The Hag’s voice was very gentle. “I see. I see very well. You’re a brave young girl. I’ll give you the light you need.”
So saying, the Hag went into the yard, beckoning Veronica to follow. The moon was rising. “I know all about your beautiful, strange doll. I tell you now that the doll had a life all its own, and can bring light back into your lives.” The hag’s voice rose. “Now go — and never come back!”
Not having to be told twice, Veronica left quickly. She had only gone a short way down the path when she turned to take one last look back — but all she saw was a little cottage in the woods and a fat old farmer’s wife planting lilies in the moonlight.
Just as daylight was breaking, she came back to her own home.
When she opened the door, she was startled by Blackeyed Susan’s greeting. Instead of her usual sighs and her ordinary tears, Susan was shivering with terror. “Oh, sister, sister — I’m so glad you’re home. This house has had no light in it since you’ve been gone. No candle would stay lit ... even the lamps borrowed from the neighbors sputtered out the instant I brought them into this place. We truly have been cursed by the Sea Hag!”
Veronica could only hold up the magic doll and say, “Well, I’ve been told that this will help.”
Susan clutched the doll. “Is it magic? Will it make light?”
Suddenly a great flame, like lightning, blazed out from the doll’s eye sockets. With a terrible cry of pain Susan was engulfed in light. Veronica could only watch in horror — until she realized what was truly happening.
All the pain, all the sorrow, all the tears — all were burned out of Susan’s spirit. Veronica could see these dark emotions, shadow-demons, rising from her sister like smoke. In a final blinding flash Susan was caressed by a glowing peace so tangible and obvious that it could be seen on the girl’s face for all to read.
Stunned, Susan sat down in the doorway of their house.
Before she could think what to do, Veronica heard the voice of the magic doll once more. “Now I’ll scour these seven seas. I mean to bring your father home to you, be he in this world or in the next. You have my vow, he shall be home by spring!”
Veronica could hardly believe her ears. “But my father’s gone, with all hands. I fear he’s beyond returning.”
The doll seemed to laugh. “Not to me. I can bring him back from wherever he’s gone.”
With that the doll flew across the waves and disappeared.
From that day on the two sisters grew to be so alike in their performance of great deeds of loving kindness that they were often mistaken for twins. And every day, after the chores were done and the candles were lit and the sun was sinking low over the ocean’s horizon, they’d go out on the beach to sit and watch the sea, arm in arm, waiting for their father to come home.
30 - The Tarnished Code
My head was clearing and my ribs were really beginning to hurt. “What in the name of God would provoke you to tell me such a story?”
Suit shrugged like a man with a secret. “I’ve got mojo. You’ve got some too. I know that. What you don’t have at the moment is a magic doll. And that’s what you want. Maybe you’ve heard my story before.”
These boys were as weird as they wanted to be, and then some. But I had to keep straight. “Yeah. I heard it before, only in the one I know, neither sister is that sad, and one of them loses her voice.”
Suit almost seemed to understand what I was talking about. He squinted. “Yeah, but I’m telling you the story from my world. Plus, you don’t know who’s got the magic doll.”
I nodded. “Okay. Now tell me the one about the guy who told you to come and find me by my car.”
Tank Top was all of a sudden sad. “You should’na hurt Ronnie.”
Big silence.
I tried again. “So, you’re just going to let your strange little story hang in the air like this? You’re not going to tell me who hired you to come get me? But, see, it’s probably that guy that killed our pal Ronnie.”
Suit shrugged. “I guess.”
Tank Top sat up, inclined his head to Suit. “He don’ like Ronnie that much. Thinks he’s a redneck.”
Suit had little patience. “He was a redneck. Now he’s roadkill.”
Tank Top was given pause. “Oh. Yeah.” He seemed genuinely sorry. “Too bad. Ronnie was fun to hang with.”
I chimed in. “Plus, he was great on cars. Fixed up my old heap good.”
Tank Top agreed. “It was his gift. Too bad me an’ him got mixed up with all this drug crap. We coulda opened up, like, a garage of somethin’.”
Suit sneered. “What would you have done? Lift up the cars so’s he could work?”
Tank Top squinted. “I was the brains of the organization.”
I tried to steer the conversation back to matters more germane. “So, what now? The boss is gone. Maybe I could just be on my merry way.”
Suit was not amused. “No no no. We have to keep you here. The man, he has plans for you. By and by, some cop on patrol will find Ronnie. Then we shove you at the cops so hard, you’ll fall right into jail.”
Tank Top was clever, all smiles. “Do not pass Go, do not collect — ”
Suit kept it short. “Shut up.” He looked at me. “My brother, in case you have not already gathered up this information on your very own, is an idiot.”
I sat back. “You all don’t look that much alike for brothers.”
Both nodded, then, together: “Thanks.”
Smiles all around.
Tank Top, all other grievances forgotten, clarified it for me. “It’s good to work with the family.”
I nodded.
Tank Top looked at his brother then, with more than a little urgency. “No kiddin’. I’m in a bad way.”
Heavy sigh. “All right.” Suit shot me a look. “You got any ideas that I can’t take care of you myself if my brother goes off to wreck his health?”
I was clear. “None whatsoever.”
Tank Top stood. He put out his big hand to me. We shook. He was very respectful. “Well, bud, I guess that’s it. I’m goin’ to a party, you goin’ to jail. Life’s like that sometimes.”
I finally got a clear look at him. “Hey.” Boy, did he look familiar. Could it have been? “Did I see you out on the beach earlier, maybe following me and my friend up to The Hut?”
He was suddenly sharp. “Anything can happen.” Stumbled to the door, turned around, waved at us both. “Never can tell.” And he was gone, out the door, melted into the muggy night.
Suit watched after him. “He is an idiot. But, you know, he is also my brother.”
“Right.”
He eyeballed me to beat the band. “You’ve got no chance to mess with me. I’d kill you just like I’d gut a fish.”
Hmm. Gut a fish. I don’t know why, but I was thinking of Lydia all of a sudden. I looked around the room. Things were in a fair state of disarray. “Looks like you all already had a party in here.”
He shrugged. “It was like this when we got here.”
I craned my neck. “Blood in the bathroom.”
He didn’t care. “That’s the room for it.”
“Could be Ronnie’s blood, you know.”
“None of my business. Ronnie and I were not that close. He was a runner for some of our associates. Dumb as a melon. Had a habit. I’ve got no respect for a man with a habit.”
“Unless he’s your brother.”
“My brother is my business.”
I decided to take a different tack. “Family, huh?”
Worked. He softened. “What can you do?”
I was getting a stronger feeling of Lydia. It was very weird. Was that her blood there in the bathroom?
“I’ve got to go to the bathroom.”
“No, you don’t.”
“I swear, I’d know if I had to go. I think you kicked something loose in here.”
He remembered. “Oh, yeah. It was probably the kidneys.”
“Yeah.”
/> “Okay.”
I lumbered up, made it to the bathroom. It was a mess. There was blood and hair on the sink and everything was in disarray. I got a good gander at the layout before I went back into the other room.
“Kind of a mess in there.”
He shrugged. What did he care. Wasn’t his place. What I couldn’t help noticing was a woman’s umbrella on the floor by the bed.
I inclined by head toward it. “Whose umbrella?”
He looked. “I dunno.”
“Belongs to a lady.”
“Or a sissy boy.”
“Uh-huh. Was the boss here for fun or business?”
He considered. “Far as I could tell, the guy was all business.”
“So the lady, if there was one, was not entertainment.”
“Not likely — but not impossible.”
“You’re pretty free with the opinions.”
“What do I care?” Big smile.
Why was he so amiable?
“So we’re pals now?”
“Well, as it happens, Mr. Tucker — for all my faults — I’m something of a fan of yours.”
“How would you even know who I am?”
“You’ve got a reputation.”
“No, I don’t.”
“You don’t have to like it, but you have to know there’s some people that know who you are.”
“Hey, I don’t even know who I am half the time.”
“Whatever.”
“No kidding. How do you know who I am?”
“Okay, I’ve been told.”
“By?”
He was sly. “Got my sources.”
I was suddenly feeling very paranoid. “Sources.”
He decided to let me off the hook. “I told you. I know Ronnie. You cipher it out.”
“Ronnie said something nice about me.”
“He thought you were a great man, he said.”
“So why’d I kill him, then?”
Suit was very philosophical. “I don’t expect you did, after all.” He lowered his voice. “Those were police handcuffs on him, looked like to me.”
Ronnie worked for Lowe and Tommy. Tommy was a cop. You cipher it out. Two and two really do, sometimes, make four. What do you know?
That told me what I thought I needed to know, so I decided to play my ace. It’s an old trick. I’d used it recently without meaning to. I started breathing.
You breathe in, you breathe out — by and by, you get into quite a trance.
He was nervous. “Hey. What are you doin’?”
I had my eyes open, but they were glazed.
Suit sidled over. “Cut it out, bud.”
I was in another reality. I was in the center of the breath.
He shook me. “Hey. Hey. You’re not dying on me, man. Damn!”
And he started shaking me all over town. Now, ordinarily a young tough such as our boy in the fine suit would be more than a match for yours truly. But as it was, he was distracted by his own mind, and I had an unfair advantage, which I used almost immediately.
I popped out my arm right into his solar plexus. The bones did the work. He didn’t stand a chance. He was hit with several feet of solid bone in a delicate portion of his guts.
Surprised, he took a step back. I popped him one in the nuts. Sorry, but when you’re a layabout like me, you have to take every opportunity.
He had something to say about it all in some other language. He fell on his backside.
I refrained from kicking him like he had me, but I got over to him quick so he’d know exactly how much business I meant.
Right away he understood. “Okay. Okay. I can see you might be mad, but it’s just a job for me. It don’t mean a thing.”
Just in case, he was covering up.
I spared him. But I had questions. “Who sent you after me?”
He groaned. “You know I can’t tell you that.”
“And I suppose a little soccer practice on your head bone wouldn’t loosen up your moral objections?”
He managed to sit halfway up. “Look ... Flap ... I’ve got absolutely nothing against you. Like I said, I’m a fan — and I think we have something special in common, if you see what I mean. Plus, you took care of Pevus Arnold, and that’s okay by me, if I do say so — given the circumstances and all. But I’ve got a code. You can kick all the stuffing out of me that you want to, the code don’t change.” He leaned back against the footboard of the bed and eased his troubled guts. “But let me also say, and just see if this sounds familiar: ‘If you started something, you’d have to kill me. I wouldn’t quit coming till you did. You can take that to the bank,’ or words to that effect.”
Words to that effect, nothing. It was an exact quote. It only took me a second to make the connection. It was a final confirmation.
I looked down at him. “So. What, exactly, do you and I do now?”
He relaxed. I wasn’t going to kick him. He could see that. “You go your way and I go mine? No point, no foul. You and me could skuffle about like this back an’ forth all night long if we wanted, but I’ve got to go and worry about my bro — and I expect you’ve got troubles enough of your own too. I don’t want to pop you, you don’t want to pop me. Let’s let it go at that.”
“Que sera, sera.”
He tried getting to his feet. “I love Doris Day.”
I took his elbow and helped him up.
He straightened himself out. “What was that thing you were doing. I thought you’d had a heart attack. You looked, like, dead.”
“It’s all breath. Breath and concentration.”
“Ohhh.” But he didn’t see.
“So can I really rely on your not following me anymore?”
He considered. “Look. My job was: I find you and bring you here. Can we agree I’ve done that?”
“Done and done.”
“So ...”
“... according to the code ...”
“... my work here is finished.”
I had to smile. “Guy’s got to have a code.”
He agreed. “Without it we are little more than rude animals.”
“Amen.”
He looked at me. “Just a word of advice: our so-called host with the handcuffs? He’s nuts and tough all at the same time. He’s got some kinda bad Jones. Not a drug, I don’t guess. But it’s something heavy that motivates the man — so, you know, watch your butt.”
“Words to live by.”
He blinked, fussed with his tie, nodded a farewell. “I make it a part of my code.”
And he was gone.
31 - Little Shadows
I beat it back to the car, taking notes about the location of the bed-and-breakfast as I went. Poor old Ronnie was lying undisturbed right where we had left him. I hustled myself on down to River Street.
Dally was in the dark in the front of the joint; zipped the door open when she saw me coming.
“Where the hell have you been?”
“Took a little longer to take care of Ronnie. I met up with some of his pals.”
She got closer. “What?”
“Not now. I got a really bad feeling about something. But I gotta ask the boys here a few key questions so I’ll know which way is up.”
She kept the lights in front off, and got a nice booth in the back. Called out to the Turners. “Boys? Y’all come on in here, okay?”
They wandered in like they’d just gotten out of high school gym.
Maytag smiled. “Hey, Mr. Tucker. Where you been?”
“Out. Mind if we chat?”
He was agreeable. “What’s on your mind?”
Peachy sat too.
I stood. “Whatever else is on my mind, I got a few pressing questions.”
Maytag nodded. “Such as?”
“You all got away from the cops fairly well back on the island. I didn’t even know they were outside.”
Maytag grinned. “Shoot. We heard ’em comin’ halfway up the path.”
Peachy added. “What
in the world you think we were doin’ goin’ to bed so early?”
Dally had to rib me. “You’re some detective. They heard the cops comin’, and you called me for a chat.”
Maytag tried to help me out. “It’s our years of huntin’. We hear the sounds of the forest. We knew it was men comin’ up. Then we escaped silently and” — he looked around mysteriously — “we blended with the shadows.”
Peachy nodded.
Maytag went on. “Besides, we did what we wanted: got you to help us find Lydia.”
Peachy spoke up to me. “You think she’ll come back there?”
I nodded. “To the graveyard? Yes, I do.”
He wanted to know. “How come?”
Dally interrupted. “He’s got a system. Don’t ask about it, but it works. It’s kinda like a hunch.”
“Ohhh.” The twins nodded slowly, in unison.
I wasn’t finished. “So you just left me there.”
Peachy smiled. “Shoot. We let you get rescued from us evil kidnappers.”
Maytag shoved in. “Saved by the hometown brigade.”
Peachy tapped his brother. “That’s right. What’s that boy they say plays a fiddle?”
I had the answer. “Taylor. Plays the viola.”
Again with the unison “Ohhh.”
Peachy began to philosophize. “He’s a good boy, seems like to me. He don’t wanna be no policeman. He wants to be a musician.” He took a breath. “Did you ever think how much damage is done in this world by people that hates their jobs?”
Maytag offered. “Like those postal workers you always hear about.”
It made me nervous to think that in my reflective moments I examined the same mysteries of the universe that plagued the Turner twins.
Dally saved me from my reverie. “You boys knocked us out good. Your daddy’s sleeping pills are still working on me.”
Peachy was concerned. “You still sleepy, Ms. Oglethorpe?”
“Not sleepy. They got me kinda ... jumpy.”
Maytag nodded. “It’s the aftereffects.”
Dally went on. “Yeah, but what I mean is, how come you didn’t just motor on up to our table at The Hut, have a seat, and ask Flap to help you find Lydia?”
Too Easy (A Flap Tucker Mystery Book 2) Page 14
