugh shrugged. "I'm okay for now, but thanks for asking."
    "Did you hear about the mine?"
    Greenbaugh jerked his head at the bar. "Hard to miss, with the babe
going full steam. She's been here for a couple hours now, talking it up to
everyone who walks in."
    "Did she talk to you?"
    "She did." Greenbaugh grinned. "She says she thinks she might
be able to find something for me. There are some real opportunities in this
mine. Get in on the ground floor and a person can just coin the money, you
know?" He winked at Johnny. "I'm hoping it ain't only a job, if you
catch my drift." He nudged Johnny with a jocular elbow. "We're
staying in the same boardinghouse, after all."
    Johnny felt uncomfortable at sexual badinage with someone so much older than
he was-the guy had to be in his thirties-so he pretended not to understand.
"That's great, Doyle, I'm really glad to hear it. She told everybody up to
the school that they were