Savage Rising

by C. Hoyt Caldwell

  “What did you do?”

  Dani felt like saying, I fucked random guys in their twenties and thirties, and got a couple dozen star tattoos that form a snake-like pattern from my shoulder blade to my upper…upper thigh, and held my best friend’s hand as she died from a backroom abortion. She didn’t want to say all this because she wanted to shock Sarah straight, but because it was the truth, and Dani felt like Sarah deserved to hear the truth. But, common sense took hold and she simply said, “I made my share of mistakes trying to cope with it, until Otis and my aunt took me in and saved me.” It was the G-rated version of the truth.

  Sarah considered Dani’s response. “Is that what y’all are doing with me? You and Otis and my mommas?”

  Dani smiled. “We’re trying, sweetie, but you gotta help us.”

  Sarah furrowed her brow. “How?”

  “You gotta wanna be saved.”

  Sarah turned back to her lunch tray and shrugged.

  Dani stroked Sarah’s hair. “Think about it.” She cleared her throat. “We gotta talk about what you said to Mollie.”

  Sarah groaned. “Oh, that.”

  “Yeah, that. That was really inappropriate. I know she said bad stuff about you, but you can’t make those kinds of threats. Where on Earth would you get an idea like that?”

  Sarah turned to the window. She thought long and hard before saying, “Those men said it.”

  Dani felt a chill run up her spine. “Men? What men?”

  “The ones from before. The ones that took me.”

  The chill was replaced by a prickly heat.

  “They said they were gonna make me into a soup. They said they were gonna throw me in a dungeon and let the bugs crawl all over me.”

  Dani didn’t respond. She couldn’t. Anger had crept into every fiber of her being, and she was seeing red. Any word she would have tried to utter would have been laced in spittle and accompanied by tears. Her voice would be unsteady, and the profanities would come out thick and covered in bile. She didn’t want to expose Sarah to such a display.

  How could Dani have been so blind? Sarah had been kidnapped and locked in an underground bunker. She had been drugged. She had been ripped from her home by two crackers who probably reeked of booze and their own sweaty stench. And nothing had ever been done to ease the hell the girl had gone through. No one ever uttered a word to her about it. There wasn’t even so much as a suggestion to take her to a therapist. Dani was afraid it was because the adults were trying to keep it hidden, to save their own skins because of the treasure trove of secrets that were uncovered and the resources it provided them to undo a host of evil wrongs.

  The bell rang and Dani was snapped out of her daze. Mr. Robbins looked in the window, and she could tell by his face that he needed to get into his room. Dani stood. “C’mon, little bit, you’re coming with me.”

  “I’m leaving school?” Sarah asked with a smile.

  “Not if you don’t wipe that smile off your face. This isn’t a reward. This is a…necessity. Understand?”

  Sarah kept her smile under wraps and chased after Dani as she exited the classroom. The deputy thanked Mr. Robbins for what he’d done.

  The middle-aged teacher assured her it was his pleasure, and he offered to do all he could. He even volunteered to call the folks at that boarding school he had mentioned. He could have one of the administrators contact Dani.

  Dani didn’t even manage a passive grin in response. She simply nodded in acknowledgment of his offer and headed down the hallway with Sarah close behind. They were walking at a quick pace. Both of them were anxious to exit the building.

  Dani placed her arm around Sarah’s shoulder as they walked to the cruiser. When they were just a few feet away, a truck pulled out of a parking spot at the far end of the lot and approached them. Dani didn’t notice it until the putter of the engine forced her to raise the volume of her voice to be heard. She eyed the vehicle and saw the driver’s arm pop out of the open window. A hairy-knuckled wave followed. Dani went into automatic mode and lifted her hand to wave back, but stopped when she recognized the driver’s face.

  Rucker flashed a toothy grin and said, “Afternoon, Deputy. Miss Sarah.” His foot laid into the gas pedal as he accelerated and turned with a skid out of the parking lot.

  Dani watched him, dumbfounded. She wasn’t even aware she had stopped walking. She just stood, mesmerized by the sudden appearance of a man she reviled.

  Chapter 18

  What Rucker failed to recognize was that he wasn’t the only one who had followed Dani to the middle school that day. Spivey had arrived in town with every intention of going straight to the station to talk with Dani about the ATF badge, but as he arrived he saw Dani pull out of the parking lot, and he made the decision to follow her to try to learn more about her by observing her. Watching someone for an afternoon was usually all he needed to figure them out and gain the upper hand. What he needed the upper hand for in this case wasn’t exactly clear to him as of yet. That made following Dani especially necessary.

  He saw Rucker’s truck, but the disgraced former sheriff didn’t raise any red flags because unlike Gus the partway preacher, Rucker knew how to follow someone without raising suspicion.

  In fact, it wasn’t until Rucker waved at Dani that Spivey realized the former lawman had been following the deputy for quite some time. Not only that, it was obvious that Dani hated the man. The deputy did not have a poker face. When she was pissed, she lacked even the slightest ability to keep her emotions in check. Whoever the man was in the truck, Spivey got the idea that Dani would like to rearrange his face with her fists.

  Spivey turned his focus to Rucker and carefully pulled away from the curb as the truck passed by. The stickers on the tailgate indicated that the man loved guns and hated Obama. Two facts that made him no different from anyone else in Baptist Flats. In the left corner of the cab window there was a decal that informed anyone who gave a shit that the truck was an authorized vehicle of Durant County, the township of Rock Hollow and the state of Tennessee. The badge decal underneath led Spivey to the conclusion that the man he was following was a lawman.

  Rucker pulled the truck into a parking spot in the town square in front of the county courthouse. He pushed his door open with his foot, in part to show off his snakeskin cowboy boots, and in part because his hands were occupied lighting a cigarette. One hand formed a meaty cup to shield the flame of the lighter while the other hand was flicking it to life.

  Spivey passed a row of empty parking spots and chose one that gave him a view of the lawman walking up the sidewalk. There wasn’t much foot traffic. A half dozen people passed Rucker, and he greeted every one of them with a smarmy grin and an aggressive handshake. The man dealt out awkward moments as deftly as any blackjack dealer passed out cards in Vegas.

  “Politician,” Spivey said to himself.

  Rucker crossed the street and introduced himself to a group of men standing in front of the Baptist Flats Pharmacy and Household Essentials Shoppe. Spivey momentarily turned his attention to the slightly disquieted folks left behind in Rucker’s wake. They were whispering to one another with perplexed expressions plastered on their faces.

  “Stranger,” Spivey noted aloud just before exiting his Honda Accord.

  Rucker was working hard to force his way into the hearts and minds of the old men who were more interested in talking about the University of Tennessee’s new recruiting class. They grumbled greetings to the strange politician and nodded as he talked incessantly about being new in town.

  Spivey crossed the street and dug his hands into his pockets as he turned his demeanor from spy to Joe Citizen, just out for an afternoon stroll. He slowed his pace as he got close to Rucker and waited to be pounced on by the man out glad-handing his way through the town square.

  Unfortunately, one of the old men shot Rucker a question about the property he’d said he bought. The politician didn’t turn Spivey’s way.

  Quickly, Spivey pulled his han
d out of his pocket and purposely dropped his car keys onto the ground. The clatter of the metal caught Rucker’s attention, and he swiftly scooped them up.

  “Sir?”

  Spivey kept walking.

  “Sir, you dropped your keys,” Rucker said, jogging in pursuit.

  Spivey let a moment pass before he did a half turn in Rucker’s direction. “Keys? Me?” He stopped and patted his pockets before frantically probing the insides of them. “Well, I guess I did.” He took his keys from Rucker. “I sure do appreciate that…”

  “Just being a good neighbor,” Rucker said, flashing his unsettling grin.

  “You new in town?”

  “As a matter of fact, I am. I was just telling these fine gentlemen that I’ve put an offer in on a place called the Belle Freely place on the southeast edge of the county.”

  The gentlemen didn’t acknowledge his mention of them. They were glad to be rid of his attention.

  Spivey nodded as if he knew where the Belle Freely Place was. “I see. I see. And what would move a man such as yourself to set up a homestead in Baptist Flats?”

  The unsettling grin got wider. Rucker felt like an angler who’d just set the hook into the mouth of a record-breaking catch. “Well, I was looking for a good Christian community to join. A place that’s full of wholesome, friendly folks.”

  Spivey had to fight to keep his breakfast down. Rucker was about as full of bullshit as three politicians put together.

  Rucker continued. “But…”

  Spivey’s right eyebrow arched the tiniest bit as he waited for the sales pitch.

  “…That’s not to say, this place doesn’t have its problems. No, sir, no county is perfect. Just like an old house that ain’t been maintained over the years, Baptist Flats is a bit of a fixer-upper.”

  “And what is it you think needs fixing?”

  “Most of it’s minor. Potholes here and there. This square could use some tender loving care: cracks in the walk, edging, trimming, pruning, and the like.”

  “So, that’s your line of work, landscaping?”

  Rucker chuckled. “No, not for hire anyway. I just retired from the law.”

  “The law?”

  “Keeping it. Don’t worry, I ain’t a lawyer,” he said with a hearty laugh. “I just stepped down from sheriffing. Did it for a little over fifteen years.” He leaned in closer. “And at the risk of speaking out of turn, Baptist Flats has got it a major law enforcement problem.”

  “How so?”

  “The sheriff in this county has a got a bit of a reputation in law-keeping circles in the state. He’s known for being two things a lawman should never be, lazy and corrupt.”

  Spivey smiled, not because of Rucker’s claim, but because it suddenly became clear to him why Dani looked like she wanted to punch the man in the face.

  “I tell you what, it makes me mad is what it does,” Rucker continued. “Otis Royal tarnishing the badge like that. Makes a man think about coming out of retirement and running for sheriff just so I can restore the dignity to the office.”

  Spivey had to mentally order himself not to roll his eyes.

  “But that’s a talk for another time. So, what do you do, Mr….?”

  Spivey smiled and felt a giddiness come over him. It was time to poke the bear to get a bead on his temperament. “Spivey’s the name, and what I do is study things: places, situations, people.”

  Rucker struck a curious scowl.

  “I look for shit that’s out of place.” Spivey was pleased when Rucker’s cheeks flushed. “For instance, you’re out of place.”

  The disgraced former sheriff looked around nervously to see if anyone was paying attention to their conversation. The men in front of the pharmacy were deep into their conversation about the Volunteers’ upcoming football season. They were too busy misspending thoughts on ways to beat ’Bama to care about two strangers yapping at each other fifteen feet away.

  “Deputy Savage doesn’t like you. That’s pretty clear.”

  Rucker looked at him intently. “She told you about me?”

  Spivey shook his head. “Nope. I saw you wave at her, and I also saw her tempted to pull her service weapon and shoot you.”

  Rucker put the moments from the wave to the current conversation together in his mind. “You followed me from the school?”

  “Blame my uncontrollable sense of curiosity.”

  Rucker’s face shifted to that of man who’d grown accustomed to people fearing him because of his authority and the privilege that came with it. “I suggest you find a way to control that curiosity of yours, son…”

  “Don’t do that. Don’t call me ‘son.’ You don’t want me to think of you as a father figure. That won’t work out well for you, trust me. I followed you because I’m trying to piece shit together. The problem is that you’re just a random piece of shit that has nothing to do with my interests.”

  “Look here…”

  “You drive a truck that no sheriff outside of a major metropolitan area could afford, and metropolitan you’re not. You wear a pair of boots that cost more than a house payment. You’ve had your teeth whitened, and you have this habit of cocking your head to the left when you smile, which means you’re used to having a sidekick following you around to laugh at your stupid jokes and convince you you’re brilliant. You’re not. All this leads me to believe that you didn’t retire from the law. You were retired from it, and it was one of those get out-of-town-by-noon deals.”

  Rucker curled his upper lip. His mind exploded, and he barely had the wherewithal to keep his rage in check.

  Spivey mimicked the former lawman’s unsettling smile. “We’re going to part ways now.”

  In a quiet, seething tone, Rucker said, “We’ll part ways when I’m done with you…”

  Spivey turned and crossed the street before Rucker could get out another word that didn’t require shouting. The man was too busy trying to convince a county full of people he was a nice guy to dare issue public threats in a boisterous tone.

  Back in his car, Spivey processed what he’d learned. He eyeballed Rucker as the politician quickly cut himself off from his anger like a man without a soul and continued to press the flesh with a new group of strangers. Spivey gripped the steering wheel with both hands as he realized what he’d learned. Judging Dani by her enemies, he liked the deputy, which wasn’t ideal. It made continuing to lie to her about who he really was that much harder.

  Chapter 19

  Back at the station, Dani divided her mind between the ATF ID, Rucker, and Sarah. The puzzles in her life never seemed to come one at a time with all the pieces. They came in bunches with a ton of shit missing.

  On this day, the ID taunted her from her desk, and the girl who had become her ward fidgeted in Friar’s chair while he was out patrolling the streets of Baptist Flats. Dani tried to distract herself from the noise in her head by going through traffic violation reports filed for the week. Just as she was about to lose her mind from her inability to concentrate on more than a couple of words at a time, Otis appeared in the doorway of his office.

  “What’s little bit doing here? Shouldn’t she be in school?”

  Dani was about to launch into the story about Sarah scaring the hell out of Mollie, but something—a motherly instinct or a deep sense of guilt—prevented her from just coming out and saying it. “Mr. Robbins called. Her teacher. He said she wasn’t feeling good at all, and it’d be best to pull her out of class.”

  Otis scanned the girl from head to toe. “She don’t look sick to me. Little bit, you sick?”

  Sarah looked at Dani before giving Otis a shrug.

  He shrugged back and said, “Suppose that’s the way school works these days. Kid gets a cough and out they send you.” He massaged his damaged shoulder and cringed. “Do old Otis a favor and start me up a tea in the break room. If you ain’t in school, might as well get some work out of you.”

  Sarah smiled at the thought of actually having something to do. She lea
pt from Friar’s chair and ran to the break room.

  Otis snorted out a laugh. “Sick my ass.” To Dani. “Come on in here, Deputy. Got something to talk over with you.”

  Dani smiled at the thought of having a distraction. She stood and followed Otis into the office.

  “Got a call from that fella over there…you know the one.”

  Dani squinted and tried to find a clue in his extremely generic statement. “I know a lot of fellas over there, Otis. You’re gonna have to narrow it down by a fella or two.”

  “The one…Shit, my mind is just shot today. The place that sets our budget. County Advisory…”

  She let out an elongated “Oh,” and added, “County Administrator’s Office. Mr. Blunt.”

  Otis snapped his fingers. “That’s it. Blunt. Call come in from him. We got approved.”

  Dani furrowed her brow. “Approved for what?”

  “A new hire. Remember? We put in a request for a budget increase to put on a new deputy. You helped me with the paperwork.”

  “Well, shit, that was nearly a year ago, and we put in the request so you could do some real rehab on that shoulder of yours. It ain’t hardly needed now.”

  “What the hell are you talking about? We’ve been short staffed for longer than you’ve been here. We need this.”

  Dani let out a halfhearted chuckle. “Well, good luck finding a candidate. Ain’t no outsider gonna wanna come to Baptist Flats, and there damn sure ain’t a candidate worth interviewing in this county or the next three.”

  “Wish yourself good luck. I’m putting you in charge of the hire.”

  Dani sat silently, moving her jaw muscle to speak a few times, but stopping each time to prevent the profanities from flying. “Say again.”

  Otis looked at her intently. “I’m getting old, Deputy. My shoulder’s a downright burden, and I couldn’t even remember the name of…that county…budget place.”

  “The County Administrator’s Office.”

  “Right. That. I’m on the downside of this career. I don’t need to be picking your deputies.”