"You mean a floating casino?"
"That's not what it was. I've seen it before. On Bayou Teche."
"I don't know if I want to hear this."
"I thought that was where I was going. I thought they were waiting for me."
"Who?"
"The people on board."
"Don't talk like that."
"You're the best, Cletus."
"No, we're the best. One is no good without the other. The Bobbsey Twins from Homicide had one agenda only. We make the dirtbags want to crawl back in their mothers' wombs. We're gonna hunt down the cleaners or whatever they are and salt their hides and nail them to the barn door."
"You've already said it for both of us. It's only rock and roll."
"That because I was ninety-proof. You don't have permission to die." He grabbed my shirt. "You hearing me on this?"
"I was just telling you what I saw. Who else am I going to tell?"
I cupped my hand on the back of his neck as we walked to the car. I could feel the hardness in his tendons and the heat and oil of his skin. I could feel his heartbeat and the fury and mire of his blood in his veins, and in his intelligent green eyes I could see the misty shine that my words would not make go away.
--James Lee Burke, from The Glass Rainbow.
Dave Robicheaux and Clete Purcell's friendship is one of the glories of Burke's novels featuring these two characters.
