The Devil's Punchbowl

by Greg Iles

  Dad and I look up simultaneously, startled by the image of Mom gliding up the hallway in her housecoat, her eyes fully alert. The Deep South still boasts a few women like Peggy Cage, “society” ladies in their seventies who spent their childhoods on subsistence farms during the Great Depression, and who, by virtue of backbreaking work and sacrifice, managed to attend college, marry a man with an ironclad work ethic, and rise to a level their parents never dreamed of. My mother may look at home in a Laura Ashley dress and know which fork to use, but she picked cotton all the way through college. If World War Three broke out tomorrow, she could plant a truck garden and start raising hogs the next day. As I heard her tell one of my biology teachers at school, “Once you twist the head off a chicken, you never really forget how to do it.”

  “Penn had a little panic attack,” Dad says, motioning her over to the computer.

  My mother freezes where she is, her eyes moving from my father’s face to mine, then to the computer. She moves forward and kneels before the sofa.

  Dad types, We have a problem and we can’t discuss it out loud. You and Annie are in danger. Your lives have been threatened. We have people coming from Houston to take you to a safe place.

  I watch my mother process this information. She looks shocked, then angry. Then she types, How serious are these threats?

  Dad responds, Jack Jessup’s boy has already been murdered.

  Mom closes her eyes and sighs deeply. When are they getting here?

  An hour or less.

  What about school?

  I shake my head and type, Think Ray Presley times ten, referring to a man my mother thought of as evil incarnate. If you want to take Annie’s textbooks along and work with her, that’s great, but safety is the priority. We’ve learned that the hard way.

  Mom nods with resignation. I’ll get Annie’s things ready, she types, but if we can’t discuss this, I don’t want to wake her until the last minute. I’ll tell her it’s a surprise vacation just for us.

  I nod agreement and start to type a reply, but as my fingers touch the keyboard, I hear the sound of the downstairs television rise. Dad and I left it on to distract any listeners, but I’m positive the audio track has suddenly doubled in volume. My father lost most of his high-frequency hearing long ago, but even he notices the amplitude change. He’s already holding the .357 snubnose in his hand.

  I lean down to Mom’s ear and whisper, “Get back to Annie’s room. If you hear a shot, call 911.”

  She looks longingly at the pistol on the sofa, but I motion for her to move to the bedroom. Dad is already moving toward the head of the stairs, but I catch up to him and pull him back.

  “I’m going down first,” I whisper. “You back me up. If there’s more than one target, I’ll hit the deck and fire low, you shoot high.”

  “Could it be Kelly’s friends?”

  I glance at my watch. “Not unless they drove eighty-five all the way.”

  Dad nods and moves aside so that I can reach the stairs. I slip off my shoes, then step on the top tread and move quickly downward, staying close to the wall to minimize the creaks.

  Halfway down, I see a well-dressed man standing in my front hall holding a sign in his hands like a limo driver in an airport. My finger tightens on the trigger, but the word BLACKHAWK printed in red at the top of the sign stops me.

  I hold up my hand to stop Dad, then read the words below the company name: YOU’RE SAFE NOW. WALK FORWARD. With relief surging through me, I look back upstairs and give Dad the OK sign. After he lowers his gun, I move up and whisper, “The cavalry’s here. Get Mom and Annie ready.”

  He turns without a word and moves up the stairs with what for him is dispatch.

  When I reach the ground floor, the Blackhawk operator sets the poster aside and gives my hand a businesslike shake. He’s wearing a black sport coat with a gray polo shirt beneath it, and he obviously chose his position because it’s not visible from the street. Like Daniel Kelly, he looks about thirty-five, but his hair is cut military-style, where Kelly has the blond locks of a tennis pro. Before I can speak, the operator passes me a handwritten note and a typed sheet of paper. The note reads, I’m Jim Samuels. There were two men watching your house. They’re alive but neutralized. We took their guns and cell phones. We need to get the packages moving in under ten minutes. Are they ready?

  I nod, then hold up my hand and splay my fingers to indicate five minutes. Leaning up to his ear, I whisper, “How did you guys get here so fast?”

  Samuels smiles briefly, then whispers, “Dan Kelly called me and told me to gun it all the way.”

  While I say a silent thank-you to Kelly, Samuels points to the typed sheet in my hand. It reads, Daniel Kelly should arrive Natchez in approximately 40 hours. We’ve rented room 235 at the Days Inn. Kelly’s gear bag is waiting for him there. There’s a satellite phone in your kitchen pantry, detailed instructions with it. There’s a number programmed into the phone that you can call for updates on your mother and daughter. We’ll be encrypted on our end, but be careful where you use the phone. Kelly told us to make absolutely sure that you don’t want to come with us and wait until he gets here before you proceed with anything.

  I look up and shake my head, and the Blackhawk man acknowledges with a sober nod. Leaning forward again, I whisper, “Do you feel confident about getting out of town safely?”

  Samuels gives me a thumbs-up with such assurance that I suddenly wish I were going with them. Then he leans in close and says, “We were gentle with your watchers, to minimize reprisals against you. You’ll have to decide how best to handle the situation. We left them behind the house.”

  It takes a moment to absorb that. “May I have their cell phones?”

  Samuels digs in his pocket and brings out two identical BlackBerrys. I lay them on the side table. “Thanks.”

  “We can get you the phone records on those numbers, if you like.”

  “I’d appreciate it. What about their guns?”

  He shrugs. “It’s your call. They’re going to be pretty angry at whoever they see next.”

  “I’m better off giving the guns back, I think.”

  Samuels goes to my kitchen and returns with two Glock automatics. For a puzzled moment, I watch him crouch quickly and slip the guns into the side table’s bottom drawer. Then I realize my mother is escorting Annie down the stairs.

  Annie’s wearing the clothes she had laid out to wear to the balloon race, and she’s carrying the “grandma’s house” suitcase that she packs for weekends with my parents. My mother has put on slacks and a light sweater, and her gray hair is pinned up in a bun.

  I’m not quite sure how to handle this situation, but Samuels walks right up to my mom and introduces himself calmly and quietly. It’s easy to believe these guys spend their days guarding traveling CEOs and foreign heads of state. After a few seconds, Samuels breaks away from Mom and speaks quietly beside my ear.

  “In sixty seconds, our escape vehicle will pull onto the sidewalk in front of your door. My partner’s in your kitchen now, covering our flank. We’ll take your mother and daughter out in a quick rush, then my partner will return for the bags. If we have any problems, we’ll leave the bags and buy whatever they need at the destination. Understood?”

  “Yes.”

  Dad steps up beside me, but before he can speak, Samuels gives us both a look of surprising empathy. “You’ve only got twenty seconds to say good-bye,” he says. “Don’t show any fear. They’re going to be as safe as the crown jewels. Give them a smile to remember until they see you again.”

  Dad moves quickly to Mom and Annie, but my mother steps past him and looks at me with utter clarity. “I know whatever you’re doing must seem important, but please remember this. You are the only parent that little girl has left. She’s the most important thing in this family. Tom and I are old now. She needs you. Nothing matters more than Annie, Penn. Nothing. Not honor or justice or anything you learned in school. Your flesh and blood.” Mom reaches up and touches my cheek. “I’m only saying what Sarah would if she were alive. Sometimes men forget
what’s important. Don’t.”

  “I won’t,” I promise, knowing that despite my best intentions, I have done so before. But that’s why I’m acting decisively now.

  “Time,” says Samuels.

  “Daddy?”

  I step past Mom and sweep Annie up into my arms. At eleven, she’s no longer a little girl, but I could still carry her five miles if I had to. Her eyes are crusted with sleep, but even now they project the perception I know so well.

  “Where are we going?” she asks.

  “It’s a surprise. I’m coming to see you soon, though. Will you take care of Gram?”

  Annie smiles. “You know I will. I sure hate to miss the races. I wanted to fly in a balloon.”

  “When you get back, I’ll get Mr. Steve to take us up. As many times as you want. Okay?”

  She nods, but balloon races aren’t what’s on her mind. She pushes her mouth close to my ear and says, “Will you tell Caitlin I’ve been missing her?”

  I close my eyes and force down the emotion welling up from within.

  “Mr. Cage, our ride’s coming up the block. We’ve got to move.”

  I hug Annie tight and murmur, “I’ll tell her,” in her ear. Then I hand her to Jim Samuels, who carries her to the front door while Annie stares back at me over his shoulder.

  Another hard shoulder brushes past me, and Samuels’s partner joins him at the door. He’s wearing an earpiece, and he seems to be receiving updates from it. He and Samuels communicate with hand motions; then Samuels tells my mother something, and she nods. He looks back at me, raises his hand to indicate five seconds, and ticks his fingers down one by one.

  My heart tries to race ahead of itself, then the door is open and the Blackhawk men are rushing Mom and Annie across the open space like the royal family through a tunnel of paparazzi. I glimpse a big black Suburban before the door slams, then the growl of a modified V-8 roars loudly enough to shake my front wall and wake everyone on the street. With a screech of rubber the Suburban blasts up Washington Street like an Abrams tank heading off to war.

  “Good God,” Dad says, still staring at the front door. “What now?”

  “You go to work.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  I take the confiscated guns from the side table and shove them into my waistband. “Return some personal effects.”

  “Who do those belong to?”

  “The men who were watching the house. The Blackhawk guys took them.”

  “Jesus. Don’t you want me to come with you?”

  “Nope. I’m just going to give them a friendly message for their boss.”

  Dad studies me for some time, then takes his keys from the tabletop. “I have my cell phone. Call me if you need me.”

  I give him a smile of gratitude. “I did.”

  He smiles back. “I guess you did. Okay. I’ll take care of that other thing.”

  I’m puzzled for a moment, but by the time Dad says, “The medicine for your heart,” I’ve remembered: Walt Garrity.

  With three guns in my waistband, I grab a paring knife from the kitchen, then walk out my back door, wondering what I’ll find.

  The previous owners installed a stone fountain on my back patio, and this morning two men wearing dark windbreakers are sitting on the bricks, leaning back against the fountain’s basin. Their hands and feet are bound with plastic restraints, and their mouths are covered with black tape. When they see me, their eyes bulge with anger, but fear as well.

  I walk slowly toward them, making sure they see the guns in my belt. Both men have the thin legs and overdeveloped upper physiques of bodybuilders. The right breasts of their windbreakers read MAGNOLIA QUEEN. Above the letters is an embroidered paddle wheeler; above this a pair of dice. I squat before the men and smile.

  “Surprised to see me?”

  The guy on the left nods meaningfully, silently promising revenge. He has hair like black steel wool, and his sweat smells of alcohol.

  “Here’s the deal,” I tell him. “Option one, I give you back your guns and phones, and you take a message to your boss for me. Option two, I call Sands and have him drive down here and see you like this. Now, I’m going to take the tape off your partner here, and he can make the choice.”

  I reach out and rip off the tape with one fast jerk. The second man gasps in pain.

  “Best way, really,” I tell him. “I’ve experienced it myself.”

  “You are soooo fucked,” he says. “I wouldn’t trade places with you for a million bucks.”

  I smile and start to reapply the duct tape. “I guess that’s option two.”

  “Wait!” he says, all bravado gone. “No matter what message you give us, he’ll send us back to bring you to him. You might as well come with us now.”

  My watch reads 6:51 a.m. I’m scheduled to fly in the first race at 7:15, but I have no desire to do so. Hans Necker will be disappointed if I don’t show, and the selectmen will go batshit, but maybe that’s a good thing. At least I can promise Sands that if he kills me this morning, half the town will be searching for me in less than an hour.

  With two quick jerks of the knife, I free both men’s legs. They hold out their bound hands, but I shake my head, wondering if either of these men was present when Tim was tortured.

  “I don’t think so, guys. Let’s go see the boss man.”

  CHAPTER

  17

  Julia Jessup awakens to the crying of her son. She blinks crusty eyes, rolls onto her husband’s thigh. Groaning in exhaustion, she reaches down to shove Tim’s leg, to tell him to go get the bottle—

  —and freezes where she lies. Her hand is not on Tim’s leg. It’s on the baby’s belly.

  For a few blessed moments she’d forgotten. Now, in the span of a closing synapse, the infinite weight of death and grief returns, pressing her into the mattress.

  He left you, says her father, dead almost twenty-five years now.

  Alone, says her mother, who followed him not long afterward. Who’ll help you now? Who cares whether you live or die?

  Julia rolls all the way over and sees faint light showing through the curtain. This is Daisy’s house. It was the only place she could think to run, the last place anyone would look. Daisy took care of Julia when she was a baby, before her father lost it, when they still had money to pay for a maid. Daisy’s house is old, not even a house really. A shotgun shack, like the ones in New Orleans. The floor is rotted through in places, and when the wind blows hard, the holes whistle and the bedclothes sway.

  The baby’s cry grows louder, more insistent. Tim junior is hungry. He doesn’t care that his father is gone. He knows only the ache in his belly. But Julia knows. Her father killed himself when she was eighteen, and she’s missed him every day since. So many times she’s needed him, or someone. God, how different everything would have been had he lived. And how different will life be for her baby? His childhood will be a struggle against want, his mother always away, struggling in vain to keep ahead of the bills. This dark foreknowledge is like a festering mass in her stomach. Tim left nothing behind him but a mortgage. It wasn’t his fault, really. He had nothing to leave—

  “Now, now, I hear that baby cryin’,” sings a chiding voice. “He just a bawlin’, and you lyin’ in bed like Miss Astor.”

  Daisy is close to eighty now, but she still gets around like a woman of sixty-five, despite her arthritis. Her flower-print dress crinkles as she sits on the bed and gives the baby a bottle to suck. Tim junior’s eyes go wide and blue as urgency changes into bliss, and he grips the bottle with one strong hand. Daisy tries to take the other in hers, but the child will not be led.

  “I used to look at you like that,” Daisy says wistfully.

  “I know,” Julia whispers. “I wish I was back there again.”

  Daisy shakes her head, her eyes on the baby. “Everybody wish that sometime. But there ain’t no going back.”

  Julia closes her eyes. The smell of her own breath sickens her. She ran out of the house without even a toothbrush.

  “You hungry yet?” Daisy asks.

  “No.”

  “You g
otta eat sometime. Can’t take care of no baby without getting something down yourself.”

  There’s a sound of horsehair rope being stretched, and Julia knows that’s Daisy turning her head. She looks up into the yellowed eyes and says, “Thanks for letting me stay here. I didn’t have anywhere else to go.”

  Daisy smiles. “Well, I think you gon’ be here a while yet.”

  Julia goes still. “Why is that?”

  “Well, there was something in the newspaper this morning. I hate to say nothing about it, but I guess there’s no point hiding it.”

  “What was it? Something about Tim?”

  Daisy’s crinkled lips curl around her dentures like dark papier-mâché. Julia’s glad Daisy put her teeth in. Last night, the old woman looked one step away from the grave. “I can’t read too good no more,” she says, “but it didn’t sound good.”

  “Where is it?” Julia asks, sitting up in alarm. “What did they say?”

  “On the kitchen table.”

  Julia bounds out of bed and runs for the kitchen.

  CHAPTER

  18

  The guard at the gatehouse of Jonathan Sands’s home stands gaping at the two bound men in the backseat of my Saab.

  “I said I want to see Mr. Sands.”

  “Does he know you’re coming?”

  “No. I have a trespassing problem I’d like to discuss with him.”

  “Just a minute.” The guard vanishes into his hut. Like the men in the backseat, he is American, not Irish, but the brief look he gave my passengers told them all they need to know about the trouble coming their way.

  “Are you armed?” the guard asks, reappearing at my window.

  I point down at my waistband, where the butts of three handguns jut from my waistband.

  “You need to leave those with me.”

  “I go in like this, or I drive away now.”

  The guard vanishes again. I check my watch. The first balloons should be taking off any minute. Judging from the treetops, the wind looks to be gusting seven to ten miles per hour, which is enough to stop many pilots from launching. During the drive over from Washington Street, I received a text from Paul Labry, informing me that the balloons would be taking off from a vacant lot just off Highway 61 South. The destination of this morning’s “race” is predetermined, but the launch point varies according to the direction of the wind, with various pilots making complex calculations and jockeying for takeoff positions in spaces just big enough to accommodate a launch without hitting power lines or other lethal obstacles. I texted Paul that a family emergency would prevent me making the launch in time and that he should fly in my place. Labry has already sent four anxious text messages in reply, asking what the problem is. I’ve responded by begging him to trust me and to try to keep Hans Necker from getting too upset.